What’s been the hardest part, for me, about working from
home?
You might think I’d say something like missing my friends,
feeling lonely, feeling less engaged in meetings, feeling distant from my
company, etc., etc., etc. And while those may be valid obstacles (which I like
to think I’ve overcome), they haven’t been the hardest. For me, the hardest
part has been taking a stand.
When I started working from home, I went all in. I wanted to
do it right. Partially because I wanted it to work for myself. And partially
because I had staff accumulating across the country that were counting on it to
work. This caused me to place extra burden on myself to really represent. Some
people’s jobs were depending on it!
This forced me into some awkward positions that can still be
hard to deal with to this day. I’ve talked before about how I’m not coming in
for your meeting… But sometimes that stance is really unpopular – especially with
executive leadership. I even had one executive state said if you had any
meetings with X-level leaders or above, you HAD to come in.
This really bothered me. What if my staff in other states
had been asked to participate in these meetings? What if they were trying to
move up the ladder? Would they be held back because of geography? Would it
reflect negatively on them that they couldn’t attend in person because of
distance? I certainly didn’t want that to happen to my people, let alone me. I
felt like I needed to be overly diligent about fighting for at-home rights to
protect us all.
In the short term, that was extremely hard. There’s nothing
like purposefully disobeying your leadership to make a name for yourself. A not
so good name. And that’s why this was the hardest part. For every meeting, I
had to judge how much it would hurt me in the short term and what “trouble” I
would be in for my mutiny.
I mostly stood firm, and stayed at home. I’d get called out
in meetings about it. I’d get lectured. I’d get a black-eye or black-balled.
Yet, I still did it. Some leaders would stop putting remote options on meetings
all together trying to force the in-person transaction to take place. And for
some of those, I’d ask someone else that I knew at the meeting to call me from
the meeting. Yeah… that pissed some people off. And on the few occasions where
I felt I had to go in or might be on the receiving end of a pink slip, it was
rarely ever worth it. Nothing was so special about meeting in-person that it
couldn’t have been done remotely.
I probably still have a bad reputation with some folks that
have yet to get on the at-home boat. I know I ruffled their feathers. But that
was a risk I was willing to take for something I believed in. Now, four years
later, I believe all of those fights paid off. I believe I helped provoke a
movement.
No one wants to be the black sheep. And that is why
knowingly putting myself in that position was the hardest part about working
from home. I risked my job for an ideal I was passionate about. Thankfully, it
worked in my favor. I learned a lot about myself through that engagement:
- I am a strong person. Knocking me down doesn’t knock me out.
- I have conviction. If I truly believe in something, I will fight for it.
- I am an advocate. Advocates don’t always do what is popular. They do what is right.
- I have a lot of courage. It would have been easier to fold, but with great risk can come great reward.
- I am a leader. I work for my team, and in the trenches with them. I don’t just “manage people”.
