My New Office

My new office has a door. It has a window with curtains and a guest chair. It has a beautiful, big desk and an ergonomic chair. The cafeteria is always open when I'm hungry. It stocks Community Coffee and Tension Tamer tea and never uses disposable coffee cups. It is decorated with colors and fabrics that I love (OK, except for the guest chair which is just the right size, but DESPERATELY needs to be recovered) and it smells good. When the weather is nice, I can open the door to the outside world and hear the birds sing and nobody complains. Of course, this is all true because I started working from home today.

There are a few downsides to my office at the moment. I don't have bookshelf in here yet. I don't have a filing cabinet either. I will add those things as I find them. I'm sure that I will miss the social aspects of work in the future - though not the near future with the teaching that was added to my plate today. I also suspect that I will need to clearly communicate my work hours this summer when D2 is home during the day.

But the tradeoffs are great! I've gained an extra hour of sleep by not doing my morning commute. I'm not driving 72 miles a day - no matter how good the emissions and gas mileage are on my car, that has NOT been very friendly to the environment! I have also gained 45 minutes (or more) at home in the afternoon by not doing the return trip. And - when I am not on conference calls - I am in a space where I can behave in whatever way works best for me. Do I think that blasting The Tragically Hip and dancing around the place will help me figure out how to propose a radical change? No worries! Do I need utter, complete silence to perform complex analysis or get a presentation ready before deadline? It is all mine! And, since all of my tasked interactions are virtual anyway, I haven't lost any "face time" by making this change.

In many industries, an office with a door has become short hand for power, status or a VP job. A door has been the mark of successful corporate ladder climbing. Now it seems, however, that there is much more interest in a successful life - of which a career or job is only one part. There is a great deal of discussion about how to manage that. In my case, as I have moved into greater work responsibilities, even small changes like this can be a huge step toward managing my life the way I see fit. Of course, this is not the career move for someone on track to be a corporate CEO. But perhaps the top of the ladder would look more appealing to people like me if the office at the top had all of the advantages of my new, off-the-ladder-track office.