Wednesday, February 24, 2016

Full time telework – one year later

It’s been a little over a year since I transitioned to full time telework and based on the popularity of a prior posting on the topic I thought I would reflect on my experiences.  For better or for worse, our organization is a big supporter of teleworking.  I add the “for worse” part as in my work interactions I often see instances where I question whether the individual should be teleworking perhaps I may tangent some additional thoughts relating to this later, but I will begin by focusing on my experience.  I was a gradual adopter of telework – first starting a stint where I teleworked once a week and then moving to teleworking a few days each week and then finally taking the plunge about a year ago to full time telework.  Just to be clear when I am referring to telework in my instance I am referring to working from home.

Wednesday, February 10, 2016

The Twenty Minute Shit

I received an email from a friend which related that he was leaving his government job so that I would be aware and not attempt to reach him through his work email.  This message took me by surprise on two fronts.  I was surprised to receive the message because we had not corresponded in quite some time, but I was more surprised to hear that he was leaving his government job.  According to my quick mental calculations, I estimated that he was about 3 years away from reaching the minimum retirement age at which time he would be eligible for a reduced pension.  This piqued my curiosity and in a quick follow up inquiry, he expressed that the straw that broke the proverbial camel’s back was a recent incident where his boss had asked him where he was for the past 20 minutes, to which he responded, “the bathroom.”  The boss continued with the interrogation and asked, “The whole time?”  My friend relates that he responded, “Yes.”  The boss then concluded with the question, “Is that going to be your break.”  In the true character that I know my friend, he responded, “If it has to be.”