Tag: working from home

In the Office

The rules for our hybrid working environment are simple. We have to be in the office for 40% of the work days each month. That works out to approximately two days each week. Usually. Some months require an extra day to hit 40%. This month is not one of those months. This month just needs two days each week.

Last week I messed up my routine. I was feeling under the weather. Not bad enough to miss work, but bad enough to not want to go into the office and risk getting anyone else sick. I worked from home all five days last week. No office visits for me.

Because of that minor illness and my desire in the post Covid world to go out of my way to not get anyone else sick, I have two days to make up in order to get back onto the two days in the office pace.

I had two ideas for that. Idea number one was to work three days in the office this week, and three days next week. Not bad. Not good. Doable. Idea number two was to just bite the bullet and work four days in the office this week. Suck Suckity Suck Suck Suck for one week, then back to normal for the rest of the month.

I went into the office on Monday (traffic was mild). I went into the office on Tuesday (traffic was horrible). I am in the office today, Wednesday (traffic was bad but not as bad as Tuesday). Tomorrow I will have to make a tough decision. If I work from home tomorrow, I will need to come in three days next week (because I am sure as hell not coming into the office on Friday). If I work from the office tomorrow I will be back on track and not have to worry about any of this for the rest of June… but it will suck suck suckity suck to be in the office four days in a row (again, no way in hell I am coming in on Friday this week).

So what am I going to do?

I feel a little sick even thinking this… but I think I am going to work in the office. Four days in and one day at home… that was how our schedule worked pre-pandemic. The thought of that just blows chunks. It blows great big chunky chunks.

I think I am going to do it though. Oh help me please, I think I am going to do it.

Stressed Out

I just had a couple of back to back meetings that I was sort of dreading. They are regular occurrences but I never feel comfortable handling them. I can do it, no problem… it’s just that I don’t enjoy the process much. It stresses me out in a major way. It probably shouldn’t, but it does.

The good news is that the meetings are over and I can breath a sigh of relief. Now if only I didn’t have to make up the time I was late from being stuck in traffic this morning.

Frustration! Really looking forward to going home and not working in the office again until next week. It’s crazy how therapeutic working from home can be sometimes. Even when the job is stressful, working from home is just less stressful somehow. Ugh, what a crazy post-Covid world this has become, right?

Don’t Do it Again

The last time I was in the office I sat at the same desk I’m sitting at right now. When I left for the day I forgot my laptop charger and had to drive back in the next day to get it.

Robert… moron… whatever you do… don’t forget the damn charger again, m’kay? Forgetting your laptop charger is bad.

On a mostly unrelated note, all of this extra working from the office stuff has thrown my personal, internal calendar into complete chaos. I have been 100% convinced all day today that today is Friday. Guess what. It’s not Friday. Not even close. Tomorrow is Friday. It’s just plain old Thursday.

I was hoping this weekend could be a total downtime weekend. I don’t think that’s possible. I want to finish hanging the blinds and curtains and make the last couple of changes to the bed room setup. I also want to put together the tent/shed thing we bought for the back yard. Unfortunately it’s going to rain all weekend so that’s out. I have four songs that need to be finished by the end of the weekend, so there will be music in the car and at home. I still have to finish writing two of those four songs. Way to wait for the last minute, Robert. Dope. Next month’s music plan is a full 10 song album in a month deal using my new King of Tone overdrive pedal which I haven’t even plugged in yet. Dope.

It’s looking more and more like I will be able to work from home for the second half of the day. Fingers are still very much crossed. My stomach started acting up about half an hour ago but it was just one of those, hey dope you are hungry stomach aches. I ate a snack and now I am fine. I won’t get home until well after 2:00pm so I am not sure what to do about eating lunch. I’m hoping for some chicken and maybe some french fries, but I don’t want to ruin dinner. It’s crazy how reliant I have become on being able to cook lunch and dinner at decent, routine times, and how shuffling those times even a little bit messes me up.

I am hoping I’ll be leaving the office at about 1:45. Fingers intensely crossed. I wanna go home. Just don’t forget your charger, you dope.

Work is Done: Time to Go To Work

The work day is wrapping up. I guess it’s time to go to work.

Because numb nutz over here forgot his laptop charger in the office yesterday and has to drive the 40 miles to the office to go get it. Or to hopefully go get it. It’s possible someone could have taken it off the desk I used yesterday. Here’s hoping it’s still there.

Numb nutz.

In the Office

I took Monday and Tuesday off so that I could be around for the window crew. We were told it would take two days. When they asked to come back for a third day I thought it was going to screw up my work schedule. Today is an in-the-office day so I would be messing things up if I had to stay home. Jen and I worked it out so that I could be there for the morning and then be in the office in the afternoon. I was planning to come in one additional day just to keep the karmic scales balanced.

Fortunately, they showed up early enough today that I could discuss what needed to be discussed, get the house ready for them to start work, and still get onto the road in time to make it to the office by 9:00. Whew! Jen is working from home today, so hopefully they won’t be too loud. Also, the cats are out of Bellana’s room so hopefully they don’t torture the window crew too badly with their cuteness and their insistence on playing at all times. Well… playing when they aren’t sleeping that is.

I was not able to finish my exercise, or watch The Mandalorian, or get much liquid in, or have any real breakfast. I had a protein bar and a protein snack in the car on the way here, and I just got cleared to start drinking, but I am way behind my goal right now. At least I won’t have to come in a second time this week.

231/365

Three Years Today

Three years. Bullshit.

Today is March 13, 2023. On March 13, 2020 we left the office in Waltham at 5:30pm and the Covid-19 pandemic lockdown started. I mean we all had our own individual experience as we did not have a functioning Federal government at the time, we just had a nazi cunt in the White House pretending to run a Federal government. We were all sort of left on our own while more civilized societies worked together. Yeah, I ‘member.

So Jen’s company sent everyone home after work on Wednesday and my company sent us home after work on Friday. The kids both came home around the same time. Bellana was on Spring Break and they just had everyone stay home. Harry was still in high school so his experience was more closely similar to mine. Just one day he was told to stay home and telecommute.

So that’s how it all started. Today? Today the pandemic is still a thing, but our society is more or less ignoring it. Very few of us are still wearing masks. Most of us in the Tech industry are still working from home for the most part, but we’re being pulled back into the office more and more often. My company has us coming in once a week. My fingers are crossed that at some point soon we’ll eliminate that requirement, but that hope is not based on any actual evidence. Jen’s company closed their buildings, but they are still pulling people in to temporary work sites now and then. I don’t know anyone who is still 100% working from home.

In my family, we’re all vaccinated up the wazoo, and every time a booster is made available we jump on it. It hasn’t stopped anyone from contracting Covid-19 but it has drastically reduced the severity for most of us. Jen and I haven’t caught it at all. Three years of precautions have been successful for us. Sure, we’ve over done it and we continue to over do it to some extent, but we’re still Covid-Free.

And that, folks is the long and the short of it. They told us to expect to be working from home for a couple of weeks and it’s turned into three years. It’s not even unusual anymore. It’s not even “the new normal” anymore. It’s just normal now. As Bruce Hornsby and the Range once said, that’s just the way it is.

Happy third quaren-versary, folks. Do something fun at home by yourself to celebrate.

I’m Freezing

I am working in the office today. That’s going to be a regular Wednesday thing going forward. For now at least. It’s 47 degrees out, which on February 8th is an absolutely glorious heatwave. I wish I was outside in the back yard filling up the bird feeders and taking pictures in the woods.

Nope, I’m at the office instead. Not that I would have been away from my desk at home, but you know what I mean. It’s a symbolic thing, dig?

The main point of this post is not to bemoan working in the office, but rather to bemoan the fact that I AM FREEZING MY ASS OFF while working in the office. No one else has complained about the temperature, so it’s probably just a side effect of losing 200 pounds worth of insulation which has left me feeling as though I am on the verge of frostbite 24 hours a day, seven days a week, and somehow that just seems to be exacerbated by being away from home. If I were at home I’d have a fleece jacket on and maybe, though probably not today, a space heater.

Instead we’re in a conference room 40 miles away from home and I am feeling so cold I am almost shivering.

Also, I want to play my damn guitar. Why haven’t I played my guitar in like 2-3 months? What is wrong with me??

At Home and Loving It

I haven’t punched in to work yet, but after two days in a row of a 73 mile morning commute, I can definitively say that working from home is way better than working in the office. I’m home today and I’ll be home on Monday and then Tuesday and Wednesday I’m in Foxborough again. So it’s a brief respite from commuting, but it’s welcome and I am going to love every second of it.

There isn’t much going on this weekend. Cleaning in preparation for the holidays. Wrapping presents. Visiting my father. Worrying about my mother’s Covid. She’s still symptom-free but also still positive. We’re bringing one of the cars to the shop for a little maintenance. That’s actually preparation for us becoming a one car household in the very near future. I’ll write about that when it happens. I want to play guitar. I might want to do some car singing. I want to take some film pictures. That’s about it.

Here’s hoping today is a quiet day at work. I have a truck load of administrative stuff to do. I got through a chunk yesterday afternoon, but there is a ton more to go. Wish us luck today, folks. Have a happy Friday.

Monday Monday

I had a task to complete at work last week that I really did not want to have stretch into this week, but I was not able to finish it off. This morning though, I have been cranking it out with a vengeance. I feel pretty good about the situation now. Not as good as I would have if I finished it on Friday though. Ugh, stress.

I got up a little late today, but I warped through my morning routine in record time and was able to eat breakfast before work for a change. That felt pretty good. I watched House of the Dragon last night and Tales of the Walking Dead this morning. House of the Dragon seems like a good start. One episode down. Cautious optimism. Let’s get to week two. Tales of the Walking Dead… I don’t know. Episode two was on point as far as the greater universe is concerned, but it went places that I kinda wish it didn’t go. It wasn’t bad, it was just… wrong? Maybe? It had Parker Posey in it though, and after seeing her in Best in Show (No, that’s a bear in a, in a bee costume) she can do no wrong.

Okay, back to work. We’re cranking shit out today. I’m gonna have a productive day if it kills me.

Better Than Expected

I was afraid that today was going to be a bad day, but so far it’s been okay. Whatever was up with my head this morning cleared up around the time I punched in to work. Jen is okay too. She doesn’t feel all better, but she is okay. That’s good.

The bad news so far was the exterminator. He’s pretty sure we’re going to have some damage behind the shower wall in our master bathroom. Now that we’ve spent all of that money fixing the cellar and the kitchen and the dining room… now we’re going to have to fix the bathroom too. We may end up ripping out the shower and not replacing it. We’ll have to see.

I am punching out of work in about 20 minutes and then going over to the hospital to sit with my mother for a while. That could turn out to be a rough situation, but I am ready for it. I am eating a little dinner right now (three ounces of chicken) so that I don’t have to worry about it later. I’ll be taking a big water bottle with me. I should be able to hit both my protein and liquid goals for the day. I am pretty confident.