Reading this thread, is encouraging to me. My whole team are remote workers and for myself, I've asked to maintain a cube in a nearby POP. I have small ones at home who don't understand why dad can't be as available to them as they wish. For me, I can't focus well with these kind of distractions especially if I'm on a call or can't drop what I'm doing, but I admire those who can. Also, at this point, I don't have a dedicated "office" area at home and find myself huddled over a work bench in the garage next to my server rack. Not the most ergo setting.
That said, unlike my co-workers, I don't get a home office stipend, I spend more in gas and my days are longer when I add the commute time into the mix. Ideally, I would like to transition to working more at home. I also perceive it's going to take some time for me to change the paradigm of 9-5, (6-4) and transition to a model where I can work the same amount of hours and be just as productive by logging in these hours in non-contiguous chunks. Having the ability to "context-switch" as Jan has labeled it, I believe is key here. This is a helpful thread, thanks you all for sharing. -b On Mon, Dec 5, 2011 at 7:40 AM, Jan Schaumann <jscha...@netmeister.org> wrote: > David Radcliffe <da...@davidradcliffe.org> wrote: > >> I do have to say to anyone planning to work from home, make sure you have a >> proper work space. > > For whatever it's worth: > > I have been working from home for the last 3.5 years. I live in > Manhattan in a one-bedroom with a 4 year and now a 2 months old > daughter, meaning I work on my laptop in the middle of the livingroom > with all my life around me. > > I context-switch a lot; I put down the laptop to read my daughters a > story or play for a few minutes, I go shopping, cook etc. But: when I > go to visit the office (about once a quarter or so), I wonder how on > earth my colleagues get any work done. They are constantly interrupted, > asked to have coffee, lunch, breakfast, a snack, go for a walk and just > chew the fat. > > Yes, I work a lot at night and on the weekends. That is the one thing > that people who do not work from home are not aware of: you have no more > distinction between "home" and "office", which usually means that when > I'm home, I'm working. > > I could see how having a "home office" with a closed door could create > this impression of "going to the office" and "coming home", but I don't > find it either desirable nor (in Manhattan) practical. > > -Jan > -- Bill Blackford Network Engineer Logged into reality and abusing my sudo privileges.....
