Sometimes the Drive Isn't Bad At All

Here's something I never really saw during my patio-based commute. It's Balloon Fiesta time, and, fatalities aside, it's pretty spectacular, even if you're not in the two-hour traffic backup around Balloon Fiesta Park.

Nice.

Do I Miss Telecommuting?

I've been working in a Real Office now for a little over a month, and I'm trying to decide if I miss telecommuting. Well, yes and no.

Yes, I miss the smug feeling of rolling out of bed, performing minimal ablutions and hitting the computer in my slippers. It was fun to have a unique arrangement, and I felt like I was part of a cool trend. I miss not having to drive the car to get to work, and I miss being able to dart out in the middle of the day to hit Target, the grocery store, or other conveniences of modern shopping. I miss being able to serve baked potatoes on a week night because I was able to shove them in the oven promptly at five, even after I'd gone running and picked up the baby at preschool.

I am forced to draw your attention to the fact that none of the things that I miss were actual attributes of my job. They were the things around my job that telecommuting made easier.

I don't miss worrying about whether I am working hard enough to stay in touch with people. I am glad I don't have to constantly be available and chasing people down to reassure them that I do still work there, and that I can be called during east coast hours without regard to what time it may be here in the 'Burque. I am glad that I have my early rising benefits again (e.g. I can go running in the morning before work, rather than working in the morning). And I don't miss the meandering and largely irrational direction my technical work was taking, and how increasingly un-fun it was without my old boss there to provide a spirited intellectual dialogue.

In the new job, I'm pretty focused: I've got a goal, I need to dig up people who I can cultivate, and whose money can be put to work to advance that goal. In the course of doing this, I can send emails, I can write letters and print pieces, I can put on events, I can talk to people, or all of the above. It's kind of up to me. And I get to spend all day learning about science and medicine from people who are doing some pretty cool things that really, actually make people's lives better. Like, their actual, factual LIVES saved...by the stuff I'm raising money for.

I can bake potatoes on Sundays.

...Party All the Tiiiiiiime...

As in, "My girl wants to..." Say what you will about Rick James, he was a brilliant lyricist.

I'm home finally after working reunion weekend events, and while it was fun, it turns out that working parties is much more like work than partying. I also have some self-imposed rules (I don't drink, I stay until the bitter end) that make it grueling. But mostly it was a lot of fun to help people have environments where they could reconnect with their classmates and enjoy themselves. Yesterday was a pretty long day, though: from 6:30 in the morning to set up for the continuing education sessions until 11:30 or so at night when the band finished packing out of the evening event.

Things I learned:

1. I should thoroughly prep to introduce speakers even for somewhat informal presentations. I'd like to send a big "Sorry" to my speakers at my morning sessions.

2. We should have had "Our University Alumni Association" notepads and pens for the continuing education session. People would have taken them and used them for the session and back in their professional lives. Free marketing-o-rama.

3. People expect wine gratis with a $75 dinner. They will share with you their disappointment when it is not gratis, and really they're right. We'll do better next year.

4. Picking up an event that was half-planned before the planner quit makes it hard to really get the kind of event that you would want. Doing so when you yourself have spent less than a month on the job is particularly unsatisfying, because you will have no idea how to get done the things that need doing to make the tattered remnants of the event planning better.

5. Hotels have some kind of kitchen magic that allows them to deliver 80 filet mignons that are still rare inside. I can't seem to get potatoes and chicken breasts done at the same time for a family of four, so I have no idea how 80 hot dinners show up at once.

6. You'd be surprised at who will dance to a competent live band. Like almost everyone at the reunion. I was stunned and amazed (and completely wrong in my early misgivings about the band when I saw them setting up their seemingly too large cabinets and sound system). The band was beyond competent, and the guests who stayed late really enjoyed dancing. At several points the dance floor was, dare I say, packed.

7. A party at an alumnus' house can really get going when a classmate shows up with a bottle of Patron to share.

Good times. Good times.

Crime and Education

This week our temporary secretary had her purse stolen from under her desk -- the whole thing was just gone, with all her wallet stuff, her house and car keys, prescriptions, just everything in it. Of course, this kind of thing is not uncommon, but it's a serious drag. She's had to deal with getting everything cut off, changing the locks on her house and car, monitoring her credit for identity theft, and calling the people from whom she had checks in her purse to tell them to watch their credit rating and bank accounts since the thief has their information too.

Blick.

But it got me thinking about the general security and safety of our office. Aside from doing the basics like locking up handbags and valuables (which we should have been doing anyway) there are a number of security concerns with the building. We're located in the same space as Financial Aid, Student Accounts, and Admissions -- all areas that could attract an irate and deranged person bent on violence. We look out on the central plaza for the health sciences schools. And of course, it's an open campus and anyone can walk in or out at any time, all the time.

Note to readers: I'm not really paranoid. I was charged with preparing disaster recovery and emergency response plans for the old job, and so I did a fair amount of reading on this subject. And I might have been known as "Miss Worst Case Scenario". But I digress.

Our university has a system similar to this one, and I was very pleased to read that it worked well at St. Johns University during a scenario similar to the ones I've thought of. I've signed up for the one here, but I don't know if they test it or are just hoping that it will work if they need it.

I hope I never have to find out.

Something Else You Can Do At Home

You know, it's not all computer work that I can take home these days. Last night I spent a bit of out-of-office time hitting craft stores to look for stuff to make into re-usable centerpieces. If you didn't know already, fund raising work is a job comprised almost entirely of "other duties as assigned". We're writers, strategic thinkers, financial analysts, and party planners!

Given that the event is a couple of days away, I'm not sure I'll be able to come up with something that will work. Plus Hobby Lobby closes at eight in the 'Burque, and so by the time I wrassled the youngsters into bed, there was not much time to find what I needed. Alas. I'll see what the Hyatt wants to offer in terms of hotel-issue centerpieces.

Note to self: We absolutely must keep the new alumni relations staff member happy and engaged through next year's reunion events. It is sub-optimal to pick up an event that was halfway planned by an employee who was walking out the door. It is even worse to do so in your third week on the job when you know little to nothing and are trying to make a good impression.

Back to Work-at-Home Norms

Okay, so I'm working at home today (well, not right this second, I'm blogging right now but I'm going to get back to working here in just a minute) and I think that this working at home is much more typical of the majority of people who are working at home.

Because it's Sunday.

I'm not working at home in lieu of going to the office. I'm not making my own hours because I'm a free-wheelin' fun-lovin' contractor and I can do what I want as long as I bill enough.

No. I'm working at home because I need to read through my draft fund raising letters in peace and think long and hard about whether we're taking the right approach, and I haven't managed to get to this during the standard workweek.

In the office, I find that I'm tempted to say, "What do I care, I've been here for three weeks, I'm sure that whatever they decided to do last year is fine for this year." But I don't think that's the right thing to do, for a number of reasons. For one, my new boss is coming off a significant illness, and I'm thinking that some prior decision making might have been deferred, given how those kinds of things go. Also, I know how to write and I'm sure that there are some improvements I can make. (Readers of this blog may demur, but really, I'm not a bad little wordsmith. Really.) But mostly I can't stand to think that I didn't really give it my best shot.

So I've fished the drafts out of web mail and I'm sorting through them on Sunday. I suspect that this kind of working at home is the most common: most people have a bit more to do than they can accomplish during the 9-5 bits, and so we work extra "from home".

I am wearing slippers. I am not a full-time teleworker any more. And that's okay by me.

Having Dedicated IT Is a Good Thing and a Bad Thing

Dear readers, Stella knows she hasn't been writing like she should, but give a girl a break. I'm starting a new job after more than nine years of total stability (at least in terms of the circumstances of my employment, if not the actual daily duties of said employment which in fact changed so dramatically and regularly as to make my head spin). There have been one or two things to take care of, not least of which is remembering to put on Real Shoes before I leave the house for the Real Office. I'm pleased to report that after a week of steady grown-up shoe wearing that my feet did not enter a state of agony today, a major accomplishment.

My Home Office-Real Office insight for today is this: real IT support is a mixed blessing.

On the one hand, it is a bit of a relief not to have to horse around with my router, firewall, networking settings, opening ports, configuring which virus scanning server to avail myself of, and the like.

On the other hand, I must wait for people to do these things for me. I'm finding that the few things that I'm able to do in the new job are being somewhat hampered by my lack of access to assorted network crap, or want of the client-server version of the database app installed on my laptop. It is tough to adjust to being a mere customer rather than a purveyor of these services, and to add insult to injury I know no one and thus don't know where to go to get the things I need done done.

And please don't get me started about what an idiot I feel like for not being able to prise the laptop off the DVD drive/psuedo-docking station. I'd like to use the real docking station and thus be able to undock the thing, but when I unlatch the DVD bit, I feel that I may break the whole rig by dragging it apart too vigorously.

I am a mere customer, with problems that will surely make the dedicated IT staff roll their eyes. Let me just apologize up front.

And So It Goes

It's the end of my first day of semi-unemployment (e.g. the vacation I'm taking between the two jobs) and I used the time to

...get the carpets steamed. Wow were they dirty. Now they're beautiful again. And that fresh smell in my house is from actual cleaning for once, rather than excessive Febreeze use. Always something new.

...move the work computer into the house, as I'm purchasing it from my fine employer rather than pack it up and ship it back to them. I'm blogging on it now!

...convert the office into a music room. Just in case you loyal readers were worried about the renovations we completed earlier in the year going to waste, we've quickly converted it into our rock-n-roll palace.

I know what you're thinking: that was quick. And it was, but I think that I've been gone in my mind for quite some time. I'm psyched about the new job, and having all the amps somewhere we can play them easily.

It's a win-win.

New Job Resolutions

It's been so long since I've changed jobs that I'm kind of struggling to picture in my mind what it's actually going to be like to have an empty in-box, or the opportunity to make a first impression again. I guess this is actually kind of sad. If you can call extreme career stability sad.

In any event, I want to try and take all the lessons I've theoretically learned from the GTD-Productivity-Zen things that I've read over the years and get started on the right foot in the new job. To that end, I'm making some resolutions:

• I will manage my email effectively. I'll be damned if I'm going to have a couple hundred emails in my in-box. Not. Going. To. Happen. I've actually been doing pretty well at this in the current job, but every time I spend any time out of the office I end up with a big pile of unresolved issues that takes more than a day to work through. I am hopeful that if I really attend to keeping the email under control that I will stay on the path of email righteousness.
• I am going to take the time to understand the whole context of my new work environment. This is something that I'm really excited about -- the opportunity to learn about an entirely new organization and really immerse myself in it. I had the same experience in my old job by virtue of serving as a trainer. I met almost everyone from every part of the university and worked hard to keep my eyes open to their challenges and issues. I'll be working in a division in the new job, and it can be easy to isolate yourself in the issues of your particular office (as I discovered from observing my divisional colleagues). I pledge to work hard to get my brain outside myself and my department.
• I promise to not turn into one of those annoying customers who drive the IT shop nuts. Yes, I used to do their jobs, but no, I will not point this out to them repeatedly (as some of my current colleagues have done over the years). I will not ask for direct access to the tables in their database so I can run my own sql scripts against them. I will not point out all the ways that their database is inferior to the one I currently work on. I won't do it. I may need horse tranquilizers to accomplish this goal given my proven inability to keep my mouth shut, but I will try.
• I will not be a grind and eat lunch at my desk. I will ask colleagues out to lunch, I will use lunches to get to know key non-development players in the school where I work, I will get out of the office. Yes, it's my job, but it's also something that I've been traditionally bad at. I resolve to get out.
• I will ask for and/or make time for the things I want to do during the day right from the start. If I want to volunteer for an hour one morning a week at my kid's school library, gosh darn it, I'm going to do it. I've written before about what a grind I am and how I've managed to turn telecommuting into as much of a grind as going into the Real Office, and I'm going to try a different path.
• In this same vein, I will work actively to fold telecommuting into what I'm doing. There is no reason that I can't and won't make calls, write letters and notes, analyze reports, and so on, from my comfy home office. Why give me a laptop if you don't want me to be productive from wherever I am? By the way, thanks for the sweet little laptop! I saw it when I went in to sign the paperwork, and I am stoked to get my hands on it. Although I may bring in my spare monitor so that I can really enjoy time spent in the office with it!

That seems like enough to get started on. Any other suggestions?

A Pseudo-First Day of Work

I've spent the past couple of days immersed (somewhat) in my new gig with a local university. The development staff was attending a retreat designed to enhance fund raising skills, and my new boss was nice enough to invite me to attend two weeks before I officially start. So I've spent the last two days strapped into the most grown-up clothes I've worn in more than a year, and in shoes. All day. Listening to trainers talk about motivating donors, and using our personality profiles (I'm high-pace) to work effectively with people to move them toward giving.

I must tell you that I haven't felt so comfortable and ready to start a new job since I started with my current-but-soon-to-be-previous employer almost ten years ago.

I feel like the organization and the work that is expected of me is an ideal fit, and I have absolutely no reservations about making this change now.

Yes, I will miss my slippers, and being there after school, and all the good things about telecommuting full time, but I am ready to grow and really kick some ass in this new job.

A funny telecommuting-related aside: many people know I'm coming from a university in Baltimore and I spent a good portion of the day explaining that I wasn't house-hunting, but that I had been here in the 'Burque for a little over a year, all whilst working for my employer. Yes, from home. Remember, these are development people, and in this business, face-to-face contact is the absolute gold standard for our work. The idea that I could work like this was troubling to people, almost unbelievable.

I'm sure they'll get over it.

Time Zone Mayhem: A Good Thing and A Bad Thing

As I count down the days remaining in my full-time telecommuting gig, I'm reflecting on the good and the bad that I will miss. And one aspect of my work has always been a bit of a love-hate: the time zone thing.

I work east coast hours from the mountain time zone, and I've complained and raved about this over the year+ I've been doing it. On the one hand, being at work at six in the morning is really not that much of a problem for me, because I am naturally a morning person. I rarely am awakened by my alarm clock, and I really am at my best in the morning.

Likewise, wandering out of my office around three in the afternoon is lovely. I can hit the gym, be around after school, and generally have some "me" time in the afternoon before I have to fetch children and so on.

But one thing that I miss is being able to have productive time before other people show up in the office. When I worked in the Real Office I would often get in quite early (like six in the morning) to really get something critical done. I was sharp, and the office was empty. But when my "early" is everyone else's "on time", I find that I don't have that feeling of getting extra done. That early productive time is spent doing regular stuff.

I've also been concerned that I won't have as much time for my daily tidying and cooking and all the things I've been enjoying over the past year of working at home once I transition back to a Real Office setting. But I realized today when I was reading this Zen Habits post that my early rising might actually start doing me some good again. Except instead of plunging headlong into the work day I'll be able to run a quick mile with the dog, start a crockpot dinner, cuddle with the baby (who is three today and would be quite upset to see herself described as a baby -- good thing she can't read), et cetera.

But we'll see how that goes.

Stella's Making a Change

It's official: I am returning to the world of regular-ole-office workers. I know that you, my dear readers, may find this shocking, or perhaps distasteful, but it must be done. All the paperwork was finally completed to the satisfaction of the rulers of HR last week, and so all that remains is to serve out my four weeks notice, and fly to Baltimore one last time for a going away party.

I really tried to get out of having a going away fest. They're awkward, I don't want to cry in front of people (which I very well may do), and my frugality on behalf of my employer is offended by the notion that they would pay good money to fly me out there for a relatively pointless endeavor.

But another thought occurred to me: much like funerals, going away parties are really for those who are left behind.

My dear colleagues will be left not only with my stultifying workload and the responsibility to train my replacement. Don't they deserve some crab dip and a domestic beer or glass of volume-discounted wine on the house? I do wish that employers did more to reward the folks who stay put. You should get flowers or a "Thanks for sticking with us, big guy!" card, or some kind of recognition each time you pass your hire-date anniversary, if you ask me. After nine years of 1.5% raises and training replacement after replacement after replacement for other folks who have left my institution, it is sad but true that I must quit in order to get some scallops wrapped in bacon in my honor.

Although I may have to suggest healthier food...I am training for a half-marathon, after all. But it's not about me, it's about those I've abandoned in the throes of a corporate culture shift.

Let the crab dip flow like water!

The Best Thing About Telecommuting Is...

...being at home for the summer with my eleven year old daughter. I don't pay attention to her all day, she probably isn't as productive as she should be (violin practice, anyone? unloading the dishwasher without reminding? whatEVer.), and I'm sure that actually going to a summer program or camp of some kind would have been more fun for her.

But it is great to not have to worry about where she is and what she's doing for the summer. And she goes back to school in about three weeks, so the "keeping her busy" is almost over.

I will miss this aspect of working from home. But I'll cope, I'm sure. And she's excited at the prospect of getting a cell phone because I won't be home when she gets home after school.

It's the little things.

Questions Potential Shut-Ins Should Ask Themselves

From Life Hack, this interesting post presents some of the questions that people who are thinking about wearing slippers as a work-style should consider before taking the plunge. For me the most serious consideration is the isolation from the main group of people that I work with. I can (and do) socialize a lot in my real life, but not being out and about amongst my Real Office colleagues is a bit of a barrier to getting stuff done, at times.

I'm just saying.

What's Going On

Even when you work in the Real Office all the time, it can be hard to really know what is going on when change is afoot in an organization. For the long-term shut in, getting plugged in and staying plugged into the scuttlebutt is critical during times of change.

I have a network of contacts that I keep up with, but making sense of the intelligence I receive is hard. I feel a bit like the three (or four or six) blind men and the elephant -- each person touches different parts of the changes that are transpiring, and thus has a wildly variant opinion about what is going on. I spend a lot of time filtering and correlating to determine what is really going on.

Luckily I have a long history with the organization, and this helps me with placing it all in context. But I discover something new everyday, and I'm realizing more and more that keeping those intelligence (okay, gossip!) networks alive and well is a big part of my job now.

Sounds productive, doesn't it?