Getting the hang of Thursdays

“This must be Thursday,' said Arthur to himself, sinking low over his beer. 'I never could get the hang of Thursdays.” --The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, Douglas Adams

A Development! We've started a one-day-per-week work-from-home rota for my team at the office. My day is Thursday. January is our test period, and if things go well, we'll continue on. We may even bump it up to two days per week!

Look, it's an improvement, all right? I'll take it where I can get it. At the moment, it's one more day out of the office where the potential germs are. It's also one more day of keeping my potential germs to myself.

It's a mixed bag, though, working from home. You have all the comforts, yes. You don't have to put on real pants if you don't want to. You don't even have to shower--it's not like anyone can smell you on a Microsoft Teams meeting. As long as your equipment and connections hold up, everything's fine. There are fewer distractions, like people popping their noggins over your cubicle wall for a chat. On the other hand, at least if you're me, when there's no one else around, you tend to forget to take your breaks. My office is practically militant about taking breaks. It's better than the alternative, of course, but on the odd occasion when you're up to your arse in it, the last thing you need is to be held responsible for swanning off for fifteen minutes--labor law or no labor law. It can also be tiresome if you can't raise anyone when you need them. It's not always as easy to get someone's attention when you have to call them or ping them, rather than just swiveling around in your chair and yawping at the nearest unfortunate soul.

Of course, for me, the office is my only current source of real, live social interaction. Much as I'm all for working from home for practical reasons in the current climate, it does take away just that much more 'people time'--which I already lack. Yes, even this most introverted of introverts occasionally likes the company of her fellow humans.

Occasionally.

Mind you, it's nice to be able to snuggle a squeaker during working hours. Especially as we seem to have entered the palliative care stage with poor Sarah, bless her. Yes, Miss Sarah Bellum has had the Respiratory Thing for a while, and we can't seem to get ahead of it with the antibiotics, so it's treats and snugs and ear scritches and sitting in a woobie while Mom sits through Thursday meetings.

If no one can read my mug on the webcam, it's not like they'll notice a pair of ears and whiskers.