I have been a remote worker since the mid-1980s, when 300-baud modems, PC XT "clones," and clunky, $2,500 laser printers were state of the art for home offices. Along the way, I've also held numerous full-time jobs where I drove to the office five days a week, sometimes commuting up to 50 miles each way.
I never got opportunities to work from home for any of my full-time employers until the final two years before I retired. And, even then, I had to drive many miles to attend work meetings in person that lasted maybe 30 minutes and could be summarized in four words: "Do more with less expense." Managing remote workers was not yet a "thing" even in a big telecommunications company.
So what did I do with my work-from-home capabilities over several decades? I found part-time, online opportunities that I could pursue--after or before my regular work hours. I launched my own small online business and pursued it when I was away from my "real" office.
On one occasion, I worked full-time for a company that literally went out of business during the lunch hour, with no notice to workers. Our paychecks bounced at the bank, the building's doors were locked when we returned, and security guards brought down our personal belongings from our desks and shoved them out the front door in cardboard boxes.
Some of my co-workers stood outside the building in disbelief, thinking the sudden closure had to be an elaborate joke. Was it Candid Camera, and would there be a cake-and-coffee party afterward to announce big raises? Others wondered aloud where they could find new work and earn some very quick cash. I just grabbed my box, said some goodbyes and hit the highway for home. That afternoon, sitting in my little home office, I sent out a few emails and made a few phone calls to businesses that previously had given me remote assignments. By the following week, I had several months' worth of work lined up. My family and I would be able to eat, keep the roof over our heads, and meet our obligations.
More than once during a high-tech downturn, I worked from home full-time for up to two years, juggling assignments from several different clients and publications. Then, suddenly, a job opportunity offering better money and stronger family benefits would show up, and I would go back to commuting to offices for a while. But I never gave up my work-from-home capabilities.
Now that I am "retired," I am still doing remote contract work for one company and handling a few writing assignments from another. I have some straightforward advice for employees who have had to set up remote offices so they can work from home during the COVID-19 pandemic. Industries come, and industries go. Companies come, and companies go. But, in your free time, consider what else you can do with your home-office capabilities. More education can be beneficial. So can developing new contacts and taking on some part-time work in fields unrelated to your current career and job. You may hate working from home, but it likely has been a temporary lifesaver for you and those near you. Do not give up this capability. If anything, keep improving your abilities and your gear.
Working from home in some capacity likely will be a feature, not a bug, of whatever lies ahead in the national and global economies.
Si Dunn is a writer, screenwriter, photographer, and semi-skilled digital laborer. He currently works at home at a small table in the urban wilds of Austin, Texas.
"Shadow Horse." Photo by Si Dunn. Copyrighted.