My 30 Second Commute.

A storm cloud's (eventual) silver lining.

Photo by Start Digital on Unsplash

If you have a job, you have to deal with many things. From overbearing bosses to annoying co-workers. One of the worst things, though, is the work commute. At least, that was my case a couple of years ago.

As I wrote about in this post, I had my share of struggles finding gainful employment after I moved to Florida from my native Kentucky. I talk about how my struggles came to an end after I finally landed a job with the city electric company in their billing department. During my interview for the city, I was told that there was a slim chance that there could be a buyout from the state’s largest electric provider and, if that happened, the job situation would be up in the air.

“They’ve been talking about a buyout for the past decade but I doubt it will ever happen,” I was told.

Guess what?

It happened. Even after it was a “done deal”, people still kept talking about how they (many of the long-term city workers) had been down this road before and that there was nothing to worry about.

It still happened.

It was a “good news/bad news” thing, though. The good news was that we were all going to be offered jobs with the new (and benefits-wise, better) company, the bad news being the office location was roughly an hour and a half away. After getting used to my comfortable, less than ten-minute drive to work this was a bit distressing. I didn’t want to have to commute that far for work, but I certainly didn’t want to have to go back to the struggle of finding another job.

Dear Old Commute, you suck and I don’t miss you.

Not that I didn’t try. I was proactive when the rumors of the buyout started and began looking for a job that would be closer to home. The main problem, as before, was there just wasn’t much of a job market in town.

So, in the end, I decided to just give it a shot and see how it went. I could still continue my job search for something closer.

Let me tell you that it was a huge adjustment for me. I had to be there at 8 a.m. which meant I needed to leave the house (in my estimations) at 6 a.m. As I get older, my tolerance for being late becomes less and less. And, yes, “if you’re not early, you’re late” has become one of my mantras.

This meant I had to get up a 5 a.m. (which I now do with ease, but back then…ugh) and had an hour to get ready and be out the door, which was something I wasn’t used to at the time. Then I had to deal with things like:

• Traffic- Both I-95 and the Florida Turnpike have their challenges. At least you don’t have to pay tolls on 95. If there was a wreck on the Turnpike, you had no choice but to wait it out.

• Gas- Thankfully, it was before the prices of today, but I was still filling the tank about every other day.

• Bathroom breaks- There are only two rest areas between my home and the office, so I needed to be aware in case of traffic tie-ups. That coffee can run through you, you know.

• General anxiety- I’ve never been a big fan of long car rides, to begin with, and I was also having issues with kidney stones which made the ride more stressful.

One of the few positives about my old commute was getting to see the sunrise.

I did this for about two years and stuck it out because I needed the job.

Then, COVID-19 hit, and almost overnight I went from an hour and a half commute to about 30 seconds.

As most of us did, I had always taken my work laptop home with me each night. As things began to get more uncertain as far as gatherings went, my boss texted me and said, “You’ll be o.k. with working from home today, won’t you?”

To which a resounding “Yes!” was replied.

And I haven’t been back to the office since.

I was eventually moved to a different team and when the company decided to start bringing the people back into the office, my boss (and her boss) said the commute was way too long and they’d try to find a facility a bit closer to home. There are a couple of service centers with offices that would have worked and weren’t too far away, but they said they didn’t have room for another desk. You didn’t hear me complain. After not being able to find anything, they finally said it would be alright to just work from home. Since then, there’s been a pretty big push to let more people telecommute and, to their credit, the company seems fairly open to it. Well, at least less resistant to it than they’ve been in the past.

These days my workday goes a little something like this:

• Get up around 5:00 a.m. (now that I’m used to it)

• Grab a water and scroll through emails as I wake up

• Do a journal entry

• Between 5:30 and 6:00 a.m. I grab some coffee and start writing/plotting/editing, whichever needs to be done.

• 7:00 a.m., finish up whatever project I’m working on, grab some breakfast, and do social media things.

• 7:30ish a.m. Log into work.

Unless I need to do it earlier, I take a shower around 9:00 a.m. and put on some clothes (even if it is just shorts and a tee shirt) during a break. I’ll usually just work through lunch and eat at my desk so I can justify ending my workday around 3:30ish p.m.

It’s a much cushier work experience than I’ve usually had, but I think I’m actually more productive. No one is stopping by my desk to chit-chat, getting a drink/snack/lunch isn’t a big production, and I don’t mind staying later to get something done or if a meeting runs over.

This is my 2-year-old “temporary” setup from things we had around the house. Maybe one day, I’ll upgrade. Maybe not.

The commute to my other desk is even shorter.

A peek behind the curtain.

All in all, I’m pretty happy with working from home. It’s convenient, saves (a lot of) money, and gives me the opportunity to get little things done around the house when I get a few spare minutes. The only real downside is that I’m stuck talking to the cats all day.

When they start talking back is when I’m in real trouble, I guess.

Did you get the chance to work from home during COVID? Are you currently working from home? If so, what’s your situation?

Enquiring minds want to know!¹

Until next time—

1. O.k., I’m just nosey.