WFH Today… Why do I Feel Guilty?
Douglas Karr
My “To Do” list had grown to 4 pages at work yesterday, and more requests were coming in by the minute. New technologies to integrate, new features we need to sell, bugs with the application, implementations, vendors, clients… I was out of control.
To top it off, I was on call last night to respond to any alerts from our system. Friends were calling me and getting upset that I wasn’t answering the phone. Sigh. I also found out that a side project I had worked on since last November was taking a different direction.
I didn’t sleep very well.
This morning, I woke up and needed some coffee and some peace. I walked into The Bean Cup and Patric was there from Noobie… and a few minutes later Jason walked in. Within minutes we were chuckling and feeling great. But I had to get in my car and make the 45 minute trek to work.
Or did I?
My boss has told me several times that if I needed time to just work from home. So I did. Today was incredibly productive. I worked through about 8 backed-up issues that clients were calling me over and over about. I had a few meetings with vendors, walked through a design specification for a new feature, and answered about a week’s worth of email. I didn’t take lunch. I just worked, worked, worked… with no interruptions. Some new bugs (there’s always new bugs) rolled in, but that didn’t ruin the day.
One of the things I noticed throughout the day was that I was answering emails, phones, or instant messages at purposely periodic intervals all day. There was an underlying guilt that someone might think I’m taking a nap or out watching a movie that kept me tuned into work and producing results as quickly as possible. I stayed connected so no one would doubt me and think that I was disconnected. I even had calls after 5, making it about a 9 hour day (after my 17 hour day yesterday).
Telecommuting is still thought of as a perk, rather than a productivity tool.
David K Barker, Business Systems Consultant
This evening, I can’t stop thinking about work tomorrow. I keep thinking about my first conversation with my boss and what he might say about me ‘missing’ work. I’m a Director who works nights and weekends and I actually feel guilty about overproducing from outside the office?
I feel like everyone else went to the office, spent their gas money, answered the phone calls, sat in their uncomfortable seats… why should I be the lucky one?
Because I got so much more work done at home! I need to do this more, not less. I’m not sure if its the culture at my office or it’s simply an American culture that makes me feel guilty about working from home, but I am feeling guilty.
Some companies, such as Sun are seeing incredible savings through telecommuting programs and aren’t even looking at the possible productivity gains. Companies are even incorporating telecommuting technologies on a larger scale to reduce increased travel costs.
So I saved gas, worked through lunch, worked about 9 hours, and I produced about 200% of what I expected to produce.
Why do I feel guilty?
Great post, Barbara
The outfit I work for now hired me under the premise that I work from my home. In fact, I probably would not have taken the job if they would have wanted to work out of their facility (too far away).
Rock on Doug!
From my point of view, if you do feel guilty and think you have to explain it away to your boss, perhaps he needs to open his horizons. You already appear to have opened yours. I don’t think one should do all work from home, unless one has a home based job, but there is room to do both.
And the occasional change of scenery has always done me good.