Two Years Working From Home
A month ago in mid-March I reached a milestone. It marked two full years of working from home.
Friday March 13th, 2020 was the last day that I sat miserably for over 8 hours in a drab office building under fluorescent lights, dreaming of being outside. It’s hard to put in words how much I love working from home.
The freedom and health benefits of working from home these past two years have made my W2 job so much more tolerable, and to be honest if I had been schlepping into the office this whole time I might have already fully retired.
It’s About Me
just looking at this depresses me….
Why do I love WFH so much? Because it’s about me. More pointedly, it’s about my health. Finding the time to workout is hard enough as it is with life obligations, bad weather, and any other number of things that get in the way.
And there’s the issue of the optimal time to workout. I get much more out of a workout when I’m feeling energetic, and I can’t predict when that’ll happen on any given day.
If I’m at the office I’m much more restricted to working out at lunch or at specific times. But at home I can flex my workout much more and target when I have peak energy. That makes for a better workout and a better me.
Heck I keep kettle bells and resistance bands right in my office at home and can take 5 minute breaks to do some swings or a set of pull ups on the bar in the doorway. I can’t do that at work.
These are called ‘movement snacks’ by the way and are the healthy alternative to food snacks. I tend to snack this way a lot 🙂
Did I Mention It’s About Me?
poisonous temptations I no longer have to deal with
How else is it about me and my health? When I’m working from home I’m not subjected to the horrible life choices of my coworkers. I’m talking about the ones who bring in donuts multiple times a week, or who keep candy and snacks at the cubicle for everyone to “enjoy”.
They think they’re being generous and doing good, but they’re actually doing harm. Sorry but it’s true.
I’m not saying they’re being intentionally malevolent or that they’re bad people, it’s quite the contrary. But with obesity at 44% in America and growing fast their generosity is misplaced.
If they brought in veggie trays I’d be the first to dig in, but no one does that. Not where I work at least. The employees at my agency are largely very metabolically unhealthy, more so than the average population.
I cannot be more direct in saying (and the science is clear) that my coworkers do not realize the tremendously detrimental effects those donuts and candy are having on both their physical and mental health. Especially when being consumed during long periods of sitting at a computer moving nothing more than a mouse finger.
Working from home protects me from these bad environments and behaviors.
Must Be Nice
You might be thinking “It must be nice to be financially independent and to be able to prioritize your health Dave.”
Well, yes but shouldn’t prioritizing our physical health be what we all do? Without our bodies – the meat wagons that take us through life – we have nothing. Kill the meat wagon and it’s over. And that’s what so many are doing, one donut and Snickers at at time.
Is it easier for me now that I’m financially independent and only work 20 hours a week? Yes, for sure. The money doesn’t matter much, it’s the extra time.
I get it, life is busy. But the “I don’t have time to exercise or make healthy meals” excuse is the same as saying “I don’t value those things enough to make them a priority in my life”.
We’re a nation that spends an average of 3 hours a day watching TV and another 4.8 hours on their phones (some of this being done simultaneously no doubt).
Face it, you have time.
My “It’s all about me” stance might seem selfish to others, I say bullshit. It’s all about all of us and we should demand healthier work environments and help create them ourselves.
That means everything from broader society questioning the 40 hour work week, employers creating more flexible arrangements and healthier physical spaces, and employees ceasing and desisting on the fucking donuts already. We all have a role in this.
No Thanks, I’m Good Here
this is more like it
In the fall of 2020 as we were headed into the first winter with COVID my employer and one of my managers informed me I had to start coming back in one day a week. I basically said “Uh… no. No thank you”
You see before I went part time to 20 hours a week I was a pretty senior manager and most of the folks now “above me” in my management chain either worked for me back in the day or were junior to me.
So I kindly informed them why coming back in was a bad idea, and left it at that. They deferred.
It’s nice to have seniority and clout, I’m not gonna lie. And I’m not shy about throwing it around when needed.
Then in 2021 when vaccines rolled out and most people had been vaccinated I expected them to try to get me to come back in again. But they didn’t. I think I left an impression, and they’ve heard me say time and time again at meetings how much I love working from home.
I don’t give them the health angle when I rave about working from home, I tout other benefits. They already know how I prioritize health and fitness and how unfit they all are.
They’re smart folks so I’ll let them chew on that difference and come to their own conclusions.
A Two Year Taste
Being honest, working from home these past two years is not 100 perfect. I do miss seeing some folks and having some of the unexpected conversations or chance encounters that sometimes happen in an office.
I only have a few close friends at my job and I still communicate with them regularly anyway. I do have quite a lot of “casual working friends” however who I like and in some cases have a long history with, even spanning decades. It would be nice to catch up with some of them.
But it’s not worth it to subject myself to toxic food and a sterile, sunless, and depressing environment to do so.
I’m slowly transitioning into the next phase of my life, moving from a government employee to a creative entrepreneur. It’s a big deal for me, I don’t make these massive life decisions easily. Working from home has been a key part of that transition.
These past two years have given me a taste of what it’s like to be a solo-preneur. Even though I work 20 hours a week at my job I’m home every day, and that transition has been huge.
It’s hard to know how a lifestyle will be until you experience it. Well for me the results are in and I can say they’re really good, glorious even. Not having to go into an office has improved my life beyond words, and set me up for my next phase.
Wow. This post is exactly what I’m going through! Thank you so much for validating my experience. My company has just announced a return to the office in May, and I don’t think I’m going back. If my current employer can’t accept that, I’m exploring my options. There are so many jobs out there for what I do and they are fully remote. It helps that the unemployment rate is at 52-year lows.
Options are meant to be explored 🙂 Sounds like you have the upper hand and they probably don’t know it. Use that hand!
With an open area cube system that shares space with the break room, last week I went home at the end of the day tired from screening out all the extraneous conversations. Yesterday’s meeting I paused before unmuting because it felt like everyone else was talking too, also in meetings in the cubes.
I never went fully WFH, due to the work being on paper, but various part time days, half days, to now 1 day a week from home. I use my lack of commute time to walk, or go out at lunch. I also snack more sensibly from home, because it is about eating, not stress eating or the carbs against the afternoon slump.
The donuts! I went gluten-free by choice years ago. At my last place the filing cabinet outside my cube was the ‘best’ place to leave them. I didn’t eat them but I could smell the sugar in them. Other times folks walked around with the donut box, and despite one (or 2) polite declines, I’d often have to remind them I was gluten-free to fully turn it down.
I sometimes question if I’m in the right…place, field, etc if the way the office is set up seems so counter productive to actually getting work done. One more why of FI.
Open cube set ups are the worst, we have it too. It was done in the name of “collaboration” but that’s mostly a joke. It’s mostly a distraction and annoying and creates an unproductive environment. At worst it creates issues where some people with annoying habits want to kill each other. And I should have thought of that years ago to just say “I have celiac” to keep the donut pushers off my back. A white lie is much easier than to try to get them to understand that I don’t eat that poison by choice because, uh, why would you eat poison by choice?
I have been going into work about 4-5 days a week for the past year. My office is small and not a lot of people come in most days. When they do come in, I feel energized like I’m part of a bigger team all pushing toward a common goal. I see physical progress rather than just paper progress and that motivates me even more.
On the few days I do work from home, it is nice to walk downstairs and start working. But I am MUCH less productive and efficient with my time. Maybe in the future but right now, I prefer to go into the office and work from there.
That’s awesome Dan that you have a great thing at your office, and it shows that we’re all different and WFH isn’t the best for everyone. I’ve had a long career and I saw myself in your comment at times in my career. For sure back in 1999 – 2002 I had an amazing team to work with and we were all friends and going in was energizing like you said. But that changed. I hope you get to keep that environment for a while because it can be rare from my experience.
This! My organization is working hard to put a plan in place to bring us back to the office fulltime with maybe a little hybrid for a few people. Even though our internal surveys indicate that 80%+ don’t ever want to work from the office again. We’re a distributed workforce for 6 months of the year as it is due to our overseas deployments. It makes no sense and many of us have committed to ourselves that we aren’t going back. Having a pile of FU money is key:) There is no way I’m giving up the benefits realized over the last 2 years for all the reasons you stated and more. I think I’ll pull a Dave and simply say no and see what happens…
“Pile of FU money” – it’s like a Jedi weapon!! And if you’re going to “pull a Dave” please don’t do it in other aspects of life, for your own good 🙂
Working from home, even at 40 hours a week, feels a lot better than being in the office. It’s not “retire early” time freedom but it sure is nice! My wife and I will probably stay full time longer than originally planned since we’re now both remote workers going forward as well. I hope more companies allow this for employees; I know some are but I want to see even more.
Yep I agree. I’ve delayed my full retirement because the WFH scenario has been great. It’ll be interesting to see how work culture changes going forward.
personally, my present work required being on site and i kind of like it that way. but those food items are a killer. at least we have a work gym. i might try to score a remote job before i leave the joint just so i can move across the state, though.
i’m glad it’s working out for you so well.
Uh oh, Freddy’s moving to NYC, maybe Brooklyn. Beware all hipsters!
🙂
The tone of this post is a bit much. It’s great that you found a situation that works for you, awesome! But others, like myself, enjoy being in the office for various reasons. And people can do what they want with food choices…I have the power to make my own choices, regardless of theirs. My employer provides office snacks and there’s more fruit than anything else but I certainly don’t get angry when there are donuts at a meeting. I can choose to take one, or not! No need to be nasty to someone for eating what you view as “poison”.
Since when was I nasty to anyone or say that I treated anyone nasty? I don’t ever berate anyone in person for bringing in donuts, I’m just blogging about it. I used to let them do their thing quietly and would politely decline.
Glad you like going in to the office, as I said to another commenter I realize folks are all over the spectrum on this and I myself used to love going in back in the day when I had a great strong team and we were all friends.
And sorry, but donuts ARE poison. Not enough to kill you on a single dose or even consumed multiple times a week. But keep doing that and over time they WILL kill you. That’s poison my friend.
Personally, I’m not a fan of WFH because I like the separation of home and work. I totally agree with you on the unhealthy snacks at the office though, it’s my biggest bug bear! We have a fundraiser placed right next to the sink to tempt you every time you go to get a cup of tea. It wears away at my will power every day! I’d love to request their removal, but don’t feel it is socially acceptable…
The separation of home and work is a good point. I really haven’t had issues with that but I can totally see how many do. Thanks for the comment!
Awesome, man! Glad it’s going so well for you (and presumably many others). One of the few, but massive silver linings on the Covid cloud is people working more from home and employers being infinitely more comfortable with it. It’s a huge win on an individual level as you so eloquently share and also for the environment and society in general. Prolly not as much for purveyors of donuts however 🤣
Down with the donut pushers!!
My wife is going to work 2 days per week. She is miserable on those days and she is complaining so much. This is very unusual because she rarely complains about anything. It is also a huge change from 2 years ago. Back then, she liked going to the office and didn’t even want to work from home. The taste of autonomy changed her, though. She loves working from home now and doesn’t want to go into the office at all. Why do you have to go in if you can do better work at home? It doesn’t make any sense.
Anyway, she is hanging in there until she takes a sabbatical in June. We’ll see if she can go back to work after that…
“Taste of autonomy”, that’s a nice succinct way to sum up what millions of people got during covid. And the ability to take a sabbatical isn’t available to most folks so glad she’ll get a break!
are you the blogger who used to work for the phone company? Please forgive me if I have asked you this before, or if you are not the right blogger…if you’re not the right blogger, do you know of the FI blogger who used to work for the phone company?? Thank you
No I am not Tracy and I do not know who that is, sorry