For those Telecommuters among us – you have my respect. Telecommuting is definitely not for me and this experience with H1N1 has reinforced that. Everything is different from home. The time goes by differently (it starts fast and then slows to a crawl in the afternoon), the ability to organize changes (it gradually disappears), and most of all how one interfaces with the outside world changes. The periods of complete solitude become more frequent and pronounced. For extroverts like myself, this is the hardest part. Add to this the fact that no one in my family wants to come within ten feet of me, and yes, it’s lonely! For those of you who choose to be Telecommuters, I don’t know how you do it and once again you have my respect.
I thank God for skype. With skype I have the ability to teleconference with anyone in the world at any time and I have certainly taken advantage of that over the last few days. Skype brings you VOIP, voice over IP, technology at zero cost so long as your connecting party is on their computer. I went a step further 6 months ago and paid the annual subscription fee (~$30) that would enable me to make skype calls to phone lines. Once a week I make a skype call from my office in Pittsford to a colleague’s office phone in Buffalo and have an hour conference call at zero cost for the minutes. The cost was borne in that annual fee, which has paid for itself a bazillion times over. There is even an app on the iphone, which comes in handy when you are neither at your computer nor in a wireless zone. The app allows you to make a skype call from your iphone to any phone or skype account with, guess what, no minutes usage. What you effectively have then is a phone to phone call to anywhere in the world with no long distance or usage charges. Cool.
Another cool thing about skype is the ability to share your screen. You can set it up so that the other party can see your entire desktop and watch your every move online. Sweet. Tools like these, along with other free tools like those Steve Tylock teaches with Linkedin, make the virtual project team much more do-able. Even as recently as five years ago one would need to spend a pretty penny to make such communication and collaboration tools available for a project. And in this economy free is a very good thing.
Now 13 days into my bout with H1N1 I am finally beginning to feel like a human being again. I still tire easily and cough up half a lung on a regular basis, but I think the worst is behind me. This virus appears to affect people differently; I’ve heard of those who’ve only had a couple of bad days and then bounced right back. There’s of course also the other extreme. A 15-year-old girl came down with the flu on a Wednesday and was dead on Sunday. Pneumonia had set in rapidly, and even though she had no underlying health conditions, she could not recover. I’ve also heard though that we typically have thousands die each year of the annual run-of-the-mill flu and this particular strain may be no different. But who knows. Get the vaccine as soon as you can and don’t test the theory!
Telecommuting can be a God-send for some project teams and for those individuals who prefer to work from home. It does save gas, time, and energy – good for the Green environmental thing. Tools have evolved rapidly making it a more feasible option as we are able to communicate and collaborate effectively on a virtual basis. But it’s not for me. Give me my desk on the 2nd floor at The Old Pickle Factory any day.
