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Old Posted Feb 6, 2022, 9:55 PM
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MayDay MayDay is offline
Member of SSP since 1997
 
Join Date: Jul 2001
Location: Cleveland, Ohio
Posts: 7,106
I live about a mile from downtown Cleveland, prior to the pandemic my husband and I drove into work (my coworkers informed me I’m never allowed to complain about my 10-15 minute commute, especially since I get dropped off curbside ). Hours were 9-5, Monday through Friday. I’m now at a staggered schedule of three days in the office, two days WFH.

I’m in my 28th year as a graphic designer, most of that being in downtown - I’ve been surprised how much I really enjoy and thrive with the WFH setup. Let me put it this way - my favorite way to spend free time is taking photos, I’m a published author of a book about architecture in downtown Cleveland, my go-to weekly sushi lunch spot is going on 21 years in business, etc. You’d think I’d be pining for being back in the office every day but nope. It’s alright going into the office but those days are actually less productive for me. I’m an early riser so on WFH days, I’m logging on at 7am and logging off until 5ish when my husband gets home. In office days, it’s 8:30am and logging off before 5.

Specific to my work, I detest physically being in meetings because my role is like the last runner on the relay team. I don’t negotiate or cut deals or anything like that; I make whatever the sales/service teams want to present “look pretty”. Sitting there trying to take notes on a laptop while they’re yammering and then getting back to my desk with the dual monitor setup and reconstructing all that into the collateral/presentation? With WFH, they can have their meeting while I’m remoting in and the entire time, the edits that used to happen after the meeting, I’m making in real time. Instead of “email us a draft when you made the updates”, I’m saying “okay, everything is updated, log into the shared document”. It’s more efficient, more collaborative, etc.

Lifestyle-wise, as others mentioned, the freedom to not have to cram everything into a few hours outside 9-5? Priceless. Getting to have my Pug napping and chilling out and providing moral support? Are you kidding me?

Being Gen X, I was raised to be self reliant and okay being on my own. Don’t get me wrong, I enjoy getting together with people but I’ve never been one to hang out with coworkers outside of work very much. But some of the people I work with are crawling out of their own skin because they are so crazy attached to the in-person factor; I get it but that’s not me, never has been. I’m very happy where I am, but if I ever look elsewhere, the WFH arrangement is huge for me.
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