Tony Harminc wrote: >I enjoy the great luxury of a 20-25 minute (1.3 miles/2.1 km) walk >from home to office, which I do in all but the worst weather (and then >it's a ten minute bus/subway trip). Of course my employer's office >location is a happy accident, and that could change for any number of >reasons.
>And I much prefer to walk to a real office than to have to have the >self discipline to work at home without slipping into the rut of >sitting around all day, not bothering to dress, flipping on the TV for >just a moment to check on the news, making another coffee before >getting down to work, etc. I've heard tales of people who get dressed, >grab briefcase, go out the front door, and then back in another door >with their office mindset ready. My $0.02: I've been working from home for the last 10.5 years; Voltage is the third company for whom I've done so during that period. Going in, I had those same concerns about self-discipline, but at least for me the opposite is the issue, if anything: I tend to check work mail well into the evening. Of course, the companies have all been in the San Francisco Bay area, and I live in Virginia, so they're three hours behind me, which encourages me to be "on" later. My wife tries to take my phone away occasionally in the evenings, which at least makes me leave it alone for a while (and I got scolded gently by my boss for replying to work mail while in recovery after surgery :)), but it mostly works. I don't *feel* like either (a) I have trouble getting things done or (b) I can't get away from it: I just do what I want (modulo meetings etc.). If I decide to run to the store mid-day and then get the car washed and maybe hit several other stores, well, I just do it. When I have, say, a doctor's appointment that runs far longer than expected, I do get antsy to get back to work, but I think that's me (and the fact that I'm very lucky in that I like my job!): the company sure isn't sending notes saying "WHERE ARE YOU?!?!". I occasionally miss some of the in-office face-to-face interaction, but I live on IM and email and concalls, and I visit customer sites about once a month, so I get external contact there. When I visit HQ (every 2-3 months), I've learned to make it a flying raid of usually 1.5 days: any longer and I'm wasting time. I get my meetings lined up before I go, and while I'm there, I'm working nonstop, but I get a lot done. I don't stand around the water cooler, but that was never my thing anyway. The biggest pains about working from home are the lack of a copier (yeah, I have an all-in-one, but it's not the same), and getting the oil changed in the car. I used to drop it near work of a morning, hitch a ride with a buddy, pick it up at lunch or after work. Now I have to go sit with it! But most places have WiFi, and I can also connect through my phone, so it's not as painful as it was a decade ago. And of course I don't get snow days. OTOH, my idea of a slow commute is when I leave the laundry basket in the hall and trip over it. And I do find that when I buy my monthly tank of gas, I'm always shocked at the price. But I never seem to get much sympathy for that! Obviously YMMV... -- ...phsiii ---------------------------------------------------------------------- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to lists...@listserv.ua.edu with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN
