I have experienced work from home (WFH) since the very start of COVID-19. I work in the tech industry and much of the work that I do can be done from home. I am going to be returning to the office this coming Monday after 17 months of WFH! For me, it was an incredible experience plenty of learnings along the way!
I will never forget March 2020. I was told that we would be working from home for the next month, and my son (11 at the time) would be home from school for the next 2 weeks. COVID-19 was such an unknown at the time, we had no idea how long it would last. Little did I know that it would take almost a year and a half for me to get a chance to return back to my office. In addition, we chose to enroll my son in remote classes for the entirety of the last school year (7th grade), so my family was home together the whole time.
Here is what I experienced and learned from WFH. Some of these things were surprises to me.
More Time with My Family
The best part of working from home was getting to spend more time with my family. I was able to see them more before and after work and on breaks. We ate lunch together most days. If there was something fun or special going on, I was able to pop out of my home office and be part of it.
I have a habit of taking walks in the middle of the day to noodle on problems and get some light exercise. I was able to take my walks in my neighborhood and took my daughter (age 4) with me in her stroller. We spent countless hours (and probably hundreds of thousands of steps) together this way, and it’s a memory I will cherish forever.
I do think the biggest thing I will miss about returning to an office is seeing my family like this on a daily basis. Small unplanned experiences build up to large happiness.
More flexibility
Working from home is great because it gives you greater flexibility to get things done personally. For instance, if you are on a short break, you can put in a load of laundry, make a bed, start a crockpot or run a vacuum for a few minutes.
Another benefit is if you need to be home for a package delivery, repair person, cable installer, etc., you don’t need to make a crazy adjustment to your schedule. Since you are WFH, you are just there and can keep working.
I really liked the flexibility to work when I am most productive, especially early in the morning. I loved that I could get up, get ready and dive head first into my toughest tasks without being tired from the slog of just getting to work (I have a 45 minute commute). I also found that I got better exercise because I had the option of working out when I had a break from work, or a stretch between meetings.
Got More Individual Work Done
When it came time to crank on individual contributor work, hands down, WFH rocked. There were less distractions. I had my own quiet place where I could shut the door and produce. I felt like I was able to get into flow and get things done working from home.
In the office, there are a ton of distractions and sometimes the only way to get things done is to put on headphones, or find a quiet meeting room or enclave to work. Neither is really as effective as having a place of your own to work where nobody will come and bother you. I did some of my best individual work from home.
A Home Office is Worth Its Weight in Gold
We built our house in 2017 with Ryan Homes. At the time, we were a family of 3, with a baby on the way. We originally were going to buy a 4 bedroom house, but we look at the 5 bedroom option and there was only a $10K difference in price. We didn’t need 5 bedrooms, but I figured why not when the cost was so low.
Fast forward to March 2020 and the value of that extra bedroom skyrocketed. I had a comfortable space that I could completely transform into a usable office, replicating the exact setup I had at work. The space was quiet, private, comfortable and clutter free. I saw so many of my coworkers during video calls working from living rooms, bedrooms, basements and kitchen tables. I felt very grateful that we made the decision to add on the 5th bedroom. This allows each member of our family to have a personal bedroom, plus a dedicated office and a spare bedroom for when family visits from out of town.
As we shift to a culture with more remote work moving forward, I expect the investment in a 5 bedroom house will pay off with increased home value.
Saved Money
Prior to COVID-19, I would put around 8K in miles on my car commuting to work, working out to about 11,300 miles over the course of the 17 months I WFH. The IRS Standard Mileage Rate for reimbursement calculation assumes 56 cents per mile for business travel. I think this is a bit high when calculating my own savings, so let’s assume 30 cents per mile. That works out to $3390 in savings due to not driving to work.
Not commuting also meant not going into as many stores. Less opportunities to spend = savings. I also wasn’t really wearing out my shoes or clothes much and so I really didn’t buy those things the whole pandemic.
Time to THINK
While WFH in my quiet, cozy office, I got the time to really THINK. When I had a problem, I was able to really dive in deeply and think about it. I also got the chance to do a lot of self-reflection. There is something about being in a room by yourself for 9 hours a day that just lends itself to getting to know yourself better. I came to several personal revelations during these precious moments of solitude and learned a ton about myself. This was a benefit I didn’t expect at all.
Moving forward, I am going to schedule time for thinking like this into my day. I really never knew how valuable this time would be from a professional and personal development standpoint until I worked from home. This will require some discipline, but one of the ideas I have here is to try waking up early, which is something I am learning about from 5 AM Joel. Stay tuned for more details!
Missed My Commute
Yeah, this one probably sounds contradictory, especially with the extra time and monetary savings, but there were moments when I missed my commute. When you WFH, there is no buffer between work and home. I would tell my family to have a great day, walk upstairs and 15 seconds later I was thrust into the whirlwind that is the work day. It was like going from 0-100 MPH.
When I work from the office, the 40 minutes of solitude in the car is time I can spend on me. On the way down to work, I review mentally what I need to do that day. I think about how I’ll handle certain situations. I essentially plan out my day’s strategy in my head. When I walk into work, I am fully transitioned to “work mode” and ready to tackle the challenges. I think this helps me get traction quicker when I arrive at work.
The drive home is more about de-compression. Processing the day and also mentally shelving the problems I faced so I can be 100% present and focused on my family for the evening. When I WFH, there is no de-compression period at all. I have found that I still am thinking about work when I am supposed to be focused on my family. This is not great.
I think that ideally a 15-20 minute commute would be sufficient for the ramping up/decompression process.
Missed My Colleagues
I really missed being around people while WFH. Sure, I was on hundreds (or maybe thousands) of video calls over the last year and a half, but it was very hard to feel present with people. I missed the random office interactions. Seeing someone in the cafeteria, the water cooler or at the coffee pot. I found that my circle of interactions was restricted almost entirely to my project team. I really am looking forward to getting back to seeing people in person, building report and engaging in ad hoc communication again.
The other factor is there are a lot of new people that have been hired since the pandemic that I have never met in person before! I am looking forward to being able see them face to face!
Collaboration Was Hard
The type of work that I do requires me to do some individual work, but also to do quite a bit of coordination, planning and design with a team. Collaboration with a remote group can be tough while WFH. For instance, if we were in person, we’d likely gather around a whiteboard to plan or collaborate on a problem. When working remotely, we are limited in the tools we can use, and getting concepts (especially intangibles) can be more difficult with virtual tools.
I do feel I started to get better at this type of collaboration as time went on. One of the tricks I learned was to rely more on asynchronous communication. For instance, using a Google Docs for collaboration and then only meeting in real time to discuss specific points to the plan was very helpful. I think this is a tool that I’ll use even when I am back in the office.
Missed Travel
In general, I don’t travel a ton for work, but probably average 3-4 times per year, mainly to the West Coast. I have really missed traveling for work. Traveling is a great opportunity to see new things, connect in new ways with colleagues and add some excitement to work. Not traveling the last year and a half seems like a bit of a missed opportunity. I am really looking forward to traveling for work again once it’s safe to do so.
Bottom Line
There are pros and cons to WFH. For me, I think I ultimately prefer working from an office, but I have built up the skillsets to be successful from home too. I am really glad I had the experience of extended WFH as I learned a lot about myself and learned new ways of working that will help me in my career moving forward! And I’ll never forget the precious time with my family.
Whether I am working from an office or WFH, my goal is still the same.. Financial independence. With the return to the office, I plan to stay focused on my FIRE goals, save money and build wealth for the future!