Confession #10: Virtual meetings are (sometimes) exhausting

In 2020 I started working from home on March 18. Here it is, June 2021. Fifteen months in and I’m still working from home. Over one year of not going into the office five days a week.

Over a year of not being in face-to-face meetings. What’s that been like?

I have to say, I had no idea that virtual meetings could become so . . . what’s the word I’m looking for? Draining? Time-consuming?

I’m not knocking virtual meetings. I’m just . . . okay, I’ll confess: attending virtual meetings throughout the weeks, months, and this past year while teleworking has been somewhat draining. Have you felt like that? I’m pretty sure I’m not the only one to feel like that.

I think the reason I’m feeling that way is because I have three different groups expecting me to attend virtual meetings. And some of those groups like to hold their virtual meetings during what would be my lunch hour. You know, lunch hours where you get to enjoy a break from work and do what you want, whether you eat or not.

I think that’s what’s been so exhausting. Not being able to break away for a full hour during the work day.

Do I have to attend during my lunch hour? Well no, but if I (sometimes) choose not to attend . . . I wonder, will I sometimes be seen by others as a non-team player?

Am I the only one feeling a bit drained by all the virtual meetings?

Teleworking: Day 145

Today is one hundred and forty-five days of working from home! Seven months!

When I first started working-from-home, I was camped out on our dining room table. Or maybe I should call it like it was and say I cramped out on our dining room table. Because that’s what it was. A pretty much uncomfortable work area for me to be comfortable while working from home. I cramped out on our dining room table for about 97 days. Ninety-seven days!

And then I got smart.

Actually, it took someone else telling me I wouldn’t be returning to the office for the remainder of 2020. That’s when I got smart. No way was I going to stay cramped at my dining room table for the rest of 2020.

Told hubby I needed a new work space. I needed to be able to sit/stand when the mood hit and still be able to get done what I’m paid to get done.

So, I bought a new Vari desk. An electric, one-push of a button to make it go up or down kind of desk. The big one, 60×30. From those marvelous people at Vari.

Cleaned out and fixed up what was our family room. Had it painted. New flooring put in. Bookshelves installed.

Then my Vari desk arrived – squee!

Got it put together (it takes two people to assemble it; that sucker is heavy). Had it facing the window so I could see out the window, then decided I better face the wall because I didn’t want the new monitor I was going to buy to get bumped and fall off the desk.

See the pic? I am so totally loving working from home now – new space, new desk, new larger monitor.

I am ergonomically in a much better place than I was 145 days ago.

I could get use to this.

But, I still miss my seeing my work colleagues in person, at the office. <sigh>

P.S. to any Vari folks that may see this: That Vari standing mat I bought didn’t come with those cut-outs you see along the mat’s edges in the pic. Those cut-outs are compliments of my golden retriever, Bo. He thought I bought him a new toy he could chew on. (The first Vari mat I bought for my desk at the office does not have any chew cut-outs.)

Teleworking: Day 21

In mid-March when I realized I would have to work from home, I started thinking about my home office. I thought for sure the best thing for me would be to set up in the family room. So I told hubby:

• Don’t bug me while I’m at work.
• Keep the dog away from me.
• While I’m on a phone call, turn down the TV and music.
• You can’t bug me while I’m working!

Yeah, like that happened. I mean, I didn’t set up in the family room. I took over the dining room table. (Do I care if hubby might think it’s strange I’d rather work from the dining room table? Heck no!)

From my desk (I mean table), I can see out the front room window. I didn’t have the luxury of a window view from my desk at the office. From my table, I can see the sun through the front room windows. I can see all the neighborhood stay-at-homers walking, riding bikes, jogging, walking their dog, skateboarding. I can watch old-man Dan who lives across the street maneuver his wheelchair down the cul-de-sac because he likes to chat with the blonde chick who hangs outside with her kids.

From my table, I can turn around and look out through the sliding glass doors. I can see my dog Bo sunning himself on the deck, sitting on the chaise lounge. If I keep the sliding door open, I can hear when a hummingbird is headed toward its feeder. I can hear the birds flying back and forth to the six bird feeders in my backyard. I can hear the guy two yards away building his huge deck.

If I wasn’t working from my dining room table, I’d have to take frequent breaks to stay in touch. With my hubby. With my dog. With the sun. With the hummers.

Day 21 of teleworking and I miss seeing people!

People at work. Like Omar. And Denise. And Kristin. And Alejandro. And Suanne. And Ethan. And Roger – he of the “Andy Griffith theme-song whistle ring-tone.” And Karen. And Chad. And Anner. And Julie (she with the awesome laugh). And Steve. And Tuan, who always joked, asking if coffee and all the tap water he could drink was on me, and I’d tell him, yes, please put it on my tab, happy to buy it for you. And Joey. And Elizabeth. And everyone to the left of my desk – those on Leadership Row. And everyone to the right of my desk, down the hall and around the corner and then down that hall and around that corner.

Everyone! I’m missing all of the people in the office! I need that interaction!

I’m getting tired of teleworking.

But … I’m definitely not missing the commute!