It's really wierd how deeply this stuff affects our lives. Just before I finally finished working at the local Health Shop, the new owners did a "review" of my work standards. I need to explain that this is quite a small shop, with a small room out the back, and for a few weeks before I finally quit the job because of mom's health, I did some weekday work for them because I had some home help.
On weekdays, part of the duties involved unpacking incoming stock in the back room, checking it off against the invoice and putting it into plastic bins ready to be taken out front and put on the shelves. There were several of us working there on weekdays - it wasn't a sole charge situation like I had on Saturday mornings.
One of the main shop rules was that if the buzzer went off in the shop, indicating that someone had come in the door, one had to go up front and make sure they were being attended to.
I was a good friend of the shop owners and my review took place over a cup of coffee with the wife at a local restaurant. I got a very good review, except for one thing. "Why," she asked me, "do you not go up front when the buzzer rings and you are unpacking stock?"
I was quite flabbergasted - because having been sole charge on Saturdays for 7 years, I was very used to responding to that buzzer.
Then it dawned on me - unpacking and checking off stock required concentration. Living with mom and doing computer graphics, which also required concentration, I'd developed an ability to focus my attention in spite of a general flow of extraneous sound. Selective hearing, if you like. I explained to her and she said, "I thought so - because once or twice while you've been unpacking I've spoken to you and you didn't reply."
Oh My Gosh.
I was lucky these people were friends and fully understood the situation I was in. But it shook and embarrassed me to realise that this modification of behaviour had crept up on me unawares.
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