Working from home

August 15, 2005

To me, life is about sharing good times with good people. Wherever I am, whatever I'm doing, as long as I'm surrounded by the right type of people, I'm happy.

When I first got my job, I was ecstatic. Work from home? Don't have to commute? Working on a cool product I really care about? Working with smart people? Expanding my skillset so I can do better work in the future? It was such a good situation, and I was ecstatic to start working for MT.

These facts still hold true, but lately I've felt quite lonely. Sitting at home for eight hours at a time with no real human contact is quite depressing. When I was in Korea, I had the greatest coworkers. Whenever I had a gripe (real or imagined), I could always talk it out with P, one of my coworkers ... and I would always listen to P's gripes. But when I have a gripe with my company, who can I turn to? The people I'm in constant connection are the founders, and I know my gripes are in reality pretty ludicrous and are best ignored.

Last week I had a real break from my normal schedule - although I was really happy for the past few weeks just working at the job, then killing the rest of the day at Barnes by myself working on Tabulas, I really got to craving human contact last week. Maybe that's why I went out pretty much every night and stayed out late.

And although I was exhausted every night, it didn't affect my work output, and I felt good. I didn't feel like my life was so one-dimensional. Of course, other things suffered (Tabulas development), but I felt it was a necessary change ... to break the monotony.

These feelings of loneliness are amplified because my close confidants have all pretty much moved away since graduation. Not to say that my current group of friends aren't sufficient ... but sometimes I want to meet new people and have a good time; hanging with the same 3 or 4 people can get real old, real fast.

So now I understand how great college was. My primary regret in college was not going out and joining more social clubs, not partying more, and not dating more.

Posted by roy on August 15, 2005 at 07:21 PM in Ramblings | 14 Comments

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MacDaddyTatsu (guest)

Comment posted on August 16th, 2005 at 05:17 PM

You are evil. You are the devil. I cannont BELIEVE that you went out with other human beings when you could have been slaving away on Tabulas. I will never forgive you...for not inviting me. >:D

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hapy

Comment posted on August 16th, 2005 at 04:59 PM

Why hold those regrets? there still are many people to be met, befriend, date, party with, and so on. you can even meet new people at barnes, sir. you dig? haha, gosh, i want to write so much but, my writing has gotten pretty bad. i can no longer express exactly/accurately, what i'm thinking of etc. perhaps in person, circumstances permitting.

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SuperSunJ

Comment posted on August 16th, 2005 at 10:34 AM

Working from home can be harsh at times. While it makes sense in certain areas (working from home versus a two hour commute for example), in the end, it's just more difficult working virtually. Like you say, that team comradry, that human interaction, is missing.

In general though, I think what you're expressing is common for people who start working out of college. Friends have scattered across the globe, and a whole new environment is in place. Don't worry though, as you get used to it, things will get better. Just remember that when you work, you have to be more proactive in meeting people.

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kyledbk (guest)

Comment posted on August 16th, 2005 at 10:10 AM

roy if you are serious about my offer

i can have 250 usd in your post office box by friday morning

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jinshil

Comment posted on August 16th, 2005 at 06:53 AM

Not having the social life I had in college since I started working was the hardest part of growing up. Sometimes I even had nightmares where I finally realized I could never ever go back and be so carefree and party with all my friends like I did in college. But it's part of growing up and taking responsibility. After about a year, I've gotten used to being committed to work and when my friends come into town, I have a good time with them.

Although, I don't think I can handle the working at home thing. Interacting with my coworkers is one of my favorite things about work.

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Pouick

Comment posted on August 16th, 2005 at 03:02 AM

I regret my school years. Just because it seems so much easier to make friends and spend a good time whever I wanted.

Since I moved back to Geneva and started working, my IRL friend list is pretty short and most of them don't live in the same city. It's pretty difficult to meet with them, see a movie or just have a relaxing evening.

My company is an American company, there's a lot of people coming from other countries. French people tend to stick together, English-speakers too. Swiss workers already have their circle of friends... Not easy to fint in.

I have few colleagues I get along with pretty well but I can't describe them as "close" friends. It still fun to have lunch and break with them and occasionally have a BBQ! :)

Yeah, I miss my school years.

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bert

Comment posted on August 16th, 2005 at 12:23 AM

funny what we end up regretting huh?

that's why we all wanna go back to school =P

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ghost_tree (guest)

Comment posted on August 15th, 2005 at 09:12 PM

People move away... no one's really permanent. Even if you do meet up again, it won't be the same.

As for the Korea thing, the bad thing about this place is that all of your "friends" have one year contracts.

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roy

Comment posted on August 16th, 2005 at 01:20 PM

I kind of liked that - working for only like 4 months means I only really got to the stage of the friendship where I'm like "wow this person is really cool" but never got to experience their bad sides too much.

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minou_degrassi

Comment posted on August 15th, 2005 at 08:22 PM

You're definitely right about college being an amazing social hub. I was thinking (since this will soon apply to me), how does one meet new people when school is over?

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roy

Comment posted on August 16th, 2005 at 01:19 PM

I'm guessing bars. Either that or we just become a bit more receptive to starting conversations with strangers :o

OR THE TABULAS ANSWER: BLOGGING. LOL HAR HAR. ROTFLMAO.

ok i'll stop.

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kokoling

Comment posted on August 15th, 2005 at 08:17 PM

Awww Roy. *hug* I would say we're here, but we are still online friends after all. And online friends can be really close sometimes, but it still doesn't feel the same seeing someone IRL. =\

But yes, do go out and party more..wherever that may be. I'm still a High School student trying to get into college.

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roy

Comment posted on August 16th, 2005 at 01:24 PM

Man you're still so young :) Just enjoy the high school years as much as you can too - I don't think there's anything quite like it, although I didn't enjoy my high school years, I still look back fondly upon them.

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boogiesan

Comment posted on August 15th, 2005 at 07:34 PM

Gosh Roy, you sound like someone my age rather than the young man you are. You should think about setting rules for how much you work. Not more than 8 hours a day on anything that does not advance your social life. Then about 6-8 hours on fun, whatever it happens to be. I think you definitely need to get out on the dating scene (wherever that is these days) and enjoy the things that only young, single people can enjoy. Life goes by very fast, believe me.

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