Since I managed to not die with meningitis in 2016, things have felt consistently sideways across the board. It has been the typical roller coaster of life with oddities and enigmas and plagues thrown in for good measure. I know that a lot of you are right there with me. Our specific situations are different, but you get it. In that spirit, I thought I’d talk about my current workspace situation.
A Brief History
A month from today marks 19 years with my employer. Nine. Teen. Years. Weird to say. In the last five to six years, I have had five different office spaces and four job titles. Overall, I do what I’ve done for most of my tenure. It is mostly a matter of different supervisors and different tools.
The last significant shift was working full-time from home. Since July 1st of this year, I have only been on campus twice. First was to pick up a new work laptop. Second was for an all-hands meeting for my department. With a 20-minute one-way drive to campus, I’m saving on gas.
Today’s Workspace
The fish-eye view included here is what I see when I spin my desk chair away from my PC and it’s three-monitor array. To the left, you can just make out the edge of a monitor connected to my work laptop. I’ve got a nice, rolling desk with another three-monitor array (counting the laptop itself) for my day job. To the right, an armoire currently being used to store photography-related sundries. In between is the space I utilize as a photography studio. I spend an easy 50-60 hours a week right here without even trying.
Workspace Balance
Work-Life balance is very important. Photography has been a side job for many years, so it counts as work. But it is “fun” work. So is my day job most of the time, though. How do I balance two jobs where one is highly analytical in nature and the other creative?
It actually balances itself out quite nicely. Analytical and creative brains sharing the same space but not the same time. During the week, the rolling desk is front and center. On weekends, the desk politely moves into a quiet corner, stepping aside for creative things to happen.
How Is Your Balance?
If you’re also working from home these days, are you doing anything special to handle the work-life balance? If you have that side-gig, does it share space with the day job? I’m finding that the simple act of pushing the work laptop in a corner does the trick. Is it that easy for you or do you turn off the lights, walk away, and only come back when it’s time to clock in again?
What a world we live in. If you had told me twenty years ago that I would be working full-time from my own home, I’d never imagined it being like this.
