Boss and I met today for the first time since we both started working from home last week. An afternoon meeting in a coffee house, which is ironic as he doesn’t drink coffee.
But I digress… Boss and I get along well: we’re close to the same age and have a very similar temperament. Our meeting was to review a project I’d worked on last month that was due for stage one delivery. He’s a more experienced Lotus Notes developer than I am, so we reviewed the one sticking point I’d run into and made the necessary changes.
We chatted for a bit, talking about the logistics of moving our remaining furniture (it’s going to storage) and how I’ll be getting my paycheck (check the mail tomorrow!). And then he looked at me.
“So,” he said “How are you settling into working at home?”
This was accompanied by a posture shift, the kind that lets you know that there’s a significant change in the conversation. I almost gulped, because with the economy going from bad to worse lately the last thing I need is to have issues with my job.
Do I tell the truth? Do I talk about how my sleep schedule is trying to slide back to second shift and how not being in the office makes me realize just how much my work comes in spurts?
Do I lie? Do I say it’s going swimmingly and it’s the best thing ever, just like being in the office only with faster internet?
I opted for a nice, reasonable blend.
“I’m getting used to it,” I replied. “Trying to make sure I get a routine established.” I left out the fact that said routine included forcing myself to wear pants and not pajamas.
He paused and took a drink of his water.
“Well, I gotta tell you. I’m having a hell of a time getting motivated to get up and go to work in my own house. I mean, it’s not an issue when there’s a specific trouble ticket we’re working on, but when those are cleared up…” He even looked sheepish as he said it.
I’m pretty sure I let out an audible sigh of relief.
Turns out that my boss and I are in exactly the same pickle. Neither one of us wanted to work in our office: we were sharing space with another company and it wasn’t a working situation, Not to mention that the internet was slower than trying to suck a watermelon through a straw. On the other hand, when we’ve done our job everything works properly and we’re left waiting in a holding pattern for either a client issue or a new enhancement project. In the office we have each other and numerous other tasks to keep us distracted. When working from home, the down time feels exceptionally… Down.
So we talked about it, and have both recognized that right now is one of our down times. We’ve done some hard work in recent months and that means that our servers are running smoothly, our databases are up, and our clients are happy. We’re in a holding pattern, and holding for 40 hours straight from your own living room isn’t nearly as much fun as it sounds.
Long story short, as long as we’re both available by phone, GTalk, and email, neither one of us cares what the other one is doing or where. Luckily, we both have good phones (my G1 is better than his Blackberry).
Like I said, Boss and I are very much alike.
