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Life Update
Apr. 23rd, 2020 08:52 amI transitioned from my silly schedule of working a couple days a week in the office and the rest of the week at home, to working fully at home, three weeks ago. Except this Monday I did go into the office for half an hour, masked, to visually inspect the work still being done by the two people who are still working in the office. It is hard to be a manufacturing company remotely.
[Ironically, we are still technically an 'essential company', which I suppose makes me an 'essential worker'. This is absurd. We are a defense contractor, but only in the sense that we are doing research toward technologies that will get implemented by the armed forces within the next ten years. But we have a bright shiny letter from the Navy informing us that because of the work we're doing, we are an essential company!]
Work from home varies from day to day. On days when I need to coordinate with my co-workers a lot, it is tremendously frustrating and I spend a lot of my day bouncing from phone call to phone call. On days when I don't need to coordinate with co-workers, I can focus on design work in a way I rarely get to do under ordinary circumstances because I've been so behind. Then, it is very satisfying, although I do run into limits in my ability to focus. If I work in CAD for two or three hours straight, I find myself reaching out for distractions. There are many distractions at home!
Tuesday and Wednesday morning I had a dress shirt on by 8AM and was working by 8:30 but didn't get around to putting on pants until 10, but today I went back to putting on pants when I woke up. :P The clothes very much matter. I always make a point when I go into work on Sundays to do so in a t-shirt and jeans, it reminds my boss and it reminds me that this is not a regular workday. Contrariwise, working at home it's very helpful to dress up as if I were going to work, to remind myself that as much as possible it should be a regular work day.
I understand the reasoning why, but it is frustrating that all the parks in the state are closed and it's particularly frustrating because my preferred exercise is biking all by myself and would be quite low risk. (I've been wearing a mask while biking, just in case, anyway.) By this point last year I was going for long rides on the canal trail, but I can't go on the canal trail, it's a state park. I have to stick on roads, and living in super-dense New Jersey, it's hard to go anywhere moderately far away safely without using some trails. There's just too many highways and high traffic roads. Although the roads are less busy than usual.
I went for a six and a half mile bike ride through a deserted Rutgers campus Sunday, but the whole reason I got into biking was that unlike exercising in a gym where I get bored, biking can involve an interesting destination. When I was pushing to get over 30 miles in a ride, it was highly motivating that there was a kosher chinese restaurant 13 miles from home. Biking to the shore, biking to a scenic view, biking to a friend's house, biking to someplace in particular. With all those things off the table, it's harder to motivate myself to ride.
Still, this is petty shit. Reading tales from my friends in cities, I feel grateful I'm in a suburb with density such that I can just go out for walks or bike rides whenever I want without worrying about getting anywhere near other people.
[Ironically, we are still technically an 'essential company', which I suppose makes me an 'essential worker'. This is absurd. We are a defense contractor, but only in the sense that we are doing research toward technologies that will get implemented by the armed forces within the next ten years. But we have a bright shiny letter from the Navy informing us that because of the work we're doing, we are an essential company!]
Work from home varies from day to day. On days when I need to coordinate with my co-workers a lot, it is tremendously frustrating and I spend a lot of my day bouncing from phone call to phone call. On days when I don't need to coordinate with co-workers, I can focus on design work in a way I rarely get to do under ordinary circumstances because I've been so behind. Then, it is very satisfying, although I do run into limits in my ability to focus. If I work in CAD for two or three hours straight, I find myself reaching out for distractions. There are many distractions at home!
Tuesday and Wednesday morning I had a dress shirt on by 8AM and was working by 8:30 but didn't get around to putting on pants until 10, but today I went back to putting on pants when I woke up. :P The clothes very much matter. I always make a point when I go into work on Sundays to do so in a t-shirt and jeans, it reminds my boss and it reminds me that this is not a regular workday. Contrariwise, working at home it's very helpful to dress up as if I were going to work, to remind myself that as much as possible it should be a regular work day.
I understand the reasoning why, but it is frustrating that all the parks in the state are closed and it's particularly frustrating because my preferred exercise is biking all by myself and would be quite low risk. (I've been wearing a mask while biking, just in case, anyway.) By this point last year I was going for long rides on the canal trail, but I can't go on the canal trail, it's a state park. I have to stick on roads, and living in super-dense New Jersey, it's hard to go anywhere moderately far away safely without using some trails. There's just too many highways and high traffic roads. Although the roads are less busy than usual.
I went for a six and a half mile bike ride through a deserted Rutgers campus Sunday, but the whole reason I got into biking was that unlike exercising in a gym where I get bored, biking can involve an interesting destination. When I was pushing to get over 30 miles in a ride, it was highly motivating that there was a kosher chinese restaurant 13 miles from home. Biking to the shore, biking to a scenic view, biking to a friend's house, biking to someplace in particular. With all those things off the table, it's harder to motivate myself to ride.
Still, this is petty shit. Reading tales from my friends in cities, I feel grateful I'm in a suburb with density such that I can just go out for walks or bike rides whenever I want without worrying about getting anywhere near other people.