In early 2007, I moved to a new job at Intel.  Same overall group (Open Source Technology Center) but moved from engineering to the business/marketing team.  At the time, I was an individual contributor (Intel speak for non-manager) so my boss told me I could work from home if I wanted to since no one I worked with was at the closest Intel site in Hudson, MA where I worked for 14 years (1993 – 2007).  So, with some trepidation, I moved from being a cubical rat to working in what my wife Jenni affectionately calls “The Cave”.

A little bit of background info is required here.  In 2007, I embarked on an overly ambitious project to re-do our basement into a playroom/home theater/sewing room/workshop/music studio.  What is ironic about this is that one of the big reasons we moved into this was that is had a finished basement.  At the time, I was so impressed by the fact that there was a finished basement that I neglected to notice what a poor quality job they did when they finished it – as a contractor, the former owner was a good doctor 😉  So, I decided to tear it all down and start over.  The results are great but it is a long and still not completely finished process.

You will notice nowhere in the description of my playroom project did I mention an office.  When I started, I was not working from home and had no intention of doing so.  However, change happens and one needs to adapt.  So, what was once a music studio became a music studio/home office.  While this cramps my style a little on the music side, it’s not a huge deal, at least not for now.  For the kind of music I do you need computers and stuff so having a lot of computers and stuff in my studio is not a big deal.

Back to “the transition”.  Having been a cube rat since I started working at DEC in 1983 (and even before that when I was doing my major qualifying project at WPI working at DEC in 1982), going from the corporate cubical environment to working from home was a bit of a culture shock.  You tend to underestimate how much benefit you get from face to face interpersonal interaction with colleagues.  This is what I miss the most about working from home.

So, what are the pros and cons:

Pros:

1.) Flexibility – in my job, I manage people all around the world – US, Asia and Europe – and work with customers and partners in even more locations.  Some days I have meetings at 7 AM, some days I have meetings at 10 PM.  I have even had an occasional 3 or 4 AM meeting.  Being able to just walk the 14 steps down into my office for meetings is awesome and walking up those same 14 stairs when the meeting is over is even better.  Although you can do this without WAH full time, it just becomes a normal part of the day and everything I need is always there waiting for me because I have a dedicated office.  On the personal side, I can easily step out for an hour or so for my piano lesson on Wednesday afternoon in place of my lunch break, especially since I work until 9 PM or later on Wednesdays.

2.) Listening to music at work – this is generally frowned upon in the corporate environment because if you don’t use headphones you annoy your neighbors and if you do use headphones you run the safety risk of not hearing an alarm.  WAH I can blast whatever music as loudly as I want.  The only person I annoy is Jenni and the girls and they are used to it by now.

3.) Access to playthings – anyone has who has seen Google’s offices starts to drool at how nice they are with game tables, free gourmet food, etc.  They can’t hold a candle to what I have.  PS3 connected to a HD projector in the home theater, pool and spa in the back yard, all the Starbucks I want.  If I need to take a break for a few minutes to let off steam, I can rock out to “Detroit Rock City” by KISS anytime I want on the PS3 and be back to my desk before the next conference call.

4.) Cost savings – I figure that WAH saves me about $75 a week if not more.  Lower gas bill, less wear and tear on the car, no lunches to buy, no temptations at Starbucks, etc.

5.) Health benefits – although I don’t do it often enough, I have more time in the morning to work out because I am cutting out my 1/2 hour commute.  Also, since there is no cafeteria in my house, I tend not to eat as much or as poorly as I did when I worked in Hudson.

Cons:

1.) More limited face to face (F2F in Intel speak) human interaction.  I counter this by trying to meet one business colleague for lunch every week.  Realistically, I probably only do it every other week but it’s a goal.  I meet up with other folks from Intel, former colleagues at other companies or my friends Dom, Charlie or Ron, all of whom at one time worked with me at DEC or Intel.  I also spend a ton of time on the phone with my colleagues as well as using various forms of instant messaging (particularly IRC and Jabber, two open source IM protocols) to stay in touch.  I also have a 1 hour, 1 on 1 meeting with everyone in my team every week unless a critical issue prevents me from doing so.

2.) Need to be disciplined – WAH has a lot of potential distractions.  Kids need to be picked up at school and Jenni is someplace else, kids need help with homework, Jenni is having trouble with the computer, bills need to be paid – there is always other stuff pulling at your time.  And it is so easy to get distracted.  You really have to be very focused on getting your work done.  I actually think Intel gets MORE of my time now that I am working at home but not everyone can be as disciplined about it as I am.

3.) You can’t allow yourself to get sloppy or lazy – this is somewhat related to discipline but a slightly different angle.  It is so easy to say “ah, I’m not gonna shave today” or “who cares what I look like, I’m just going to stay in sweats all day”.  Or in the summer, stay up until 1 AM and then sleep in until 9 AM because you don’t have to help get the kids ready for school.  This is a very slippery slope I try very hard to avoid because tomorrow I could find myself back working in a cube and I don’t want to develop bad habits.

4.) No sunlight – which gets me back to the title of this blog entry.  Unfortunately, my office is in my basement so I have zero natural light.  And I LOVE natural light so this is probably the biggest downside for me.  I try to counter this by walking around on the first floor while I am on phone calls (I have a wireless headset that allows me to go anywhere in the house while on a phone call).  My mom bought me a poster of a beautiful scene from a Maine forest and Ron built me a faux window to place in front of it so I get the illusion of having a window on the world outside.  I also try to get outside at lunch or before starting work.  And in the summer, I even moved my office outside a couple of times.  But winter is coming and the outside office will be closed for a few months.

On balance, I think WAH is great for me.  You might have a different experience.  But I am very happy that I work for a high tech company like Intel where my physical location is not a barrier to being a happy, productive employee and manager.

Thanks for reading,
Derek