Obviously my heart goes out to everyone who has lost loved ones because of this pandemic, but I can’t pretend that the pandemic didn’t also bring about Work From Home – the absolute best thing to ever happen to my professional life.
I started working one year before the pandemic hit, so I got to experience the 9-5 office life for a while before moving to work from home. And it is just amazing – I saved SO MUCH time. Time spent in traffic, time spent getting ready for work… Back in the office, I could finish my work of the day in about 4 hours or less, and still have to spend the full 8 hours there with the rest of the time pretending to work. Now, at home, I could use that time to decompress, even turn on Netflix or my PC for video games, or read – I’ve finished so many books I always wanted to read but never had time back then.
I was lucky to have gotten a good job with a good employer too. They don’t care if my Teams status is idle, so I don’t have to worry about moving my mouse every 5 minutes either. As long as I’m reachable during work time, it’s all fine. They entertained the idea of making us go back to the office 2-3 days a week last year, but after everyone protested, they decided to make it fully remote (with the option to come in whenever you like). Saved them so much maintenance and utilities cost too. And now they’re testing a “truly remote” program where employees get 4 weeks every year to work from anywhere in the world. So right now we can work from home but home still has to be in the city, but for 4 weeks a year we can go to Hawaii and work from there if we want, and of course that’s separate from the 4 week vacation we already have every year.
So yeah, thanks COVID. Work from home would never have happened without you.