As a way to conserve energy and offer employees alternative work schedules, some of the DCTMA staff began working a condensed work week recently (four 10-hour days), while others have opted to telework 1 day a week instead. We will continue to post comments on their experiences:
11-13-08: Surprisingly, I am not dreading another 10-hour day. Actually, the time flies by rather quickly. I would rather work the longer day then stress out because something is not completed. For me, clearing the calendar of "to do's" in the evening is important to make this work.
11-12-08: I continue to make lots of progress with work. I don’t mind leaving in the dark because it is still fairly mild outside. I might feel differently in January or February when the temps are way down. There is plenty of time after lunch to complete a project from start to finish. For me, it seems necessary to take a short break around 3 pm. Getting outside and walking seems to do the trick. I am still energized at the end of the day.
11-11-08: I am able to get so much done with the extra time, and not stressing out if interrupted. Felt a little tired around 2:30, so I went outside for a 10 minute walk which made me feel refreshed.
11-10-08: This week I am working a condensed work week in order to give me a day off to attend to personal matters. I feel good about getting caught up and having the extra time to make significant progress. I stayed energized even at the end of the day.
11-4-08: Its been a rough week or so... my daughter is still fighting this cold of hers and is needing to stay home again today. Being that I can access all my files and emails seemlessly from my home computer is a true benefit. It allows me to work on "off hours," depending on what works best as I try to balance home and work demands. Catching up on emails and other administrative tasks do not need to be done during a certain time of day, which allows me the flexibility I need to manage it all.
10-29-08: Today I had to telework because my daughter was too sick to go to daycare. It is a blessing that I am able to work from home and not lose an entire day when this happens. I am also starting to feel under the weather, so it actually seems to have worked out for the best. I was able to "plug in" when she was napping, which gave me a chance to not fall totally behind in my projects and still clock in some hours.
Note: September is a busy month at the TMA, so telework and condensed days were used less than in other months.
8-22-08: I am Teleworking today. It is beautiful and sunny out, and the windows are open. The room I work in does not have a TV or radio, which is fine; I don’t have them on at work either. But I have my windows open and I never realized how LOUD the crickets are here in the woods. I put the TV on a news station, in the other room, partly to drown out the crickets and partly to--- SHUT-UP (crickets)--- have some ambient noise.
I tried to get onto my work computer from home, last night and ran into a problem. My computer at work had shut down and it needed to be re-booted. If no one was in the office today I am not sure I would have been able to work from home. We need to ----OH! STICK A SOCK IN IT! (crickets)—follow up on that and see if there is a remote way to re-boot.
I have powered through many of the tasks I brought home and it is just lunch time. My productivity is much higher without the distractions of other things that have accumulated on my desk. Crickets are not as loud in the afternoon. I just looked at the clock and realized I will be logged off in 45 minutes. I have wrapped up everything I brought home and made a number of calls for upcoming events. It was a good day.
8-18-08: Since I had 2 meetings downtown, I was able to telecommute throughout the day via wireless connection. My train got me into the city about 45 minutes early, so I logged in and worked on a project before my first meeting on my laptop. Between the 1st and 2nd meetings, I was able to get in 2 hours of work, checking and responding to emails and continuing to work on the previous project. The 2nd meeting ended with just enough time for me to walk to the train station and board my train home, where I logged back in for another hour. I feel like the day was more productive than a typical day at the office because I was able to meet with two groups of colleagues, while still keeping up with my workload.
8-13-08: Today was a telework day. Once again I found that I was very productive. I was able to focus on the tasks at hand without distraction. The day flew by and I did not realize I had been on line for eight hours, until my computer automatically logged me off.
Note: August is a slow month for telework and condensed days due to vacations
7-29-08: Last week I was unable to telecommute or work from home because I had appointments out of the office every day. With all the driving I had to do, I definitely saw my fuel gauge decrease at a much faster pace – normally I fill up every 2 weeks, but after last Friday, I needed to fill up sooner. Weeks like that remind me of how much of a benefit telecommuting and condensed work weeks really are.
7-18-08: Today I tried teleworking. I felt like the day just flew by. I believe I got more done today then I do most days in the office. Because I gave my cell number only to a few people, the phone interruptions were minimal and for the most part concerned projects I was working on today. I know I did not leave my desk today as much as I do in the office. I brought home only the projects I wanted to concentrate on, and that made my focus more strategic. I did not see other distractions on my desk that sometimes take my attention away when I am in the office. The room I work in is full of sunlight, and I must say, that has been very pleasant. Because the room I am worked from is off from the rest of the house, and no one is home during the day, there were no distractions. I did however find out what my dog does all day. She sleeps on her back on the couch. She only got up when she heard me making lunch.
7-16-08: During these past three extended days, I have realized that I am able to get the most work done at the beginning and end of the day. During these times, I am most focused: in the morning, it is because I am freshly energized from my music en route to work and from breakfast; and in the late afternoon it is because distractions are minimal – incoming phone calls and emails are generally done for the day, and pretty much any distraction I can think of has been exhausted (there are only so many times a day one can check the news headlines, weather forecast, Gmail, etc. before realizing that they are not changing!). Throughout the middle of the day, I find that it is best if I make a list of tasks for myself and try to stick to it. I have found on these longer days that certain tasks are best worked on at the end of the day or beginning of the next day, when I am “in the zone.”
7-14-08: I did not work on Monday and worked 10 hours per day Tuesday through Friday last week. I am really surprised how quickly the days went. It is still very sunny out around 6 pm, so I don’t feel like I am leaving the office at an unreasonable time. I did, however, need to take a 30 minute break in the afternoon to stretch my legs and that gave me some renewed energy. All in all, I am ready to try this again. I did not mind it at all and I actually accomplished more. With my afternoon “tea” break, I had renewed energy and the day did not drag.