Noooothing! Absolutely Nooooothiiiiiing!

I have been "back to the office" for a week and a half. And so far, the number of things I have done in my cubicle there that I could not have done working from home is:

[Takes deep breath]

[Takes deeper breath]

[Takes even *deeper* breath]

But someone, somewhere, is happy I'm back in the cubicle farm.

I now return you to your regularly scheduled lives. How long until I can retire?

So, the last two days, I've had to have my oldest son give me a ride to and from work, since the youngest son's car broke down and he needs a way to get to and from work and he goes to work earlier than I do. Logic, of course, dictates that I let him use my car because his work is longer and further away from home than mine, but because I can't work from home any more, there are TWO of us headed to and from work this week.

I'm grateful for my job. Very glad to have it. But someone, somewhere, is happier that I'm back in the cubicle farm. And so it goes.

Back to the Cubicles . . .

I've got my bag packed for work like some idiot schoolboy.

The bag contains the essentials: My ID card and lanyard, a collection of sticky notes with semi-important information on them, two cans of Diet Pepsi, a few reuseable plastic cups for said Pepsi, some file folders I swiped from work when work from home started 5 1/2 years ago, a few pens, the picture of Dad and his 1948 Ford that I had in my cubicle out at RMWC, and a ceramic container that my brother bought for me at a thrift store becaus he thought it looked like me. And he's not wrong:

What I really want to do is go in my first day wearing my pajamas, but I don't think they'd let me get away with that, and I really need this job, so jeans and some kind of shirt will be the order of the day.

I may bring more tchotchkes out there, as I don't want my cubicle to be completely sterile. Maybe some books to put on the shelves and such. Or a LEGO set or two. We'll see about those. I'd bring my plastic rat, but he's now living inside the wall where the house water shutoff valve is, and I'm pretty sure he likes it there.

The whole thing is giving off this kind of vibe:

It Was Nice While it Lasted, Work from Home

When work ended Thursday, I shut off my work computer.

It's been a while since it's been shut off. I do restart it regularly so it can install updates, but it's rarely completely shut down.

I had to, though. Work from home ended this week.

Today, I hauled all my stuff to my new cubicle.

This is the only stuff I can show you; two monitors and a box of paper for the recycling bins (I used to be able to haul it to a local recycing dropoff, but the big recycling outfit in town shut it down*, so I've just been storing it, like urine on Apollo 13).

I just dropped stuff off at the cubicle; I didn't stay to set things up. I'm not getting paid for this trip, so I wanted to make it as quick as possible. Shouldn't take too long to set up on Monday.

That leaves my home work space looking empty and dusty:

I think what irritates me the most about this is the work I've put in this spring and summer on a wired home network -- I had to have a wired connection for the work computer; no wifi for it -- is kind of moot. I'm still going to finish it because by golly I spent a lot of time running cat6 cable so I'm not going to waste the effort. Besides, I like the faser speed I get on my own computer having a wired connection.

One bright spot: I've converted the work space into an actual space for my own work, plus one of the many "to be read" book piles and my Atari.

I'd still rather be working from home, but c'est la vie.

They suggested by omission that I could leave the dual monitors and the laptop dock at home for . . . I don't know what, because they really killed hybrid work but pulled the plug on full-time work from home to make those losing the hybrid option feel less bad about the situation. I figured, though, since I have my own storage problems with my own personal extra monitors and other electronics, I was not going to offer free storage for company equipment despite the vaguely-dangled carrot of occasional home use. It wasn't said explicitly, so I'm not expecting it.

One thing is true: I worked many days from home when I wasn't necessarily feeling well, but could continue working as long as I had quick and private access to a bathroom. Now that I have to drive across town -- still better than catching the bus out to the desert, mind you -- if I happen to wake up sick, I will be taking more sick days. One of the intangible benefits companies get from work from home employees that you just don't hear about.

*They also shut down their own shop, saying they're building new digs and have been really catty about where it is and when it's going to open. I suspect they hope to increase their curbside recycling customer base through devious means. Not going to work on me.

. . . Lil Bit of Methane.

First Monday in August, I have to go back to working at the office after more than five years of working from home -- the best gift the Covid Summer of 2020 offered me.

I will go from making phone calls and sending and receiving emails in my basement with only two weenie dogs for immediate company to making phone calls and sending and receiving emails in a cubicle with 25 random interruptions a day and a commute to a parking lot that may or may not have enough room for me to park.

I just know I hope they like pajama pants, because that's how I'm dressing the first week back.

One Month Left

Well, I guess a little over a month.

Five weeks, to be exact, and I have to be back working in the office.

Here's what that looks like:

Work from home: Be at my computer in the basement, talking with others at various locations via phone and email, working to revise documents and get them approved.

Work from the office: Be at my computer at the office, talking with others at various locations via phone and email, working to revise documents and get them approved.

I won't be required to be "on location" with the bulk of my customers out at the Site. I won't have to take the bus, or get up early, or get home late.

So the work I do from home won't change a bit when I go back to the office.

Help it make sense, because it doesn't.

If We Can't Have It, No One Can Have It

On the heels of this, another bombshell. As of July 31, teleworking at the IEC will be no more.

I've always known full-time telework was a privilege, not a guarantee. But when Trump called for federal workers to get back to the office earlier this year, I figured our time was numbered, though we work for a contractor, not the feds themselves.

Last week, the company announced that hybrid teleworking situations would end this summer, meaning those who worked sometimes at home and sometimes in the office were to return to the office. Those who were on full-time telework wouldn't be affected by the policy.

But in a staff meeting today we were told full-time telework would end. I understand it's because those who were on the hybrid telework situation felt targeted and that it was "unfair" for their opportunity to end while others would be able to continue.

It came down to a group of adults complaining that if they couldn't have it, nobody should have it.

And again, I get it -- work from home was never a long-term guarantee. But still, why mess up something for someone else just because your situation has changed? That seems pretty juvenile to me.

No matter. At least where I'm assigned I won't have to go back out to the site, but will work in town. And it means I'll get my second desk back in the study. It kind of removes part of the need for the home network I was putting together, and I may still do that, particularly since I've already bought the tools and other materials I need to put it together.

He's Got the . . . SPACE. MADNESS.

So for the next few weeks, I'm taking on additional duties at work, filling in for the boss while she's gone.

It's a little nerve-wracking. I can't talk about the specifics, but suffice it to say it's a process that has to be done in a particular manner and I don't have a lot of experience with it.

But that's okay. I'm learning it, and getting tips from the boss via phone while she's away. I'm trying to keep those to a minimum, because she's supposed to be relaxing. But maybe she'll relax more if she sees I'm not exactly going rogue while she's gone.

Nevertheless, this is kind of how it feels:

Careful there, Juice Pouch

Earlier this week I turned to the Internet as I tried to decipher a work-related acronym.

Urban Dictionary wasn't helpful.

Made me think of this:

Hello? I Feel Awful!

Something happened yesterday that hasn't happened in a long time, and it might be the first time it's happened since I started working from home full-time almost three years ago: I took a day off due to illness.

This is not a flex, nor a pat-on-the-back for working other times when I didn't feel well. This is to point out to the folks who don't believe work from home works, or that it cuts productivity, that at least in my case, it does not.

There have certainly been other days when I woke not feeling well, but just enough on the edge the thinking was, "I'm well enough to work." Now, if, on those days, going to work had meant getting up at 4:30 am, catching the bus at 5:20, working ten hours and then riding the bus home, rolling home at about 7 pm, the likelihood that more days off sick would have been taken in the past three years is high.

But since working while feeling ill meant easier access to the bathroom, liquids other than water or soda, the ability to sneak a half-hour nap in at lunchtime when really needed, and the elimination of the commute, I credit working from home with keeping me at work on more days than I would have otherwise.

This particular illness - a rather nasty head and chest cold - likely would have cost two or three days of work productivity. Just one this time around, on the worst day.

Don't take this as a "I love the grind" flex either. Because I don't. And I have taken plenty of vacation days, holidays, and even a few mental health days in the past three years. Working from home lets me more judiciously choose when to use those precious personal leave days, which is a blessing.

[Agoraphobia Intensifies]

As much as I enjoy working from home, there are drawbacks.

I'm naturally a shy person. And shy may not be the right word. Anxious, maybe? Or borderline agoraphobic, perhaps. If there is a way to avoid interaction with fellow human beings, I choose that way.

Working in an office with a bunch of others around me kind of forced me into the whole talking with other people thing. I got used to it, or at least was able to build up enough tolerance or whatever to make it all work.

Then Covid and work from home came. And the slow march to disintegrating social coping skills began.

It took a good ten minutes and a mini-rehearsal to make a very nonconfrontational phone call this morning. A few years ago I wouldn't have had to think twice about it. Well, I would have had to think twice, but making the call wouldn't have taken that much preparation.

Do I want to go back to working in an office? While this situation is weight in favor of a return, so far the balance of advantages to disadvantages of working from home is still in favor of working from home.

But there is a difference, to be sure.

Working from Home Requires Increased Measures of Lickspittling

Because of blowing snow and closed roads, work buses didn't run this morning.

But I work from home, so that doesn't matter.

The announcement sent out about the closure said some "town" facilities were also closed due to the cold.

But I work from home, so that doesn't matter.

Now buses are running, and people should be at work in various locations by, say, noon or so.

But I work from home, so that doesn't matter.

But nobody knows who is at work, who isn't at work, and when exactly they might be there. This really impacts document reviews and such, which is what I do for a living.

So it really does matter, even though I work from home.

It all worked out, though. I got a lot of stuff done this morning, including document-review-related stuff, despite the confusion.

This is the appropriate amount of bootlicking, yes?

Ancillary Activities Recommencing. Also, Work.

I don't actually mind that after eleven days off, I'm headed back to work tomorrow. "Heading back to work" involves shifting from one computer to another in the basement, so the "going" part isn't all that bad.

What's mildly frustrating is that this week, all the ancillary activities pick up as well: Young Men meetings on Tuesday night. Venture crew on Thursday, along with a committee meeting. And my second job, teaching at BYU-Idaho, also starts up again on Wednesday.

These are all good and necessary activities; it's just been nice to have a break from them for two weeks.

End the Middle Management Subsidy

 

This video, along with another I'll post from the same fellow, is an interesting mini-study on how boosting investment in high-speed internet could be key in solving a lot of the crises we're seeing today, from home affordability to the diminuition of small towns.

A bigger challenge might be changing the expectation that work has to take place at work, rather than in dispersed locations. And, as always, helping those who can't work from home see the benefits for them (and I think there are plenty).

In the second video he says something that made me chuckle: "I love transportation. I love seeing the state spend billions of dollars to build cool new roads and rail for me to ride on and drive. But as a taxpayer, one could ask the question: 'Is the state spending billions of dollars just to subsidize middle managers being able to physically supervise their employees, who could do their job anywhere?'"

And what might the benefits for "essential" workers be?

Many that overlap those who can work from home: Less-crowded roads. Lower house prices. High-speed internet penetration to more and more rural communities. I could go on.

This *is* the Work Life I Want

“It’s not in your best interest to work at home,” says Malcolm Gladwell, per the New York Post. “I know it’s a hassle to come into the office, but if you’re just sitting in your pajamas in your bedroom, is that the work life you want to live?”

[Looks at self sitting in pajamas in my basement, able to do the same kind of work I did in a fabric-covered box out in the desert, while not having to get up at 4:30 am for a 75-minute commute by bus.]

Yes. This is the work life I want to live.

If Gladwell wants to work in an office -- and apparetnly he does, in a home-office steup in Hudson, New York -- that's fine by me. If he wants his employees in the office, that's fine by me too. However, he has no business making blanket statements on what is or is not in my best interest. He doesn't know me. He doesn't know my circumstances. He doesn't know that even when I was in the office, 90 percent of the work-related interactions I had with my co-workers were by phone or email. He doesn't know about me no longer having to get up at 4:30 am to catch a bus for a 75-minute commute on each end of a ten-hour workday.

He can speak for him and his. He doesn't get to make judgment calls for me.

I already give 40 hours a week to my job. Working from home has allowed me to give more time to myself and to my family. I'm no longer going to work in the dark and coming home in the dark when it's winter out. I'm happy. I have an office with a door and a window that occasionally entertains me with shenanigans from grasshoppers and cats chasing the grasshoppers.

And I still get my work done. I still fee like part of a team. I still am, in some ways, micromanaged even. Don't have to be at work for that.

Fiber, Finally

It finally looks like we're going to get decent Internet in the neighborhood.

No thanks to any commercial enterprise -- though a business will be involved, eventually -- but through the civic application of (gasp) SOCIALISM, as the city of Ammon brings its fiber optic network to the neighborhood.

Behold, we're part of a scattered local improvement district in the city that should have us knee deep in fiber before the year is out.

They've already started installing fiber on John Adams, but that was before all the snow fell, so I'm not sure how much they'll be able to do until spring.

But I don't care. I'm just tired of the crappy Internet options we have.

There are three options in the neighborhood -- or at least we've tried three; one may no longer be an option. These businesses get bought out and change names so often it's just hard to keep up.

There was Cable One -- now called Sparklight. It is true what they say about cable Internet: When everyone's using it, it slows down. Way down.

Then there's CenturyLink, which we've used the most and found to be the most reliable. That's a relative term best defined by Clay Shirky, who noted that we put up with poor service because that's about all we expect from our ISPs. I have to give them credit -- even with their creaky old network, they've been almost able to keep up with demand here, with four to five in the house almost always on a device or streaming something. But we still get service hiccups.

I don't even remember the name of the third provider. We still have their microwave antenna on the roof. Maybe one of these days I'll take it down.

But there's fiber. Out at the RWMC -- out in the middle of the freaking Arco desert -- I had a fiber connection. Lightning fast. I miss it. And to think we'll shortly have that option in the big, bad city is something to think about.

Cost? With the LID, right now with the number of people who've signed up, they're estimating we'll have to pay about $2,500 to get a hookup. Then there are fees every month to the city and a fiber-capable ISP. But the combined fees add up to not much more than what we're paying for our current Internet service. And I don't see any of the private businesses making any kind of investment in infrastructure to make better Internet, so I don't even mind the $2,500 hookup fee.

I'm sure there's someone complaining that the city is taking business away from private business. Well, when private business makes the kind of investment the city is willing to make, maybe that argument will hold weight. But I don't see any of the current ISPs going around and getting people to commit to better service and asking them to invest in the infrastructure; they're just going to have us limp along with el cruddo Internet because, hey, what else are we going to do?

Anyway, looking forward to it.