Working from Home
No, the photo accompanying this post is not of my desk – it may as well be though. Why get on with work, when you could quite easily spend all afternoon arranging everything on your desk into neat lines, and take arty photos of the stuff ? Unless you have something specific to get on with, working from home is hard. There is coffee you could be making, washing you could be putting in the machine, dishes you could be unloading from the dishwasher – not to mention a world of daytime television to discover.
I have a browser tab open with work email in it. I’m keeping half an eye on it. Honest. In another browser tab I have Spotify open, playing the “Favorite Coffee House” playlist. I just realised my coffee mug is empty – I wonder how many consecutive cups of cappuccino you can drink before some sort of manic episode occurs ?
I’m “working” from home because our youngest daughter is due home from school any time now. She goes to an out-of-town school with transport provided. I just wanted to be here when she got in, and luckily work is quiet today (unlike yesterday when I wanted to start burning a certain client’s office to the ground).
It never ceases to amaze me how different people can be. Yesterday I went to hell and back in the space of a couple of hours, and yet this morning I got an email from quite possibly the nicest client I have ever worked with – wishing me a great weekend after I answered her helpdesk call quickly. Go figure.
I sometimes miss working within a bigger company. Being a consultant – out on the road a lot, living in hotels, talking to rooms full of strangers, teaching, sharing knowledge, writing specifications, and solving problems is kind of a lonely and stressful life at the best of times. I miss turning up, and working to make one system better – month after month, year after year. I used to work for a big manufacturing company, and designed and built most of their systems – from pre-sales, right through to stock control.
Anyway. Writing this isn’t getting much done, is it. Not that I have a lot to do this afternoon. I think the washing machine has probably finished…