The Home Lifestyle (part 1)

We have all been affected by the terrible Coronavirus, but I wanted to talk about several of the things I like about working from home, which I have been doing for a few weeks, and a few things I don't like about it.  

The list of pros

​10.  Computer display - at work, I have two somewhat outdated displays with different resolutions.  While they aren't tiny, they don't allow me to do the things I can do on my 34 inch ultra wide I have at home.  Pulling up a spreadsheet and seeing every single column and tab rather than scrolling all the time is a huge advantage.

​9.  Keyboard - While I don't dislike my keyboard at work, I still much prefer my DASKeyboard at home.  It is a pleasure to type on.  

8. Bathroom breaks are better - for one thing, my bathroom is about 30 feet from my home office.  At work, I am at least a 100 yards from a bathroom and half the time when I finally get there, someone is cleaning it, so I have to run to another floor.  I have to plan ahead.  No such issue at home.

7.  Lunch break - When I eat lunch at work, I am confined to my small office and I never really get away from work.  It is a sack lunch unless I want to use the microwave.  At home, I can heat something up in the oven, fry something up, then eat it outside away from my home office....all in about the same amount of time it takes me to go to the kitchen at work, get some water, and eat inside my 4 walls.

6.  Music - At work, I have a Sangean Radio and at home I have Audirvana (to play music) connected to headphones (AKG K701) and NHT speakers.  The DASKeyboard also has media keys for stopping or turning down the volume.  I use an iPhone with Bluetooth at work and control it from my Apple Watch.  Not horrible, but the home situation is miles better.

5.  Less interruption - At work, anyone can visit at any time.  I don't mind it unless I have a tight schedule and this is when it gets in the way.  At home, I can really focus better despite the ability to distract myself easier.  The thing is, if I have a tight schedule, it is just easier to maintain a pace at home.

4. Exercise - While I do have to walk a flight of stairs and walk farther to the restroom at work, I have been using the treadmill in my home office when I have a chance for a 10 or 15 minute break.  My Apple Watch circles are filling up much faster and I am burning more calories on a daily basis.  

3. Home with animals and partner -  I mentioned lunch breaks, but I also love seeing my girlfriend when she is off or relaxing with pups when I have time for a break.  It is so nice to go from a stressful phone call (as an example) to petting or throwing a toy to a pup.  Nothing I do at work for stress relief works as well.  It is also nice when my gal makes me Espresso or Cappuccino in the morning (as a side note, having Espresso from my Breville machine beats the coffee at work!) or ice water with slices of lemon.  No time for this when I have to drive to work.

2. Dress code - Not having to spend anything at the cleaners is great, but there is also something wonderful about wearing a t-shirt with sweats or jeans all day.  

1. Commute - Going to my home office takes 30 seconds vs 30 minutes to my workplace.  It saves time and money.  I don't have to burn gas, oil, etc.  I also don't have to worry about crazy traffic.  However, the main benefit is the time I get to spend at home after work.  

The list of Cons

3.  Coworkers - It feels isolated at home, especially when my girlfriend has to go to work.  We have weekly teleconferences, but it isn't the same as being with people.

2. Non-ergonomic furniture - My home office was setup to spend maybe a couple hours in it at a time.  Not 9 or 10 hours!   The fact is that my desk is too low and my chair is more for "mancave" duties than getting work done.   The desk has left me with neck aches and I am typically sore after a busy day. 

1. Out of the loop - It is easier to gauge what is going on when you are in a building with everyone.  The home worklife makes you feel more out of the loop (though, I can feel that way at work, as well).

The Wrap up

While I hate the circumstances, I really love working from home.  On some days, I had to come home and let the dogs out during the day.  That is almost an hour of driving when I am at the office.  Now I can let them out in 5 minutes because I am home.  I could imagine how convenient it would be in normal times.  I can't tell you the number of hours I have had to take off (using vacation time) to get something repaired at the house (most recently a hot water heater).  This can be done at anytime  when you work from home.  

The unfortunate thing is that when life returns to normal, I will be back inside those 4 walls again.  It really makes me envy people that are regularly allowed to work from home.  On average, I spend more hours working now because I don't have to worry about beating the traffic when the day is through.  When it is 4:50 at work, I can get home in 25 minutes.  If I leave at 5:05, it takes almost an hour to get home.   That means I have to wrap things up and get out of there unless I want to burn more gas and spend more time just sitting in traffic.

I would really like some sort of schedule where I work from home 3 days a week and go into work 2 days a week for meetings and to see what is going on.  I don't see it happening after all this is over, but I would still trade the situation for better news and circumstances than what we see now.