8 Months of Working At Home (The Coronavirus Diaries, Part XI)
This Monday will mark eight consecutive months of working at home due to the coronavirus pandemic. It's been a month since we were told to retrieve our possessions from the office, and with a very few exceptions we've basically been told "stay home until we tell you otherwise." I actually suspect that some of us may never go back to the office, even post-pandemic.
I've mentioned the pros and cons of working from home in bits and pieces, but some of us were talking about it during a zoom happy hour recently, so here's a more formal summary, because you know I love lists.
PROS
- No commute. Whether I save 30 minutes driving or 2 hours biking & showering, that's a lot of time saved.
- More sleep. If you take the commute out of the picture, sleeping in gets a lot easier. Earlier in the pandemic a lot of people were reporting really vivid dreams, which I'm convinced is because they were getting enough sleep for the first time in ages. I didn't get that, but I do like lying in bed a bit longer, at least when Tulip permits it.
- No driving. My daily commute was a big part of my total miles. Between working from home and not being able to do much else, I'm driving about once every ten days for groceries, which saves a lot of money. We could honestly live with one car right now. And since driving to work is probably the most dangerous single activity I participate in usually, working from home is probably boosting my chances of living longer.
- Cold water. The water at my office was a long ways away from my desk, so I'd fill a giant bottle once a day, which would obviously hit room temperature pretty quickly. I can get cold water out of the fridge at home with regularity, which means I drink more water.
- Healthier lunch habits. I packed my lunch every day, and always ate it all at one shot. Now with the fridge in the next room, I can spread the same amount of food out across the day, which leads to fewer hunger spikes. I'm also not tempted by the copious amounts of unhealthy food available at work.
- Easy access to the bathroom. My desk at work was pretty long walk from the bathroom. Now I'm fifteen feet away.
- Chores. In the office, I would spend the five minutes between meetings walking from one room to another. Similarly, if I got stuck on something, I'd end up surfing the web or chatting. Now, I get up and do minor chores like folding laundry or putting away dishes or opening boxes. I feel a lot more productive that way and often get unstuck.
- Tulip. She spends a lot more time with M than me in a typical day (probably because M has taken over a room with a sofa in it), but she still lies on my feet a non-zero amount of time, and I can take a dog break if I want to. She is leading her best life, and I see her more than ever.
- M. Before we'd exchange emails once or twice a day. Now we talk several times a day. It's better.
- Bad meeting avoidance. If I'm in a really bad meeting, I can turn off the camera and microphone. Hard to turn off when you're sitting in a room. Similarly, if I have to listen to a presentation I can turn up the volume and walk around the room and do minor brainless things like breaking down cardboard boxes or putting away dishes while I listen.
- Contractors. Not that we've called many contractors this year, but when we did I didn't have to take time off.
CONS
- Connection to coworkers. If I don't have a specific reason to reach out to a coworker, I don't talk to them. In the office, there'd at least be "hello and how are you" during the day, or often there'd be good news to share or gossip about bands and movies. For instance, yesterday I met with someone I work with quite rarely, and she was super excited to learn that I'd gotten married. In normal times she probably would have seen me around the office with a ring on and asked. Beyond personal items, quite often I'd learn something from a coworker in a casual setting that would help me make the connections between seemingly unrelated areas that helps make me personally good at my job. I do have some regular zoom lunches, mostly with people I normally ate lunch with anyway. I also have an occasional zoom happy hour, but that only has a few regular attendees. There's a certain potential for serendipitous information transfer in the office, and while earlier this year I said I'd found other effective avenues for that, I no longer believe that.
- Body language. Assuming people even turn their cameras on for Zoom meetings, I still can't read body language very well or as easily see who is unhappy but not speaking up. Both of these are much easier when I am in the same room with people.
- Step count. I am in a very large build, with meeting rooms all over. Most days, I walked a lot. Some days I even went to the other buildings on campus. Now my step count is very low.
- Utilities. My water and electric bills have gone up a lot with us home all day. Gas not so much because we like it cold anyway.
- Back pain. Until I was able to bring my desk chair home last month, I rotated through a selection of chairs that weren't designed to be sat in for hours on end. When I get in the zone I often forget to get up and move around, so I had some pretty substantial back pain some days. Now that I have my desk chair, this problem is much reduced, but I still need to get up and move, which happened more regularly at work where I had to walk to meetings instead of firing up Zoom.
- Taxes. My taxes haven't changed, but I'm now paying taxes to a suburb I never actually enter. This is likely to change next year, which will save me some money.
Looking at those PROS and CONS, it sure seems like I should stay at home if possible once the pandemic ends.
I've mentioned the pros and cons of working from home in bits and pieces, but some of us were talking about it during a zoom happy hour recently, so here's a more formal summary, because you know I love lists.
PROS
- No commute. Whether I save 30 minutes driving or 2 hours biking & showering, that's a lot of time saved.
- More sleep. If you take the commute out of the picture, sleeping in gets a lot easier. Earlier in the pandemic a lot of people were reporting really vivid dreams, which I'm convinced is because they were getting enough sleep for the first time in ages. I didn't get that, but I do like lying in bed a bit longer, at least when Tulip permits it.
- No driving. My daily commute was a big part of my total miles. Between working from home and not being able to do much else, I'm driving about once every ten days for groceries, which saves a lot of money. We could honestly live with one car right now. And since driving to work is probably the most dangerous single activity I participate in usually, working from home is probably boosting my chances of living longer.
- Cold water. The water at my office was a long ways away from my desk, so I'd fill a giant bottle once a day, which would obviously hit room temperature pretty quickly. I can get cold water out of the fridge at home with regularity, which means I drink more water.
- Healthier lunch habits. I packed my lunch every day, and always ate it all at one shot. Now with the fridge in the next room, I can spread the same amount of food out across the day, which leads to fewer hunger spikes. I'm also not tempted by the copious amounts of unhealthy food available at work.
- Easy access to the bathroom. My desk at work was pretty long walk from the bathroom. Now I'm fifteen feet away.
- Chores. In the office, I would spend the five minutes between meetings walking from one room to another. Similarly, if I got stuck on something, I'd end up surfing the web or chatting. Now, I get up and do minor chores like folding laundry or putting away dishes or opening boxes. I feel a lot more productive that way and often get unstuck.
- Tulip. She spends a lot more time with M than me in a typical day (probably because M has taken over a room with a sofa in it), but she still lies on my feet a non-zero amount of time, and I can take a dog break if I want to. She is leading her best life, and I see her more than ever.
- M. Before we'd exchange emails once or twice a day. Now we talk several times a day. It's better.
- Bad meeting avoidance. If I'm in a really bad meeting, I can turn off the camera and microphone. Hard to turn off when you're sitting in a room. Similarly, if I have to listen to a presentation I can turn up the volume and walk around the room and do minor brainless things like breaking down cardboard boxes or putting away dishes while I listen.
- Contractors. Not that we've called many contractors this year, but when we did I didn't have to take time off.
CONS
- Connection to coworkers. If I don't have a specific reason to reach out to a coworker, I don't talk to them. In the office, there'd at least be "hello and how are you" during the day, or often there'd be good news to share or gossip about bands and movies. For instance, yesterday I met with someone I work with quite rarely, and she was super excited to learn that I'd gotten married. In normal times she probably would have seen me around the office with a ring on and asked. Beyond personal items, quite often I'd learn something from a coworker in a casual setting that would help me make the connections between seemingly unrelated areas that helps make me personally good at my job. I do have some regular zoom lunches, mostly with people I normally ate lunch with anyway. I also have an occasional zoom happy hour, but that only has a few regular attendees. There's a certain potential for serendipitous information transfer in the office, and while earlier this year I said I'd found other effective avenues for that, I no longer believe that.
- Body language. Assuming people even turn their cameras on for Zoom meetings, I still can't read body language very well or as easily see who is unhappy but not speaking up. Both of these are much easier when I am in the same room with people.
- Step count. I am in a very large build, with meeting rooms all over. Most days, I walked a lot. Some days I even went to the other buildings on campus. Now my step count is very low.
- Utilities. My water and electric bills have gone up a lot with us home all day. Gas not so much because we like it cold anyway.
- Back pain. Until I was able to bring my desk chair home last month, I rotated through a selection of chairs that weren't designed to be sat in for hours on end. When I get in the zone I often forget to get up and move around, so I had some pretty substantial back pain some days. Now that I have my desk chair, this problem is much reduced, but I still need to get up and move, which happened more regularly at work where I had to walk to meetings instead of firing up Zoom.
- Taxes. My taxes haven't changed, but I'm now paying taxes to a suburb I never actually enter. This is likely to change next year, which will save me some money.
Looking at those PROS and CONS, it sure seems like I should stay at home if possible once the pandemic ends.