Communication with the boss.

[imwjl]

In my case the boss and I both can have to disguise where we really are, and I wish I could be gone as much, often and far as him.

Taking a call from Apple Watch works well for someone to honestly know I'm very busy. Bike rides have been mistaken for being in the data center. My programmer friends are more skilled such as be careful when live music is in the background or you're in line to get a beer.

 

[blowtorch]

I auditioned Wednesday night for an instrumentalist position ....right in the middle of an on-call duty week.
Luckily everything stayed quiet- I was ready though, I had the work phone and my work laptop in tow , just in case

pretty much everyone does that sort of thing, and I'm just now, after some years, starting to get comfortable enough with the idea that I'll be away from my homebase at times, during oncall.

It's dumb. I can do everything for that away from home that I can at home, I'm just not real comfortable with it.
At least I'm loosening up some, in that regard

 

[68tele]

As long as u got connectivity, home is where the laptop is.

 

[Togman]

I can honestly say that the communication with my boss has improved significantly since November 2019. That's when I started working for myself.

 

[BigDaddyLH]

Be sure to use a fake Zoom background

 

[P-Nutz]

My bosses honestly don't give a chit where I'm working, as long as I get my work done. I'm usually in the office (I work at a university advising students, teaching two online classes and doing internship and job placement) but I could just as easily do it in a coffee shop on campus. They don't care, which is cool ...

That said, after 30 years of pubic school life, I am so used to getting my azz up and going somewhere that it's been a bit of an adjustment.

 

[cometazzi]

I've never been given any definitive parameters about this. There's a vague assumption that I'm 'available' from 7am to 3:30pm M-F. But then there are things like the owner of the company calling me at 8pm last night because he and the database developer locked themselves out of the database server. There's also a parallel vague assumption that I'm 'available' 24/7.

When I ask for specifics I just kinda get more vague rules of thumb. For the last 14 years or so I was an hourly employee, and even though I was often pulling 50-hour weeks there was a very clear distinction between "working" and "not working". As a salaried employee, I'm frequently going over the 40 hour weeks and while my immediate supervisor tells me to knock off at 40 and/or take 'comp days' or whatever, I see him doing 50-hour weeks and I regularly get emails from him at 10pm on a Sunday night.

On one hand, I feel like I could screw around like all the sales types who sit at home and play video games all day or take weeks to reply to emails. On the other hand, I feel like I should do what's right and give all I can.

On the third hand, I feel like I should skill up some and look for something else and/or better.

 

[1293]

I'm 10+ years into retirement. I was always able to get my work done in 40hrs. Unfortunately, I spent 30 hours a week in useless meetings getting nothing done plus a 12 hour weekly commute.