Merry Christmas and happy holidays to everyone out there in the Platte County Landmark land! This holiday season has snuck up on me pretty quickly, I’ll admit. I was really just finishing up my Labor Day shopping and I realized I needed to deck the halls.
This December marks 21 months that I will be working from home and I’ve got to admit, the whole thing is starting to feel like a six-day weekend in Vegas. You don’t know what time it is. You’re abusing a little bit of alcohol. And you’re broke, but you can’t remember why.
Working from home has been great until it hasn’t. After almost two years of this, I’ve found that I’ve really adapted to the whole soft pants lifestyle, and I still think the pros outweigh the cons. I can’t tell you how much I don’t miss driving in traffic. Even Kansas City traffic. That right there should be on the postcard for working from home.
But I will admit, there are a lot of drawbacks. I have a fairly robust home office here, and I find myself in this office for many more hours than I would if I were at a normal office. Side hustles. Emails. Writing my award winning, er award nominated, or award eligible column every week. And surfing social media. These four walls are starting to get awfully close.
And my wife has been working from home the exact amount of time as well. I don’t know if they give out Nobel Peace Prizes for not murdering your spouse after 21 months working a few feet away from each other, but they should. I’ve heard every sneeze. She’s heard every fart. And we’ve both heard just about every conference call there is to hear – along with sensing when each of us are doing eye rolls when John from accounting says something stupid.
And then there’s the holidays. They’ve turned into just another day for me, unfortunately. No company potluck. Weird Janice down the hall hasn’t overdone her cubicle with lights and tinsel and homemade elves on the shelves. And it is the one time I do miss my commute for the past couple of weeks where I’d turn Christmas music on the radio while flipping people off in traffic. It’s just not the same.
There’s talk at my company about bringing people back in March. Even then, I think working from home in some capacity is going to be part of our forever existence. The money alone I’ve saved on gasoline and button down shirts is proof positive.
Still, I wouldn’t be upset if we went into work more in December – since, apparently, it will never snow here again, commuting shouldn’t be the issue – because dang it, it’s the one time that Weird Janice’s cubicle is kind of neat to see.
Have a very Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah, a festive Kwanzaa and a very joyous Festivus to all – even you, Weird Janice.
(Wish Chris Kamler a Merry Christmas on Twitter, where you’ll find him as the notorious @TheFakeNed)