The concept of working from home (or “working remotely” in professional terms) is getting more and more popular. The cost of an employee’s work space in an office building, even just a small cubicle, is often much more than the rent or mortgage payment on that person’s home. So as companies look to find cost-saving measures, it’s often cost-effective to supply employees office furniture at home, pay for their Internet and telephone service, and save a bundle of money.
That sounds all well and good, but it doesn’t account for a more insidious benefit to the company.
With employees in some jobs, you end up getting a lot more than a normal work week out of them. Take this week, for instance… Yesterday I had a bunch of work assigned to me in the afternoon, and I knew it needed to be done as quickly as possible because of some meetings later today. So I came home around 4:30, logged back in to the bank network on my laptop, and kept plugging away at it.
Until 11:00 last night. And then as soon as I got up this morning and took the dog out, I jumped right back on it, pausing only to answer my boss’s phone call at 7:30 and to hammer out this quick entry.
I like having new blog posts done in time for the 8:00am email delivery to subscribers, what can I say?
I’m not complaining, exactly… Okay, so I’m complaining a little. But in the end, though the work I was doing late last night (and early this morning) is tedious, it also became very interesting to me once I got going. If you have to be stuck working long hours on something, it’s a nice perk to at least find it fascinating work.
Do I wish I’d been able to join my friends for dinner-and-a-movie at one of their homes last night? Sure. Do I wish I’d been able to go to bed earlier or sleep in later? Sure. Am I grateful that I have a job I like, with a good salary and comfortable working conditions, and some stability in these difficulty economic times? You bet your ass I am.
Now if you’ll excuse me, I have to get back to work.
Ha.,.I’m doing the same thing tonight
I hate to say it, but this is my normal day. I’m not even kidding. I work all day at work, take the laptop home, and work in the evening. My husband just threw a fit over me working so much last week.
[...] posted about the joys (and perils) of working from home before, back when I didn’t even have a full-time home office. Now that I work from home every [...]