{"id":743,"date":"2021-03-12T15:52:12","date_gmt":"2021-03-12T14:52:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/outpost.garf.de\/wordpress\/?p=743"},"modified":"2021-05-04T09:02:03","modified_gmt":"2021-05-04T07:02:03","slug":"working-from-home-12-months-in","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/outpost.garf.de\/wordpress\/index.php\/2021\/03\/12\/working-from-home-12-months-in\/","title":{"rendered":"Working from home – 12 months in"},"content":{"rendered":"

It was in March 2020 when Corona got serious and all employees where I work were ordered to work from home when ever possible. I was just coming back from a vacation (vacation, travelling, …, remember?) and had to adjust quickly to the new situation. Even when the situation was a bit better during the summer months, I continued working from home, because it’s not over yet<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But after 12 months it’s perhaps time for a short summary.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Things I got right immediately<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

When I started working from home I immediately knew that I cannot do that from the living room table. I needed a desk and I needed a setup similar to the one I use in the office. Fortunately I have a (until then) hobby-room on the top floor. Repurposing a desk there could be done immediately. I was able to get two large monitors for my laptop from the office (I need a lot of screen real estate), a keyboard and a mouse. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Connectivity wise I already had a good DSL connection, but I upgraded to the next level to get more upstream capacity. I also rebuilt my home network from a mixed-vendor setup to a setup using Ubiquity switches and access points. I guess most people just have a router at home, but being a network engineer I wanted to have at network I can debug if needed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Adjustments over time<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Summer came and with it I noticed the not-so-good insulation of the top floor. It got pretty warm in my office at home. It always was warm, but I never really noticed as I was usually away during daytime. So I added a cheap portable air conditioning machine. Not very effective but it kept the temperature to a level I was able to continue working. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Later in fall I added some additional lighting. I do webinars from home, so I need to be illuminated properly. Latest addition is a green screen. I am not ashamed of my chaos, but when recording videos for publishing a virtual background is nice (in opposite of doing al live webinar – I loved showing that I am in the same situation as everybody else).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

By now my daily routine had adjusted a bit:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

  • I get up later, because my only commute is walking up two floors. And I started working about an hour earlier (around 8ish usually).<\/li>
  • I work longer in the evening, because again, no commute necessary.<\/li>
  • To compensate this, I take a longer lunch break (no rushing to the nearby butcher any more, but home cooking every day) and I added a coffee break in the afternoon (to talk to family over the phone).<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n

    In total, I kept about the same hours (perhaps I work even more), but distributed them differently.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Internet was up and running always, I only had one outage during the whole time, lasting from Saturday until Monday morning. And of course it was the providers fault.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Things that came later<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

    Missing most is the contact to my colleagues and also the change of scenery during the day. To compensate for the change of scenery I started to take long walks in the evening. Always taking my camera. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

    About the contact to colleagues, I always<\/strong> switch on the camera if someone phones me. Does not matter how I look that day. We are all in the same situation, and a friendly face on the screen helps.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Things I will continue doing once I go back to working in the office<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
    • The walks in the evening (in summer or fall)<\/li>
    • Some days I will continue working from home – mainly when writing texts or presentations<\/li>
    • Also my commute might change when I will work form the office again, like work the first hour from home to avoid traffic. I have the setup now here, so I can continue using it.<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n

      Recommendations<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

      Everybody is in a different situation so I cannot really give any recommendations here. Just the usual common sense ones:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

      • Adjust your daily routine. Experiment. If you feel better after a change, keep it. If not, roll back.<\/li>
      • Do not be afraid to ask your employer for hardware if you really need it. Or buy stuff yourself if it is not really needed for your work. I got two monitors from my company but rebuilt my networks myself.<\/li>
      • Your mental health is most important. Talk with someone if you run into problems.<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n

        With that, it is time for my coffee break now. Stay healthy!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

        Fun facts<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
        • In this year I ordered and consumed 20kg of coffee beans. Usually I buy 2-3kg per year.<\/li>
        • Despite sometimes cooking twice a day, my weight did not go up.<\/li>
        • Because of the cooking, the use of olive oil also went up – but I cannot tell you how much.<\/li>
        • The use of electricity went up – in 2020 I used 4432kWh, in 2019 it was 3534 kWh.<\/li>
        • <\/li><\/ul>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

          It was in March 2020 when Corona got serious and all employees where I work were ordered to work from home when ever possible. I was just coming back from a vacation (vacation, travelling, …, remember?) and had to adjust quickly to the new situation. Even when the situation was a bit better during the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":393,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"zakra_page_container_layout":"customizer","zakra_page_sidebar_layout":"customizer","zakra_remove_content_margin":false,"zakra_sidebar":"customizer","zakra_transparent_header":"customizer","zakra_logo":0,"zakra_main_header_style":"default","zakra_menu_item_color":"","zakra_menu_item_hover_color":"","zakra_menu_item_active_color":"","zakra_menu_active_style":"","zakra_page_header":true,"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[147,75,148],"class_list":["post-743","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-internet-en","tag-covid","tag-network","tag-work"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/outpost.garf.de\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/743","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/outpost.garf.de\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/outpost.garf.de\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/outpost.garf.de\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/outpost.garf.de\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=743"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/outpost.garf.de\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/743\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":843,"href":"https:\/\/outpost.garf.de\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/743\/revisions\/843"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/outpost.garf.de\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/393"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/outpost.garf.de\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=743"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/outpost.garf.de\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=743"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/outpost.garf.de\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=743"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}