First week in my remote office

Derrick here; usually my wife, Peggy writes the blog, but today you get me. This is my first week in the remote office. As you can see from the picture, I definitely dress more casually; shorts, tee shirt, bare feet or socks; no shoes. The commute is about 12 seconds from the bedroom to the desk chair. And yes, it's very nice.

One of my big concerns was getting internet access and making sure the VPN (virtual private network) works AND is fast so I can do my work efficiently. I am using a wireless hotspot and frankly, it is so good that most of the time I forget that I am connected wirelessly and through a VPN.  I do notice some speed difference when working with large amounts of data, but it's occasional and not as noticeable as I expected. Thumbs up on the wireless hotspot from Verizon MiFi.

The biggest change is my interaction with my coworkers at the office. When I was at there, I frequently stood up and walked to someone's desk or walked around until I found them if they were not there. Now I use the phone, IM, or email (I have not been a big user of IM, but I think that will be changing). I'm finding there are some definite advantages to Instant Messaging over walking around. For example, if the person I am looking for is in a meeting, they may see the IM and answer before the meeting is out.  (I may actually end up being more efficient working remotely!)

A couple of other thing of note.  I have some furry "office help".  My buddy cat, Boudreaux,  (our 13 year old flame point Siamese) is always close by.  You can see from the pictures, he really likes The Chicken!

Back at the home office, they bring in lunch every day. In the office, I never thought about what am I going to have for lunch. About 12:20 (after the noon rush) I would wander over and get whatever they were serving for lunch.  Now, perish the thought, I have to actually make a decision about what to eat for lunch. So, I'm eating a lot more sandwiches ;-)

But THIS makes it all worthwhile:

All in all, I think this is going to work out well.