Lazy Man and Money

What is the New Normal for Workers?

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The following is another article by regular contributor, Kosmo.

In March of 2020, COVID-19 started having a big impact on the United States.  More than eighteen months have passed and life still isn’t back to normal.  Many of us have been vaccinated, but millions have not.  The delta variant overwhelmed hospitals in many areas, and nobody knows whether another surge will hit us during the winter months.  Many of us know somehow who has died of COVID.  Most people know someone who is suffering from “long haul” effects.  We’ve managed to keep COVID out of our home to this point.  Three of us are vaccinated, and my eleven-year-old will be getting his shot when he becomes eligible.

Out of necessity, many jobs pivoted to remote work during COVID.  This wasn’t possible for every job.  Grocery store cashiers and brain surgeons, among many others, must be on-site to do their jobs – there simply isn’t a remote option.  Many other jobs, however, can be done remotely.  In the past several months, companies have begun to implement their “new normal” plans, which has typically meant employees returning to the office in some manner.

What’s the new normal?

That’s a hard question.  Some companies developed a comprehensive strategy, while others are charting a path as they go.  Many companies see remote work as a way to reach a larger applicant pool.  This can be a big benefit if you’re seeking an employee who has skills that are hard to find in your home market.

There’s no perfect answer to the question of whether people are more or less productive at home or in the office.  I recently had a friend comment that if they were working from home, they’d be constantly distracted by the television.  After they mentioned this, I took a closer look at my desk setup.  I realized that I’d have to look over my shoulder to even see the television.  I sit facing a wall, in front of three monitors.  Staying immersed in my work is typically not a problem.  There is one caveat to that, however.  When my kids are at home, they can definitely be a distraction – especially if they are fighting.  Now that they are back in school, I’m able to focus a bit better.  Certainly, I can focus easier than I can in the office.

I’ve had three employers since college, and each of them is handling the situation a bit differently.  Note that I am in IT, so your experience may be very different.

Previous employer #1

This company is a huge financial services company that dominates its market segment.  They are hedging their bets a bit.  Some teams are almost never in the office, while others are frequently in the office.  For employees who are working almost exclusively remote, there is the expectation that they are on-site for certain activities.  Some employees moved a significant distance from their home office during COVID.  When they return to the office for these activities, it will be completely at their expense – the company will not reimburse them.  I think this company is waiting for more of the dominoes to fall into place before committing to a long-term plan.

Previous employer #2

This company is a large financial services company.  It’s fairly well known, but not as much of a household name as the previous company.  I was working here at the onset of COVID.  They were actually quicker to respond than a lot of companies.  We were told to switch to remote work 1-2 weeks before most other companies in the area.  As far as I know, there was zero spread of COVID in my large office building and there was minimal disruption to the business at hand.

This company has also had the most flexible response to remote working.  Employees are being given the option to choose fully in the office, fully remote, or hybrid.  These choices are academic for the moment, however.  Nobody is actually being allowed to work from the building until at least the end of 2021.

The one downside is that I had about $15 in my cafeteria account when COVID hit, and I don’t have any way to recoup that, unless I eat at another cafeteria that’s managed by the same group.

Current employer

This company is a mid-size company in the food industry.  Prior to COVID, the company had rarely allowed any work from home.  I negotiated a 60% work from home when I was hired, letting the hiring manager know up front that it was a deal-breaker.  It’s a hundred-mile round trip, and I had some leverage in negotiations, so I used the leverage.  I began coming into the office regularly (two days per week) about three months ago.  My 60% agreement has become the standard for my entire team.  I’m not completely sure that I’m the reason why the team is enjoying this arrangement, but some of my coworkers seem to think so.  One of my coworkers thanked me to pushing for 60%.  Most people on the team are in the office on Monday and Wednesday or Tuesday and Thursday.  I opted for Tuesday and Wednesday, so that I have the ability to interact with all members of the team on a regular basis.

[Editor’s Note: Before COVID, my wife did a similar schedule and she sometimes stayed overnight at an AirBnb. It cost a little money, but it gave her back nearly four hours of her life.]

My employer is also going through a growth phase and is trying to grow the IT department.  They’re often at a bit of a disadvantage due to geography.  The company’s headquarters are in a very small city, and it’s about an hour from any of the larger cities that constitute the labor pool for the skills they are looking for.  It’s a nice enough place, but it’s not exactly a magnet for employees.  Allowing WFH flexibility was probably a necessity to pull in some of that talent – COVID simply expedited the timeline.  I’m glad to see the company become more accepting of work from home – not just because it benefits me personally, but because I do think that it will result in a stronger team in the future.

Other employers

My wife is employed in the financial services area of a large medical facility.  She went back into the office the same time I did.  The difference is that they’re now in the office 100% of the time, even though her group proved themselves to be very effective working from home.

How is your employer approaching work from home arrangements?  What is your “new normal”?

[Lazy Man here, I’ll answer first. We are still in the old normal. My wife won’t go back until at least the start of 2022. I have been working from home for more than a decade. The difference for me is that working from home doesn’t make me “cool” or “special” anymore.]

The Most Expensive Vacation Ever?

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I’m away on vacation this week (and it is expensive), but here’s frequent contributor Kosmo with an article about his last vacation.

No, we didn’t go to Disney World.

In 2017, we made our first trip to Door County, Wisconsin.  For those who aren’t familiar, it’s the “pinky finger” on the eastern border of Wisconsin – a peninsula with Lake Michigan to the east and Green Bay to the west.  After the initial trip, we decided that we’d definitely make a return trip.  We planned a trip in 2019, but it was derailed by a family health situation.  Last year, it was postponed because of COVID.  This year, we finally made a return trip.  Even with a somewhat limited set of activities (because our 11-year-old isn’t old enough to be vaccinated), it was great.  We’ll definitely be back.

A funny thing happened.  We started looking at homes on Realtor.com.  Just goofing around at first.  What would we do with a second house?  Especially a house that’s considerably more expensive (per square foot) than our primary residence.  That’s just crazy.

Maybe?

The idea percolated and eventually turned into a new idea.  Perhaps a rental property that we use for a couple of weeks per year, plus some sporadic weekends.

Financially, we’re in a position where we could try this.  I’m 46 years old.  We have about 75% equity in our house and have a bit of money in an investment account.  We would swing the down payment and setup, and even get through some lean years with limited rentals, if worst came to worst.  I actually don’t think we’d have trouble renting a place, because it’s a very high-demand area.

The hard part

The bigger factor is the fact that we live 400 miles away.  Even if we bought something that didn’t require a lot of maintenance, trying to get things set up on weekends would cause the setup to stretch longer than we’d like.  Setting up a short-term rental takes a bit more work than setting up a long-term rental.  You need to furnish virtually everything.  Not just beds, a couch, table, chairs, and TV, but things like spatulas, corkscrews, and frisbees.  And, of course, toilet paper.  Nobody wants to check into an Airbnb and realize there’s no Charmin.

We would also have to hire a local cleaning service, as well as have some sort of arrangement with a local maintenance person to handle any acute issues that arise.  If there’s a leaky pipe on a Wednesday, I wouldn’t be able to jump in the car and go fix it, since I have a day job.  Nor could I mow the lawn every week or clear snow in the winter.  Naturally, paying locals to assist would cut into the profitability of the venture.

Does it make sense?

Of course, the venture doesn’t actually need to make a profit.  We’d be getting some personal use out of the property, plus the likely appreciation in property values.  We could lose a bit of money every year and wouldn’t cry about it.  If we could simply defray a decent chunk of the costs, that would be great.

We’re going to dip our toes in the water.  My wife (a CPA) and I are both the type to plan things.  We’re putting together a list of the furnishings we’d need, so that we can get our arms around the potential cost.  Everything from bed frames to pizza cutters.

We have a local realtor that we’ve used to buy two houses and sell one.  We’ve always enjoyed working with him.  It seems like a longshot that he’d know some realtors 400 miles away, but we asked.  Yep, he knows a couple of people.  He’s going to get their information to us today, and we’ll engage with them very soon.

Your thoughts?

Do any of you own and remotely manage short-term rentals?  What has your experience?  Is it worth the cost and effort?  Are there potential pitfalls that I should be aware of?

The Interview

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The following is from frequent contributor Kosmo who has taken us on an extensive job search journey. That job hunt was successful, but in the last article, he added a new twist to the story.

In the last update of the series, our intrepid hero had started another job hunt and had an interview lined up.  How did things turn out?

Reinforcing knowledge

Fired Cartoon

Due to the holidays, there was a two-week gap between the point where I was chosen for the interview and the time the interview occurred.  That’s a long time to think – and overthink – about things.

The first thing I did was study up on some of the finer points of documents I create as part of my current job.  In theory, these documents follow a rigid framework, with each point fully fleshed out.  In practice, some portions of the document get significantly more attention than others.  I needed to make sure I was prepared for questions on any portion of those documents.

It was a similar exercise regarding common practices in my job.  I have a tendency to lean heavily on a couple of specific methods for eliciting software requirements, but I needed to make sure that I was prepared to answer questions about any of the methods that are commonly used.

Examples

Next, I spent time building out examples for the inevitable behavior questions.  In the past year, I have been on interview panels about a dozen times.  Being on the other side of the table gave me insight into which questions were likely to be asked – as well as which questions candidates were likely to struggle with.  If a particular question created problems for many candidates, it was a question I needed to prepare for.

I cracked open Microsoft Words and started to write.  For each behavior question, I wrote up a least a couple of examples, so that I could choose the one that fit the flow of the interview the best.

Questions

It’s critical to always have questions for the interviewers.  They’ll almost always ask if you have questions.  A response of “no” is generally taken as a sign of disinterest.  You’ll want to make sure to have at least a few questions prepared.  It’s possible that the interviewer will answer some of your questions during the interview, and you definitely can’t use a question that they’ve already provided an answer for.

My interview was in five parts.  Four parts featured one interviewer and one featured four peers.  That meant preparing five sets of questions.  I spent more time in Word.  When I was finished, I had at least three questions for each section.

You can – and should – add more questions as topics arise during the interview.  But a lot of people get nervous during interviews, and it’s good to have a stock list of questions to start with.

Relax

I couldn’t spend two weeks preparing without going crazy.  I prepared until I had reached a point of diminishing returns, and then I stopped.  Relaxing was next on the agenda.

Christmas and New Year’s activities were confined to the home, due to COVID.  We played board games, including a new one – Trekking the World.  It’s a great game that I would recommend.

I also managed to find Quantum Leap on the internet.  I had been searching for in on the streaming services for a while, to no avail.  While it’s not on the pay services, it’s on the free NBC app.  It has commercials, but that’s a small price to pay.

(Editor’s Note: I’ve had great luck with finding where a show is streaming with JustWatch.com. For example, here’s Quantum Leap, available to stream on Roku and NBC.)

Interview Day

Interview day finally arrived.  Typically, this would be a half day on site, but due to COVID, it was virtual.  It was on a platform I use every day (TEAMS), so I didn’t have to figure out a new interface.  I could also decompress during breaks in the process.  Overall, a pretty relaxing experience.

The interviews went pretty well.  As always, there were a few questions that I didn’t handle perfectly, but I had a strong answer for most of the questions.  Not surprisingly, the portion of the interview with my potential peers was the toughest, but that’s also the portion that I had spent the most preparation time.

Waiting

The interview was on a Wednesday.  The hiring manager said the expected to know something by the next week, or possibly even later that week.  Like most people, I absolutely hate waiting.

The next two days passed very slowly.  At 4 PM Friday, I resigned myself to waiting until at least Monday.  At 5 PM, my phone range.  We quickly reached an agreement on salary, and he agreed to the 60% work from home.

I knocked out the paperwork over the weekend, and a few days later I had passed the background check and drug screening.

Next Steps

As I’m writing this, I have one more day of work left at my old job.  I’ve spent the last two weeks finishing up some work and transitioning the things that I’m not able to get done.  I’m a firm believer in never burning bridges – you never know when you might want to cross them again.

I start the new chapter of my life on Monday.  A brand new industry and a slightly different role.  So much to learn, and I’m anxious to get started.

Things I’m Looking Forward to in 2021

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I hope your New Year is starting off well. The following is an article from Kosmo. I’ll be spending the weekend preparing some articles to help with typical New Year’s Resolutions for next week.

2020 has been a year that many of us would like to forget.  As we finally flip the calendar, I’m looking forward to 2021 being much different.  Here are the things I’m looking forward to in 2021.

Getting Vaccinated

The COVID-19 vaccinations have begun in the United States.  I don’t have any health conditions that would put me in the highest risk category (although, like many Americans, I have hypertension), so I’ll be waiting a while until the higher risk people are inoculated.  I look forward to the vaccine causing the curve to not only be flattened, but beaten into the ground.

Hopefully, we remember the lessons we’ve learned from COVID-19.  There will be another epidemic of some sort in the future.  It might be two years from now, or twenty, or two hundred.  The next time we’re hit by an epidemic, we need to leverage what we’ve learned from this experience, rather than starting from square one.

Please do your part and get vaccinated, too.  If you have concerns, discuss them with your doctor.

Vacation

We visited Door County, Wisconsin in 2017 and thoroughly enjoyed it.  We planned a return trip to the same Airbnb in 2019, but it was derailed a family health situation.  The owner ended up refunding 100% of his portion – despite being entitled to keep half of it – and we only lost the AirBNB’s portion of the reservation.

We tried again for 2020, only to be derailed by COVID-19 this time.  We were able to use the entire amount of the trip toward a rescheduled trip in 2021.  I’m really looking forward to a nice vacation at the beach.

Kids back in school

Some kids have excelled in online school, whereas others have struggled.  My kids have excelled.  My 5th grader is in the gifted program, and my 7th grader recorded a 3.87 GPA in her first trimester.  They’ve kept in contact with friends over the phone and the internet.

Nonetheless, it’s not the experience they want.  Although they did choose online school for safety reasons, they look forward to physically returning to school next fall, so they can hang out with their friends.

I’m also looking forward to this.  Mostly, I look forward to it because it will make my kids happy.  But I’d also like to be able to attend a work audio meeting without hearing a fight breaking out upstairs.  We could use a bit less togetherness at times.

Last pinewood derby ever

My son is in Cub Scouts.  Honestly, it has been a great experience.  The one thing I dread every year is the pinewood derby.  I am not someone who is good at building things.  Trying to figure out a design that my son will like and that we can actually pull off is always a challenge.  I’m never more relieved than when his car successfully navigates the track for the third and final time.  We’re never going to win the derby – the goal is to end up somewhere in the middle of the pack.  Putting the pinewood derby in the rearview mirror will take some of the winter stress out of my life.  The Scouts, however, will remain a part of our lives.

First scout weeklong camp

My daughter is a girl scout.  She has always been shy.  For several years, we have attended the “daddy and me” overnight camp at the girl scout camp.  We have always had a great time.  I even managed to be the talk of the camp one year, when I dumped my kayak in the lake.  Most importantly, it has been a good experience for her to interact with a different group of kids and come out of her shell a bit.

Several times, we asked her if she wanted to do a solo camp for a week.  The answer was always a firm “no”.  She didn’t want to be in a group of strangers without a parent around.

After the 2019 camp, she changed her mind.  Yes, she would like to go to camp by herself.  This was a huge change.  We booked her for a 2020 camp – and then had to cancel when COVID came.  We’ll try this again in 2021.

A new job?

I have been casually job hunting lately.  I may end up with a new job soon, or I may end up staying where I’m at.  If I were a betting man, I’d bet that I’ll be starting something new in the next couple of months.

I’ve worked in the same industry for 20+ years, but many of the positions I’m looking at are in other industries.  Quite honestly, I’d like to diversify my experience a bit, so that I’m not pigeonholed into one type of work.

I’m written a full article about the job hunt, so I won’t bore you with the details.

My stamps

I began collecting stamps during the pandemic.  My initial plan was pretty straightforward – collect every distinct design through 1970, but do not pursue watermark or paper variations.  By my count, there are about 650 such stamps.

The good news is that I’ve collected about 540 of those stamps, including everything from 1941-1970.  The bad news is that many of the remaining stamps are quite expensive.  The mitigating factor is that many of these are fairly ugly postal fiscal stamps – stamps that could be used for either tax or postage.  I won’t cry if my collection ends up missing a few expensive and ugly stamps that aren’t even normal postage stamps.

The bigger problem is that my collection has expanded beyond New Zealand.  Someone in a Facebook group was nice enough to send me thousands of stamps.  All I had to do was pay for the postage.  I still have tons to sort through, but I’ve gotten exposed to enough other stamps that I’ve begun to diversify my collection.  I have an album for the USA and a smaller one for Austria, and I’m sure I’ll be adding an album or two for the countries of the world.  My goal is to collect a stamp for as many stamps-issuing entities as I can, as well as collected a few pages of stamps for countries of interest, such as Great Britain, Australia, and the Antarctic territories.

The Olympics

The International Olympic Committee postponed the Olympics when it became apparent that it would be a terrible idea to bring in hundreds of thousands of people from all over the world, have them share common spaces, and send them back to their home countries.  That would have been a recipe for a massive super spreader event.

The Olympics are, for now, scheduled for 2021.  I love the Olympics, and I’ll be glued to the TV.  I primarily watch track and field and swimming, but I’ll watch bits and pieces of many other sports as well.

What about you?

What are you looking forward to in 2021?

Another Job Hunt?

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The following is from frequent contributor Kosmo

Three years ago, I was in the middle of a job hunt.  I took you along for the journey.  I eventually landed a position about a month before my old job ended.  For those of you who weren’t along on that journey, the company decided to get rid of remote workers, and I was one of hundreds affected.

I’ve been in my current role since March of 2018, and it has been an enjoyable experience.  The work has been interesting, and I’ve worked with great people – both my co-workers and the business partners we create systems for.  I’ve even interviewed for some manager positions.  It has been pretty awesome.

A reorganization was announced a couple of months ago.  One hundred and fifty people in our IT department were laid off.  The programmer who sat next to me was one of the people affected.  I was moved to a new team and immediately went from being the top expert on my old systems to a complete novice on the new ones.  Even the potential of a manager role became less interesting as a result of the changes.  This isn’t the first reorg in recent years, but it’s the first one that has had a direct impact on me.

In the coming weeks, I lost much of the fire that had made me a dynamic employee.  The effort to handle the fallout of multiple recent reorgs is taking time away from more productive work.  It’s frustrating.  I want to do work that is difficult and challenging.  Many of my recent tasks fall short of that bar.  Eventually, I made the decision to begin a new job search.  This job search is different than the previous one in a lot of ways.

1. Urgency

My previous job search was driven by the fact that I would be losing my job on a particular date.  I left no stone unturned in an effort to make sure I had a new job by the time the old one ended.  I ended up in one of the best possible jobs.  A lot of the jobs I applied for had some serious warts. Many weren’t a great fit for my skills or had long commutes.

There is no urgency in my current job search.  Although my new area doesn’t see me as quite the rock star that my old area did (and still does – as I’m still pulled in when needed), I’m relatively safe in my position.  I can afford to take my time and wait for the right position.

2. Preparation

When I kicked off my last job search, I had been caught completely off guard.  My resume was outdated and I hadn’t done even casual job hunting in a decade.  I wasn’t even sure how the industry even referred to someone with my skill set.  It took quite a bit of time to get my resume squared away and to get my job search focused on jobs that would be a good fit.  I needed to figure out a new-fangled thing called LinkedIn.

I have made an effort to keep my resume updated recently.  Every couple of months, I pull up my resume and make relevant changes – adding recent accomplishments, new responsibilities, and any recently acquired skills.  At the same time, I also removed aspects that are no longer relevant.

3. Location

My last job search was limited to companies within an hour drive of my home.  We have roots in this area – my wife’s career is with a local organization, and we have two kids in school.  Relocating for a new job was a last resort.

As a result of COVID-19, A lot of companies have become more accepting of remote workers.  Some even advertise themselves as “remote first” organizations.  This means that geography is no longer a limiting factor.  If I can work from my dungeon basement, it doesn’t matter if the team is located in New York City, Miami, or Topeka.

The flip side of this is that the companies are also able to cast a wider net.  They aren’t limited to employees in their geographical area.  So, while there might be more potential jobs for me, there are also more potential applicants.

Overall, I see this as a net gain.  I should be able to focus on the jobs that are the best fit for my skills, instead of simply looking at the jobs that are nearby.  Being located in Iowa also gives me a cost-of-living advantage over applicants from large metro areas.

The search begins

I’m writing this on Christmas Eve.  I kicked off my job search on December 12.  How’s it going?  Well, it’s definitely starting off better than the last one.

A friend and former colleague works at a company about an hour south of where I live.  It’s a considerably smaller company than the one I currently work for, but still a company that does more than a billion dollars of business every year.  The upside of a smaller company is that there’s considerably more autonomy and not as much red tape.  In other words, more time spent on productive work.  It’s a similar position to my friend’s, but with a bit more focus on technical skills, such as a bit of minor data wrangling.

My friend – let’s call him Bryan, because that’s his name – has mentioned the position to me multiple times in the past few months.  It has always sounded like a great fit.  The reason for my lack of interest has always been the same – the commute.  A commute of an hour each way isn’t the greatest sacrifice in the world, but it’s simply not something I’m interested in doing.

I pinged Bryan a few days ago to ask if there was any chance his company was considering 100% remote candidates for this position.  No, but they were looking at 2-3 remote workdays per week.  I spent a weekend thinking about this and decided that a split of 2 days in the office and 3 days remote would be acceptable.

Bryan put my resume in front of his boss on Monday.  His boss reached out via email and we set up a call from Tuesday afternoon.  I wasn’t technically a candidate at this point – I hadn’t formally applied through the standard process.  This was probably the first time in my life where I had used my social network to gain an inside track for a position.

Interview

Tuesday’s call went well.  The position seems interesting.  I would basically be coordinating a multi-year implementation of a new HRIS (human resources information system) system.  I’ve taken a look at the vendor solution and it looks like an interesting and complex system to implement.  Lots of moving pieces.

The manager is a little bit on the fence about whether the position will require two days in the office per week, or three.  I’m pretty confident that if everything else aligns, I can convince him to do two.  The company’s location works against them in attracting candidates.  They’re located in a small city (those of you from large urban areas would call it a town), and it’s a fairly long commute from any of the surrounding metro areas.  They’re growing and want to attract high-quality candidates.  To do that, they’re most likely going to have to be more flexible on work from home.  Management is slowly coming around to this idea.  Their employees have been working from home for about nine months now, and they’re realizing that an employee who’s working from home is actually working – they aren’t just playing Mario all day.

At the end of Tuesday’s call, the manager asked me to formally apply for the position, so that we could move forward with the process.  On Wednesday, HR contacted me to set up a panel interview for the first week of January.  Things are moving about as fast as possible, considering the fact that it’s impossible to arrange interviews during the holidays, due to too many key players being out of the office.

The future

My friend won’t be a part of the interview panel.  This makes sense, as including him would compromise the integrity of the process.  He has, however, been able to give me good insight into the different roles within the company.  I’ve also asked him questions about how the company approaches certain problems.  At this point, I’m getting a lot of good answers.  Although it’s a smaller company than my current one, it seems to be well-managed.

I’ll spend a lot of time in the next week preparing for the interview – and watching football.