Our business cards arrived first thing this morning, so now I feel all official and stuff. It’s my name, and my Vumber, and our new office, all on a tiny indicator of reality. A silly thing to get excited about I suppose, but that’s me.

This was a small run, and I already see something I want to correct the next time around: the logo is just a touch too light. It was an intentional decision, since we’re trying to slowly extricate our image from what used to be our parent company without it being too much of a jolt for our existing customers (who’ve seen multiple buyouts and name changes from us over the past four years). Next time, I’ll make things stand out a bit more.

Now all I have to do is redo the entire site, move it to a new domain, and redo the entire support site. Um…  Yay?

My job, in a nutshell, is developing custom software solutions, specifically supply chain and resource management software. Some of our clients simply buy a license, but many enter a contract for a monthly support agreement where we help address issues that arise with the software. It’s a good working arrangement: having consistent contact with a client via a support agreement actually makes it more likely that said client will contract with us in the future for bigger system enhancements, and the client receives a pre-determined amount of support hours each month without having to be concerned with the cost.

The majority of my working time is actually spent on such a support agreement, handling issues for our largest client (known as Client #1). Our software serves as a web-based interface between two of their internal systems: data from their master database goes to one area of our software, while data from hand-held quality inspection devices is sent to another area. The web-based interface combines these two masses of data into easily understood quality performance numbers. This information is vital to their business performance and, by extension, their stock prices. And no, I don’t own any of their stock…

Client #1 has been with this company longer than I have, almost seven years. They are a large, internationally known company with unlimited support hours each month. We definitely want to keep them happy and it’s my job to do so.

There’s only one problem. At this point, about 80-90% of the issues I handle for them have nothing to do with the software we’ve created. They’re caused by bad data. Bad data from the back end, bad data from the front end, someone fat fingered an entry, someone sent the wrong data for an inspection center. The list goes on.

Invariably I get an email or phone call about an immediately pressing issue, something not working right, files failing saying their back-end counterpart was not delivered. Even though I know with almost certainty what the issue is, I investigate before responding. I dig through the log files or peruse the original back end data file. And then I respond as politely as possible that the error was a typo. Or, in some cases, someone didn’t enter a data aspect that is required to process the files.

There’s only so much corrective reinforcement I can give. Because of the corporate hierarchy, the people I deal with aren’t the ones making the errors. They’re simply designated Points of Contact, funnels if you will. The people making the errors don’t even know that I or possibly even my company exist. Moreover, they’re located in hundreds of places around the globe: language and time zones are a built in issue. The best I can do is show the contacts I deal with how much this affects their business. A typo may seem like a tiny mistake, but that one piece of bad input causes the output to be incomplete, invalid, or in a worse case scenario, misleading. Business decisions, who’s hired, who’s fired, which contractors to retain: all of these are affected by that one small typo.

If I can convey the seriousness of such a small error, my next step is trying to prove a pattern of behavior. Connecting the dots, if you will, to show that this particular data entry clerk or that particular inspector are consistently making the mistakes. This type of analysis is actually not part of our agreement with the customer. Once I make the software work and get the data to process, I’ve met my obligation. Going that route doesn’t help me or Client #1 in the long run, though. Whenever possible I point out exactly where in the process data is being corrupted. Who is making the typos, who is cutting corners and not entering the complete data set. As a former trainer, I know that it’s always more effective to address a performance issue with a specific individual than it is with an entire team just as it’s more effective to address a team instead of sending a memo to an entire location. The more detail I can provide, the more dots I can connect, the more likely it is the correct person will receive the feedback.

And what do I get out of it? A happy client, and fewer emails if I’m lucky.

Boss and I have both been working at home the past two weeks, an arrangement we came to after deciding to leave our previous office. Leaving was definitely the best decision to make: the previous space was tiny and had one of the worst internet connections I’ve experienced in the past ten years. Combine that with the fact that our jobs are 99% digital and we’re the perfect ‘work at home’ candidates.

Working from home does have it’s challenges, not the least of which is getting motivated.  I figured it’s a lot like the advice parents are given about their children’s homework: give them a dedicated space to do it. So, I toyed with the idea of going all out to upfit an office for myself in my house. By “all out” I mean spend a bill or two on a desk and some neat desk accessories, plus some office supplies. I know myself well enough to realize that such a spending spree would be more about indulging my love of the office supply store than anything else, though, so I decided it wasn’t the best idea given the current economy.

It’s a good thing, too: Boss signed a lease on a new office last week. Well, that didn’t last very long…

It would appear I wasn’t the only one dealing with the difficulties of staying motivated. Between that and his cats thinking they had upgraded to a full-time live-in servant, Boss was having a hard time keeping focused at home.

Now, I know what you’re thinking. “Work at home” doesn’t necessarily imply actually being at home when one is working. Perhaps a better phrase would be “office flexibility”. Work from Whole Foods and Monday, Doc Chey’s on Tuesday, a coffee shop on Wednesday, etc. And yes, that would work to an extent. However, there is such a thing as too much mobility. Working from home still gives you a base, a place where your brain shifts from play mode to business mode. Having a hyper mobile office doesn’t offer that same mental shift and can be even harder to get used to.

And I have to say: the new office is pretty darn sweet. It’s bigger, it looks better, and the location is fantastic for this area. Plus with commercial real estate being in somewhat of a slump around here, the lease terms are more than favorable. This new space marks a new stage for our company, and that above all else is why I’m excited about this move.

Now, I just have to get back in the habit of brushing my hair before noon…

Photo Credit: rocketlass

Last week marked my first full week in this new work at home endeavor, which made this my first weekend off. As Sunday winds down and I prepare for another week of work, I started to realize that the concept of ‘weekend’ is now slightly skewed in my world.

Other than days on the calendar, what made yesterday and today a ‘weekend’?

I slept in, for one thing. I’m still having difficulty with my sleep schedule, and the weekends are a slippery slope towards a second shift schedule. Because of that, I don’t know that sleeping in on the weekend is going to be an option any more. Cross that one off the list.

I spent all of today in my pajamas. Believe it or not, I am still getting ‘dressed’ for work right now. No, nothing fancy, just the same jeans and a sweater I would normally wear. To tell the truth, though, I don’t remember the last time I spent an entire day in my pajamas, so that really shouldn’t even count as a qualifier for a weekend day. I mean, I got dressed yesterday and that was still part of the weekend.

Is it the fact that I spent more time with my husband? No, that’s not it: he spent yesterday freezing his unmetionables on a motorcycle ride, and today a car show and pool team meeting. I think I might have actually seen more of him on some of our slower ‘work days’.

So what made yesterday and today a weekend? Sadly, I think it might boil down to one thing: my Lotus Notes wasn’t open. My weekend was apparently defined by a single program.

This my friends is unacceptable. I don’t know what the answer is, but I can say with certainty: if I’m going to work from home I’m going to have to find something that makes the weekend different. Perhaps a Saturday library trip. Or pancakes for breakfast on Sunday. Whatever it is, I will not suffer from uni-day.

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.