Benoit J - My mostly tech blog

Working From Home

2020-09-02

A curse and/or a blessing?

Like many of us, I’ve been exclusively working from home since March.

I’ve read couple of post on fosstodon mentioning how much people want to go back to the office. I have a totally different experience.

Adjustments

Lets start with the obstacles I’ve experienced and some solutions that works for me:

Doing long hours
I start later in the morning so that I’m done by 5 without too much overtime.
Work is always around, in your mind
I hide my work gear / laptop after work so that I don’t see it
Feel alone, disconnected from colleagues
We hang out regularly on a audio/video team chat, people come and go at will
Distracting my family, I was working in our family room. Not so great idea when I spend a good time of the day on calls.
I repurposed a room into an office
Motivation
This one was adjusted a while ago, have some routine in the morning, breakfast, dress up, go outside for couple of minutes, then go in my office. This prepare my mind to start working.

Some people also have to take care of young kids, that could definitively be problematic. I’m not in this situation, my kids are teenagers.

What makes it so great for me

Here are some benefits from working from home:

  1. Overall, my stress is lower since I started.
  2. My commute went from 15 hours a week down to nothing.
  3. I spend more time with my family
  4. I have a better setup at home (screen, chair, desk)
  5. I take my lunches outside in my backyard
  6. I’m not stressed of missing my train if a meeting last 5 minutes longer than it should
  7. I can listen to music without my headphones
  8. Less unnecessary distractions from colleagues
  9. Not an open space. I do like team rooms, but I hate rooms that can sit 100 people

Thoughts

Your experience could be totally different, this is really a personal thing.

Once Covid restrictions are lifted, I would gladly meet my teammates at the office once in a while, but regular attendance to the office is no longer part of my life.

Working from home is a perfect fit for me :D

This is day 13 of my #100DaysToOffload. You can read more about the challenge here: https://100daystooffload.com.