Tag: Office Space

Remote Work Space

With Kiran back at Oberlin for her final semester, I went back to using her room as an office.

With Kiran back at Oberlin for her final semester, I went back to using her room as an office.

The company laptop had issues maintaining a wireless connection to the eero Pro 6 wireless mesh network even when the wireless access point (WAP) was in the same room. It kept bouncing between the nearest access point and the access point in the family room on the first floor. This destabilised the VPN connection, with the connection dropping each time the laptop switched between access points.

The company laptop is the only device which has this issue. None of the iPhones, iPads, or Macs has this issue. Neither the ecobee smart thermostat nor myQ remote garage door opener has this issue.

The laptop maintained a stable VPN connection when it was connected via Ethernet cable directly to the eero Pro 6 base station. My solution was to purchase another eero Pro 6 base station for the "office", join it to the wireless mesh network via the existing eero Pro base station in the family room, and plug the laptop into the base station. I’ve not had any connectivity issues since doing this.

Working from a distance

While many who are able to work remotely are now doing so for the first time, working from home is old hat for me.

While many who are able to work remotely are now doing so for the first time, working from home is old hat for me. Since 2018, I have worked remotely from home 2-days a week and the rest of the week alternating between the Wall Street and Iselin offices. It was a compromised arrangement with my consulting client to reduce the need to travel to their office in the Wall Street Financial District. The arrangement has worked well for me, allowing the freedom to schedule medical appointments for the days I work remotely, which up until recently, was Wednesday and Friday.

Citrix Workspace, WebEx on macOS Catalina, my iPhone 11 Pro with RSA 2-factor app, and AKG Bluetooth headphones are my daily use items. I am so much more productive without the four-hour roundtrip commute.

I have a dedicated space to work; an IKEA desk that is wide and long enough to properly fit a 27" iMac with two second-generation Apple Magic Mice and Apple Magic Keyboard, four external hard drives, and an HP LaserJet printer, while still also having open space to write or sign papers, etc. Why two mice? The Apple Magic Mouse 2 charges via a Lightning port on the bottom, making the mouse unusable while charging. I keep on mouse charged while using the other so I don't have to stop working if the mouse battery is discharged. I have high-speed broadband (although because of load, the ISP had reduced the speeds by half) through Xfinity/Comcast. I access the company's system via a Citrix VDI from Citrix Workspace for macOS Catalina authenticate with RSA 2-factor app on my iPhone 11 Pro. Why Citrix Workspace instead of VPN? A VPN would directly connect a computer to the company network and systems without any knowledge or validation of the security controls on that personal computer.

I use AKG N60NC over the ear noise-cancelling Bluetooth headphones with my WebEx sessions. The long-lasting rechargeable battery gives me 15 hours of use and the WebEx audio quality is better on the iPhone than via the WebEx audio on the VDI session. In the afternoon, when I don't have meetings, I switch to my Grado SR60 over-the-ear open-backed headphones to listen to music from my iMac. Sometimes I work in silence.

Troon Brewing IPA, Glass, Book, Beer, AKG Headphones
22 February, 2020 | It Fell On Deaf Ears | FujiFilm X-T2 | Fujinon XF16-55mmF2.8 R LM WR | f/4.0 | ISO 250

I have a daily weekday routine. I get up, dress in shirts and pants, make coffee and breakfast, etc. around the same time every day. A shirt and pants are part of my "dressing for the occasion" and help me get into the proper mindset. I tend to shower and shave at night. I don't do any video with my WebEx sessions, but shaving every other day reduces the itching and bumping which allows me to focus. My shaving regimen aligns neatly with the days I work remotely.

Because I work as part of a larger team, I start working around 8 AM EST to ensure I get enough collaborative time with the UK project teams. My mornings are busy with conference calls, but my afternoons are free for me to research and develop solutions and clear out the email queue. My workday ends at 5 PM EST but I occasionally work thirty minutes later. Before COVID-19, every Friday I met with one or more friends at a nearby Tavern for lunch. It was a good way to end the week and catch up and maintain relationships while enjoying a pint of local micro-brewed ale.

The new challenge is working from home without being with my friends and colleagues for lunch or a Friday after-work pint. It's the physical and mental isolation that is most challenging for me. The governor of New Jersey has issued a "stay at home" order, effectively shutting down the Tavern and gatherings of more than 10 people. I have the additional challenging of sharing the bandwidth and common areas of my home with my children who have been sent home from college but who still have to complete course work.

FujiFilm X-T2 | XF16-55mmF2.8 R LM WR

Thankfully, weather permitting (it's still early spring in New Jersey, and we still get dark skies and cold rain), I can still go out for a walk on my lunch break.

I'm struggling with how to manage my hair, given that all barbershops are now closed. My hair grows quickly, and regular once-every-two-weeks cut kept things neat. I was not able to get a cure before the state shuttered all barbershop. In another week, I will have a 1970's Afro with no means to manage it. I'll avoid any portraits and video conferences.

A few articles on remote work from around the IndieWeb:

Commuting

My client has run out of office space in their Northern New Jersey location. They are seeking new office space. Listening to some employees speculate about where the company may relocate and whether the new location would be close to a train station is interesting. Commuting in New Jersey can be challenging.

If the company relocates further north, closer to New York City, many current employees would have a more challenging commute. Employees from the central part of the state could see car commute times as high 90 minutes. Trains time could be more than that; New Jersey Transit (NJT) lines don’t run past the state capital of Trenton. If the new location is not near a train station - the current one is a 10-minute walk from a northeast corridor (NEC) line - then all employees would be impacted.

I know that I have an upper limit of tolerance for shitty travel. I might lose my mind if I had to travel the NEC NJT line daily. It's a horrible experience.

New Jersey Transit commuter trains have hit their worst on-time and reliability records in the 18 months since Governor Phil Murphy promised to overhaul the nation’s second-biggest commuter railroad.

For the 12 months ended in March, 90% of peak trains departed or arrived on schedule. That’s the lowest average among 16 years of such data on NJ Transit’s website. Trains also broke down more frequently than ever from the July start of the fiscal year through March, records show.

Commuters face even more inconvenience. The agency through 2020 is testing federally mandated emergency braking, a project that caused unprecedented disruption last year as locomotives were sidelined for software installations. And for 12 weeks starting June 17, at least 5,000 daily Manhattan commuters will have to take a ferry or another railroad to cross the Hudson River to accommodate track work at Pennsylvania Station.NJ Transit train delays hit a record after Murphy's pledge to fix them