Meme Monday – Working from Home

As I do so often, I brought a cartoon rather than a meme, but I choose to look over that technicality.

I’m not new to working from home. I last worked in an office in 2006, when my company moved their headquarters from my California town to a suburb of Chicago. A few years later, the headquarters again moved, this time to Atlanta. Rather than moving California employees, or laying us off, they sent us home. I wasn’t sure I would like it, I like my coworkers and thought I might be lonely being home. I’ve never had to deal with a commute, I have always lived in the same town where I work, so that wasn’t really an issue. And honestly, I do miss working in an office sometimes. I don’t have work friends the way I used to. But the benefits are grand. I could, if I were so inclined, sleep until 7:45, roll out of bed, make my tea, and be at my desk by 8:00. I’m not so inclined, instead I get up, get dressed, and walk the dog. Then I make my tea and am at my desk by 8ish. I can do laundry as needed, so it doesn’t wait until evening when I might be tired, nor build up until the weekend. I can go grocery shopping on my lunch break, which means mostly avoiding the stores on weekends when they are crowded. I can be downstairs, starting dinner, at 5:01. If it’s crazy at work, I can go downstairs, make dinner, and come back and finish up. That’s not great, but better than sitting in an office hungry or having to get pizza. And truthfully, it very rarely happens. I’m not with that same company anymore, I have been at my current company for almost 5 years now. There is a local office, but it would mean an hour commute each way (It’s not that far, just a very busy freeway), and I am very thankful that I am able to work from home at this job too.

Working from home is newer for my husband and daughter. Ted reports traffic for several local radio stations, and until last March he drove to San Francisco for work. His hours are such that he rarely hit horrible traffic, but it was bad enough that it was probably 45 minutes each way. His company sent everyone home last March when San Francisco mandated it, and the company is saving so much money that they are planning on making it permanent for as many employees as they can. Some employees do not want to work from home. Ted has a coworker with a wife and infant in an apartment, and radio is not truly conducive to that situation. Some people start reporting at 5am, and have roommates who are not thrilled by the noise involved. Ted, like me, misses his coworkers, but really enjoys the freedom of working from home. Also, the money and time saved by not commuting is wonderful. No gas, no bridge toll, no wear and tear on the car. He can eat dinner soon after it is finished, on a break between reports, rather than waiting until he gets home. It’s a better situation for him.

Our daughter Maya works from home only some of the time, and once she is fully vaccinated, I suspect that will end. She LOVES working from home. She doesn’t have any friends at work (she is 25, most of the people there are in their 40s – 60s), and loves not having to do her hair and makeup and clothes. She sits at a computer hutch next to my desk and answers the phone and does whatever other work she does at her job. She is an admin at a construction consulting firm. She doesn’t love the job, but is feeling a little aimless about what she wants to do next, and is taking some time to figure all of that out. Back to school for a teaching credential? Back to school for something else entirely? Not back to school, but looking for some other kind of job? She is somewhat aimless right now, much as I was at her age. I have pretty much drifted from job to job in my career, not really having a PLAN or a GOAL. Ted had plans and goals that did not turn out for him, and has only recently let go of some of the frustration surrounding that.

The point of this long rambling post is to tell you that, after a year of working from our kitchen table, Ted has had enough of it. Putting away his work computers and microphone every evening. Taking up the entire table. Having me cook dinner while he is working. All of it. He can’t really work in our bedroom, as I need to be on the phone sometimes, and he needs quiet to record his traffic breaks. And truthfully, in between traffic breaks, he likes to listen to music and podcasts and so on, and I like quiet most of the time. So it probably wouldn’t work, no matter what. But our townhome is pretty small, with no extra rooms. Two bedrooms, a small living room, a dining room and kitchen, and bathrooms. That’s it. Rather than making a tiny office in a closet (some of his coworkers have done that, sounds HORRID to me), as of today he is working from Maya’s room. She has a little desk, which used to be my desk when I first started working from home, and we spent Saturday cleaning it off and organizing her bedroom to make room for him to do that. She is not thrilled by this solution, but we haven’t been able to figure anything else out, and she’s gone for most of the time that he would be in there anyway, so she is resigned to it. We’re a family and we’re all trying to do our best to make this work. I do wish California real estate weren’t so expensive, and we could afford a bigger house. 4 bedrooms, or even 3 bedrooms and an office or sunroom or something, would make a huge difference.

Wish us luck, we’re going to need it. I am looking forward to cooking dinner tonight without having to worry about chopping and sautéing and so on.