Now, You Can Work From Anywhere

Good morning all. I'm upstairs in my bedroom writing this as my daughter eats her breakfast in the other room. My wife is off to work about 7 minutes away at the local branch office for her company. The funny thing about where she works, is that her co workers are actually on the other end of the country: In Houston Texas.



she's always been stationed in Mass. Always was intended to be. There was no big sales pitch on her part to get to stay up here. There was no work performance evaluation to allow her to stay. Its just how the company runs. Work from anywhere, pretty much anytime, and get your work done. They don't really care what else happens in the middle.



It really is the future. For more and more people (especially us in finance, or in blogging) technology now allows us to work from anywhere, anytime. Its great. I've been working on this blog for my house, from my friends houses, from my mother's house. And I don't feel as though my work has been hindered at all. If anything, the new vistas helped me to get more inspiration as I wrote. Stephanie works from home often as well. If the weather is particularly bad, or she has a bad cold, She’ll sleep in an extra hour, have some cold medicine and some tea, and get her work done from bed. This holds the dual benefits of allowing her to get better quicker, and also stops her co workers from catching her cold as well.



I wonder what will be lost as remote work becomes the norm more than the exception. will human interaction start to become less important in business transactions? will the "getting to know you" phase of some business deals end up being a collection of shared memes from reddit? Will Skype replace the in person meeting for all but the most serious of business deals? And what about clerical work? and reception? will those jobs become more obsolete as they can be sold out to the lowest bidder, or a computer who may be able to do it more effectively, especially in a world where all of your data is in the cloud anyway?



It'll be interesting as the world grows to see how remote work changes so many things. As the floodgates open, I'm wondering if a slew of people will simply move to the Bahamas, enjoying cheaper accommodations, the same pay, and year round summer. I bet that it doesn't happen as much as people will think.



I don't know about all of you, but I like home. I like knowing people in my backyard. And even though I enjoy seeing new sights and traveling a whole lot, I don't know if moving into some of these "paradises" would be my answer if a full remote work situation became a reality. I'm sure that there would be a few months in there where we would jet set to Argentina, Or Thailand, but I doubt that It would become our final resting place. Also, I wonder how enjoyable working in a place like this would actually be? Would it really be the joy that everyone is picturing? I imagine that if you ended up staying in a place like that while working, you're probably going to lose a lot of the magic that you perceived while living there and NOT working.



But I digress. I'm glad to live in a time where working from home will soon become the norm. It'll help bring families closer together, it'll allow us all to be more productive (as long as the evil netflix doesn't get a hold of you) and will give us all the flexibility we need to get the kids from soccer practice, or to work a late night in your pajamas without any guilt whatsoever. It's what the country needs to continue to be productive, active, and still enjoy life. I think as companies embrace remote work more, we'll at once see bumps in happiness, household savings, health, and even productiveness.



I've always preferred working by myself. Perhaps that stems from growing up an only child in the middle of nowhere. But for me, working on a project myself is something i truly enjoy. I enjoy working on things myself. I enjoy the feeling of just lowing myself in my work for a space of time. Its a true joy. I like to find new ways to do things, and to work things out on my own. Its always been a joy of mine. That's probably why I enjoy working on cars myself so much: there's always a puzzle to solve, and that's the best part.



So to the puzzle solvers, to the folks who like to work in silence, to those who like to choose their own hours, who want to work Honduras or Thailand: your time is at hand. It will soon be here for you: a time where you'll soon be able to work from where you want, when you want. And here's the thing: you'll all probably be better workers for it. For many of you, I think it will also remove a lot of the strain, the stress, and will also cause a boost in productivity. If you're comfortable where you're working, you'll probably work better. Just my opinion.



Here is my question to you all today, readers: Do you want to work from home? Do you already work from home?  If you do already work from home, do you enjoy it more than office work? do you travel while you work, or do you stay in place? For those of you who already remote: tell us about it. For those of you who do not Tell us what you think its like.



Til Next Time.