Working from home: One year in
As of this posting, I will have been working from home for a year, with no change in sight. Some of you have been in the same situation, give or take a few days, while others have gone back to school or work since. I posted some early thoughts after 9 days of what was originally supposed to be something lasting a few weeks, and I figured the opportunity was right to revisit that.
I had been curious about experiencing work-from-home full time to see if I would like it. I wasn't exactly asking for a global pandemic as a setting, but hey, you take what you can! Overall, I find my personal experience to be positive, as I'm still able to stay focused through the day. I prefer a quiet work environment, and on this point, being able to control the noise and distractions is nice. A major upside has been the loss of the commute, giving me more flexibility on how each day goes.
I'm still employed at the same location, as we haven't had any notable changes in personnel or company structure related to the current situation. I have since joined a different department, though, as the project I was involved in has been retired. I'm now paired with a team which is mostly located in Europe, so being physically present in the office wouldn't change much: emails, chats and voice calls would still be our primary lifelines!
One side-effect of always being at the same desk (day, night and weekends!) has been a urge to improve my setup. I have since installed my tablet as a third screen, dedicating it to Discord. My networking equipment and related devices have been tidied up and moved to a closet to remove clutter. I also bought a footrest to improve the ergonomics and sorted out all nearby drawers and shelves to be better organized, toss away unused items and let others be easier to find.
I just wish I hadn't left at the office that novel that I was reading, I was two-thirds of the way through...
– Doctacosa