When an old furniture shop went out of business and the building was up for sale, my son and his wife had all sorts of ideas for it if they decided to buy it (relatively cheap, I think it was only about $50,000). He wanted to turn it into a Bohemian-style coffee shop that would also host open mic nights. His wife, who is into tarot and all that kind of...stuff (she actually makes good money from it although I think it's hooey), could have her own dark-n-cozy reading room in the back. Another room at the back would be called "The Workspace" for people who wanted to do the coffee-shop-as-a-remote-workspace thing with plenty of outlets, good wifi, eight separate "cubicles," and office chairs; his idea was charging $10 or $15/hour with the restaurant-style bottomless cup of regular coffee or they could order the fancier stuff and pay regular price for it but get a punch-card for a free one after only seven coffees instead of 10. (I should add that this is a relatively small/medium-sized town in central Minnesota, which is definitely not New York City or even Minneapolis so therefore the reasonable price.) There were a lot of details to work out, but my husband and I thought they were onto something.
I still wish they would have done that. Instead, they bought a money pit of a house and he switched from the hospitality business he'd excelled in to being a FedEx guy. They seem happy enough so I've never asked if he regrets not going for their business plan.
"Once, someone had a Zoom conference call next to me … without headphones. People online have defended this as no different from friends having a spirited conversation at the table next to you, which is not really how anything works. I confess that I were inclined to eavesdrop, I’d probably find someone sharing details about a bad date more entertaining than a lengthy discussion about TPS reports."
Why would anyone want others to know their business, even if there is no need to be secret? It's rude to inflect your business onto others, but if you do, at least make it interesting, like the details of a bad date, as you mentioned. That, at least, would be worth listening to.
I have worked remotely, both during the pandemic and simply as an aspect of the job, and my own opinion is that it's not all it's cracked up to be. There are definite benefits, and I do not blame a lot of people for preferring to be fully remote, but it really wasn't for me. In terms of flexibility I would much prefer either a hybrid position or one where the hours weren't "set", ie, you could come in whenever you want as long as the work was done.
EDIT: I also live in the middle of nowhere so a coffeeshop office wasn’t really an option. Glad I’m retired now.
My SIL has a hybrid job, and loves it. He's out visiting various offices during the morning, then works from home in the afternoon. He would hate working from home all of the time, and probably wouldn't like working in one office all of the time much better. This way, he gets to go to different places, meet a lot of people, and be home for my grandson when he gets home from school. His job and schedule wouldn't work for everyone, but works for him.
You make a good point about working remotely wasn't for you, but is for others. Some people just can't get it through their thick skulls that we aren't all alike. What works for some doesn't work for others. And as people go through different stages in life, their preferences and needs may change.
One of the best jobs I ever had was providing home healthcare services-like your SIL I was out and about, not sitting at home staring at a laptop, and could either do my documentation in the office or at home (this was when we were all still documenting on paper). I was out of the office and free to structure my day as I pleased, but I also was not sitting on my ass at home isolated all day answering emails or looking at graphs.
When an old furniture shop went out of business and the building was up for sale, my son and his wife had all sorts of ideas for it if they decided to buy it (relatively cheap, I think it was only about $50,000). He wanted to turn it into a Bohemian-style coffee shop that would also host open mic nights. His wife, who is into tarot and all that kind of...stuff (she actually makes good money from it although I think it's hooey), could have her own dark-n-cozy reading room in the back. Another room at the back would be called "The Workspace" for people who wanted to do the coffee-shop-as-a-remote-workspace thing with plenty of outlets, good wifi, eight separate "cubicles," and office chairs; his idea was charging $10 or $15/hour with the restaurant-style bottomless cup of regular coffee or they could order the fancier stuff and pay regular price for it but get a punch-card for a free one after only seven coffees instead of 10. (I should add that this is a relatively small/medium-sized town in central Minnesota, which is definitely not New York City or even Minneapolis so therefore the reasonable price.) There were a lot of details to work out, but my husband and I thought they were onto something.
I still wish they would have done that. Instead, they bought a money pit of a house and he switched from the hospitality business he'd excelled in to being a FedEx guy. They seem happy enough so I've never asked if he regrets not going for their business plan.
"Once, someone had a Zoom conference call next to me … without headphones. People online have defended this as no different from friends having a spirited conversation at the table next to you, which is not really how anything works. I confess that I were inclined to eavesdrop, I’d probably find someone sharing details about a bad date more entertaining than a lengthy discussion about TPS reports."
Why would anyone want others to know their business, even if there is no need to be secret? It's rude to inflect your business onto others, but if you do, at least make it interesting, like the details of a bad date, as you mentioned. That, at least, would be worth listening to.
I love Stephen's offhand reference to TPS reports. I love that movie.
I have worked remotely, both during the pandemic and simply as an aspect of the job, and my own opinion is that it's not all it's cracked up to be. There are definite benefits, and I do not blame a lot of people for preferring to be fully remote, but it really wasn't for me. In terms of flexibility I would much prefer either a hybrid position or one where the hours weren't "set", ie, you could come in whenever you want as long as the work was done.
EDIT: I also live in the middle of nowhere so a coffeeshop office wasn’t really an option. Glad I’m retired now.
My SIL has a hybrid job, and loves it. He's out visiting various offices during the morning, then works from home in the afternoon. He would hate working from home all of the time, and probably wouldn't like working in one office all of the time much better. This way, he gets to go to different places, meet a lot of people, and be home for my grandson when he gets home from school. His job and schedule wouldn't work for everyone, but works for him.
You make a good point about working remotely wasn't for you, but is for others. Some people just can't get it through their thick skulls that we aren't all alike. What works for some doesn't work for others. And as people go through different stages in life, their preferences and needs may change.
One of the best jobs I ever had was providing home healthcare services-like your SIL I was out and about, not sitting at home staring at a laptop, and could either do my documentation in the office or at home (this was when we were all still documenting on paper). I was out of the office and free to structure my day as I pleased, but I also was not sitting on my ass at home isolated all day answering emails or looking at graphs.
Someone should tell this guy about libraries
Yes‼️