© 2011 by DonnerBBQ. All rights reserved.
Feedback welcome and appreciated.
My wife Marie loved her job, working as a software developer for a small startup company. The company only had ten employees and half of them were programmers or project managers directly involved in coding. With such a small company, the work atmosphere was fantastic. The president and vice president were in their 30s, and everyone else in their 20s. She could probably make more money working for a larger company, but she had already done that right out of college and appreciated the importance of a good environment.
The only real problem with her job was the commute. It typically took her 1.5 hours each way. Having to spend fifteen hours every week sitting in a traffic jam or packed like a sardine on a train was exhausting. But she liked her job well enough to tolerate the commute. We even talked about moving to cut down on the commute, but financially it wasn't a good time to do so.
One day Marie came home from work and told me that she was discussing the commuting problem with her project manager Jim. In the course of the discussion, she asked about the possibility of working from home one day a week. While he was sympathetic towards her commuting difficulties, it didn't sound like he was in favor of the idea because of the effect that it would have on the team development process. But he did say that he would think about it and discuss the issue with the powers that be.
I expected the proposal to go nowhere. But the following week Marie came home and cheerily informed me that they told her that she could work from home one day a week. She was pretty excited about it and proceeded to give me the details.
"I had a meeting with Jim and Marcus, the VP. Marcus started by explaining the importance of company morale. From the way he was talking it sounded like it was a definite 'no.' But then he began talking about how important I was to the company and how he was disappointed to hear that my long commute was becoming a problem. He said that they were willing to consider it, but wanted to hear my ideas on how it would work.
"We'll I hadn't really thought about details, I figured I could just remote desktop in and work normally. But he wanted to make sure that my work-from-home time would actually be productive. He asked about what my 'home office' was like, what kind of distractions there would be during a typical day, and how I'd communicate with the development team during the day. I told them about our office and that nobody else would be here during the day besides our dog, and that we could talk on the phone whenever we needed to.
"Marcus said that communication was their biggest concern. He explained that if there are delays in communication or if communication isn't effective it could really have a detrimental impact on development. As I listened it sure sounded again like a 'no.' I was hoping it could just not be a big deal to work one day a week from home, but instead it was turning into this big production. Then Marcus said that they had come up with a solution if I was okay with it."
Marie then explained their idea. They would install webcams on the developers' personal computers in the office and one in the conference room, and they wanted Marie to install one in her home office. She could still virtually attend meetings in the conference room and chat face-to-face with any of the developers at any time.
This new policy was only on a trial basis and it didn't just apply to her. To be fair, they had to let all of the developers get the same deal. They each had one specific day when they could work from home. Marie's lucky day was Wednesday. The other programmers, Justin, Frank, and Wayne each had their own assigned days too.
A few days later Marie installed a webcam and attached it to a shelf above her monitor. Her desk was against a wall near the entrance to the small office. As such, the webcam was fairly non-intrusive. I've always been guarded of my privacy so I was happy that the webcam wasn't pointing into a hallway or any commonly used areas. All that people would see would be her if she were sitting at her desk, and the remainder of the office, which contained a bookshelf, a closet and little else.
The following Wednesday Marie was able to sleep in a bit and enjoy the commute-free work day. When I came home that evening it sounded like it was a big success. The other developers left their cams on all day so that communication was seamless. The developers even ate together in the conference room so they could all share lunch. Most importantly, Marie looked less exhausted having cut out the commute from her day.
Before long, it was just the standard routine for us. On Wednesdays Marie still had to shower and dress for work to remain professional, but around 8:30 she would go into her office and turn on the cam and microphone and begin working. Of course by that time I was long gone for work myself, but that's what she told me. At the end of the work day she'd turn the camera and mic off.
Outside of normal work hours all of the developers would periodically sign in to chat. Sometimes it was to do legitimate work, but often it seemed like they were just using the setup to socialize. Marie would often turn on the camera for an hour or so at night, and for several hours on the weekend. She never used the microphone outside of normal work hours to avoid it being too intrusive or accidentally picking up our private conversation. But just being able to see her work buddies and interact with them in real time was something that I could tell she enjoyed.
One night, Marie and I were reading in bed when Marie got up to get a different book. She went into her office and a minute later was back in bed reading. I didn't think anything of it. A couple minutes later I got up to get a drink and Marie handed me her book, told me she changed her mind about reading it and asked if I'd return it for her.
So I went to the office and put the book back on the shelf. But as I turned around I noticed that the red light on the cam was on. I didn't think too much of it until I got into the hall, when I remembered that Marie was just in there. I then considered what she was wearing: just a t-shirt and panties. She had gotten rid of her bra and pants when she got into bed.
"Honey, " I said as I re-entered the bedroom. "did you realize that you left the cam on?"
"Oh, no, I'm sorry. Did you turn it off for me?" she asked.
"No, but do you realize that you were just in there? " I asked, as I deliberately glared at her bare legs.
I could see the light go on in her head as she understood what I was saying. Her jaw dropped and she just sat there for a moment with her mouth agape as she considered what somebody might have seen. As she closed her mouth she was smiling and looked slightly embarrassed. Finally she said, "Oops. Well, it's late. Nobody was probably watching anyway."
She was trying to dismiss it. But I rather liked seeing her embarrassed so I pressed on and responded, "Yeah, but what if they were?"
"Well, then they would have seen me standing there for a moment in my panties. It's not the end of the world."