When I was last employed as an archaeologist, and not in a desperate temp job to get by, I spent much of my time working alone.

In the field there is intensive teamwork, and in the labs I found it too easy to be distracted by other's talking to each other just to ease away the boredom, but I was working a specialist role and worked mostly with samples pre-selected from the dig. I had to spend up to 8 hours a day in the cold, with a workshop constructed from chipboard and old scaffolding that was erected between some trees next to a railway that mostly had freight traffic. It was wet, tiring and at times toxic for my health whenever I had to deal with industrial waste. Winters were hardest, when my arms would sometimes by up to my shoulders in freezing cold water for long periods. There were no chairs around either, and not enough space amongst my stacks of crates and tools to fit one in, and besides I was moving around so much and lifting heavy objects, that it would have gotten in the way.

I did need to obviously file my reports at the end of the week, and sometimes at the end of each day, but mostly I worked alone, and then in silence with other people nearby when I was done processing the samples and sorting the residues for closer inspection in the offices. I spent a lot of time setting up feeders and small features for the local songbirds to enjoy, but squirrels kept on looting and wrecking everything. I did enjoy company when I had it. There used to be an old Swedish lady who was responsible for the small artefacts. I tolerated her smoking habit just to spend my tea breaks with her, and we were friends for a while, even if she was 30 or so years older than me.