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by bunkat 4923 days ago
'During Thanksgiving, I spent the week in St. Louis, working from Jared’s parents’ kitchen counter for a few days.'

I think this is the worst aspect of working 'future style'. Since you can work anywhere, there is no longer anyway to get away from work. Celebrating the holidays with the family - perfect time to get some work done!

2 comments

She didn't say she worked on Thanksgiving - she said she stayed in St Louis longer than would be normally possible on a holiday. If I can work eight hour days at my in-law's house rather than having to rush back across the country to be in the office, then I get to stay longer. Best of both worlds.
But if she had gotten a phone call on Thanksgiving that something had broken and needed to be fixed, she would have worked on Thanksgiving (we've all been there). That was my point - since now we can be productive anywhere, we are always available.
I'm not sure that's exclusive to telecommuting. Having worked about half of my career remotely, and the other half in an office, I wouldn't say that the prevalence holiday/middle of the night calls is much different. Certainly, this is more true of Operations work than say, Accounting.
Nonsense. If you don't want to work, then don't. Close your laptop, turn off your phone. If you can't do that, you need to learn to set boundaries (see #6 in the article).

Personally, I find this the best aspect of working future-style. Right now, I'm in the middle of a 6-week stay in Ecuador, visiting family, just like the OP. If I couldn't work remotely, I wouldn't be able to visit at all.