OverlandNA
Well-known member
Where's the small one?
WFNH: Working from Not Home... Wyoming, then... ??
- Thread starter jhmoore
- Start date
Realizing that I never came back here and posted after the trip. The trip ended up being 5 weeks--about half in/around Jackson Hole, a brief run through Idaho, a bit over a week around Flathead Lake, Montana, and up into Glacier NP, then just under a week in & outside Bryce Canyon NP. Had my kids with me for the first 10 days, then they flew home. Then flew my wife and one kid up to Montana for a 3-day weekend... otherwise was on my own & living out of the 4Runner. I took off I think a total of 40 hours during that time, otherwise I was working from the road. Had all kinds of equipment issues.
I came home really feeling like it wasn't worth it and considering just selling some of the gear I'd bought that was specific to the working part of working from not home. I did a test run of "working from not home" last fall, but due to some health issues for my mother-in-law I got delayed until pretty late in the fall. It was too cold and there wasn't enough daylight left. By the time that I finished working it was dark and cold. So while that test trip was technically successful, I really didn't end up with any time to enjoy where I was during daylight--pretty much all the daylight was work time.
Fast forward to this trip in May & June and there should be more daylight and it was warmer, and my expectations were to get more time enjoying where I was in addition to working M-F 9-5-ish. Which really didn't happen. Or not much. I'm super-familiar with Jackson Hole, so when I was there I knew what to do with myself before and after work, and it was no problem making good use of time outside of work, but everywhere else it was a lot less clear to me how to use that time and/or the things that I knew to do weren't close enough to me to be feasible for the daylight I had left outside of working hours... so most of my time was just around camp. I'd have a leisurely morning around camp before work, work, clean up & put everything away from work and make dinner, clean up from making dinner... and then there really wasn't enough time left to get out and do something. I suppose if one was super motivated or had something specific and close by to do (as I did in the Tetons), it'd work out. But my reality outside of the Tetons was that I just generally didn't get much done other than work. Even with more daylight outside of work, I still just wasn't doing a whole lot more than work.
I suppose if I'd gone with the expectation that really all I was going to do was work, I would have met or exceeded my expectations. I worked in some beautiful places. But I went with the expectation that I'd have these grand adventures AND work... and really I didn't. So I came home disappointed. And saying that I wasn't going to do that again.
No, I didn't mean that I wouldn't travel again, but that any extended travel I did would be PTO. No expectation to work... just go and have an adventure.
But now I've been home again for a couple months, my employer still hasn't said a single word about possibly returning to the office (which I really want), and I'm back to being bloody tired of being cooped up in small house with every day being like the last. So even though I said that I wasn't going to go work from not home again after the last trip, I'm now preparing to head out again! I'll probably go for 4-6 weeks and probably take 2 of those weeks off work... so we'll see how this next trip goes in terms of having realistic expectations!
I came home really feeling like it wasn't worth it and considering just selling some of the gear I'd bought that was specific to the working part of working from not home. I did a test run of "working from not home" last fall, but due to some health issues for my mother-in-law I got delayed until pretty late in the fall. It was too cold and there wasn't enough daylight left. By the time that I finished working it was dark and cold. So while that test trip was technically successful, I really didn't end up with any time to enjoy where I was during daylight--pretty much all the daylight was work time.
Fast forward to this trip in May & June and there should be more daylight and it was warmer, and my expectations were to get more time enjoying where I was in addition to working M-F 9-5-ish. Which really didn't happen. Or not much. I'm super-familiar with Jackson Hole, so when I was there I knew what to do with myself before and after work, and it was no problem making good use of time outside of work, but everywhere else it was a lot less clear to me how to use that time and/or the things that I knew to do weren't close enough to me to be feasible for the daylight I had left outside of working hours... so most of my time was just around camp. I'd have a leisurely morning around camp before work, work, clean up & put everything away from work and make dinner, clean up from making dinner... and then there really wasn't enough time left to get out and do something. I suppose if one was super motivated or had something specific and close by to do (as I did in the Tetons), it'd work out. But my reality outside of the Tetons was that I just generally didn't get much done other than work. Even with more daylight outside of work, I still just wasn't doing a whole lot more than work.
I suppose if I'd gone with the expectation that really all I was going to do was work, I would have met or exceeded my expectations. I worked in some beautiful places. But I went with the expectation that I'd have these grand adventures AND work... and really I didn't. So I came home disappointed. And saying that I wasn't going to do that again.
No, I didn't mean that I wouldn't travel again, but that any extended travel I did would be PTO. No expectation to work... just go and have an adventure.
But now I've been home again for a couple months, my employer still hasn't said a single word about possibly returning to the office (which I really want), and I'm back to being bloody tired of being cooped up in small house with every day being like the last. So even though I said that I wasn't going to go work from not home again after the last trip, I'm now preparing to head out again! I'll probably go for 4-6 weeks and probably take 2 of those weeks off work... so we'll see how this next trip goes in terms of having realistic expectations!
jmnielsen
Tinkerer
Interesting write up! I only wish I didn't have to be at the office, I loved working from home. I think what I would do, if I were in your shoes, is just take like every wednesday off while I was gone. Plus a few days here and there. Work two days, have one off, work two days, have two off. Seems like it could help keep it fun vs. just working remotely.