Return to Office Mandates

A few years ago I spent 3 months working for a research company and made some good friends. Ultimately the company was not a good fit for me and so I headed back to Sony. Since leaving I have kept in contact with a few of those friends. I reached out to one today that left the research company the same time I did and discovered his return to office (RTO) mandate at the new company has him looking for another job. Fortunately he has until the end of September to find one.

My friend asked me if I am worried about an RTO mandate. I explained that I have an exemption from having to go into an office. I am beginning to understand what a luxury that is now. While I don't mind going to an office, it is a benefit being able to work from home. This is a reminder to me not to take the privilege for granted. This is especially true today as my wife is sick with the stomach flu and I can check on her throughout the day without having to ask for any special favors so I can be at home.

Now let's be honest, between my wife and I, she does a much better job of taking care of me than I do of her. Fortunately with the stomach flu I just need to make sure she is getting plenty of fluids and recouping some of that energy she lost last night praying to the porcelain god. When she explained that she drank a protein shake for breakfast, I reminded her she also needed some carbs to get her energy back. I asked if she wanted a cookie, which she declined. She opted for some high-quality Japanese ramen instead.

COVID 19 caused a lot of companies to re-evaluate their requirements to have employees in the office. Unfortunately the more time passes, the more companies are forgetting the lessons they learned. I know there are a handful of employees gaming the system and not working when they are supposed to but that is more of an exception than a rule. I just wished companies would send out RTO mandates only to those employees that prove they need to be in an office. That would at least keep my buddy from having to find a new job.

Working From Home

My LinkedIn feeds seem to be dominated by news from Amazon that they are making their employees return to work. Needless to say, the employees are not too happy about it. There are theories about how Amazon is going to use the new policy to get rid of surplus employees. Normally a company would layoff those that are not needed. With this new policy they will be able to fire them without severance benefits, saving themselves significant money.

As you can imagine, I think this policy is disappointing. I think that one thing we all learned from COVID-19 is that not everyone is required to be in the office to get work done. It is proven that some people are even more productive working from home as there are not as many distractions at home as there are in the office. I recognize this is not true for everyone.

Fortunately the company I work for is embracing the work-from-home concept. Sony recently sent out an e-mail to a large group of employees talking about how only spending 2 or 3 days in the office has become the new way of working. The e-mail then goes on discussing changes the company is making to reflect this new normal. It is encouraging to me to know that my company is keeping up with new work trends and not trying to enforce policies that make things miserable for everyone.

While there are a lot of employees that thrive working from home, there are also those employees that become less productive. My wife worked with someone that only got about 80% of her work done because of not being in the office. Unfortunately she insisted on traveling around the United States in a recreational vehicle (RV) and so having her come into the office could not be an option. The business owner opted to replace her with someone that now completes 100% of the work assigned. Doing it in the office is not a requirement.

Amazon may lose a lot of quality employees with their new policy. It would be better for them to take a more personalized approach and only require those that need to be in the office to return. Unfortunately that is much more difficult to implement than the blanket policy they have unveiled. I'm glad I didn't take that job at Amazon now.

Working From Home, Do I Need a Car?

My wife and I used to own 3 cars for the two of us. She drives a Jeep Wrangler, I have a truck that I mostly use in the winter and I used to have a sedan that I mostly drove in the summer months. Unfortunately the sedan started having mechanical problems and so I sold it. Then this last week, my truck has been in the shop with a warranty repair. It didn't need to be in the shop for a week but the extended warranty company wanted to make sure they didn't pay for unnecessary repairs.

I have to be honest, because I work from home, I hardly noticed my truck was gone. I don't really go anywhere and I am fine with that. I do need to exercise and so I go for a morning bike ride and get out of the house. Normally I try to keep that ride under an hour and end up going about 16 miles. Some people I know get a little stir crazy and need to get out of the house, which is part of the point of my daily ride.

Now my wife really missed my truck this week. She wanted to go to the hardware store and pick up garden supplies. Supplies that won't fit in the back of a 2-door Jeep. I got the truck back last night and my son informed me he needed to go pick up more supplies for finishing his basement. My wife interjected and said that he couldn't use it until she was done.

While I don't doubt we need the truck, I do question the necessity of owning 2 vehicles in the summer when I work from home. The cost of a second car is fairly significant considering annual licensing, insurance, gas, and maintenance not to mention the purchase price. That is one area where a lot of people could cut down on monthly expenses. 

Unfortunately that second car becomes very important during ski season as I try to get to the mountain every morning before work. I suppose I could convince my wife to come with me and that would eliminate the need for a second vehicle throughout the year. That didn't work this year though and I doubt it will next. Otherwise I think we really could not just survive but thrive with a single car. I'd be interested in your thoughts.

Is Working From Home Driving Us Crazy?

Friday evening last week I boarded a plane in Lihue, Hawaii and made the disappointing trip home. I spent 5 weeks working from the wonderful tropical island of Kauai and could easily have spent another 5 weeks there. Unfortunately there are a number of duties I have back at home and am back to my old-boring routine of working from home in Utah.

In Hawaii, one of my nightly rituals included spending an hour at the pool and hot tub. Most of the people staying at the condo complex were vacationing and so I got to meet quite a few people. On one evening towards the end of my stay, I met a medical doctor who was in Hawaii for 3 weeks. His wife is also in the medical field and they only get one long break every year that they can use to take a vacation. This year they spent it in Kauai. It surprised him that I was there for 5 weeks. I explained that I didn't need to burn any of my vacation time as I was still working every day. That sparked a conversation about the negative impact of working from home during the COVID-19 pandemic.

While I have thrived working from home over the past 16 months, I am actually an anomaly. I don't have any kids at home that like to spend time on conference calls with me nor am I using my bedroom as my office. I have a dedicated office with all of the tools I need to keep working from home. My home office actually rivals my work office, which might explain one of the reasons I am thriving.

While sitting in the hot tub, the doctor and I discussed the various ailments that people are exhibiting because of working from home. He personally has noticed a lot of anxiety disorders. Part of that comes from using one's bedroom as their office. One of the work-from-home seminars I was asked to attend mentioned the problem with that. You start to associate your sleeping area as your work area and when it comes time to go to sleep at night, your mind reverts back to work and it can be difficult to fall asleep as well as stay asleep. Anxiety also arises from concern over dealing with younger children and keeping them entertained. Having a parent dedicated to watching the kids helps but a lot of families require that second income and so parents are juggling kids while trying to work.

Looking at the title of this post, I would say that the answer is definitely, "Yes," for a number of people. Working from home is definitely driving those people crazy. But with most broad statements like that, there are exceptions to the rule. The trick is to do everything you can to minimize the downsides of working from home until you are welcome back at the office. Then be prepared as some of your coworkers only show up at work when necessary.

Changing the Weather

As companies that have allowed everyone to work from home start implementing plans to return to office, they are preparing workers for changes. My own company has started recommending online training about how to prepare for the upcoming adjustments in our work environment. I watched a video this morning about we shouldn't be anxious about things that are out of our control and one of the examples was the weather. Interestingly enough, the weather is one of the things you can change and there are many examples of this around us.

I love winters in Utah because I love to ski. Unfortunately summers are just too hot for my taste. Instead of surviving this summer at home, I opted to get on a plane and spend the last 5 weeks in Hawaii. The average daily high is around 83 degrees Fahrenheit with the low around 72. I also get to see the rain daily, something that doesn't happen very often during the summer in Utah. So while I have not technically changed the weather in Utah, I have changed the weather for me by simply changing my location.

There are other examples of changing the weather. If it is raining, you can always seek shelter to where it is dry. If it is not raining and your lawn or plants need rain, you can water them with sprinklers or other types of irrigation.

How about the cold or the heat? How can you change that? Easy with modern heating and air conditioning systems. I doubt very many people would visit Florida in the summer if it wasn't for air conditioning. I also doubt may people would call Alaska home in the winter without heating systems. Sure you may not be able to change the weather for an entire outdoor area, but you can change it for where you are currently standing or sitting.

Often times you will hear an absolute that isn't really an absolute. Someone may say you can't change the weather when now you know you really can. Don't be afraid to challenge all absolutes as you may discover new ways of doing the impossible.

Internet in Hawaii

We have a unique opportunity in time right now. Those of us that can work from home can actually work from anywhere. Rather than stay in Utah and endure a blistering heatwave, my wife and I rented a place in Hawaii for 5 weeks this summer. We have been here almost 2 weeks and have enjoyed every minute of it. Don't worry, we have someone staying in our home back in Utah. We have to keep the lawn mowed and make sure the place doesn't burn to the ground on the 4th of July because of negligent neighbors.

In order for me to be able to work from Hawaii, I need a good Internet connection. So far I have not been disappointed. One of the first things I did when I got here was set up a PS4 and use it to remote into my PS5 at home. The PS4 is much easier to travel with and I actually did have a spare one that I could bring with me. The two consoles connected easily and I could play games easily.

A decade or so ago, the State of Hawaii wanted to reduce its economic reliance on tourism and so they helped build out their digital infrastructure. My Internet connection on the island of Kauai is significantly better than mine back in Utah. I don't have nearly the number of slow-downs that I do back home nor do I have the same latency issues. Basically things are working very well.

If you decide you also want to work from the Islands, rest assured that the Internet works very well over here.

Work From Home Tips: Daily Exercise

I am a huge fan of daily exercise and enjoyed using my company gym while working from the office. For those that are not familiar with my work setup in the Bay Area, I live on my sailboat during the week. Using the company gym is also how I showered daily. While my marina has a nice shower facility, the one at the office is much better. Every Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday I would ride the 3 miles from the marina to the office, use the company gym, and then clean up for the day. That all changed when I started working from home because of COVID-19.

It is impossible for me to look forward to exercise unless it is fun or required transportation. I claim that I have to trick myself into exercise or I won't do it. Skiing is fun and so it is easy to wake up early every morning and spend an hour or so on the ski hill. Sometimes I am up long before lifts even start running so I can hike to the top of the mountain, ski down, and still make an early-morning meeting. Other times I will ski for an hour on the lifts and then rush home to start my day. It helps that Snowbird is only 15 minutes away and that I work California hours so I don't have to be in the office until about 10:30am local time.

In the summer, I try to get up and ride a bike. I have a loop that is slightly over 16 miles. It takes me a bit less than an hour and includes a significant amount of climbing. With Snowbird shut down for the summer, I have started riding my bike. I miss the skiing but biking seems to be better for me. I also make sure to get my 10,000 steps in daily. All of this amounts to a significant amount of exercise.

There are a lot of others that frequently used company gyms and working from home has led to the meaning that COVID-19 actually refers to the 19 pounds gained during the pandemic. It also refers to 19 pounds lost for a lucky few people. While I have not lost that much weight, I am down about 10 pounds from my weight before working from home.

Daily exercise is a great way to start your day. It gets the blood flowing and helps clear your mind so you are prepared for the day. Others may find that evening exercise suits them better. The important takeaway is that you shouldn't neglect your physical health while working from home.

Work From Home Tips: Creating Good Habits

One of the best things you can do to help improve your work-from-home productivity is to create good habits. If you find yourself sleeping in, not starting work until after 10am, taking a long lunch break, and quitting work at 4pm, then you might need to adjust your habits or may find yourself looking for a new job. You also have to be careful about spending too much time working. That will lead to burnout and your family may hate you.

I have discovered that the best way to make sure I start each day is to have a daily meeting at 10am where I check in with people on my team. That allows me the morning to go through e-mail and prepare for the day before my first meeting. Should I have something such as a doctor's appointment, I can still make the meeting. That 10am meeting serves as a great way to force me into my home office at the beginning of the day.

To help remind me when it is time to leave the office, I make sure to add "dinner time" to my work calendar. I love food and have no problem quitting work to go eat. I also make sure to communicate this time to my wife so that we can eat together. Sometimes it is necessary to have after-dinner meetings with my colleagues in Japan. In those cases, I try to schedule activities during the day that would normally be reserved for my evenings such as working in the yard or other home chores. I just have to be careful to make sure those activities fit within the time allotted.

Scheduling the start of my work day and the end of the work day are a good start to creating good habits for working from home but there are more. Working through the entire day is a very necessary habit to form. You will need to figure out what works best for you. It is very easy to get distracted by personal e-mail, text messages, or random YouTube videos. To help combat these distractions, I try to limit these activities to no more than 10 minutes every couple of hours. I also find that if I keep a running task list of work-related items on my computer, I spend less time trying to figure out what to do. The list allows me to remain focused on tasks that need to be completed and things don't get forgotten.

With regards to forgetting things, I find that there are ways to remind myself of what needs to be done. The task list helps but there are other things you can do as well. If I am working on something important but need to walk away from my desk, I will leave a sticky note on my computer keyboard to remind me where to start when I return. This keeps me focused after an interruption. I will also place things in my walking path so I trip over them and am reminded to take care of them. One example of this is if I need to refill my water glass. When I leave my desk, I am reminded it is empty and that I need to fill it.

I have mentioned leaving my desk several times now and that is an important habit to get into. When there is a natural break in your day, get up and walk around. If you have time, don't hesitate to take a short walk and change your surroundings. It will help with your thinking process. I find that I often come up with solutions to problems much quicker on a walk than by sitting at my desk, trying to pound something out. While working in an office with your co-workers, this happens much more naturally as you physically walk to meetings or meet with colleagues. When you are at home and all meetings are done through video conferences, it is easy to stay at your desk all day long.

I am sure there are many more good habits that will help but these are the ones that stand out the most to me. The important thing is to create good ones and not those that will keep you from being productive.

Work from Home Tips: Having a Comfortable Work Area

This afternoon I had a video conference meeting and one of the participants listed that this is the 60th week of working from home. Some are counting down the days until we can return to the office. I have actually thrived in the current work-from-home environment and so I thought I would share some of the things that have helped me. Not everyone will be able to use all of these tips but I am hoping that one or two of them will help you out. The one I would like to highlight in this post is that of having a comfortable work area.

I have worked from home for a large part of my career. I have always had a home office and it has evolved over the years. I originally started in one of the bedrooms but then found I needed more space. Ultimately I migrated to the basement where I have a rather large-windowless room. I lined one of the walls with bookshelves, added a number of tables to complement my desk, and good lighting. We had a rather large scrap of carpet to lay on top of the concrete floor and it is a comfortable room for me. My wife would hate it but I enjoy the not-quite finished feel of the room. One added benefit of being in the basement is that it stays very cool during the summer months. It is also cool during the winter ones but I make sure to dress for the conditions and keep a space heater under the desk.

I have a neighbor who is envious of my home office. When he started working from home, he moved into his boys bedroom while they are at school. I also notice that a lot of people are utilizing their own bedrooms for their home office. One of the people I meet with on a regular basis is using a closet as his home office. While these accommodations work, they are not ideal. 

Unfortunately not everyone has the luxury of a spare room in their basement away from the family and the rest of one's personal life. People can only make due with what they have and so that leads me to my next point: make sure you have the tools you need to do your job. Last year I wrote about having a 43-inch 4K computer monitor. This is one of the tools that helps me get a lot done. A 4K monitor is the equivalent of having 4 HD monitors on your desk. It really allows me to keep a lot of applications open all at the same time. If you spend a lot of time on the computer, I highly recommend one. I also have a color laser printer, my laptop with its screen and a 2nd HD monitor. I use all of this equipment and it helps to create a better work environment than I have in my office in San Mateo.

The final piece of equipment I want to mention is that of my office chair. Sony recognized that not everyone has a great office chair at home and allowed us to come grab our expensive-yet-comfortable chairs and bring them home. I have a great chair already and didn't need the loaner from Sony. If your work doesn't provide a comfortable chair, spend a little money and pick one up. A good chair really helps with productivity.

My home office doesn't have a door but I don't really need one. I am the only person home during the work day and don't need to worry about little children needing entertainment. I know it can be a delicate balance between being able to work from home and also caring for your children. About the only advice I can give is to train your kids that a closed door means mommy or daddy is at work and cannot be disturbed. The door won't make your office or work area more comfortable but it will keep the distractions down a bit.

Having a comfortable work area is only a start. I hope to have more tips on working from home over the next several posts. Perhaps you will find them useful.

Video Conferencing Suggestions

I am finishing up my sixth month of working from home and last night found myself trying to decide between 2 different video conference calls. Actually there was a third one I could also have attended but opted not to long before last night. Video conference calls are not just for work either. One of the calls I didn't bother attending was for a personal hobby. I know that families are also holding them in place of getting together and risking the spread of COVID-19.

In the first few weeks of working from home, people tried to continue holding meetings as usual. It didn't take long for insightful organizations to realize one or two changes needed to be made. My company put out some specific guidelines for video conferencing and I think many of them are worth sharing.

One of the benefits of face-to-face meetings is that you get up from your desk and walk to a conference room. If you need to stop and use the restroom, you have the option. You also get a minor change of scenery. With video calls you can schedule them back-to-back all day long and never have to leave your desk. An early suggestion we received is to cut back on the length of meetings. Instead of a 30-minute meeting, make it 25. If it is usually an hour, make it 50 minutes. This will allow people time to gather thoughts between meetings, grab a drink or snack, and take a bio-break if needed. My personal preference is to start meetings on the hour or half-hour and end early. Starting 5 or 10 minutes late is a bit tougher for me as I find myself waiting at my desk for the appointed start time.

Another suggestion we received is to see if we can cut down on the number of meetings being held. Some days are so full of meetings that people don't have the chance to do actual real work. What I have done with my team is remove one of our daily stand-ups each week. For those that don't know, daily stand-ups are short meetings where the team quickly reviews progress of daily work. We have them Monday through Thursday but not on Friday. Should something come up and we need to cancel one of the meetings, we reserve Friday for a make-up, just in case.

Cutting down on the number of meetings also goes along with another suggestion: setting aside one day a week with no meetings, if possible. Unfortunately this is a tough one for some people. My boss has multiple meetings every day and so even though we don't have stand-ups on Friday, he still has meetings. I am one of the fortunate ones that has no meetings on Friday and so I don't have to worry about making sure I am at my desk during specific times throughout the day. I generally use this freedom to actually get stuff done. So far this morning I have taken care of a load of paperwork I haven't had time to get to during the week. I am also making sure to put together this posting during my lunch hour so it doesn't distract from the time I am at work.

There are many other suggestions ranging from what to wear (you don't have to wear pants as long as nobody can see your legs), how to make sure you pay attention (taking notes helps me), and always making sure you are muted unless speaking in the meeting. For those that find themselves attending way too many meetings, you can put together an avatar that will attend your meetings for you. It is a funny read and should put a smile on your face even if it does have one or two issues. Good luck with your next meeting.