Work From Home
I get a lot of spam in my inbox. At least 20-50 items per day, to be exact. Most of it consists of offers to work from home for reputable companies like Google and eBay (and most of them are scams). Considering I already work from home about half of the time, I’ve always wondered how I got put on that particular mailing list.
This past week, though, I’ve been forced to work from home the entire time. Snow in Oregon is usually fairly predictable: a few hours of flurries leads to an inch or two on the ground. This leads to slow traffic and panicked commuters for the next day. The snow quickly turns to slush and is gone within a day or two. No big deal.
I have studded tires, so I can typically get around in just about anything. I was going to add a set of chains to my collection this year, but friends and family talked me out of it. Well, we’ve had a week now of “maybe we’ll be open, maybe you’ll be working from home, maybe you’ll close early.” On Saturday the big storm hit. After I made it home, I was stuck there. The Department of Transportation put out a “chains required” restriction in the area, so now I can’t even leave the house (except by foot).
Not that I’d want to. Here’s a view of my driveway circa yesterday morning. Now add another inch of ice and another 6 inches of snow … then you’ll have today. Oddly enough, it’s still snowing! Everyone I know is being given the day off due to the weather, and most people are struggling to find things to do at home. Of course, I still have the luxury (?) of being able to work, from home, in inclement weather.
This makes me wonder. Why exactly is working from home the sought after holy grail of industry? You can no longer call in sick. You can’t use weather as a reason to take a day off. And you can never be late to the office because you slept in. Living in your office removes all barriers to being able to work … so why would a world that dreads Mondays and spends as much time at the watercooler as their desk want it so badly?
We’ve branded “working from home” well. Perhaps too well …
Eric,
I’m in the same boat here in SE Portland, snowed in my home office. My secret is to tell myself it’s snow holiday, get out and enjoy the snow while it lasts! I (and my wife) have gone on a walk every day since snow first fell, watched our Woodstock and other neighborhoods transformed. The only drawback is you can’t build a snowman with this powdery snow.
You CAN tell yourself to take a day off. You can do whatever YOU want. That’s the beauty of working from home, and that’s why I’m enjoying it
Stay warm,
Peter
[...] Fortunately, this means the horrid torrents of rain we were supposed to get might have missed. Unforutnately, it means I have yet another snow day. I made it in to work just fine, but without a key to the front door of the office I am entirely dependent on the courage of my colleagues in neighboring offices to get inside. As of 9am this morning I was the only car in the parking lot. So I braved the snow and ice (not really) once again to work from home. [...]