aSK anything: 5.0: Designated Steve-vivor

[swede700]

30 minutes ago, Cearbhall said:

There are a lot of pros to the working from home. The cons aren't negligible either though. With each passing day I feel increasingly disconnected from my teammates and the organization.  As far as productivity, I do feel like I am a lot more productive now. In fact, I am going to go get supper started right now. I couldn't achieve that kind of productivity before they kicked me out.

That's where I'm conflicted myself...I love being able to commute from my living room to my desk in our guest room, but I miss having conversations with others in the office and being able to get up and walk around every so often, since I find myself moving so much less now that I've been here.  So in other words, I may be more productive as far as getting some widgets done (and wasting less time), but my happiness/morale may not be as high as it could be.  

One of the big pluses though is that if I have to work from home permanently, it will allow me to be able to move back to Minnesota and not change my job.  My wife has already indicated that she's open to potentially moving there.  I've never been a fan of Kansas, even though KC is much better than many places here.   

Edited April 1, 2021 by swede700

[Cearbhall]

5 hours ago, swede700 said:

That's where I'm conflicted myself...I love being able to commute from my living room to my desk in our guest room, but I miss having conversations with others in the office and being able to get up and walk around every so often, since I find myself moving so much less now that I've been here.  So in other words, I may be more productive as far as getting some widgets done (and wasting less time), but my happiness/morale may not be as high as it could be.  

One of the big pluses though is that if I have to work from home permanently, it will allow me to be able to move back to Minnesota and not change my job.  My wife has already indicated that she's open to potentially moving there.  I've never been a fan of Kansas, even though KC is much better than many places here.   

Strangely, my experience has been very different even while being somewhat similar. I have been averaging over 20k steps a day since they kicked me out. I can go on a walk whenever I want now without worrying about people wondering why I am not in my office. I take short walks all day long and have been averaging around 3.5 hours with of movement minutes. Sitting in the office I was hard pressed to get to 1.5 hours worth of movement minutes.

My other difference is that I have been dreaming of moving away from Minnesota. Now that I don't have to be here I have trouble figuring out why I would ever stay here in January and February. I have thoughts dancing in my head of buying one of the SpaceX Starlink Internet connections and working from 2 month transcontinental cruises during the winter months. The wife is very interested in this strategy as well. Where we live the rest of the year is probably more dependent on where the grandkids are than anything. I have a couple kids that I don't think will ever leave MN so I suppose I'll be back in MN at least a decent amount. One of my other kids will never live in MN. The fourth is a wildcard still.

 

[wcblack34]

I started working remotely in November of 2019, so the pandemic didn't change a lot for me. I moved to Las Vegas and fly home when my physical presence is required, which isn't often. It's been absolutely amazing for me. As long as I can find wifi, I'm good. I don't know that I'll ever be able to do a M-F in the office gig again. 

[swede700]

10 hours ago, Cearbhall said:

Strangely, my experience has been very different even while being somewhat similar. I have been averaging over 20k steps a day since they kicked me out. I can go on a walk whenever I want now without worrying about people wondering why I am not in my office. I take short walks all day long and have been averaging around 3.5 hours with of movement minutes. Sitting in the office I was hard pressed to get to 1.5 hours worth of movement minutes.

My other difference is that I have been dreaming of moving away from Minnesota. Now that I don't have to be here I have trouble figuring out why I would ever stay here in January and February. I have thoughts dancing in my head of buying one of the SpaceX Starlink Internet connections and working from 2 month transcontinental cruises during the winter months. The wife is very interested in this strategy as well. Where we live the rest of the year is probably more dependent on where the grandkids are than anything. I have a couple kids that I don't think will ever leave MN so I suppose I'll be back in MN at least a decent amount. One of my other kids will never live in MN. The fourth is a wildcard still.

 

That is similar for some people I know...they end up moving around a lot more, but others are like me in moving a lot less.  It varies upon the individual and is probably more mental than anything, considering I feel I have to be at my desk more now than when I actually was in the office.  LOL!

When I was just out of high school, I couldn't wait to get out of Minnesota to "see what else is out there"...now nearly 30 yrs later, I can safely say that what else is out there mostly sucks.  Sure, the weather ain't great in January and February, but that never bothered me immensely...heck, like @ArcticNorsemancan probably attest to, I'm not sure many other people would go to Fairbanks in March for a vacation.  🤣  

[SemperFeist]

After being stationed in Southern California, Florida, and Texas, I can easily say that I’d much rather deal with the Minnesota winter than the summer in any of those other places. 

[swede700]

15 minutes ago, SemperFeist said:

After being stationed in Southern California, Florida, and Texas, I can easily say that I’d much rather deal with the Minnesota winter than the summer in any of those other places. 

I even complain about it when it gets above 90 here in the summer, as it often does...and for much longer than in Minnesota.  I tell people when I retire, you won't catch me anywhere near Arizona or Florida.  I move north, not south.  In fact, we're talking about moving to Canada after retirement and get dual citizenship, since we loved it so much when we were there last March.  We may never do it, but who knows.    

[wcblack34]

19 minutes ago, SemperFeist said:

After being stationed in Southern California, Florida, and Texas, I can easily say that I’d much rather deal with the Minnesota winter than the summer in any of those other places. 

I'll take Vegas in August over ND and MN in January and February. The winters finally broke me. 

[Guest]

1 hour ago, swede700 said:

That is similar for some people I know...they end up moving around a lot more, but others are like me in moving a lot less.  It varies upon the individual and is probably more mental than anything, considering I feel I have to be at my desk more now than when I actually was in the office.  LOL!

When I was just out of high school, I couldn't wait to get out of Minnesota to "see what else is out there"...now nearly 30 yrs later, I can safely say that what else is out there mostly sucks.  Sure, the weather ain't great in January and February, but that never bothered me immensely...heck, like @ArcticNorsemancan probably attest to, I'm not sure many other people would go to Fairbanks in March for a vacation.  🤣  

I have been fortunate to be able to work at our facility, which is appropriate given the nature of my work.  In 2022, I am scheduled for a promotion that will change the nature of what I do and it's possible I will be working from home, as well as traveling between our facilities for check-in with staff I will be responsible for.  I'm not sure that I am looking forward to that aspect of my scheduled promotion.  But, it's still possible that the promotion won't happen as the person I report to in the corporate structure is retiring at the end of the year.

[swede700]

1 minute ago, Virginia Viking said:

I have been fortunate to be able to work at our facility, which is appropriate given the nature of my work.  In 2022, I am scheduled for a promotion that will change the nature of what I do and it's possible I will be working from home, as well as traveling between our facilities for check-in with staff I will be responsible for.  I'm not sure that I am looking forward to that aspect of my scheduled promotion.  But, it's still possible that the promotion won't happen as the person I report to in the corporate structure is retiring at the end of the year.

Well, I'll cross my fingers for you that you'll still get it.  

[SemperFeist]

30 minutes ago, wcblack34 said:

I'll take Vegas in August over ND and MN in January and February. The winters finally broke me. 

I’ve always enjoyed Winter lol

[TENINCH]

2 hours ago, SemperFeist said:

After being stationed in Southern California, Florida, and Texas, I can easily say that I’d much rather deal with the Minnesota winter than the summer in any of those other places. 

I used to feel the same but you're body adapts to the climate you are living in. I miss the snow one day out of the year on Christmas. I love being able to swim in the ocean from the end of April to the beginning of October. Nothing else does more for my moral than swimming in the ocean. Something about the salt and sand. You can wake up early on my side of the ocean and see the sunrise on the water. Then I can drive to the Gulf in 4-5 hours, hang out on the beach over there and watch the sunset on the water.

Northerners coming down to Florida in March and April and find out they get to swim with jellyfish. If you want to experience the ocean don't come down until May when the jellyfish are gone and the water is warm. Then you only need to worry about Sharks. 😉

[ArcticNorseman]

4 hours ago, swede700 said:

That is similar for some people I know...they end up moving around a lot more, but others are like me in moving a lot less.  It varies upon the individual and is probably more mental than anything, considering I feel I have to be at my desk more now than when I actually was in the office.  LOL!

When I was just out of high school, I couldn't wait to get out of Minnesota to "see what else is out there"...now nearly 30 yrs later, I can safely say that what else is out there mostly sucks.  Sure, the weather ain't great in January and February, but that never bothered me immensely...heck, like @ArcticNorsemancan probably attest to, I'm not sure many other people would go to Fairbanks in March for a vacation.  🤣  

Vacationing in Fairbanks in March is actually not a bad idea!    Sunlight finally returns and the temps usually get above 0 during the days.   If you love snow machining, hiking ice caves, ice fishing, and catching raucous northern lights, March is ideal.    

I was in Phoenix in early March and felt 88-deg . . . Its was awesome!  That was March though.    I grew up in Eastern SD and sweat my tail off every summer and I can't imagine spending summers down south.   

To confirm Swede's comment though, Nov 1st through Feb 15th just flat sucks up here.  😜

[vike daddy]

On 4/2/2021 at 7:12 AM, wcblack34 said:

I'll take Vegas in August over ND and MN in January and February. The winters finally broke me. 

me too. in Montana, winters can be 5-6 months long, so the other three seasons share the remaining six months. everyone is the same by February 1, just waiting for it to end. so you spend two months of your life every year in a holding pattern. over the centuries i've lived, that adds up to a lot of wasted time!

here in northern California, flowers are blooming on February 1.

[swede700]

On 4/3/2021 at 9:28 AM, vike daddy said:

me too. in Montana, winters can be 5-6 months long, so the other three seasons share the remaining six months. everyone is the same by February 1, just waiting for it to end. so you spend two months of your life every year in a holding pattern. over the centuries i've lived, that adds up to a lot of wasted time!

here in northern California, flowers are blooming on February 1.

Well, in 10 years, due to climate change, winter will only be 3-4 months long in Montana, so that'd be less wasted time.  

[VikeManDan]

In case anyone else prefers "dark mode" when viewing web pages etc. apparently we've been able to do that on the forum. Just scroll to the bottom of any topic and you'll see "Theme" select the drop down and you'll be able to choose "Night Mode 2.0". Figured I'd share! I've also included the link to the thread in case anyone wanted to read it (4 pages).