Ideal home/work split?

[secundem_artem]

I'd very delighted never to have to go in to work again. I love working from home. I have now even separated my outfits into nighttime pajamas and daytime pajamas.

+1  It's kinda fun "attending" a meeting while going commando.

What is the appeal of not being fully dressed while working?  I understand not wanting to wear shoes because that limits the positions I can have for my feet/legs.

Why would you want to be doing professional activities in pajamas or commando?  Just get more comfortable regular clothes as a standard practice.

Think of this as the male equivalent of taking of your bra the second you get home. 

[apl68]

What is the appeal of not being fully dressed while working?  I understand not wanting to wear shoes because that limits the positions I can have for my feet/legs.

I overheat easily.

Yes, that can be an issue for some.  And then some of us are the opposite.  I was conditioned growing up to always get fully dressed after rising or bathing.  However, since I'm cold-natured--and don't care to burn the huge amounts of gas needed to keep the house toasty all winter--I wear a robe over my clothes while I'm around the house.

[polly_mer]

Think of this as the male equivalent of taking of your bra the second you get home.

I wear a bra at all times unless I'm in the shower or bath so that's not a useful analogy to me.  I purposely shop for bras that are comfortable enough to wear all the time.

I am also cold nearly all the time, so it's not appealing to wear fewer clothes.  Indeed, I am currently wearing multiple pairs of socks with my heavy jeans, and am contemplating getting a sweater to wear over my T-shirt.

[polly_mer]

Not having to show up anywhere, not having to be perky at specified times, doing what I want when I want ... pretty darn nice. I have an affable offspring who is trying all kinds of new cooking experiments, and we watch movies and play board games and listen to Patrick Stewart recite the Shakespeare sonnet of the day on Twitter. And I teach online and write articles, but in a less harried way than usual.

I'd be having a better time, too, if I weren't still on the hook to work essentially the same amount as normal to legitimately charge my time to the various projects and yet somehow do so without access to all the resources I need to do the work.  In many cases, I've been able to make adjustments, but that means more start-up time and futzing with the beginning-to-be-ready-to-commence-to-start parts on a different computer system* instead of doing the interesting and satisfying research.

If this were paid vacation, then I'd be having a better time and wouldn't miss the office.

However, since this is still essentially the same work required, but under harder conditions with effectively duct tape, bailing wire, and chewing gum for good enough for now, I'm mentally ready to go back to the office and get the work done more efficiently.

* Oh, zoom isn't installed on this computer so before I can participate, I have to install that and apply all the extras required by my employer.  Oh, the latest Python isn't installed on this computer, so I have to set up all the environments before I can resume working on this code.  Oh, I don't have any of the command line shortcuts I've been working on for three years on this computer, so I have to recreate them here.  Oh, I don't have that particular repo on this computer so let's go clone a copy.  Oh, I don't have this computer set up as a certified user for the repo server, so let's spend an hour finding out how to do that and troubleshooting when it doesn't go smoothly.

[Liquidambar]

I purposely shop for bras that are comfortable enough to wear all the time.

So do I, but I've never found one!  The ones that came the closest have of course been discontinued.

On topic, 4 days (or partial days) a week at the office is probably my ideal, since I need the structure.

[marshwiggle]

* Oh, zoom isn't installed on this computer so before I can participate, I have to install that and apply all the extras required by my employer.  Oh, the latest Python isn't installed on this computer, so I have to set up all the environments before I can resume working on this code.  Oh, I don't have any of the command line shortcuts I've been working on for three years on this computer, so I have to recreate them here.  Oh, I don't have that particular repo on this computer so let's go clone a copy.  Oh, I don't have this computer set up as a certified user for the repo server, so let's spend an hour finding out how to do that and troubleshooting when it doesn't go smoothly.

I can relate to all this. I got a chromebook a couple of months before all of this. It's been an ongoing learning experience to figure out what the chromebook is great for (battery life, email, browsing, etc.), what it's awkward for (editing non-googledocs files), and what it simply won't do (working with certain kinds of USB devices). So sometimes it feels like I'm working with oven mitts on.

However, all of that has to be balanced with being about 2 orders of magnitude less interruptible now. Since most of what I do is labs, my schedule lately has often meant  there was at least one lab every half day while classes were running. (A few years ago, there was usually at least one time, such as Friday afternoon, when I didn't have any labs, but enrollment increases have eliminated that.) Add in students (or colleagues) stopping in to chat, or to ask where the person in the next office was, and you wind up with no chunk of even a couple of hours without interruptions.

Now I can work all day without interruptions. Nobody calls, and even emails I can reply to at my convenience. Realistically, there is probably about 20% of what I do (other than actually teaching labs) that is possible or even much easier in person. Probably 50% is about equally easy here or there, but about 30% (including grading and designing new or updated labs) is vastly easier here without the interruptions.

[polly_mer]

However, all of that has to be balanced with being about 2 orders of magnitude less interruptible now.

That's not the case for me at home.  We were required to give our home phone numbers out or get company-provided cell phones.  We are required to be available by phone during normal working hours--to the same level we were while at the office.

I was scolded via email at one point because I didn't return a voice message left by my manager in a timely manner.  When she called a second time, I was literally on the phone with a colleague and therefore let it roll over to voicemail.  I was then notified that I was out of compliance because I didn't give a good enough phone number to be contacted. 

When I emailed that I was on a conference call during the first ping, spent the rest of that day on conference calls, and was currently on my third conference call of the day, I was told to call her as soon as I had a spare minute.

We do all our meetings via conference call now and my schedule is almost as full now as it was when we were at the office since we can't do casual drop ins and we're in the middle of trying to hire for several positions as well as still working on our research projects.

In addition, I don't live alone and thus I'm interrupted by those folks for things like helping move the table so they can do their Skype interactions because they need the table, but it is heavy enough that both adults are required to move it and it cannot live full time in the position necessary for Skype.

In the office, I could close my door and mute the phone for several hours at a time as long as I put a note on the door.  That's not really possible in the same way here.

[marshwiggle]

However, all of that has to be balanced with being about 2 orders of magnitude less interruptible now.

That's not the case for me at home.  We were required to give our home phone numbers out or get company-provided cell phones.  We are required to be available by phone during normal working hours--to the same level we were while at the office.

Eeeuw. That's a drag.

We don't have any small children at home, and I pretty much have a floor of the house to myself, so I'm much more autonomous here. My boss only emails me, (which was typical at work), and probably only once or twice a week, usually covid-response-related, so I have days without a single work contact (other than institution-wide notices and things like that which don't require any response.)

[polly_mer]

However, all of that has to be balanced with being about 2 orders of magnitude less interruptible now.

That's not the case for me at home.  We were required to give our home phone numbers out or get company-provided cell phones.  We are required to be available by phone during normal working hours--to the same level we were while at the office.

Eeeuw. That's a drag.

We don't have any small children at home, and I pretty much have a floor of the house to myself, so I'm much more autonomous here. My boss only emails me, (which was typical at work), and probably only once or twice a week, usually covid-response-related, so I have days without a single work contact (other than institution-wide notices and things like that which don't require any response.)

Everything I do is projects with 3-50 other people.  That's why I laugh hard every time I encounter the idea that college classes shouldn't include group work.  My whole professional life is group work.  The only jobs I ever had where group work was only a small percentage of my tasks was professor at a teaching college.

I don't spend a lot of time with my manager, but it is more time now when she has been tasked with having at least one check-in every week with all of us than when our offices were next to each other and she traveled so much that I only saw her for even a "Hi, how's it going?" in the hall once per month.

[AJ_Katz]

I am looking forward to being able to go back to work most days. The separation of work from home is really important in maintaining a bit of balance for me.

But I'm in a discipline and at a school where most of us are in our offices working all day every day.

I'm with you on this one.  I had achieved a beautiful separation of work from home life so that my home is a sanctuary and minimal work is done there.  I've struggled to get a new home office set up and am still not nearly as productive at home as I am when going to work. 

In the future, my preference would be to work at least four long days in the office and have one half-day working from home.... most likely on Friday.