Quiet, at last, around the house
School has resumed, which means I can work at home again without the interminable IP conflicts (resulting from kids using other pcs and also hogging bandwidth watching a lot of youtube videos) and that hose up my connection to the servers at work. Quiet, quiet, quiet all day long-- I can concentrate and also take the occasional break to get dinner started and/or take a noon time run.
When I tell people I work at home they often respond that they couldn't' do that, wouldn't get anything done. I've learned that if I'm busy enough and the work isn't completely boring I can get a lot done. I'm out of the pressure cooker of the office (though these days, because all of my coworkers are located in a different state, there really is no pressure cooker). Over the years, the Internet connection between home and work servers has improved a lot -- in earlier days, the connection was slower, and some of the software I had to use made the system even slower. Also, I wasn't use to operating with a laptop keyboard and or without an external mouse. Now I can pretty much keep hands on the keyboard at all times, use keyboard short cuts, etc. I have some new software on my p.c. that allows me to take office phone calls and make office phone calls through my work phone number, so no one has to remember to call me at home on certain days, etc. As far as anyone knows, I'm in the office every day. It's transparent.
I figured out that the savings in gasoline is equal to 3 to 5 percent of my annual salary. That's practically an annual increase, though this year those are fairly scarce. Add on the savings from eating at home, and it's practically another 3 to 5 percent. The only day I'm going in this week is one where I have a lunch date with a friend, otherwise I'd spend the whole week at home.
That's the work at home geek update.
When I tell people I work at home they often respond that they couldn't' do that, wouldn't get anything done. I've learned that if I'm busy enough and the work isn't completely boring I can get a lot done. I'm out of the pressure cooker of the office (though these days, because all of my coworkers are located in a different state, there really is no pressure cooker). Over the years, the Internet connection between home and work servers has improved a lot -- in earlier days, the connection was slower, and some of the software I had to use made the system even slower. Also, I wasn't use to operating with a laptop keyboard and or without an external mouse. Now I can pretty much keep hands on the keyboard at all times, use keyboard short cuts, etc. I have some new software on my p.c. that allows me to take office phone calls and make office phone calls through my work phone number, so no one has to remember to call me at home on certain days, etc. As far as anyone knows, I'm in the office every day. It's transparent.
I figured out that the savings in gasoline is equal to 3 to 5 percent of my annual salary. That's practically an annual increase, though this year those are fairly scarce. Add on the savings from eating at home, and it's practically another 3 to 5 percent. The only day I'm going in this week is one where I have a lunch date with a friend, otherwise I'd spend the whole week at home.
That's the work at home geek update.