I’m going to be working in an office again, mostly. And this is a good thing!
Let’s back up. When I moved back to California in 2006, I was fortunately able to keep my job (based in Maryland) and basically have been telecommuting from home full-time. I love the flexibility, but for me working from home is not all it’s cracked up to be. Some people can make it work, but I feel like I never made the 100% effort to create a dedicated workspace (and frame of mind).
Recently my manager floated the idea of me having the option to work from the office of one of our related companies in San Francisco. While I wouldn’t have any functional or reporting ties to the local staff, I would get my own workspace, office resources, and (to get all intangible) a re-connection to our larger organization.
There are three other major pluses: location, location, location! Our house is in suburbia — not very exciting. The office is in energetic downtown San Francisco, and surrounded by lots of places to eat, which is something I missed when I stopped working in Bethesda. What’s more, the office is three blocks from where Thom works. This morning he and I took BART together, and I went to go check out my new digs. After getting a tour and settling in a bit, Thom and I met for lunch at Bistro Burger, which has a location on the ground floor of my building. Ah, a gourmet burger place in my building: this could get dangerous.
4 replies on “Office space”
That’s wonderful! As another former telecommuter, I can fully relate to the lack of connection. Even if you’re not working together, it makes a difference to have people bustling around you, adding energy. Congrats!
If this is the office I’m thinking of, I hear it’s really nice. 🙂
Congrats Jeff! Sounds like you have the best of both worlds, still on your own without someone looking over your shoulder and human interaction (+ the extra nice bonus of having Thom close by)!
I can relate! Though after doing it myself for (gasp!) 8 years, I’m in the “could never go back to an office” camp. You’ll still have time to sneak in a round or two of Scrabulous during the day, right?! 😉
I didn’t think I could be more jealous… 😉 I love downtown SF so much. I have a Citycam widget on my Dashboard at work that shows views of SF. Anyway, congrats, that sounds really cool, and great that you guys can commute together. And that burger place… mmmm.
TK