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shah269

Working from home....thoughts?

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Do you guys find it that you are alienated from the corporate culture and or that your supervisors have a hard time evaluating your work?



Yes on the culture, but that's not always bad.



Hum, but if you are not a part of the culture, and things hit the fan....you could be a faceless person cut from the workforce?

Right?
Life through good thoughts, good words, and good deeds is necessary to ensure happiness and to keep chaos at bay.

The only thing that falls from the sky is birdshit and fools!

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Do you guys find it that you are alienated from the corporate culture and or that your supervisors have a hard time evaluating your work?



No, but I am also in the office each week. When I am working from home more often I alternate days in and out of the office.
"The restraining order says you're only allowed to touch me in freefall"
=P

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I tried it but it was too hard to see the airplanes from my back deck. :P


Oh please!
Just install a widow's walk on top of the roof!
:)Now only can you work from home but also work on your tan!


I'm gonna guess that the neighbors might object to a huge radar antenna on top of the house.

:P
"There are NO situations which do not call for a French Maid outfit." Lucky McSwervy

"~ya don't GET old by being weak & stupid!" - Airtwardo

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I tried it but it was too hard to see the airplanes from my back deck. :P


Oh please!
Just install a widow's walk on top of the roof!
:)Now only can you work from home but also work on your tan!


I'm gonna guess that the neighbors might object to a huge radar antenna on top of the house.

:P


Nah... maybe he could pass it off as a mudflow early warning system

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Steve pretty much summed up my feelings on full-time telecommuting as well.

My setup is a bit different, though, and I like the balance. Depending on where I am in a project's lifecycle, I may be working from home every day for several weeks; or I may work from home only a few days a month. My "in the office" days are sometimes local, but are generally out of town, so I get the joys of business travel on top of being in the office.

I have a cubicle in a local office that I visit from time to time, sometimes because I want access to tools or space in the office that I just don't have at home, though that's rare; often it's that I want a change of pace, or I need to hit the big box retailers out in the suburb where my office is located, so I combine it with a visit to the office. B|

If I need to collaborate with folks in person, I don't mind going into the office at all, but if I'm just working on my own or on conference calls where all participants are scattered, I'd much rather take them from home.

I'm pretty good at keeping the balance right; I just shut off the work laptop at the end of the day and put my Blackberry away till the next morning. It helps that I have a personal laptop and a personal phone, so I never have to pull those out to do personal stuff in the evenings, so I'm not tempted to look at any work-related stuff that comes in.

"There is only one basic human right, the right to do as you damn well please. And with it comes the only basic human duty, the duty to take the consequences." -P.J. O'Rourke

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I have a weekly 15 minute call with my "manager of record". The account managers for both of my accounts provide feedback on my performance.

I am in account management so if the customer isn't happy our upper management finds out about it. We have daily internal and customer facing conference called around the management of the account.

I do go stir crazy sometimes, but not often. I have the ability to take my laptop outside and sit on the deck.
I have the option of taking my laptop whenever I travel so I don't burn up vacation. The company provides me with a cell phone and an air card for Internet.

Social isolation? There is some of that but I don't have to deal with office politics so it is a good trade-of.

And I have Facebook up all day on my personal computer in case I get lonely :)

Be patient with the faults of others; they have to be patient with yours.

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One of the women in my class stated that she knew her mail man, fedEX dude and UPS guy by name and well....when they showed up it was the highlight of her day.....aaahhh...yeah thanks but no thanks!
I don't want to live that kind of life at my age yet.
Maybe when I'm 90 and dead!
Life through good thoughts, good words, and good deeds is necessary to ensure happiness and to keep chaos at bay.

The only thing that falls from the sky is birdshit and fools!

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Your loss mate .. if you want to be a good little company man ... waking to an alarm clock... having to dress.... shit, shave & shower and then fight your way through the other droids to get to an office ... slave a day and the retrace your steps....

Not for me - I'll talk to the postie and my neighbours - shop mid week when the shops are 1/2 empty - get to the bank with no queues AND get all of my work don whilst listening to what ever music I want, as loud as I want.... Get to run my wifes bath.. our here a cold one and cook supper ....... Living the dream mate, living the dream

(.)Y(.)
Chivalry is not dead; it only sleeps for want of work to do. - Jerome K Jerome

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Your loss mate .. if you want to be a good little company man ... waking to an alarm clock... having to dress.... shit, shave & shower and then fight your way through the other droids to get to an office ... slave a day and the retrace your steps....



Wow, what venom. I didn't realize I turned into a good little company man and the people I work with are droids. If that was your experience don't assume everybody else is the same.

I enjoy having to dress.... shit, shave & shower, but not in that order.
"For you see, an airplane is an airplane. A landing area is a landing area. But a dropzone... a dropzone is the people."

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One of the women in my class stated that she knew her mail man, fedEX dude and UPS guy by name and well....when they showed up it was the highlight of her day.....aaahhh...yeah thanks but no thanks!



Oh...and arguing with some dull engineering chick about her love life is sooooo much better. Especially when it doesn't even involve you...what a bummer!;)

:D
Your secrets are the true reflection of who you really are...

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you seem to have a very strange definition of venom ... for me it's about quality of life ... mine is so much better than it was when I was commuting etc..



Well, yeah, commuting is something to be avoided but I didn't know I was a good little company man who worked with droids because I work at the office instead of working from home.
"For you see, an airplane is an airplane. A landing area is a landing area. But a dropzone... a dropzone is the people."

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My company provides $1500.00 worth of office equipment to establish a home office when you agree to work from home and give up office space in their facilities. Plus they pay my internet and phone cost each month.


I've been doing it for about 3 years now and do not miss going into the office. Besides, there's no one in the office anymore so why bother.

Email , Conf calls and Instants Messaging keep my workforce engaged.

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Email , Conf calls and Instants Messaging keep my workforce engaged.



This hits the nail on the head. At certain points in our projects, we emphasize face-to-face time with all the various parties. At that point we'll all gather in a conference room somewhere, and the team will typically include folks from various offices, many of whom are working away from their primary location.

But for much of my work, it involves being accessible to people who are scattered around various locations. So long as I respond to my email, stay logged in to instant messaging, answer my phone, show up on the conference calls I'm supposed to be on, etc., I'm doing exactly the same work I'd be doing if I were in the office, just in a different location and in different clothing.

As for productivity, so long as I meet the commitments I have to my projects and my management, no one gives a flip where I do the work. Sometimes, though, that commitment does mean being somewhere in person for a particular meeting, but otherwise, I get to work where it's best for me. Most of the time I need to be available to other project team members during standard business hours, so I tend to work standard business hours (and put my work away outside of those hours), but other jobs may have more flexibility around hours, too.
"There is only one basic human right, the right to do as you damn well please. And with it comes the only basic human duty, the duty to take the consequences." -P.J. O'Rourke

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Do you guys find it that you are alienated from the corporate culture and or that your supervisors have a hard time evaluating your work?



Yes on the culture, but that's not always bad.



Hum, but if you are not a part of the culture, and things hit the fan....you could be a faceless person cut from the workforce?

Right?



Yes, and that is the biggest drawback. When layoffs start, you have no idea what is going on. On the other hand, I've been surviving layoffs for 3 years.

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Do you guys find it that you are alienated from the corporate culture and or that your supervisors have a hard time evaluating your work?



No, but I am also in the office each week. When I am working from home more often I alternate days in and out of the office.



I've gone as long as 18 months without going into the office. That's pretty wild. I talk to my boss maybe 10 minutes per week.

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Your loss mate .. if you want to be a good little company man ... waking to an alarm clock... having to dress.... shit, shave & shower and then fight your way through the other droids to get to an office ... slave a day and the retrace your steps....

Not for me - I'll talk to the postie and my neighbours - shop mid week when the shops are 1/2 empty - get to the bank with no queues AND get all of my work don whilst listening to what ever music I want, as loud as I want.... Get to run my wifes bath.. our here a cold one and cook supper ....... Living the dream mate, living the dream



There's a lot of truth to that. If I were to give it up, it would be a HUGE change in lifestyle.

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Your loss mate .. if you want to be a good little company man ... waking to an alarm clock... having to dress.... shit, shave & shower and then fight your way through the other droids to get to an office ... slave a day and the retrace your steps....

Not for me - I'll talk to the postie and my neighbours - shop mid week when the shops are 1/2 empty - get to the bank with no queues AND get all of my work don whilst listening to what ever music I want, as loud as I want.... Get to run my wifes bath.. our here a cold one and cook supper ....... Living the dream mate, living the dream



There's a lot of truth to that. If I were to give it up, it would be a HUGE change in lifestyle.



One more thing: Working from home allows me more time to exercise. It's hard to fit it in with a regular job.

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After listening to one of the ladies in my EMBA class describer her day to day solitary existence and how in a sad way she knew her mail man and fedex dude and ups man and more or less ordered stuff so they would show up such that she could in a way have some sort of human contact....it really scared the shit out of me.

I'm there now, working in a small office and living in a community where there aren't many if any people my age around and being single at an age where all of my friends are either married or married with kids....it scared me.

I understand why some would enjoy it. Free of the political and social issues associated with office life and the freedom to work in your undies and not worrying about waking up and driving in but I also see the downside of this as well. The slow disassembling of one's social acumen.

And as I see it with the death of the local café and the local book store and the move to ever increasing online procurement of products and services....I can't help but wonder how maladjusted as a society we may become?
It's kind of scary if you ask me.
Life through good thoughts, good words, and good deeds is necessary to ensure happiness and to keep chaos at bay.

The only thing that falls from the sky is birdshit and fools!

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One more thing: Working from home allows me more time to exercise. It's hard to fit it in with a regular job.


It's the exact opposite for me. Although I live on a bike trail and get some great rides there, I do my weight training in the employee funded gym at work. I can hit it hard on a morning break; free weights, Nautilus, chin up bars and treadmills. We pretty much have it all. When I retire in a couple of years I'll have to join a damn gym somewhere.:S:D

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One more thing: Working from home allows me more time to exercise. It's hard to fit it in with a regular job.


It's the exact opposite for me. Although I live on a bike trail and get some great rides there, I do my weight training in the employee funded gym at work. I can hit it hard on a morning break; free weights, Nautilus, chin up bars and treadmills. We pretty much have it all. When I retire in a couple of years I'll have to join a damn gym somewhere.:S:D


I've worked places like that before, but the problem is always that a 1 hour lunch is never long enough. I prefer to run and it takes me half an hour just to cool down before I take a shower, particularly in the summer.

At home, If I take a 1.5 hour lunch, it's no biggie because I always work more than 8 hours anyway.

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