When I was working for SSA Global, they closed the San Francisco office and sent us all home to work from our dens – or wherever we could in our private homes. I did this for two and half years and it was murder. Why, you ask? Well, this picture about sums it up. It didn’t matter where I set up to work – my tower machine in my den, my laptop on the kitchen table (the wine glass and bottle are from dinner the night before) one of the cats would demand attention. This is Denny telling me that whenever I stepped away from my laptop it became his to enjoy until I returned, and then I was to play with him until he decided to be let outside.
When I joined the SF State School of Nursing back in February of 2008 and I would tell people about my commute across the Bay Bridge every morning and every night they would invariably say, “Can you work at home?” No, when you are the school’s technical person and you are overseeing the construction of a new simulation facility you really need to be there in person. Plus, I was learning all I could about medical and nursing simulation and really needed access to a high speed printer to create hardcopies of journal articles that I would read almost endlessly as I tried to get myself up to speed in this new field. I tried to telecommute a few times and found that Denny – and later Nestor Felix – found it too tempting to come into my den and want love and a can of wet food. I actually got more done in the office, even with the long commute.
No, telecommuting doesn’t work well when you have furry distractions.