When I went back to my old job, I returned to the 150 mile round trip commute. Daily. It’s all freeway, but I had some very near misses this winter, and winter in the Gorge is unpredictable. With gas prices climbing and a decidedly inefficient car, I was faced with possibly having to find a different job, closer to home. Thanks to my boss and the company owner, my current job is now the job closer to home. Today was my first day of telecommuting. It’s a two month trial, but I’m doing all I can to make things permanent.
I wish I could say that it was a smooth transition. I’d worked on getting the phone set up Saturday and thought I had it. Then, this morning, it wasn’t working right. We got it working, then I started losing the internet. Finally, after having Comcast give me a second ip address, both the internet and phone were working at the same time. I can access most of my tools from my computer, but there are a few applications that I needed a remote desktop to access. I’ve got that part working now too. I’m able to log into the phone queue and take calls from my desk in Quinn’s old room. It’s a nice view.
Advantages to the company are– I can now work a split shift, giving a bit more support in the morning. I’ll be taking a 3 hour break in the afternoon, then working another three hours. It’s also like getting a raise that didn’t cost them any money. And, if someone calls in sick on the weekends or they get hammered with an outage, I can jump in for whatever is needed. My office is just down the hall.
Advantages to me are simple. An extra 9 hours a week that I don’t spend driving. Less money spent on gas, and this runs $25-30 a day. And I get to stay with a company that I do care about. It’s a real win-win situation.
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