Sitting in the basement all day might not sound glamorous, but as a new telecommuter, I’ll take it. The alternative is a long commute, hunting for parking, and paying too much for mediocre cafeteria food because I was too lazy to pack a lunch.
Maybe after I toss the laundry in the dryer I’ll come back and finish this post about the ups and downs of telecommuting. Don’t worry — they’re mostly upsides!
I should probably be retired by now, but at least I’m one step closer. Last month I applied for permanent telecommuter status and jumped at the chance. Working from home became acceptable at my company “thanks” to the pandemic. Yippee!
Before the lockdowns in early 2020, telecommuting was frowned upon. The company had spent millions on open, shared workspaces — some campuses even had a ping pong table. Now the buzzword is “hybrid.”
With hybrid, there are no more assigned cubicles, so leave your family photos and plants at home. Find a spot, plug in, and jump into back-to-back calls with colleagues across time zones. Repeat two or three times a week to meet the badge-swipe requirement, and…
The problem with hybrid is many people already secured full-time remote status, so fewer folks show up. Add everyone coming in on different days to meet their 2–3 day quota, and the chance for real face-to-face collaboration drops.
Hybrid schedules also stress families trying to juggle childcare, school, and activities. Knowledge workers got used to full-time WFH flexibility these past few years. Taking that away creates bigger headaches and can hurt productivity.
My company is trying to sweeten the hybrid model. Some departments offer free snacks and sugar-free sodas, and there’s a monthly happy hour and food trucks. Free drinks and lunch — what’s not to like?
To be fair, after enduring a rough commute and finally finding a parking spot (which is a real win when summer road work surrounds the campus), a good day at the office can be great. If your teammates sit nearby, it’s nice to chit-chat. (“Seen that new Barry show on HBO?”)
During my short two-month stint in hybrid, I loved the banter about office politics, brainstorming together, and sharing little personal stories. Cubicle life depends on good relationships. We even started going to lunch as a group — something my department rarely did before COVID. Eating at your desk was the norm. Blech.
Meeting face-to-face or taking a walk around the pond beats Zoom in my book. Those in-person exchanges bring energy, unless the person you meet is a sourpuss — better save those for Zoom, I’d say.
And yes, happy hour is a real perk. Especially in summer, a drink or two after a long day feels earned. We might make it to the pub once a month, but it’s a fun way to unwind and trade office gossip.
The biggest obvious perk is not going to work on Fridays. In summer, everyone’s checked out and ready for the weekend. Here in Minnesota, highways clog at noon with travelers heading up north. Why commute when you could use your lunch break to hitch the boat trailer?
After a long weekend, working from home on Monday is a nice way to ease back into the week and dodge the Sunday scaries. I actually get more done at home on Fridays and Mondays — those days tend to be more task-focused. It’s a win-win for both employee and employer.
Wouldn’t it be great if companies offered summer hours — half-day or full-day Fridays from June through August? I think it’d be a huge retention win and wouldn’t cost much, since productivity usually drops after lunch on Fridays anyway.
Another thing I love about working from home: short breaks. At home you can do a quick load of laundry or pop the dishwasher, taking a 5–10 minute break every hour or two. It gets your blood moving and forces you out of the chair.
At the office, you don’t have much reason to get up except for bathroom breaks. Managers worry about at-home distractions, but those little breaks are better than watching people sit comatose at their desks all day.
Being home also makes it easy to get outside. I can step out in two minutes for a neighborhood walk. Those walks are great for productivity — a screen break, fresh air, and time for ideas to form. I take one-on-ones with my AirPods in and hit my step goal much easier starting from home than from a cubicle.
The downsides? I miss being around people sometimes, and the office setup is often better than my basement corner. It can also be harder to get promoted if you never put in face time at headquarters.
Since March 2020 I’ve been basically full-time remote, and I made it official last month when the company started cracking down on badge swipes. I still plan to come into the office now and then — maybe a couple times a week if needed — but I value the flexibility to shape my workdays around when I’m most productive and collaborative.
Working from home is an amazing benefit when it’s an option. Not everyone has that luxury. I’ll still make an effort to visit the office to keep relationships strong and not miss out on those COVID-free happy hours.
I get the feeling we’re moving away from the old Office Space routine that dominated our 9-to-5 lives before the pandemic. That’s a good thing — fewer cars on the road and less need for work “uniforms” will help the planet.
As for early retirement, telecommuting gives me a little taste of life without an office — a small step toward imagining fewer hours and less commuting. Pretty nice. Now, back to thinking about those dividend stocks…