Remotely Interested
I have worked from home exclusively* for the last 5 years, including when I was previously a full-time professor and in hybrid roles since about 2011.
During my previous stint as a full-time professor I had an office abut 10 minutes from my home at a satellite location. It was lovely to have an office in some ways. Of course, there are the more obvious reasons like “place to do work” and the ease of separating work from life at the end of the day. My office was also a great place to hang the expensively framed diplomas, a room with more bookshelf space, and a space to take some random decor I wasn’t sure I wanted at home but wasn’t sure I’d get rid of yet… (Pro tip: just donate or sell or give it away when you first think it.)
However, there were challenges with temperature control at that time and noise levels made it less a place I could focus (I was directly by a classroom used for high school students taking courses for college credit). Since neither my online students nor my direct colleagues were in the building I could be just as effective at home. We moved my office to our (small) home mere days before I knew my mother had pancreatic cancer. We live next door to my parents and moving my office home was somehow the thing I needed to do – I literally felt a pull to do it – before I knew why it would be so helpful and needed.
In 2020 I said yes to my current (and soon to end) administrative gig and part of the deal was a continued option to work from home (WFH). Losing WFH status would have been a deal breaker for me for three reasons: (1) my mom was really sick and I was committed to remaining a primary caregiver for her, (2) we were already in the early months of COVID and I was not willing to be around a lot of people because of #1 (and the whole global pandemic thing generally!) and (3) I have chronic pain that means driving to our main campus five days a week would be untenable for me health-wise.
That’s just a very brief window into my experience, but I am eager to continue to link my lived experience of practice to my own knowledge of theory and my future research. Recently, I’ve written about working remotely, managing remotely, and how it all works (and should work post-pandemic). You can read those publications here:
Huxford Davis, B. (2023). What about our personhood? COVID-19 and the elusive search for work-life balance. In L. W. Watson (Ed.), Exploring personhood in contemporary times: From leadership to philosophy. Information Age Publishing. Available here
Huxford Davis, B. (2022). Ethical management in these unprecedented times: COVID-19, gender, remote work, and the search for employee work-life balance. In C. Patton & E. Egel (Eds.), Ethical implications of COVID-19 management: Evaluating the aftershock. Ethics International Press. Available here
Beyond my own research, I’m interested in hearing from others anecdotally about experiences and thoughts on remote work.
Have you had a fully remote job?
What are your reasons for seeking or avoiding remote work?
What do you think the long-term implications are for organizations who are less flexible with employees about remote and hybrid options?
I’m starting to formulate some plans for a return to more focused research and writing and am eager to hear from others to help me start to understand varied views and experiences. I welcome and appreciate your thoughts. You can learn more about my publications and research here.
*I do occasionally travel to our main campus for meetings or events but it is a choice, not a requirement of my current role