Remote Mode Only Please

Years ago when I was transitioning from living in New York to the mountains of the Poconos, the commute from Pennsylvania to Manhattan was surely going to be short-lived.

In a few months, the commute was way too much for me to handle; so I walked into my supervisor's office and actually semi-offered my resignation.

I want to say 17 to 18 years ago give or take a year.

At the time, I was married and we had made the decision of having a house built in the Poconos while my best friend at the time was doing the same thing with his wife.

All of it sounded like a cool thing to do, although I was not as excited as my ex-wife, my best friend and his wife were about it.

Unfortunately, it was a mistake that caused me a lot of angst for years to come; but ultimately it brought me to where I'm at today. Happy with Tiffany and her boys as we have been able to make a good life, my ascent to better health and fitness and of course being introduced to HIVE.

The reason that story comes up, because when I handed my resignation; they offered my the opportunity to work from home and back then. At the time, I believed only those who were way above my pay grade go to do that.

Needless to say, it was a blessing that I was able to continue with the company that till this day is the best place I ever worked at and the most amazing owner and people that became more than co-workers.

So I got a taste of working from home.

Eventually, the CFO believed that it would be best if I incorporated myself and did the work as a business opposed to their employee. During that time when the offer was made, my ex-wife and I decided to move out to Florida.

The whole Poconos experiment was not a good one and it allowed me to be there for my mother as she was living out here and was battling cancer while my sisters were putting in a lot of their time taking care of here.

I was blessed to have been there to help my mother through her final days and although it was torture to see cancer whittle her down to skin and bones; she knew I was there.

During the time I was working from home, I started searching for a Plan B; because all of a sudden my former employers now clients were not giving me enough work to keep me viable.

That is when I got into online marketing and then tried that for a few years until it was time to go out and get a job.

Some of those jobs allowed me to meet a bunch of awesome folks.

I am a very social person, so the thought of ever going back to remote work was something that with all the frustrating things that go with working in an office - like commuting to it; was fine with me.

I actually missed the human interaction. After all, I'm a New Yorker; so I've been there and done that; so I can handle shit.

But then, the pandemic hit and many of the department was put on furlough and this allowed me to get back into online marketing; which I was already contemplating on doing anyway.

A few months into the furlough, I was lucky enough to be called back; but of course we had to work from home for obvious reasons. Then it became a hybrid set up with a day or two in the office and a few days from home.

Again, I was blessed to have been contacted by a former co-worker at that last employer who was working FULLY remote for the company I work for now and I've been working remote for what is approaching my second year in October and one promotion.

Here's the thing, how things are set up for me now; the thought of going back to the commuting to work lifestyle and dealing with office politics are becoming much more distant in my rear view mirror.

Lately, I've been seeing stories like these sources:

Why Are Companies Ending Remote Work?

Including Apple's news about ending their remote work:

100% Remote Work Ends for Apple Employees – Return to Office ‘Already Forced Some of Our Colleagues to Quit’

Obviously, I'm a little concerned. Thankfully, the remote aspect of my team has been in existence prior to the pandemic; but it probably was much more needed when it did happen.

Now that companies are getting into that mode of wanting folks to be at the office, I'm dreading the day I have to commute into a workplace anytime soon - if ever at all.

Let's Gooooooooooooooooo!!!

*HIVE Image in the Divider Courtesy of @doze

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