If your teams are like ours, the switch to working remote 100% of the time has been a mixed bag; some of us are thriving with the added pants-optional-home-time, while others have their faces pressed against the front window, writing “get me out of here” in the fogged-up glass.
What we all have in common is trying to look at the bright sides of this experience as much as we can. Here are team BridgeView’s unexpected benefits of working from home:
Commute, Schmmute!
- Gone are the days of swearing at our neighbors on the road who do not seem to understand how to drive when we’re are already late to work; our commute from bed to home office is now mere seconds!
- Our environmental footprint has decreased dramatically (we can’t see Russia from our house still, but boy are those mountains clear as day).
- There’s more time to make healthy, delicious meals, and enjoy them at a leisurely pace. No more scarfing down a breakfast burrito in our cars or eating dinner at 9pm for us! We’ve also been exercising more (our Put a Spring in Your Step Challenge has been motivating in all the right ways!), because, frankly, we need the endorphins.
Control Over Our Office Environment
- The temperature is no longer too hot or too cold; it’s just right!
- Pets are now allowed in the office, and many are making their debuts on Zoom meetings every day (there happy dogs thrilled to have so much human-time and grumpy cats trying to knock water glasses onto keyboards to make it all end).
- Loungewear is the new business casual.
- Happy hours now start…well, this one we won’t put in writing!
Connection
- This one seems odd at first, since we are physically separated from one other. However, we are spending more meaningful time with our families, engaging in conversations with spouses about more than the weekly logistics of running our household and shuffling kids to and fro, commiserating over FaceTime with friends and a glass of wine while bemoaning teaching our own kids (while saying teachers deserve raises and medals and unlimited wine for being the superheroes they are)…the list goes on.
Community
- We have been blown away by the commitment of our communities to keeping each other safe and have a deep sense of appreciation for our neighbors like never before.
Whether you are thriving or surviving right now, I think we can all agree that slowing down life has had some positive effects for us all. Stay safe, and focus on the positive whenever possible.
