Work

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I was thinking today marks one year of remote work. πŸ’»

It was over a year ago that I took that bus ride home one last time from downtown. I don’t remember if I walked down to Kiernan Plaza to catch the bus that previous Friday, but almost always did when I got out 5 o’clock to minimize my time sitting in the bus on the way home. Then the old life was just over.

While I figured out how to make remote work possible, it wasn’t easy at first for me as I didn’t have Internet at home and not really even a good place to sit and do work in my tiny apartment without a computer desk or any fancy equipment. I usually just walked down to the library — figuring it was good exercise, especially if I was planning to sit down in front of a screen for a double of hours.

Ultimately, I ended up spending a lot of time down at the library parking lot. Eventually I got a work hotspot, which didn’t work right with my Linux computer, and then a work laptop, which worked better. But I had to be careful about data use and making sure not to do any personal activity on that machine. I kind of liked being at the library or other Wi-FI, as I didn’t have to worry about data use or staying strictly on work related sites as I worked.

The first few days where kind of crazy, as nobody was prepared for all the changes that were underway. Work projects progressed, but everything was disrupted, there was gaps in time. And at first, I felt like I had to always be within reach of a Wi-Fi signal at the library, the park, or Five Rivers, lest a project come in. Once I got the work laptop, that made things flow a bit better. Then I had the option for a quick work project that I couldn’t do with just my phone, I could use the work laptop for that purpose.

On and off I thought about getting Internet at home, but it came down to it, I am glad I didn’t because it’s so more flexible having the work hotspot and later my own phone as a hotspot. When I needed to do something that took a lot of data I could go to the library or other location with Wi-Fi, but I also wasn’t chained to my computer at home, so I could spend a lot of time doing remote work up from Adirondacks and Green Mountains in the heat of summer.

Without air conditioning, there were some hot days when I was in town, but during the worst heat waves of the summer, I spend up at camp, working remotely. And that was kind of fun, although it was so much time watching the power meters, to ensure things remained charged and making sure I had cell services wherever I was. The winter that was I had higher heating and electric bills as I was home so much, although it wasn’t as bad of a bite as I thought it would be because the winter weather was mild.

When will I go back to my office and working downtown again? Nobody seems to know, a lot depends on the progress of the virus. Remote working had it’s advantages and disadvantages for sure, but it was kind of fun. But I do miss being downtown, interacting with colleagues, and even the down time on the bus. Working downtown was a chance to be out of my apartment and be away from my bedroom, which I spend too much time in, especially during the winter months when it’s too cold to work outside, or at the library or from the wilderness. That said, I wouldn’t mind a few days working remotely from camp when the weather gets nicer.

The pandemic forced a massive remote-work experiment. Now comes the hard part – CNN

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The pandemic forced a massive remote-work experiment. Now comes the hard part – CNN

In March 2020, companies across the US abruptly shuttered their offices and instructed employees to work from home indefinitely as a result of the pandemic. At first, many thought the shutdowns would last a couple months. But one year later, millions of workers are still working remotely. The pandemic has forced a large segment of the global workforce to go through a remote-work experiment on a scale never seen before -- and a lot has changed in the last 12 months. The boundary between our work and our personal lives has become blurred. Working at the kitchen table has become common and, for parents, juggling virtual school while trying to hit work deadlines has become a daily challenge.

NPR

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Biden Backs Amazon Warehouse Workers’ Union Drive : NPR

Amazon warehouse workers in Alabama voting to unionize won the backing of an important executive.

Without naming the massive e-commerce company specifically, President Joe Biden said in a video posted late Sunday that he supports the organizing drive in Bessemer, Ala.

"Today and over the next few days and weeks, workers in Alabama and all across America are voting on whether to organize a union in their workplace," Biden said in a video shared to his Twitter page. "This is vitally important — a vitally important choice, as America grapples with the deadly pandemic, the economic crisis and the reckoning on race — what it reveals is the deep disparities that still exist in our country."

A year out from the start of work from home during the pandemic, I was thinking how life and expenses will change once I start going back to work every day downtown

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A year out from the start of work from home during the pandemic, I was thinking how life and expenses will change once I start going back to work every day downtown …

  • Less free time as I will have to commute, no opportunity to work with my hotspot and phone up in the woods
  • I won’t be doing my morning walks any more, although on nice days when I don’t have to dress up for work, I’ll be walking down to the express bus stop
  • I will once again have the cost of bus fare, which is around 54 bucks a month with my bus card
  • Late nights at work won’t just be from home, but instead I will have to be downtown and then waiting for the bus in the evening all sleepy eyed and hungry
  • I will drop my hotspot / enhanced mobile data plan on my phone, which will save around 17 or 18 a month
  • I will be walking down to the library or the park a few nights a week when I want to get Internet with my laptop
  • I won’t be able to watch videos on my phone without the enhanced plan, so I’ll have to download them on my laptop or do other activities in the evening
  • I will have to start packing lunches, as I won’t be able to make them by just going down to my kitchen
  • No more driving down to the library to get internet from the safety of my truck – I’ll be able to walk down there and work inside or on the park bench
  • I will spend less on electricity and heat because I won’t be home every day

I am wondering when the vaccine will become widely available and remote work will come to an end

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I am wondering when the vaccine will become widely available and remote work will come to an end … 😞

Honestly, I am hoping that is far off as possible in the future, because last summer was a lot of fun doing remote work from the Adirondacks and Green Mountains. After last summer, I got the technology down much better and know all the places I can work while sitting in the cool lake breeze, go for a swim on my lunch break, and get free and fast internet from Wi-Fi. Plus now that I’ve upgraded my phone plan, I don’t have to worry about using too much work data, as I have unlimited phone data and 20 GB of hotspot. Plus with VPN access, I don’t ever have to go into the office to work.

I sure would like some more pleasant days working at Lake Pleasant. But I don’t know if that’s likely to happen or if I will back to the routine working downtown.

Campfire

The Dream Job That Wasn’t | The New Republic

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The Dream Job That Wasn’t | The New Republic

My dream did not materialize, but as I entered the workforce, my early sense of what a dream job actually was only deepened. I wanted to do something I cared about and have my life taken care of in the process, but I always had some understanding that even the most fulfilling, best-paid job in the world would also still be work. After all, no one sees a horse pulling a cart and thinks that they aren’t laboring. Horses aren’t doing laps with fidgety nine-year-olds in their off-hours. No one says to a horse, “If you love what you do, you never work a day in your life.ȁ

Some of this is only becoming more obvious, including to myself, in an era when stable, full-time employment is evaporating, and holding on to any job is its own kind of feat. The Economic Policy Institute calculates that the failed political response to the pandemic has left nearly 16 percent of the workforce—26.8 million people—unemployed or employed but losing hours and pay. And having work isn’t necessarily a guarantee against hardship—even before the current recession, one in nine workers received wages too low to get out of poverty, even if they worked full-time hours. But the idea of a dream job is still catnip. There’s a slew of self-help articles advertising tips on how to Land Your ream Job by the End of the Year or 9 Genuine Steps to Quit Your Job and ulfill Your ream. Indeed.com lists info for 25 dream jobs, three-quarters of which have an average national salary of less than $50,000 per year.

What they are and how they work

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mRNA vaccines: What they are and how they work

Vaccines using mRNA, or messenger ribonucleic acid, are on the rise in the fight against the coronavirus pandemic. The technology has yielded encouraging results, but a successful mRNA vaccine has never been created before, which presents new risks. Below are facts about mRNA vaccines, of which several are currently being developed to fight coronavirus.