Toby Atkin-Wright

What’s this? About four years since I last looked at LiveJournal. Has anything changed while I’ve been away?

We’re hiring again for data engineers. Part programming, part database work, and part systems work. Do you fancy working with big historic datasets?
https://apply.workable.com/findmypast/j/A80172A332/

I’ve been mostly working from home for over a decade, with my contract specifying that I only need to be in the office one day per week. That one day was typically in the local Dundee office, and then I’d spend maybe a week each quarter working in the London office.

For a year now I’ve been working from home 100% of the time, and it has been a fantastic working year. I feel more productive and happier with my team working from home than I ever did with colleagues in the office.

Zoom calls, particularly for pairing, have been a great success. I find it far easier to work on technical tasks with a colleague on a call, than it is to sit next to them. With my eyesight, when sitting next to someone I struggle to read text on their screen.

Meetings are far more personal and egalitarian if everyone is on their individual connection. I don’t want to go back to the grim days of connecting in to a meeting room, where as a remote participant I can’t easily hear what people are saying, or for that matter tell who is talking. And worse, company meetings where a meeting room in London is connected to a meeting room in Dundee.

And as a result of our Zoom calls over the past year, I now know the names and faces of far more people in the London office. Which is good.

I hope we don’t lose the benefits of working from home when people start heading back into the office. Although my observation is that there is a significant minority who, like me, never want to go back.