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January 31, 2008
At the Office
I'm working on site with a local client today and it's a surreal experience. Waking up at 7:30 a.m., getting dressed in professional clothes, taking the metro downtown, signing in at the front desk, sitting down to work in an office, scoring a cup of coffee from the communal kitchen, looking periodically at the clock to see when 5 pm rolls around—it's just too weird. Or, maybe too normal.
It's been almost four years since I've worked in an office setting. In the interim, the normal workday routine has become completely foreign to me. These days, when I'm not traveling, I wake up about 9 am, make a cup of tea and sit down to work at the computer for a couple of hours in my pajamas. Sometime around lunch, I take a shower and put on jeans and a sweater—but never shoes,my feet must be free to express themselves.
I continue to work throughout the afternoon and into the evening, usually sitting at my desk but sometimes taking my laptop over to the couch. On rare occasions I have even taken my laptop into bed with me, to take advantage of my electric blanket during the cold winter months.
My dry cleaning bill has dropped to nothing, I spend more hours in pajamas than I do in “real clothes”. I have been known to take conference calls wearing nothing more than a towel—and sometimes that towel is wrapped around my head.
I go to the gym in the middle of the day, and make a point to swing by the local coffee shop at some point. I often run across the street to Whole Foods right at 5 pm to pick up a baguette straight out of the oven.
In some ways, it's bliss. It's especially nice when I'm doing a lot of traveling—when I need the opportunity to do a couple loads of laundry in between meetings so that I can be prepared to catch a flight a mere 24 hours after returning home from the last trip. And it makes those times when I do dress up and put on my “professional persona” a bit of a treat.
On the other hand, I love sitting in a “real” office. I love the personal connection with employees who are able to walk down the hall to each other's offices. I love grabbing a coffee with people and sharing the water cooler gossip. I love picking up at 6 p.m. and going home to a real, separate personal life.
On the whole though, I think I prefer wearing slippers most days, and just dabbling in normal office life.
