Working from Home During Covid-19 [bonus] Doug.Show 130.5 #Best Education Page #Online Earning

hey what's going on welcome to the Doug

show this is a bonus episode my wife is

joining me and we're gonna talk about

working from home and dealing with this

kovat 19 situation so Elizabeth how are

you today I'm doing alright it's Friday

night but it really could be any day of

the week because we're sitting here at

home like Groundhog Day yeah how many

days have you been working from home so

far my office closed down two weeks ago

Friday around Friday at noon they said

they were closing the office and I

happen to just be working from home that

day coincidentally so I've been here a

little over two weeks working from home

how do you feel it's been going pretty

well actually I've been I've been

surprised the company that I work for is

doing a really good job trying to keep

up a community encouraging people to

send pictures of their pets and just

share like funny anecdotes or pictures

from the weekend of being at home and

we've been saying you know ten years ago

this wouldn't have been possible there's

such good video chat capability and

everyone has a laptop or we actually

made sure everybody had a laptop when we

saw that this was coming down the pipe

so I've been surprised how relatively

seamless we've been able to make it yeah

yeah it seems like it's it's been going

pretty good from what I could tell you

have various like workspaces that you've

been you know going to and fro and I

have a little spot that I always go to

what do you has this been going for you

Oh for me it's been basically about the

same except your home yeah so so a

little bit more of a just like some

distraction for me I have to figure out

meal plans and figure out what to feed

you during the day

sound like a child yep I have to come up

with activities for you to do and I'll

yeah all the normal things that you

would expect so yep I mean I realized

that I mean I knew that I have maybe a

weird lifestyle and I'm a little odd odd

I'm a little odd in general but I mean

really most of the time I'm by myself

and I have some folks that i chat with

on a regular basis on like Skype or I

don't know what other I guess I'm mostly

on Skype Skype and maybe a little zoom

but essentially some video conferencing

situation so I'm in touch with people a

few times a week which is just about

enough for me in general in via email so

it's not the same but I'm just kind of

used to it there's one adjustment that

you've had to make the dog has been

sleeping at my feet instead of it yours

yeah so normally Georgi Georgie's like

tucked in under my desk so she's laying

on my feet oftentimes she dreams and

she's wiggling around on my feet and I

feel her you know her feet moving

maybe she's chasing a squirrel or a

rabbit in her dream maybe some barks or

a Yelp but yeah now she's hanging out

with with you so there that stings I'm

not gonna lie that hurts a little bit

just this week I'll I'll turn around

I'll be looking forward duck started

taking her into the room and shut him

the door which I can't go in there

because he might be recording so if the

doors shut I have to stay out but he's

yeah he's taking the dog hostage yeah

and we used to use the system I would

put a sock on the door but it didn't

work as well so the old dorm room system

so yeah I think I think it's amazing

that so many companies are having to

figure out how to let people work from

home like you said 10 years ago would

have been rough but I mean even at the

beginning of our careers like in the

early 2000s it was like just when

high-speed Enter

was almost good enough to like work from

home and we had escaped from dial-up

when did we start getting like

high-speed Internet like do you actually

remember like the first time you got

like cable internet I don't but I do

I mean I do remember having dial-up I

can't remember the name of I had like

free dial-up it was awful

it's like net zero zero zero yeah I mean

I just and so sorry to interrupt but I

just remember I went into work and I was

working like in front of a computer all

day every day and so I was just like I'm

not you know I'm not gonna pay to have

high speed at home because the last

thing I want to do when I'm at home is

sit in front of a computer and so I

would use net zero just in sort of like

emergency situations and yeah I could

still get away with it back then I

couldn't get away with that now

yeah the bandwidth now for like video I

mean we're like streaming HD on our TV

and then using our phones and I mean our

phones do more now than whatever

computers we had like back in the day

which have you seen any problems with

your video or whatever your normal work

stuff with me being here and having

another person on the computer no I

I haven't there maybe what I have

noticed is because I'm having to do more

calls with other people that don't

normally do video calls I'm noticing

that other people have poor internet

connections we were lucky enough to be

here in Longmont Colorado and it has

like just beautiful high-speed

Internet by the city it's like part of

the utility I mean you have to pay for

it but it's like one gig up one gig down

and it's 50 bucks a month it's amazing

it's really really good in its its fiber

like to our to our apartment here and

it'll be in our house when we're moving

but basically it's super fast and I

think with fiber you don't get the

the same bogged down at least with this

pipeline I don't know I'm just throwing

in buzzwords now but I haven't noticed I

have noticed that a lot of people are

new to video conferencing so their their

videos a little lagging maybe there a

lot of times people have trouble

choosing an audio source which I think I

was was bitching about that

like to you I was like can these people

just figure out how to pick the audio

source they're like I think it's on your

end Doug and I'm like it's not on my end

I'm doing like all I do calls all day

long you know I'm pretty sure I'm pretty

sure that my microphone is selected

properly so anyway yeah speaking of it

it's this is the second week of a video

conferencing and I I was probably pretty

horrible the first week because there

was a lot of what Doug's talking about

so I'd be like hey you're not on mute

hey we can't hear you

and just I was just so frustrated the

first few days with sort of people

having difficulty using the technology

but hey it only took it only took a week

or so and there's one person who shall

remain nameless who just can't seem to

get her audio right but I think we've

all just accepted it at this point that

that we're not gonna be able to hear and

I think you're right I think she has the

wrong audio source I don't think she's

picking headset I think she's picking

earphones and so her audio is still I

don't know what she's doing but nobody

can hear anyway all right so what are we

talking about yeah so we will we'll get

around to it I mean the good thing is we

have plenty of time in this is a bonus

episode so like this is just for us

really good cuz this is fine right

Friday night yeah Friday night

quarantine style what we will eventually

talk about is working from home and tips

on working from home so we're kind of

easing into it I do want to point out

and maybe just a little tangent there

potentially are some good

you know I don't know if we want to call

it good but there are some positive

aspects of like this I guess

locked down lifestyle or what are we

calling it as shelter in place is at the

actual shelter in place order and that

just rolled out here in Colorado like

two days ago but we were generally kind

of trying to do that anyway and I think

we were thinking about maybe some

positive stuff and one thing is national

parks because we enjoy national parks

and a lot of the very popular parks like

Yellowstone or Rocky Mountain National

Park or the Grand Tetons they get very

crowded in the summer to the point where

there are like traffic jams and just a

ton of people and I was like you know

what if the parks did those parks that I

mentioned are all closed right now by

the way but if or when they open up

there's a chance it'll be way fewer

people and you could kind of enjoy the

park without tons of tons of people I

see Elizabeth um's and making her face

at me you can't appreciate this but

what's going on over there I just you've

mentioned this potential perk of the

coronavirus like two or three times and

I don't know I think it's a pretty

that's pretty weak I think that's what

my face is is pretty weak Doug

since he works from home and he gets to

choose like when he goes out and who

he's around doesn't like crowds I just I

just think that's a pretty weak if our

best if the best thing that comes out of

coronavirus is fewer crowds at a

national park for like the month after

they reopen that's that's pretty sad

that's all what's one of yours then I

haven't been able to come up with one

all right how about less pollution yeah

you like that one - yeah there's less

people on the roads

traffic's a little less

and I you you even said earlier global

warming is over you said this is gonna

go on for two or three months and then

it's gonna be like hey there's no more

global warming well I mean we can't go

back to what we were doing but I mean

surely there are some benefits and not

having as many cars on the road okay so

one perk or perk that's such a bad word

but one potential unexpected positive

side effect in the future maybe people

will be better about washing their hands

and more hygienic in general and so

future flu seasons won't be as bad and

and other viruses won't propagate as

quickly because everyone will just be a

little bit more conscious and cautious

about spreading germs that could be a

potential positive side effect I was

just chatting with my mom today and I

told her I'm now washing my hands almost

every time I go to the bathroom and then

my mom admitted that she hardly ever

washes her hands no I'm just kidding she

washes her hands quite a lot okay so we

actually have a lot of insight on

working from home because we both worked

from home for four years before any of

this happened and even before the

technology was as good so what's your

experience working from home just so

people know what an expert you are let's

see I like working from home it's

different and it takes I think a little

bit getting used to and I mean you can

google it anywhere and you can find a

list of you know top ten tips or

whatever I think hold on one second

what's your experience working from home

like you've done it for a year so just

so that people understand the awards

from home in the past

oh my experience working from home is

that I have is I'm sure I understand the

question oh yeah how many years have you

worked from home can you explain the

scope of that okay

so I don't think I've worked from home

quite as long as Doug thinks I have I

was a consultant and so I worked

remotely and when I wasn't traveling I

worked from home for several years and

then when we moved to Montana I worked

from home exclusively for about a year

and a half and then I got laid off is

that good yeah yeah so at least a few

years and it spans several decades a few

years and several decades we can just

edit all that out that's my experience

working from home

okay I'll definitely note the time here

so I could add at that what's your

experience working for whom experience

isn't the right word I don't think you

meant what's your tenure I don't know

something like that oh yeah just well

for me I I worked from home while I was

doing consulting as well for different

periods a lot of times it ended up being

like you know 20% of the time and I

think starting in 2010 so nearly 10

years ago I started working from home

like intermittently and it grew and it

grew until it was basically full-time

working from home and I think that was

roughly maybe 2012 or 13 so at that

point even with my with my full-time job

when I was doing consulting I was I was

doing a lot of working from home and

Georgie is running around here it's very

it's very distracting I can't think yeah

it is a bonus episode so yeah I have I

would say about eight years almost

full-time like working from home

something like that and then a little

extra on top of that

so okay and we have several several tips

and I think I may be mentioned the

little list that I'm looking at here but

what's your number one tip Elizabeth for

working from home just I mean what's the

first one that comes to mind the first

one that comes to mind is I think have

sort of a dedicated working space and as

I say this right now I can see my work

laptop where we're sitting and we're in

a pretty small apartment right now it's

gonna get a little bigger soon but I

think it's important to be able to

segment sort of the workday from you're

just like relaxation and home day and

that can be difficult if space is

limited which it is here but I think

that's my number one tip you can be

tempted to just like keep working or

when you get up in the morning to turn

on your computer right away and to check

your emails and to log in and be present

but I think it's important to set those

boundaries that was the number one thing

that I had there was the first thing I

wrote down so he's a really good job

there thanks I think yeah you bring up a

good point having a space so I have a

you know the second bedroom has like an

office zone that is that is mine

and then I end you know doing doing the

work there now that wasn't always the

case and I set up in different zones and

we actually traveled a decent amount as

well and I would set up a works

workspace so if you I think if you don't

have the extra space it can be

worthwhile to like set it up and like

tear it down so you have like that

dedicated spot and you get a couple

benefits one like you said you end up

like being able to shut it down and like

turn it off and go away where I can like

leave the office and then I'm I'm in

good shape so I'm not like

I need to go check my computer again or

something like that but if you take

everything down and I used to do this

when we were you know renting renting a

house or something like that or doing

slow travel and then you'd turn it off

it's really nice and I think there's

some other like psychological benefit if

there's like the room that you always

work in and you go in that room and

that's where you're thinking about work

and then when you leave it you can kind

of leave it behind I think I've kind of

like that's not as important for me but

I think maybe I it's hard for me to stop

thinking about something if I've really

like latched on to it maybe so another

important tip that I have noticed this

past two weeks

be ready to get peer pressured into

video chatting at any time so I think it

used to be just like a conflict we were

saying before high-speed internet was

readily available you would just do a

conference call and nobody would think

about it but now we've got webex's and

immediately last week there were you

know one person turns on their video

chat a conference call and then they're

like oh I can see so-and-so everybody

turned their zone I want to see everyone

there were definitely some people who

are not prepared for that ah interesting

yeah interesting you don't have to wear

pants you know it's just like that TV

news anchors but like you know waist up

you need to be ready to go at any time

that's funny

one of the other I looked at a couple

lists online just to see what was out

there and I saw someone said dress up

for work to your point so perhaps you're

ready for those random calls and I

wasn't I wasn't even thinking that but

some people like for whatever reason

need to feel like I am putting on

clothes now I'm a professional now and I

have slowly do I mean you know what I

didn't like dressing up I think my

clothes kind of sucked now I wear like

black v-neck t-shirt 80% of the

time and then some

mother stained shirts the rest in this

time or workout stuff but the gyms

closed now so but yeah yeah I can see

like some people are like hey I'm gonna

get ready I'm gonna do my hair again not

a thing I got to do and then it puts

them in the work mode yeah I see that

so a mental switch and I guess have you

have you actually like after you realize

hey you may have to hop on a video call

so you're like you know fixing your hair

or you know doing doing that stuff I

there was one call there was one time in

the past ten days where you know you're

on the video chat and you can see

yourself and I looked down and I was

like you do better you've got to do

better than that and then I did have a

video chat that the CEO of my company

was on this week and I got up and did my

hair put a little makeup on and got not

from the CEO cuz that would probably be

inappropriate but from a friend that I

worked with I got a little Skype that

was like wow you look really nice today

so yeah it makes a little bit of a

difference but I think I'm going about

50/50 in terms of getting dressed you

know just like not in sweats and a

sweatshirt but actually putting on like

like clothes that I might go to work and

I'm about 50/50 but I do think it makes

a mental difference when I when I get

dressed like an adult

well they say dress for the job you want

not the job you have right yeah that's

right

so another like a luchador yeah if

anybody gets that joke shoot us an email

it's feedback it duck does shell

feedback and tag - OH

dress for the job you want not the job

you have it's a dress like a luchador

google it okay the other the other thing

which totally makes sense to me just in

a general sense is have a schedule and

like understand when you're going to be

working and when you're gonna turn it

off

again I think the tendency may be is to

sit and just keep working if everyone

has their laptops up at home and someone

sends a message and someone pings you

like you may hop back on and then it's

kind of a never-ending battle but it's

not that's not a great way to have like

a company culture in my opinion I mean

most of the places I worked literally

did that what's the company culture of

the duck company anything goes anything

goes very very loose here loose but

strict rule with an iron fist like yeah

but but flexible yeah loose dress code

yep so if you have a schedule and I mean

you you have meetings and you have a

normal set of people that you need to

interact with a decent number of folks

so have you been able to keep a pretty

tight schedule it goes it goes off and

on I think there's a lot going on with

my company right now but um yeah just

still sort of easing into it definitely

normal work hours I've been able to I've

been able to keep that but you know you

also realize how much time at the office

you waste just chit-chatting with

friends and we literally have a water

cooler so going to the water cooler

talking in the kitchen things like that

and so we're making sort of the company

I think as a whole is making a conscious

effort to keep that up and so I have

gotten skypes from people that say hey

I'm virtually walking by your desk right

now and saying hello because that's what

would happen at the office and so we'll

just stop what we're doing and you know

we'll chat for a few minutes probably at

least half the time something

work-related comes up hey did you see

that you know TPS report

and what you think of it and we'll talk

about it so yeah cool and you guys did

like a virtual happy hour and you each

told like a little anecdote right

something like that yeah the the company

right now

they really are making a very concerted

effort to keep us connected to keep us

engaged they're very focused on our

mental health right now it's it's nice

but yeah it was my boss actually put put

together the the virtual happy hour

which was kind of funny it's Friday

today but it started I think from 3:30

to 4:30 or 3:00 to 4:00 and then it's

smoke we kept getting pushed back and

eventually it was like a 1:30 to 2:30

Friday happy hour because later meetings

were conflicting and so we all got on

the call and I thought well you know

this isn't really gonna be a happy hour

this is just gonna be a 1-hour WebEx of

team bonding and then my boss holds up

her beer and so I was like well shoot

we're doing this so I I went and got a

beer and we all yeah we all just sat

around and did not talk one bit about

work just just people just hanging out

getting to know each other a little bit

better having a good time yeah and

speaking of beer I need to get a little

bit more from the kegerator myself but

can you share the anecdote that you told

about your your special talent

sure so yeah so you were supposed to

share something that people didn't know

about you something interesting and the

first guy in our group that went I don't

remember the details but it was he

basically said you know the summer I was

14 I almost died three times and it

wasn't a hyperbole like a hyperbole

hyperbole he literally almost died three

times like he got stung by a bee and

then he was run over by a bus it was

ridiculous and so he he told the story

and there's about nine of us on the call

and we all looked at each other we're

like well we can't top that right so in

the

next guy that goes talks about lighting

like a field on fire when he was a kid

accidentally I guess I don't even really

remember that because I'm trying to

think what I'm gonna say so like whole

field goes up in flames

well that's arson that's something good

so um yeah my story was when I was in

seventh grade I competed with my friend

Emily in the church talent show

we were jugglers and it was

choreographed too we didn't start the

fire by billy joel and yeah pretty cool

I think everybody was suitably impressed

yeah and kind of kind of an in-your-face

to the guy to the started the fire right

think about that we didn't start the

fire it was always burning this is a

really cool story yeah thanks thanks for

that yeah happy to share that as a group

okay so a couple more that I have on my

list here and I just note it as you have

to figure out like how you're going to

work while other people are around or

pets or something like that so when

you're in the office like everyone

should mostly be there to work I assume

and then if you're working at home and

now like schools are closed like you're

working from home your kids usually

would be in school and maybe you have to

partially homeschool them I'm actually

not a hundred percent sure like how

schools I'm sure it's different in every

state and county and city if they're

giving like any lesson plans or like

here's what we were gonna cover give it

your best shop in you kind of have to

figure out what you're gonna do with the

kids and I have no clue I mean what are

your co-workers doing you have any

can you share any nonspecific things

like I think they're all just doing the

best they can honestly like I don't have

any I don't have any firm stories I know

there's some people who are

homeschooling anyway and they're still

homeschooling it and then I think the

other folks are just trying to keep the

kids occupied as best they can while

they go about their business I think

some of the schools did sort of like a

two-week delay and then they were

getting together their remote curriculum

that is gonna start being pushed out but

yeah I can't even imagine having having

children around but like I said before

Doug and I are in a relatively small

place right now and I think most most of

my co-workers with kids and families are

in larger houses and so you can

hopefully have a little bit more

separation yeah we're in a pretty small

place for the amount of living things in

here video games

I just remembered video games have been

huge for those with kids like I think

you know it seems like most parents try

to limit that sort of activity and you

know dude with the kids sitting in front

of the TV all the time but I think

almost everyone I work with their kids

are playing a lot of video games right

now that would be a great sort of time I

mean like summer starting early

basically cuz I mean potentially people

would have to or kids have to figure out

what did--what to do at home anyway so

yeah very crazy and then I guess if you

have to teach I know some of our friends

Carl and Mindy like Carl is home I mean

they're sort of self quarantine anyway

but they have a couple kids and I know

Carl was trying to you know teach teach

his best he can for whatever lessons I

don't know what he was working on

exactly but I know that's probably a

little stressful you know you don't want

to get the kids behind and you want to

do a good job could be frustrating for

everybody involved

and speaking of frustration

just kidding it hasn't been too bad have

I been very distracting for for your

work no you've been fine I think you've

been more frustrated that I'm here yeah

this very observant but not now really I

mean I think just there's more like

sometimes if I walk walk out usually I

would just like grab a drink walk back

in but instead I get to have a nice like

rewarding I would say conversation so so

yeah basically you got to know what to

do with your kids pets or spouses now

one thing is Georgie she's resting right

now on her little pillow and she has

been you know hanging out with Elizabeth

a lot more but you're also able to take

her out for some walks which is I think

good for everybody right so it's good

for her you're getting out and then I'm

able to like not have to walk her as

much yeah I love walking around

sometimes we were like you're gonna take

her I was gonna take her and then she'll

just get like an extra walk sometimes

but I think it's super important to get

out there and take those walks now I

know it's your normal office right you

make it a point to always walk right I

do yep I walk pretty much every day

unless it's just raining or horribly

windy outside yeah and our company as I

was saying you know trying to keep sort

of business as usual really focusing on

mental health every year we do a step

challenge

around this time and it starts again on

Monday and they're still they're still

gonna they're still going to do it just

like normal they did put a little

disclaimer in the entry form that they

were not encouraging us to do anything

that would expose us to you know more

virus or go against you know government

or CDC recommendations in terms of

social distancing but yeah the company

supports

exercise that's good I think it's

interesting

I mean people may be able to get more

more steps in being away from the office

just I don't know if people felt like

maybe they couldn't go out as much or

whatever but when I actually now that

I'm thinking about it even way back

before we had that fancy step counters

on her phones or I mean this was back

when I had like a flip phone like barely

even a cell phone I would go out and

walk just around the campus like

whatever office or client side I was in

and I remember I was on this project

where I it was almost like working by

myself I was on this project in a sprint

Overland Park and huge campus beautiful

campus literally no one else on my

project for my company the whole place

so I didn't know anyone

a couple people on boarded me but they

worked for another consulting company

and basically I talked to him for like

two or three days and then I was there

by myself so I would go walk around a

couple miles like during the day I would

go to the farthest cafeteria to get food

just so I could walk walk outside longer

and for me on my normal day so like I

was saying I think in general this is

how my my days and weeks go but I walked

Georgie in the morning worked for a few

hours

Walker a couple more times probably hit

the gym so the only difference is the

gym is closed I think it's I don't know

maybe it keeps me a little more sane

even though I'm not around

people so much and have a little kind of

a weird work working style I don't know

I'm pretty okay working a solo I know

some people really have to have the

social atmosphere be around the office

and I've been just maybe on social media

and on YouTube I see there's a lot of

folks talking about like the the mental

health aspect I'm like not going to the

office and being stuck at home and all

this extra stress out there but yeah for

whatever reason

like just being being by myself

generally I'm okay with it so any

observations on that seems a weird I

guess no it's not weird it's everybody's

different yeah

any other thoughts on just working out

of this little apartment no I think it's

gonna be interesting to see how this

unwinds so there's so many companies

almost all companies now that we've had

the shelter in place but trying to work

from home setting up setting up

employees to do so so I think it's gonna

be interesting when this gets pulled

back and we all do start going back to

the office whether organizations allow

partial work from home on a more regular

basis I think there's been some

hesitation to do that I think there is

value to being face to face but I don't

think it needs to be all the time so

I'll be interested to see you know if I

can stay employed through this downturn

and if you know my company can continue

to thrive if when this comes back if

there can be sort of one rotating day at

home or something like that for most

people because it is a nice perk like

you said to to not our you didn't say it

on here you were talking to your mom

earlier but Doug's sister and

brother-in-law are working from home and

they have pretty long commutes so that's

you know two hours additional in the day

for them just not going back and forth

and that's a nice thing to have so yeah

that's what I'm kind of curious to see

as if this will sort of fundamentally

change the way we think about the

workplace I think by some of the

companies that I worked for in the past

we had the technology and we didn't need

to be in the office and I think it was

after we reached the point where

we had conference calls with a bunch of

people that were supposed to be on it

and most of the people were in the same

office we used to go to a common

conference room so six of us would be in

person we're gonna have the meeting all

face to face and then another two people

would be calling in because they were in

a different office it got to the point

where no one went to the conference room

because they were quote you know

double-booked so they're on to

meetings they're multitasking basically

not paying attention to either one I'm

so busy so at some point it reached like

a critical mass where like no one was

meeting in person even if they were like

sitting on the same aisle which was

totally weird so you have people on the

same call in the same row and they

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