Did you know I’ve been a remote employee for 12 years? That means that of the 28 years I’ve had “regular” nine-to-five office-type job, 43% of my time has been spent working somewhere other than an employer’s site. Like in that brew pub, as pictured above, which serves lunch as well as beer. (I wasn’t actually working the day I took that photo, but did return during the week.)
Working remotely definitely has its share of pros and cons, but, for me, the pros (no commuting, comfy wardrobe, flexible hours, etc.) FAR outweigh the cons (occasional feelings of isolation, difficulties with teleconferencing, tendency to work longer hours, to name a few).
I used to think of myself as someone who “works from home.” But the longer I did it and the more people I encountered who were also doing it, I realized that “remote employee” is a much better distinction. Because, really, I can work from anywhere as long as I have a suitable environment (a quiet spot with few distractions), electricity, and a decent internet connection. I’ve worked from my friend’s house in North Carolina, both of my daughters’ houses on multiple occasions in various states, and my friend’s farm in Pennsylvania. With a bit of juggling, I can even stick to a schedule that requires feeding baby goats every few hours five times a day.
Not that long ago, I had a boss who struggled with the distinction between working from home vs. working remotely. Working from home means one works from their home and working remotely means one works from a remote location. ANY remote location. Unless your work terms/contract specify otherwise, of course, which mine did not.
As a courtesy, I usually let employers know if I’ll be in a different location. Especially if there was a significant time zone difference. But that particular boss would say stuff like, “I let you work from California for several weeks,” like she was doing me a big favor. That’s one of the reasons I decided to work from Pennsylvania earlier this year without telling anyone. I was going to work from my Dad’s house, but after spending the weekend there, it quickly became apparent that it was far too loud for me to work at his place. So I relocated to my friend’s goat farm. I was there for an entire week and no one knew any different. Despite the fact that there were two recurring appointments on my daily shared work calendar that said something like “feeding kids lunch” and “afternoon kid snack.”
The boss was surprised to learn on Friday that I’d been working from a farm in Pennsylvania all week, but I still don’t think she got the point. Remote means remote. It does not mean I have to be in any specific place.
I came across a great story today on Roadtrippers.com that took that experiment much further. Its headline says it all… This badass couple spent a year road tripping across America… without telling their bosses.
If you’re interested, give the article a read. Remote work isn’t for everyone and not all jobs can be done well remotely. I’m very glad that my job is one that can be done from anywhere. It opens the door to a very wide range of possibilities. Who knows where life will take us next?
