Two years ago today...

[N-OS X-tasy!]

JoeH wrote:
Two weeks ago today at 4:45 PM the Chancellor of the university sent out an email letting all students and staff know that classes for the rest of the semester would be online only. That Friday was the last day of classes before Spring Break, up until then they were planning on 2 weeks of classes online after the break. So most of the students had already left for break with enough for 3 weeks of break and classes.

I had already scheduled vacation time for the week, so got to miss out on a lot of the making of new plans to handle the change. Came back after the break to working onsite at the library one or two days a week, worked from home the rest. They offered staff a bonus to leave based on years of service, so since I was close enough I retired at the end of August.

Two weeks ago?

[N-OS X-tasy!]

Steve G. wrote:
A question to all parties: How has the lack of hours of commuting affected you, both in productivity and general mental health towards work?

I live only five miles from my office - on the same street I live on, in fact - so having no commute wasn't the huge quality of life improvement it was for many others.

That being said... the majority of the portion of the street is only two lanes. Taking into account all the obstacles I need to deal with on my commute (trash trucks stopped in the slow lane, construction shutting down a lane, parents dropping their kids off at school, et al.), it often feels like I commute to work in a third-world country.

[JoeH]

N-OS X-tasy! wrote:
[quote=JoeH]
Two weeks ago today at 4:45 PM the Chancellor of the university sent out an email letting all students and staff know that classes for the rest of the semester would be online only. That Friday was the last day of classes before Spring Break, up until then they were planning on 2 weeks of classes online after the break. So most of the students had already left for break with enough for 3 weeks of break and classes.

I had already scheduled vacation time for the week, so got to miss out on a lot of the making of new plans to handle the change. Came back after the break to working onsite at the library one or two days a week, worked from home the rest. They offered staff a bonus to leave based on years of service, so since I was close enough I retired at the end of August.

Two weeks ago?
oooops

[RecipeForDisaster]

I think it was the same Friday that was my last day in - “just work from home for a couple of weeks”. I took very little stuff home. A month or so later, I went in to meet someone in the parking lot to get a bunch more items, but I didn’t clean out my desk. Months later, they had me go in after hours so I wouldn’t share air with anyone, and I did clean out my desk. I still didn’t take my pictures off the wall, so they mailed those to me a year later!

I had a commute of about 40 minutes each way, starting very early in the morning so I could be in about 6am. I packed my homemade hot lunch each day. I left at 4, and usually the traffic was pretty bad by that point.

These days, I get up at 5 and start work a few minutes later. I cook something lovely for myself for lunch, and I wear PJs all day… I stop about 4:30pm depending on how caught up I am. I am FAR more productive and also attend a daily phone meeting, while I also work. Everyone else in the meeting is in a conference room, not working. That’s about an hour of extra work they get out of me. So I put in a lot more hours than I did, yet am much happier and waste a lot less time preparing clothes, meals, and driving. Not to mention all the hallway chats. I have phone or remote MD appts if I like. It’s wonderful.

[lost in space]

When work went online for so many people, it got me thinking about the impact it must have had for people who worked in Silicon Valley--some of them my coworkers--who rode commute vans three hours each way every day, waking up at 4, sleeping on the commute, to get to work at 8. What a shock that would have been, starting to work online, and now, having to do the old routine again.