Our office officially closed at 6 pm last Wednesday, March 18, 2020. So, since Thursday, March 19, 2020, I have been exclusively working from home.
For the past week, we had rumors that our office was going to close. The other businesses in the building had been telling their workers to work from home since the first week of March. A lot of businesses in downtown Seattle had been telling workers to not come in, making the streets of downtown Seattle were mostly empty. My commute was quicker, but with the lack of riders and drivers, the buses kept getting cancelled. So, getting home was becoming more difficult.
As I mentioned before, I have worked from home before. This would be the first time that it would be planned. What I mean is, when I worked from home before, it usually was due to being snowed in, because it was a deadline and I had to work late, or because I had to attend a an on-line meeting or some emergency came up on my day off. For all those times, I would make some space where I could work temporarily. Because I would be working my normal day, I needed a plan to have a work area. Being in an apartment, space is limited, but I made something work.
My household consists of myself, my wife, our daughter, and our indoor cat. My wife also works, but it is part time on the evenings and weekends. She stays home with our daughter when I am at work during the weekdays. Our daughter is starting school in the fall of this year, but is in a pre-K program, offered by the school district, that meets twice a week. Since the schools are closed, so is the program. And our cat, well, as long as she can find a place to sleep and gets to watch the wildlife outside (birds, squirrels, other cats), she doesn’t care.
When my daughter woke up yesterday morning, she came into where I was working and asked, “why are you dressed?” I tried to explain to her why, but she didn’t really want a full explanation. She only was curious because she wanted to go somewhere. Well, the explanation I was trying to give her was that I was still going to do as much as my normal routine for work as I could. I would have a set time when I would wake up. Get ready, which included a shower and getting dressed, and start work at a set time. I would take lunch at my designated lunch time and end my work day at a designated time.
For my lunch break at work, I would either go to the in-building gym or go for a walk. Now that I was at home, just a walk would suffice. I usually don’t see a lot of people outside where I live, so social-distancing would not be an issue. My daughter also wanted to come with me on the walks, so I found a PokéStop close to our place. Except for my trip to the store yesterday, we’ve been able to go on the walks during lunch. It is raining today, so we may still try and just bring our umbrellas.
In regards to work, I’ve been getting as much, if not more done while at home. And, since I no longer need to commute to work, I am getting about 7 hours of sleep per night, instead of my 5 hours. And, I can work a few minutes later per day without worrying about missing my bus home. Because where my desk was, I barely had any social interaction at work. At home, I get it a lot more.
Overall, I am liking working from home. It will continue to check in occasionally, to both record and share my experience.
Warm Yogurt 