Work From Home

Why work from the office?  Why not work from home?  If you’ve got the type of job that can be done from your den just as easily as it can from the cubicle farm, there’s no real reason you shouldn’t have the opportunity to do so.

So why aren’t more companies letting their employees work from home?  Is it that management needs to see your smiling face and know that there are warm bodies occupying cubicles just down the isle from themselves?  Is it that the management trust their employees so little that they don’t believe thier workers can keep working on company business unless they’re being watched like 3rd graders?

Working at home enables workers to work more.  Plain and simple.  I worked at home for an extended period of time – both at home full time, and at home a couple days a week while in the office the others.  Without a doubt, hands down, I spent an average of 50% more time working while I worked from home.  Yes, there were interruptions consisting of the front door, neighbors, the family, screaming kids, (doing the laundry), etcetera.  However, now while working from the office full-time, I see that I spend more time lounging around the watercooler, chatting with others in the cafeteria, BS-ing in the hallways.  WHAT?  Yes, believe it or not, there is a lot of goofing off that happens at work.  Guess what – almost no one really cares, because almost everyone else does it.  It’s apparently OK to slack off at work for 2 hours a day, but it’s a mortal sin to goof off for 20 minutes at home?  Either place, there are always the people who will take 3-hour lunches, but it seems like it’s 10 times as bad when the same schedule happens at home.  There are distractions in both locations, but the ones at home are much easier to work around (and with) as opposed to the mindless babble at work.

Working at home saves you money too.  No more sitting in traffic for 3 hours a day, every day.  It’s now NO traffic.  With no commute, work can be started at least an hour earlier, or you can get an extra hour’s shut-eye and start work with a clear head.  No more eating out at fast food joints or in the cafeteria.  Nope, now it’s PB&J sammiches.  It’s a pan of noodles, last night’s leftovers, or a couple of hot dogs.  It’s easier than buying lunch, and it’s quicker, and you can eat in front of the computer (books, papers, etc) while eating. With no commute on the way home, you’re now working later too.  It’s just easier, and with “the office” only 10 feet and 20 seconds away, it’s a lot easier to kill some time in the evening.  Don’t worry about staying late at the office, you’ll just get those last few hours done later that night.

Working at home saves your company money too. The computer on your desk isn’t running (or the laptop is plugged in at your house), and isn’t sucking electricity.  No fans, radios, cube lights, cell phone chargers, etc.  No, one person’s absense won’t be noticed, but multiply the usage of that one person twice a week by 1/4 of the office – wow, NOW there’s a noticable difference.  Less costs of the HVAC system could come into play also.  The “soft monies” can also be counted, just not as granularly – how about less congestion in the parking lot, less elevator and automatic door usage, less water usage in the restrooms, less congestion on the computer network, etc.  Just think – that employee now has a second office, and the company isn’t paying for it.  The home PC, the cell/home phone, the home internet connection, water and electricity usage, environmental comfort levels, the free coffee, etc – they are all paid by the employee.  For the “environment friendly” attitudes, how about the uncountable TONS of pollution saved by less driving?  For everyone else on the road, that’s just one more car not creating more congestion…

Most companies also get certain “breaks” or “credits” from their local government office by promoting Clean Air initiatives – once again, letting people work from home helps out quite a bit there also.  Most states poll local companies to ensure they are working more efficiently.  Unfortunately, that means that all they care about is random compressed workweeks and that people use mass transit.

Please, tell me again why there is such a huge reluctance from companies to let their employees work from home?  Why is it so horribly bad to even allow a compressed work-week (4 10-hour shifts), a combination of them, or of all three (including working from the office).  I see nothing but benefits for the company, quite a few benefits for the employees, and some good for Old Mother Earth.  Why all the bad feelings about it?

Well, my company recently decided that people couldn’t work from home anymore.  The reasons (at this time) are immaterial, but that was the decision made.  Thank you, Big Co, Inc!!!  I can’t thank you enough, really…  You helped me (re)realize that working a 40-hour week is cool.  I like having my weekends back.  I like being able to drop my work at exactly 12:00 for lunch, and not think anything involving work for an hour.  I like seeing the clock hit 4:00PM so I can hit the power button on the monitor (eat those PC costs, you *#@#&@!#) and leave everything hanging until 8:00AM the next day.  No work in the evenings, nothing on the weekends.  Maybe I’m being petty, but I don’t care.  You say you can’t trust me to work at home because someone else was stupid once, so we all pay the price.  You have been told it’s hurting your staff’s productivity, but you won’t believe it; or maybe you just don’t care.  Tell ya what BigCoInc – you will now get just what you’re paying me for.  Just those 40 hours a week.  Why should I go out of my way to excel and make more money for you since I’m essentially working for free?  You sure won’t go a step out of your way to help out morale.   It bugs me to leave my co-workers hanging, but more of them are starting to think like me.  I hope we’ll send our message in a way that won’t be forgotten.  Maybe you’ll realize that your employees aren’t just an annoying line item on the expense report – but that we are the reason that the ‘income’ column actually exists at all.  Treat us right, and you’ll get it in return.

Sorry, didn’t mean to rant.  Much.  For those of you who may be like-minded, I hope you can share what you’ve done if you are in the same kind of spot.  I know some employers and managers who read this – maybe something will actually sink in.  Probably not, but it’s worth a shot, right?

Is Life A Game?

Is Life A Game?

Life is like a huge amusement park ride.  You only get one entrance pass, you get to ride all the rides that you can handle, as many times as you can take it – but you only get in to the park once.  It’s one big ride, and it’s got a huge ticket price – you have to die in order to ride.  The thing is that you don’t get a choice as to whether or not you want to get into the park, and you don’t have a choice as to when you leave; you can get kicked out at any time, for any reason – or for no reason at all.

Life is fickle, and life is fragile.  Us humans are weak, and it takes so little effort to get kicked off this ride we call life.  Enjoy it while you can, don’t take anything too seriously, and treat everyone else as you’d like to be treated.  Don’t cut in line, don’t take candy from babies, enjoy the festivities, and follow the posted rules.  Keep you head, arms, legs, and feet inside the ride at all times.  Practice random acts of kindness.

No, I’m not trying to trivialize life, and no, I have no intention of leaving the park just yet.  Sometimes you just see how fragile life can be – I guess it was bugging me a bit.  You see how a little accident (falling, driving, stupidity) can either screw you up for a long time, impair you forever, or just wipe you off the face of the planet.

I’ve have friends and relatives die, and it always bugs me (besides the obvious part) how much effort we put into prolonging our lives, and how we can act so ignorant of the fact that any of us can be gone in a heartbeat.  It’s easier said than done, but we should all follow the advice of a couple of good country songs.  How about “Live like you’re dying” or “If tomorrow never comes.”  Don’t waste what you’ve got.  Make sure people know how you feel about them.  Get and keep all your affairs in order.  Don’t wait until “someday comes” before doing something.

It may seem a bit selfish if you look at this as “look out for number one” standpoint, but you do have to take care of yourself; although you should always try to make someone else’s life a little nicer first.

To quote a well-known Vulcan:  “Live long and prosper”