One of the benefits of working from home is the fact that you can work in your pajamas. The commute changed from a trip down the freeway to a trip down the hallway. Your gas milage hasn’t gone up, but your gas costs have certainly gone down.
But, there’s a downside to working at home. Several, in fact. The lack of human interaction can be dehumanizing. No amount of Zoom meetings and conference calls can replace just the simple interaction of saying hello to someone you pass in the breakroom.
Oh sure, maybe your kids can fill that need. And depending on the age of your kids, that might be worse than no interaction at all.
But, one of the other problems with working from home is the calendar. I have a pocket calendar that I used to carry with me all the time. Now it just sort of sits on my desk. I open it occasionally, but I’m not sure what for anymore. Everything is in my office calendar. Not just work events, but family events, birthdays, pretty much everything.
And that’s the problem. I now live in my office. I don’t have the luxery of that commute to separate work life from home life. It’s hard to know when the work day ends. Plus, my job requires me to be involved with tasks at all hours. Earlier this week we had maintenance scheduled starting at 10:00pm. It went until 1:00AM.
Tonight we have testing scheduled to start at 1:00AM. That means I’ll be dragging myself when I get up for work tomorrow. Except, I’m not sure I have work tomorrow. Will I have to get up early? I check my online calendar and it looks like there’s an appointment with someone named Ruth at 9:45 tomorrow morning. Ruth works Saturdays, but generally in the afternoon.
Except that I have a daughter named Ruth. And since tomorrow is Saturday, maybe that’s not a work appointment. And I’m pretty sure it’s not a Zoom meeting since she lives in my house.
So, I’ll be up much of tonight with our testing and I’ll go to my meeting in the morning and I’ll struggle like many of you to keep night and day straight in this crazy world.
Stay Safe
Rodney M Bliss is an author, columnist and IT Consultant. His blog updates every weekday. He lives in Pleasant Grove, UT with his lovely wife, thirteen children and grandchildren.
Follow him on
Twitter (@rodneymbliss)
Facebook (www.facebook.com/rbliss)
LinkedIn (www.LinkedIn.com/in/rbliss)
or email him at rbliss at msn dot com(c) 2020 Rodney M Bliss, all rights reserved