On June 28, I began full-time telework for Fluor Idaho.
And that’s different from the last year and a quarter, I can hear you asking. Truth be told, not really. It does mean that rather than remoting into my computer at the RWMC, that computer is now in the basement and I’m working via a virtual private network, which is pretty nifty. I had wondered, when I applied for teleworking, how they would handle the computer thing, since the cubicle I had at RWMC was now gone with the wind. But that concern was solved.
It did mean moving my cheese for a day, as on Monday I had to go in to work at SSF for the morning until they had my computer ready. In hindsight, I probably could have gone straight to IT to get it and then go home, but I’m a ninny who doesn’t like using the phone and I dragged the morning on a bit until I got up the guts to call (that’s a drawback on working from home; my social skills have atrophied a little bit. Not the nicest thing, but that’s how it goes).
Other than that little wrinkle, I don’t expect much change, at least on the short term. Fluor lost the contract but got an extension through the end of the year as yet another company contests losing the bid. We’re not sure at the moment how the new contractor may regard working from home, so we’ll see. North Wind is part of the small business consortium that won the new bid, and small businesses are the Department of Energy’s special children, so we’ll see how the contest goes. Working for North Wind again might feel a little weird. It’ll be interesting to see what happens in the benefit department. Probably won’t get as sweet a 401k situation as with Fluor, which has treated us pretty well.
My only worry is there may be some resentment against those of us who choose to work from home. I know I’m going to do my best to keep up with my work so they don’t notice the physical absence. I figure as long as the work gets done in a timely fashion, they won’t have much to complain about.
I am still part of the Emergency Response Organization at work, though, which is something I figured would end when I started teleworking. But no. I am in a new position, moving from Notifications to Information Management – meaning I’m the one putting the messages up on the big board for everyone to see. It’s less stress, which is good. It does mean, however, when there are drills or heaven forbid a real emergency, I do have to rush out there to be part of the team. Hopefully, we keep those few and far between.
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