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What’s up, losers? How’s the office treating you? It’s a little too cold, isn’t it? You know where it’s perfectly comfortable? My couch, where I’m working from today. I woke up at 9 a.m., and instead of going through the exhausting motions of showering and getting on a train packed with half-naked high schoolers heading to Lollapalooza, I decided to send my favorite email. That’s right. I’m working from home on a Thursday. Living the high life. But it wasn’t always like this. In the year that I’ve been with my company, the frequency of me working from home has drastically increased, and with it, has come a notable relaxation in the email I would send to my bosses. Let’s break it down.
Month 1
The first time I ever worked from home, I was still an intern at my company, and desperately trying to get them to overlook their hiring freeze and let me come on full-time. The idea of working from home was still foreign to me, and despite all my bosses and coworkers only coming into the office between three and four times a week, I was very nervous. While usually people sent their emails first thing in the morning, I decided to take it a step further and send mine a full week prior, because I’m a fucking nerd.
Sample email:
Subject: Working From Home Request 8/14/17
Hey *****,
I was wondering if I could work from home next Thursday (8/14). I have a 6pm flight out of O’Hare and it would help me be able to make it while still getting a full day of work in. I spoke with ***** and *******, and made sure they were ok with it. Let me know whenever you get a chance.
Thanks!
The response:
“Sure dude.”
Months 3-6
At this point, I had been hired on full time, and had gotten to know my coworkers and the company culture much better. I had gone on bar crawls with my boss, and played flip cup with his boss. However, I still felt that, as the junior on my team, I couldn’t just work from home all willy-nilly. I had at least stopped asking my bosses permission, mainly due to one of them telling me that he “doesn’t give a shit where I work from as long as I get my shit done, so stop asking me.”
Sample email:
Subject: Working From Home
Hey guys,
I’m working from home today because I have a plumber coming in to deal with a toilet issue. I’ll be available via email, Skype, and at (408)-***-****. I’m currently on ******, *********, and ****** projects. If you need anything, don’t hesitate to ask!
Thanks!
The response:
“Next time eat more fiber and you won’t need a plumber.”
Months 7-9
This is where they fucked up. I got a big ol’ promotion, and it went directly to my head. In seven months I had jumped from Intern, to Jr. Copywriter, and now I was a full blown Copywriter. You know who else had that title? Don Fucking Draper, baby. (Well, he was probably a creative director at his earliest point, but you know who was a copywriter? Season three Peggy, baby.) This is where I made the turning point from “working from home occasionally”, to “working from home every Friday,” and I never looked back. When you work at a company that has beer Thursdays and a fully stocked bar, Fridays can be tough to come in to the office. Especially when you know your whole team isn’t going to be there.
Sample Email:
Subject: WFH
Dudes,
I’m WFH today. On *****, *******, and ******* projects. Available in all ways.
Thanks!
The response: None.
Months 10-12
At this point, I was truly cemented in my company. I loved what I did, I loved the pople I worked with, and I loved our unlimited work from home days. Like most of my team, I worked from home every Friday, with few exceptions. My bosses knew that I went out with my volleyball team after games on Thursdays, and they could expect a “WFH” email on Fridays. We had an understanding.
Sample email:
Subject: WFH
Yo,
Given that this email is reaching you at 2am, I think it’s fair to say I’ll be too hungover to take the train tomorrow morning. I’ll be working from my couch. I’m on ********, ********, and ***** projects. Hit me up on email or my cell. Fuck Skype, I can never get that thing to work.
Peace
The response: (Several gifs making fun of me).
Month 13
So we had a bunch of layoffs last month. Luckily, I survived, but between the industry taking one of its cyclical downturns and our parent company being so bold as to demand actual profit from us, we had to let some people go. Office moral took a hit, as did my confidence in my job security.
Sample email:
Subject: Working From Home
Hello all,
Just a heads up that I’ll be working from home today. I’m working on ******, *********, ********, *****, *********, ********, and ******** projects. I’m available in all ways, and can come in if need be.
Thanks, team!
The response: “Thanks for letting us know! Enjoy your Friday!” .
Respond
Nick Arcadia
The opposite of a life coach. Email or DM me if you want some bad advice: nickarcadiapgp@gmail.com
@noampao
noamio
You guys ever notice how most cities keep building high rise apartments and condos and office spaces along major arteries of road and rail lines yet not realizing that the infrastructure already can’t accommodate the population as is as trains and lanes are packed until past 10am, filled with people just trying to get to work and sign into their web based platforms/software? I can’t wait to get phased out by a neural network lol
Was going to ask if you guys are hiring until I saw that last part
We can’t work from home at my current company – we use desktops and are still working with physical paper and binders. But I actually like it this way because it also means that we are not expected to work when we are not physically in the office. Once I’m out at 5 PM, I’m out until 8 AM the next day/Monday. No texts from my boss (who doesn’t have my phone number) and no email access so I couldn’t work even if I wanted to.
In this day and age of people constantly working because they always have their laptops and email access, it’s nice to be able to not think about work at all once I’m no longer there.
Great trade-off.
Great take, Bill. I’ve had WFH and office only jobs and prefer the office. I seem to be more productive and I enjoy the out of sight, out of mind aspect of never working outside business hours
This is exactly why I’ve declined to put my work e-mail on my phone.
Boss made us all WFH last Friday and then messaged us at 11am saying that he made a tee time and to meet him at the course at 12:30. I love that man
Y’all hiring?
Hot take: I don’t know how people work from home; I need to get out of the apartment. My office is built for productivity, my apartment is not. Depends on your job and industry, however.
I only work from home when I know I don’t have shit to do anyways. Will lay in bed watching tv, using my iPad, and reaching over occasionally to waggle my finger on the work laptop to keep it awake and not idle. Bonus points for cranking up the volume so you can hear incoming emails/IMs
I have never set my alarm for every 20 minutes until noon just to keep my IM active while I slept off a hangover.
Fun fact: if you play a long video on YouTube you don’t even have to touch the mousepad as it will keep your computer screen active the whole time it plays. Mute video and turn up volume on computer for notifications.
My old boss refused to let us WFH even though every other team in the company had no problem with it. Creating outlandish excuses as to why I couldn’t make it in on Friday is about the only thing I miss doing at that hellscape
Where is the line when you just say fuck it and don’t send the courtesy email? Asking for a friend..
Never have I ever sent a WFH email and I can’t remember the last time I was in the office 5 days straight. Sounds like an extra pain in the ass.
Any good boss shouldn’t give you a hard time as long as your work is getting done. My last company would make us submit a list of what we worked on, and would make us come in when the weather was bad, justifying it as “we can’t have everyone working from home”
Just set your Skype for Business location to WFH and call it good