It’s been a great week. All our family is visiting here. Despite the endless rain, we’ve decided to enjoy the great outdoors. The pool water is cold, but that hasn’t stopped anyone from swimming or lounging on giant inflatable dragons and unicorns! The other evening, we set up under the patio umbrella with pizza and beverages and chilled while watching the younger ones still swimming and romping in the pool fountain. As my family will confirm, I believe that if you can’t change your circumstances, you must change your attitude!
Gathering us all together was possible thanks to the magic of remote work. I wonder if the town committee member who laughed at me five years ago for saying the world was moving towards working from home remembers my foretelling. Doubtful, but five years ago, I could work anywhere with an internet connection and believed that was the world’s future.
Working from home isn’t all that easy. Understand me, it’s a terrific convenience, but there are challenges. A large part of society still thinks if we’re home working, we can be interrupted and called on for other tasks, and too many outsiders and managers believe that working from home means we aren’t working. Furthermore, suppose we have pets, children, spouses, or other cares at home.
In that case, they can cause disruptions or background noise, often heard by managers or meeting attendees who lack understanding and patience. Initially, my biggest challenge was being organized, staying focused, and working endless hours either because I could or because I felt guilty for not working. My home office provided a solution.
This week, we’ve been creative in respecting the need to meet deadlines and attend online meetings. The payback meant more time to play. Noise-canceling earbuds have been gold! Still, the challenge is that if you are within eyesight, it’s assumed you are available —- especially thought by wee ones still at the crawling or toddling stage! An issue that is particularly challenging for many caregivers working from home!
I read an article from Barron’s that concluded that Americans who work from home are getting lazier and less productive (https://www.barrons.com/articles/productivity-working-from-home-americans-laziness-7c814395). Are managers misguided in thinking that if we can get more done in 5.5 hours working from home than eight hours in the office, we should get even more done working eight hours from home? If so, they are missing an important point. We’re not less productive; we’re more meaningfully productive.
More of us realize that while some currency exchange is necessary, life is not about the material side of life. Time with family, friends, community, or even time alone, is essential. We aren’t lazy. We efficiently utilize new tools like AI; apps can accomplish more with less effort. Much of what we thought was important isn’t. Work becomes enjoyable as a tool that allows us more time to be creative and live fully. Less work and more play time also mean we’ll have time for our flying electric cars! An invention coming to a future near you!
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