I started this game when my commute changed from approximately 15 minutes to anywhere from 40 minutes to eternity. If you've ever driven during rush hour in the greater DMV, you know this is no exaggeration. There was day during my first month at this job where it took 3 hours to get home. There wasn't an accident, just traffic. Lots of it. I live 30 miles from my office. It should not take 3 hours. Something is wrong with the scenario. And yes, I am very aware that I have the ability to move closer to where I work. I don't want to. I like where I live. I like it's proximity to DC and that I can walk to Target (I never do; cat litter is heavy). I may reconsider this when Amazon becomes my new neighbor, but for now I manage my commute with weird stories about my fellow commuters, listening to music loudly (I'm probably in another commuter's story), breaking more than necessary when a people is too close to me, and flipping people off for being awful. These are my commuting coping mechanisms.
I've also fully embraced the ability to work from home once a week (twice a week now if I really need the extra day). I like many things about where I work and love a few things, but this supportive work from home culture is one of the things I adore. Now before I dive into all the things I love about this, let's make a distinction:
- Working from home: the practice of occasionally working from a home-based location (glitter and sequin strewn kitchen table for me). My "home office" is my actual physical office because I'm located there the majority of the work week.
- Remote working: the practice of working from a home-based location for more than three days per week. My manager is a remote employee; she's not based in the DMV and works from home all five days per week.
I worked for my previous employer for almost 11 years. In that time, I only worked from home when the weather was too bad to drive or I was sick, but not sick enough to take the day off. I would usually take late night meetings from home too. We had a work from home policy, but I always felt like I wasn't allowed to use it because I lived close to the office. Even on days when the snow was really bad, people would roll their eyes when I worked from home...from the safety of their own homes, of course. This is why I was apprehensive to take my work from home day where I am now, even though pretty much everyone on the team takes a day and it's normal and accepted.
My apprehension is gone. I love my work from home day. My regular day is Thursday. I settled on Thursday through a very scientific process of rating my commute home for my first four months in my job. Mondays and Fridays are lovely; government workers can telecommute on those days so traffic is more manageable. I have a lot of Wednesday meetings in which I need to be in person, so I rule out Wednesdays. It came down to Tuesday and Thursday. Tuesdays seemed too early in the week for me, but the final event that made me choose Thursdays was the random day it took 3 hours to get home for no reason. After that day, I paid closer attention to my Thursday commutes, and it was always the worst on my drive home. Thursday wins.
And it's perfect. It's later in the week, so I don't have as many meetings. I try to schedule meetings for the days I'm in the office and use Thursday as a project work/research/writing day. This doesn't always work, but I try really hard to make it so. Editing content, creating new content for the programs I manage, writing for various people, takes a lot of focus. That focus can be easily broken in the office. If my team in the Philippines needs to meet at 7 am my time, it's easier to do it on Thursdays because I'm at home and I don't have to worry about traffic and whether I'll make it on time. It makes for a relaxing and productive work day. I thought I would miss being around people, one of the things I enjoy about working in an office, but I find having one day with no one around is great for my productivity. My hours are normally 7:30-4:30, and on my work from home days, I will sometimes work a little later because I can get things started for dinner, and then go back and finish something I was working on. It's awesome.
It's also the day where I feel I get more done than other days, both professionally and personally. Work from home days have produced a few of my best presentations (since taking this job), an article I'm super proud of (for someone else), and several brainstorming sessions, which resulted in new projects or approaches to doing things we do all the time. I also completed the leadership program I was enrolled in last year, and have recently started drafting ideas for articles for some periodicals in my field. This is the power of uninterrupted time.
On a day where I go into the office, I get home between 5:30-6, which is the same time as when I was commuting only 15-20 minutes. The big difference is that I get up much earlier now than I did then; I have a 40 minute drive (approximately) every morning, so I need to be up and out by 6:40 at the latest. So I go to bed by 9:30, which means I only have 3 hours at night to accomplish things like making dinner, hanging out with the cat, laundry, grocery shopping, and whatever else I need to get done. And before anyone is like "you're single, you don't even know what tired is," I get it. I don't have kids or a spouse, but married or single people with children don't own the market on being tired and having shit to do. We need to stop comparing our lives in these ways. It makes everyone grumpy.
I don't feel rushed when I "get home" with cooking dinner, so I'm able to actually make something that's good and relatively good for me. I use my lunch break to run errands, which I sometimes do at the office, but it's easier when I'm closer to home. If Keely needs to get a pet-icure (they make me call it that when I make the appointment), I can take him on my work from home day. All of my doctors are closer to my house than to work, so I also try to schedule my own appointments on these days, again over lunch, so I don't have to take PTO to go to the doctor or go on a weekend. Sometimes, I even sleep in until 6 am on my work from home day and it's glorious. I feel well-rested and ready to be my best at work.
Have I talked about how great it is to be around Keely all day? He is a grumpy, old man (who isn't old; he's 2) who doesn't want attention. And then he does want attention...while I'm conducting a team meeting.
This was one of my first work from home days after I adopted him and he looks like he wants to be part of the team. My team members thought this was hilarious, especially when he meowed a few times during the conversation. His second favorite "the human is here all day" past time, is trying to jump on the counters when I'm on the phone and making a horrible noise when he can't do it. It's awesome, especially when you're on a call with a member of leadership and they can hear the unfortunate meow in the background, despite the fact that I was wearing headphones.
This was one of my first work from home days after I adopted him and he looks like he wants to be part of the team. My team members thought this was hilarious, especially when he meowed a few times during the conversation. His second favorite "the human is here all day" past time, is trying to jump on the counters when I'm on the phone and making a horrible noise when he can't do it. It's awesome, especially when you're on a call with a member of leadership and they can hear the unfortunate meow in the background, despite the fact that I was wearing headphones.
Most days, Keely lays in his bed or near my feet when I'm home. Last Thursday, he was on my feet all day and would occasionally make funny faces at me. This was a rare work from home day where I had calls from 7-11 am with little break. He was doing his cat job, and providing humor and levity in a stressful day.
Such a weirdo. This particular face made me giggle for a good 15 minutes, silently since I was still on a call.
I have fully embraced working from home. I never thought I would. I've always enjoyed the hustle and bustle of being in my place of work; there's energy and other people. There's a dynamic in office environments, particularly when you work with interesting and talented people (which I do), that's super satisfying. Finding that environment makes me want to work better and be better. Working from home one or two days a week doesn't change that. In fact, it's made me think differently about my time in the office. I work hard to schedule the rest of my week so I can have a focused work day on my work from home day. I think about the tasks I need to do in the office, like working on tasks that involve data review or major editing, because I have two screens at the office and those are easier to accomplish with a larger monitor. I manage two leadership programs, so I schedule our in-person sessions mostly on Tuesdays and Wednesdays, which I've read are the best days for in-person training. It took me some time to get it right, but I finally did.
Stuff I Love Month continues with a final look at all that glitters in the purse world as we get closer to my first ride in a Mardi Gras parade! Next week, we'll look at some of the finished glitter purses and I'll share the inspiration behind the designs. It's going to be so sparkly.
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