Running Away from Home (Part I)

Off and on for the past ten years, I’ve been lucky to have the option to work from home; the last three years exclusively. The problem is that when you work from home, it’s not just you… how you look at work completely changes.

Now with the COVID thing, a lot more people got to experience that lovely option, so what I’m saying is not that revolutionary… or even unusual. But since I’ve been doing it longer, I’m going to focus on the option part. When you have the option to work from home, it’s a lot more appealing than when it’s mandatory.

When I first had the option, I worked for a major hospital, and after six months sitting in a very nice cubicle (a whole half mile from the facility), my boss just announced, “Hey, Marcus, you’re going to be working from home next week.” I was shocked. Sure, I got bored at my desk sometimes, which then allowed me to get back to writing; the result of that was Seven Heavens, Seven Hells.

What ended up happening turned out to be great. I had to go into the office once or twice a week because of in-person training or meetings, but any other trip was up to me. When we only had one kid, my wife still worked, and my son was in daycare, so I could work out of my study without interruption. When I wanted to get out, I could go for a bike ride and work out of a café along the bike trail.

After my second kid was born, my wife stopped working, and then she was always there. So I believe I found more excuses to head down to work and my shared desk there. After a couple years of this, I went on the road as a consultant, so I had all the time I wanted there. I would occasionally have to work on Fridays from home, or I had projects that wanted to save money by having me work from home every other week, and that allowed me to enjoy the experience as an option.

Six years later, getting on a flight on Sunday and coming back later Thursday got really old. I loved the travel, but my job sucked, so I was lucky to get a work-from-home job where I could stay close to home and still get paid.

I’m realizing this post is getting WAY too long, so I’ll continue it tomorrow. But if this sounds familiar to you, share it with me and let me know in the comments below! And then check our my books. But if $1.99 is too steep for you to pay, go ahead and download one of my stories for free. You’ll be glad you did.