a day in the office

 Today is the 4th day of the 49th week, the 4th day of the 12th month, the 339th day of 2024 [which only has 27 days left], and:

• Alpha Phi Alpha Day
• Cabernet Franc Day
• Choose Women Wednesday - started out as an impetus to support women-owned businesses, but has expanded to the goal of closing the gender gap in all areas
• Eid il-Burbara - a holiday similar to Halloween in honor of Saint Barbara. (Russia, Israel, Jordan, Lebanon, Palestine, Syria, Turkey)
• Extraordinary Work Team Recognition Day
• International Cheetah Day
• International Day of Banks
• National Cookie Day
• National Dice Day
• National Dystychiphobia Awareness Day -  the fear of being involved in an auto accident can be a real issue both for individuals and families  
• National Package Protection Day - here are some tips to prevent your holiday orders from going astray 
• National Sock Day
• Rockefeller Center Christmas Tree Lighting 
• Santa's List Day - supposedly the day that Santa makes his naughty/nice lists based on reports from the Elf on the Shelf
• Special Kids Day
• Wear Brown Shoes Day - well I blew this one because I have gray UGGS on today
• World Wildlife Conservation day
• and Voyager 1 is ~23h 02m 31s of light travel time from Earth

Quote of the day:
"So often you just forget that you’re living, and in doing so you forget that you’re dying, and you forget to be present altogether. I always think that one of the easiest ways to remember to love the world is to remember that you have to leave it at some point."
~  Ada Limón, “Where the Light Comes From”

We are among the lucky ones that are still working a hybrid schedule.  It varies from person to person, going all the way to the one person with a long commute, who only comes in one day a week, to the two of us who come in twice a week, to the three people who live closest to the office and come in three times a week.  Wednesdays was designated as the day that everyone would be here, but we've only managed to actually have everyone here six times this entire year to date [counting today].   Other days, there is usually two people in the office, although there are times when only one person is here.  When bossman is here alone, he frets and threatens to issue a return-to-the-office mandate.  He is one of those who comes in three times, but he usually comes in after 9 AM, takes a two hour lunch, then leaves before 3 PM, so his insistence that we be in the office is actually viewed as a bit ...   hypocritical.  To his credit, he know that life/work balance is important to his employees and acts accordingly, but not everyone owner takes the cost of commuting into consideration.  

When I have to commute, I leave home early to try and avoid the traffic as much as possible, so a lot of times I am in early these days.  Leaving early involves getting up, and doing the dress for success thing, and don't even get me started about filling up the tank!  And to top it all off, today?  there was a problem with the internet - our router was acting up and after two hours of going back and forth via text [one IT guy kindly gave me his phone number a while back and so I was able to reach out], we had the office back online just in time for bossman to walk in.  Two hours of wasted time, plus the commute = one dissatisfied and disgruntled employee.  

An aside:  Tomorrow they are calling for miserable weather - and the building management has informed us the elevators will be out until 10 AM plus there will be fire alarm testing.  The good news is that jeans and a sweater will do for business casual since there is just bossman and me in the office.

The kicker in all the discussions about work from home VS return to office is that it has nothing to do with productivity, but control.  For some reason, CEOs seem to think that the fact of being in the office means they can verify folks are doing what they should be doing.  News flash - employees can sit at their desks and do pretty much what they want, and what do you care as long as the work gets done?   These same people seem to think that their employees should also be available to them in the evenings and weekends or on vacation if they are needed.  There is an assumption of ownership over their workers' lives and time because they are paying that goes beyond the work/tasks that I just find both intrusive and offensive

 I'm not sure I could go back to the grind of a five day commute again - certainly it would impact my expenses as well as my time.  To be honest though, I'm not sure I would like to be fully remote again as we were during the COVID shutdowns, and that keeps me from complaining too much about my two days of commuting.   Yes I proved that I could do my job 100% remote, but I also see the value of having an all-in day. Fortunately, I have the advantage of working in a very small organization with only seven others, so folks aren't jockeying for positions/promotions as would happen in a larger organization, and that mitigates some of the needs of face-to-face interactions for the playing of office politics.

All that said, I still would rather be working from home today.  And I think that Triscuit would rather I be there as well....