homeplaceofthefuture daily log 4862
Laying in bed sick as a dog last night I turned to my wife and said I think I'll stay home tomorrow. That rib breaking laughter was the best I felt in days, but it got me thinking that really there is no such thing as a sick day when you work from home. I thought I did all the right things to take a sick day, but the phone still rings, clients still leave voicemails and if you're dumb enough like me they all have your mobile number. It's so nice to be wanted for all the wrong reasons! In-between the phone calls and cleaning up the DVR my mind still wanders to the fury of emails coming to my work machines. I smell smoke....that computer is literally going to catch on fire if it gets one more URGENT***** email! Some people can just shut the door and ignore their home office when off the clock or sick -- after 4862 days give or take a few years I'm almost married to this desk, these walls and the feeling of having to be responsive even when I feel my worst.
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homeplaceofthefuture daily log 4855
In case you haven't heard it's a holiday week this week here in the USA. If you're overseas (not in the USA) I'm sure your American colleagues have let you know it's a holiday and told you all about their food plans. It's a time to give thanks and eat as much food as humanly possible...a trait that us Americans are known for - we don't take anything for granted and we eat like children every chance we get .......see my earlier posts about high cholesterol and the ever increasing waistline. Holiday weeks are some of my favorite weeks to work all year long. I know it's so anti-holiday, but hear me out. All year we fly the urgent flag, deal with hundreds of emails everyday and nonstop calls and if you're like me there is a pile of notes on my desk. Throughout the year you get glimpses of actually doing work uninterrupted and its glorious (as it relates to work) -- if there's one thing we can all agree on it is we all like to work with limited interruptions. This my friends is the holiday season and these next few weeks.....limited interruptions. Enjoy it and be vigilant because all life distractions (kids, spouse, online orders coming in, activities) are amplified during this time especially here in the homeplaceofthefuture. Also as an added bonus all your colleagues take vacation during this time and while it would be nice to be off too, it's much better to be off when work is busy and your colleagues are miserably busy. homeplaceofthefuture daily log 4848
In 4848 days of working from home give or take a few years I've experienced something today for the first time. It's cold here and my work from home uniform has been modified a tad to make up for my thermostat challenge. My normal black t'shirt has been replaced with a black hoodie. I'm not ashamed to say that I've worn this hoodie for 3 days now day & night with zero shower -- who needs to leave or clean themselves in the homeplaceofthefuture especially in winter? I was feeling a bit human today and decided to shower. Crazy I know, but when I took off my hoodie I saw a t'shirt that I completely forgot I put on underneath my hoodie 3 (maybe 4) days ago! I had a good laugh because I honestly don't remember putting on this particular t'shirt - just another day in the cold & now showered homeplaceofthefuture homeplaceofthefuture daily log 4841 There are many things that I would happily sneak out of the homeplaceofthefuture for in the middle of a working day......important events such as lunch, lunch and okay fine another lunch. Voting wouldn't make the list of top 100 things to leave the office for. I'd rather get my license plates renewed or pay someone else court fees in person in small claims court! Voting is terribly annoying with candidates and their cronies hanging out by the door wanting me to vote for XYZ as I'm walking in. It's rather inefficient and my polling location is a smelly, greasy gymnasium complete with ringworm (keep your hands in your pockets) Imagine my good fortune when I discovered the absentee ballot years ago! It's like being a mystery donor - who is this guy and why is he voting for the Independents in a Blue or Red area. Anyways go vote and enjoy the homeplaceofthefuture themed voting sticker!!!! homeplaceofthefuture daily log 4838
Walking into a room, random events or even someone else's house with yesterday's clothes on is just normal course of business here in the homeplaceofthefuture. Family & friends love to joke about how many black t'shirts I have....and we'll keep that a secret. The idea of uniform I thought was only funny in my inner circle. Imagine my good fortune yesterday when I walked into someone else's house with my uniform on and struck up a conversation with my kids friend's dad - come to find out he's a virtual employee too for a much larger and even global company. I always wondered why he was the only other male in the drop-off zone at our school! We had a good time commiserating about how organizations in this world do not know how to handle their virtual employees and the work from home lifestyle aka 'uniforms'
These are just a few of the things companies should be doing to build loyalty with their virtual workforce. Companies may save money by not having us sit in a stuffy office somewhere, but they should at least have programs/policies in place that encourage employees to get together occasionally and not when it's just to fly in and present to a client and leave. Face to face meetings on a regular basis to team build will in turn make us more productive. Imagine how many emails (here we go again...) and calls that could be avoided by a quarterly team meeting to talk about all issues and plan for the next quarter. Revolutionary thinking for some I know! That productivity could be channeled to actually doing work and not spending 6 hours out of 10 on the phone everyday....I'm just saying. I left his house encouraged that other virtual employees get it and look to better themselves and their companies as we navigate the future. homeplaceofthefuture daily log 4836
www.homeplaceofthefuture.com is open for business and by business right now I mean just fun commentary of the life of a virtual employee. Images and changes will be constant in the coming weeks, but when I'm not saving lives on the phone wearing yesterday's clothes, I'll be working on this 'movement'. homeplaceofthefuture daily log 4829
I've always hated when blogs start with "it's been awhile", it's so cliche....so easy. There's no need to justify, but in the spirit of being open & honest I'm a perfectionist. If something is going to be tough or require commitment I have a tendency to drop off the face of the earth after I miss a day or miss the mark. The homeplaceofthefuture blog and movement (yes I said movement) suffered because I missed a few days and then I started to rationalize why I was missing a few days and just kept going into a 2 week spiral of self doubt and frustration and that wasn't even related to the my normal self doubt and frustration with my day job, aka the land of urgent. Over the past years I have started to learn, not fully learn yet mind you how to combat perfectionism in a lot of areas with my life. My best advice is when you miss the mark is to question the mark in the first place. Home repairs fit into this category nicely -- Mrs homeplaceofthefuture would like wooden floors throughout the house along with some fancy floor moldings. It seems easy enough, cutting wood and some knee pads or I could pay some shady contractor to be in my home and charge me the price of an Audi for 2 days work. So Mr. homeplaceofthefuture would like to try this himself because it's just cutting wood and some knee pads right? Fast forward a few years and we still have carpeted areas in the house because I'm afraid to try because if I make a mistake we have to look at my uneven floors for the rest of our lives or until I swallow my pride and call Mr. 2 days for an Audi contractor. Point of the story -- bite it off in small bites. I'm not going to re-do the entire floor in one sitting/one afternoon, but maybe I'll try a closet first, or practice cutting in the garage and getting the tools ready. As it points back to this site, the plan is provide regular "work from home content" that's odd, creative, thought provoking, funny and maybe even useful. If we miss a day or 2, we'll be back because we're building something here and most likely I'm in the garage practicing. homeplaceofthefuture daily log 4812
Something they don't tell you when you get a virtual job is that you'll be sitting a lot. Oh sure there's flexibility, productivity and some freedoms, but all of that is tied to a computer and/or headset. Occasionally I look down at myself wearing the same clothes, sitting in the same chair, deleting the same emails and talking to the same clients and wonder what am I doing here and why am I still sitting! After 4812 days of working from home (give or take a few years).....I proactively went to my doctor today with the results of some bloodwork and years of sitting. I was given no drugs, which was fine with me, but I walked away with a brochure called "Improving Your Cholesterol with Diet & Exercise" So there is it kids.....you work from home, you continually battle the inbox and fight those urgent emails and you get high cholesterol. My doctor said all my numbers in my bloodwork can be attributed to sitting down all day, but there has been some progress with my purposeful calendar invite to go outside and move (see previous posts). homeplaceofthefuture daily log 4809
We'll talk about email a lot as we go, but for now I just want everyone to know that either marking your email as urgent or placing ***URGENT in the subject line doesn't magically move you up in the queue. Shocking I know and here's the kicker if you continue to mark routine emails as urgent I just assume you don't have your act together and I ignore your emails over everyone else's. The nice thing about working alone and virtually is I can laugh as I ignore your email and maybe even talk to the screen a little bit to help me deal with your constant "perceived" urgency. homeplaceofthefuture daily log 4808
May I just say that after almost 5000 days give or take a few hundred days, I have perfected the Spotify playlist and the YouTube mix! Proud dad moment |
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September 2020
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