Dear Desk Jockey...

Dear Desk Jockey,

Working from home has its advantages. Personally, my productively has gone up, my carbon foot print has gone down, and I no longer spend six dollars everyday on a cappuccino from my local coffee shop so I have some extra cash on hand. But I’m not sure if these advantages outweigh the disadvantages.

The biggest advantage for many is the time you save by not having to commute. But commute time was my personal time to relax and reflect. If you’re like me in the car, you listen to the news, enjoy your coffee, and just let your mind wander. However you used to spend that time is now gone. Instead, we have replaced that time with work….it’s no wonder our productively has increased, I can’t believe that employers want their workers back at the office!

The time spent navigating a typical work day now looks like this, you wake up and maybe you groom yourself. You walk 100 feet to your desk and the Zoom marathon begins. By lunch time, you realize you’re famished and you gorge on the fastest thing you can get your hands on so you can resume your next meeting. If you’re lucky, you realize that your body is starting to conform to the shape of your chair so you stand up, and stretch a bit. By the end of the work day, you are so exhausted that you don’t have the energy to exercise so you use an app to get dinner delivered and unwind to a glass of wine and a show on Netflix. Rinse and repeat…

This is not sustainable!!! We have to redesign the work day to create more balance between one’s work and one’s life. I know an eight hour day is no longer the standard anymore and that’s okay. As long as you and your employer have a mutual understanding, I am all for it. As someone who is self-employed, I think that work does not have to fall within the hours of 9am to 5pm and I’m definitely not opposed to working weekends. I come from the school of just getting sh*t done. But I have limitations… I believe we have to take back that hour or so of commute time and spend it on ourselves. How you spend this extra time is up to you. Early on in the pandemic, I started walking a lot because I didn’t have access to a gym. I’ve kept that routine because I realize how much walking achieves for me. The obvious benefits are exercise, fresh air, and sunlight. But the more subtle things that I have come to enjoy are things that some may find silly. For example, I love evening walks where I can smell dinner cooking from my neighbors house. I love chit chatting with neighbors whose dog name I know but not theirs so I say, “Hi Tiger’s Dad, how are you today?” Then I realize I’m like a dog too, if I don’t get out for a 15 minute walk a few times a day, I will pee all over the carpet and scratch the furniture.

The take away here is that we need to use that commute time for ourselves again. If you’re not the walking type, find something else that brings you joy. Perhaps it’s listening to a podcast, a morning meditation, or a sit-down breakfast that you don’t have to rush through. Whatever you find will be great because it’s a moment you get to put yourself first.

Stay tuned Desk Jockeys, more ideas on how to cope with working from home….

To your health,

Kim