Tuesday, April 21, 2020

40 days and 40 nights did it rain, children

Today is day 40 of my company's work from home policy. I took a vacation day today. I needed a break. Initially, my boss was very strongly encouraging everyone to take time off for sanity. I pooh-poohed it, saying I didn't want to "burn" my vacation time.

I have enough vacation time, and 10 personal hours, so I can use them. I'm not in a position where I need to use my vacation and/or sick time to get below the use it or lose it threshold that we have, but I could use a day of peace and quiet.

One of my tasks lately has been to proofread a book for my buddy Matt, and I'm literally combing through the last go through, 3 pages from the end. I have a tendency to try and squeeze an hour here or there, but working from home has made me feel like I'm always at the computer so I then do not feel like working.

I also need to find out why I can't get Adobe Acrobat reader on this computer - it is saying it's not allowed for download. I prefer to do my walk-throughs on Matt's books in Reader.

Technology. pfth. frustrating.

Another thing I've been trying to do is carve out time with a woman I met through the Guster fan group who mentioned that she taught herself ASL when she was in her early teens, and she uses it regularly in life, at the pre-school she works at, and with friends she has made through the years. I've always wanted to learn ASL, so I hit her up to see if she could teach me. She's given me some great handouts, we've met in person twice, and I'm pretty good with the alphabet (except the letter R which I can't seem to get my fingers to cross on, stupid old lady fingers), some basic questions, emotions, colors, numbers.

It is also nice to talk to someone not work related once in a while. And she's lovely.

One of the things I've been doing a little bit of is online shopping. I hate shopping in the first place, but we can't go buy things. I got Geoff some new pajama pants. I was going to sew them because I'm all about trying to use what you got... but his pjs are in really horrible condition. Threadbare and not just torn. So out you go. The one problem is I don't know if I bought him flannel ones or straight up cotton ones because I can't see them and touch them. He doesn't care, he told me. So he'll be happy.

I bought new Teva flip flops, and it was buy one get one free. So now I have a my super old ones for getting pedicures, and 2 new pairs for looking fly after the pedicures. And I bought a pair of teva sandals, but I'm not in love with the insides. But I don't feel like returning them, and they fit, and the old ones are barely good enough for water wear anymore. So I'm happy to have these.

I keep looking at tops and blouses online, but again, I hate online shopping if I can't see it/touch it beforehand.

Doug and I were talking about all these car commercials for buy your car online and we'll bring it to you, and I'm like "who would want to do that? I need to test drive that baby." He said that for people who maybe are familiar with specific models that they like, or rent a lot of cars for business travel, they may already know what make/model they want. I gave him that, but I'm still not convinced about buying a car off a website.

He said, they always say you can return it in 7 days... so I guess that's my test drive if I were to do that.

I've been thinking a lot about this whole work from home thing. I'm incredibly happy to have it. One of my former co-workers from 20 years ago mentioned to me that when we worked together I wanted to telecommute. I had all of the resources, a computer, two monitors, good internet, and was told the college didn't support that.

But look at us all now. Well, almost all of us. So much can be done from home, I truly hope that the thing that is learned from all of this is that your employees do not have to come into the building every day. Every. Day.

For a year, when we moved down here, Doug worked for a company in Baltimore that had a mandatory everyone in the building policy for on Mondays, and possibly Tuesdays if clients were coming through. Wednesday through Friday he was home. Other people were Tuesday through Thursday telecommuting.

No one was in the building on Thursday.  The company owner said they saved so much money on electric, water, everything, by having people not be in the building. Desk spaces were all shared so they had X amount of seats, nothing assigned, you just came in and sat somewhere. This way, they could manage the head-count in building and not have twice the amount of cubicle or office space that the amount of staff would take up on a regular basis.

At the holiday party that year, Doug was amazed to see how many people worked for this company. There were teams he never interfaced with. People he only knew from conference calls.

He had two coworkers who lived in Gettysburg. They would drive down on Sunday night and stay at a friend's condo in Baltimore. Work Monday, sometimes Tuesday, and head back north home. They loved it. I don't know that I could sustain doing that all the time, but it is only about an hour drive, especially the way they timed it, and heck, I drove in and out of Boston daily for a long time and that seemed like nothing. Highway speeds instead of sitting on Rte 1 by the giant cactus... I think I could do that.

And now look at us, where we are, everyone in yoga pants or with questionable facial hair (hat tip to my friend Tommy who is showcasing his "Trash Stache" in instagram) and home-done haircuts.

In all seriousness though, one or two departments where I work give people all the sky they need for work from home, mine does not. And we were allowed to keep our one-day-a-week work from home day because my boss said it was a hill she would die on.

Realizing, of course, I do a lot more work at home than I do in the office. In the office, I get a little ADD. I go to meetings in person, I walk around a lot, I walk to the cafe, I go outside for strolls, I play pokemon with the gang. Here, I roll out of bed and start working with that first cup of coffee in my face, and sometimes do not stop until 2pm. Maybe I make lunch, maybe Doug makes it. I don't go for a walk. My fitbit thinks I am dead. I take the dog outside, and she does her thing and we come back in.

I stop working after 6. Maybe I work a little more after dinner because it is there.

The return on investment for me working here is probably pretty high. So, once my state or DC decide to "open" again, I'm not really itching to go back. I like this.

I just wish I could go get a pedicure. I ran out of nail polish remover the last time I had a pedi, so I have this blue nail polish that has all but grown out of all my toenails, save for the big toe. It's flip flop weather almost, and here I am looking at 1/4th of each toe, lookin dumb.

But, all in due time. All in due time. I am willing to wait.


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