Are you doing it now, or hoping to? Thanks to SARS-CoV-2 (severe acute respiratory syndrome Coronavirus 2)/COVID-19 mandates, many people were compelled to work from home—and when the restrictions lifted many didn’t want to return to the office. Of course, much depended upon the employee’s duties.
Let me clear up some myths, having worked out of a home office since May 1999. Often someone would ask how I could work at home and not be distracted by the environment or tempted to watch television all day. That was never my problem. Let’s start with that one and move along.
Working from home blurs the line between homelife and worklife. My days typically are longer at home than in an employer’s office. It’s so easy to get sucked into answering another phone call, responding to more emails, and—for my profession—writing another news story.
Commingling data and devices creates privacy and security risks. If you make job-related calls or text from your work phone, you could open up your personal life to your employer. Same applies to laptop or Internet router. Conversely, if Little Johnny grabs the work laptop for some gaming or crypto-mining, malware could be installed without your knowledge—exposing you and/or your employer to any kind of nefarious exploit. Can you say ransomware? Or botnets? How about data breach?
Long days could negatively affect your health. I was heaviest during a span of several years when work-from-home weeks clocked 60-90 hours. I spent too much time sitting, inactive. At the peak, I weighed 35 kilograms (75 pounds) more than I do today. I am not a lonely person, but you might be if deprived of the benefits of being around coworkers. The emotional deprivation likely would negatively affect your health.
Those quick points aside, I thrive working from home. I love putting a few extra hours into job tasks rather than spending the same time commuting. I love rolling out of bed and starting to work right away. My mental acuity is—I should say was—greatest in the morning. I often can put in a half-day’s productivity all before a shower and still quite early in the day.
Okay, let’s talk Featured Image, taken with Leica Q2 Monochrom. You could work from home with this desk, spotted along an alley in San Diego neighborhood University Heights. Hey, it’s solid wood. Vitals, aperture manually set: f/2.8, ISO 200, 1/800, 28mm; 4:30 p.m., June 15, 2023.