This past week has been an interesting one. I was fortunate to have an employer who not only supported but mandated all employees staying and working from home. I’ve been a big fan of being able to work from home but this week things got real.

For whatever reason, I was under the impression that it was going to be a smooth ride.

This post is going to be a little bit different. I’ll try to make it short and sweet but hopefully still relevant and valuable to you.

My intention is simple. Share my experiences and hopefully get comments from people for whom working from home is pretty much the norm.

The Bad

Honestly, working from home hasn’t been too bad.

The main issue I had to deal with was network connectivity. Thankfully, we have good internet service. However, that doesn’t save you if your employer is not set up to handle an entire staff working from home.

We use platforms like Skype and Microsoft Teams and those tend to work fine (not always). Pulling files from network folders can be a different story.

It literally took my supervisor and a co-worker 10 minutes to get on a call to share updates. To me, that is completely unacceptable.

Our IT department really came to the rescue and has helped smooth things out. Still, things have been a little bit bumpy.

I won’t complain too much. Despite an unexpected decision to have everyone work from home, we’ve been able to manage. Communication is good and overall I get the impression that we’re effective in our jobs.

The Ugly

To call it ugly is an understatement. For those of you that don’t know, I’m currently employed in the Oil & Gas Industry. If you’re not aware of all the crazy shit that’s happening between the Russians and Saudis then let me spare you some time.

Below is a quick picture followed by a summary of events.

1. Oil demand started to drop significantly as a result of the worldwide spread of the coronavirus COVID-19,
2. OPEC+ met in February of 2020 to evaluate potential strategies primarily centered on production cuts. The goal was to help maintain a balance between supply and demand and therefore avoid a collapse in oil prices,
3. Russia said, “good luck … we’re good, we are cash flow positive even if oil prices drop to $30/bbl or below”,
4. The Saudis said “bullshit” and opened up the gates to flood the market making oil prices plunge to ~$30/bbl.
5. Meanwhile, US Oil & Gas companies are cutting capital as fast as possible.

Everybody knows it’s going to be a bumpy ride so brace yourselves …

By the way, you gotta love the peppers. I’m probably dating myself but check out this video. It’s one of my favorites.

But let’s be serious for a minute here. What does this mean to my family and what could be a worst-case scenario?

It doesn’t take a genius to realize that unemployment is a possibility. This is exacerbated when in presence of a bear market and a recession that could last for a long time.

So are we worried about it?

Yes and no.

I say yes because I tend to overstress about my ability to provide for our family. At the same time, I’m trying not to worry too much because we should be able to weather the storm.

Some of the reasons I say that is because we’ve always kept our feet on the ground. Previous events at work have triggered conversations about dealing with a downturn or potential loss of employment.

Being an employee in the Oil and Gas industry is like investing in the stock market.

If you can’t handle a downturn and collapse in oil prices then you shouldn’t be in this industry. Likewise, if you can’t handle market volatility (bear markets are inevitable) you shouldn’t invest in the stock market.

Anyways, here’s the list of things that give us some comfort and peace of mind.

• As an employee, I’ve always known that I’m not indispensable.
• We’ve built and kept a healthy emergency fund with ~ 1 year worth of expenses in a high-yield savings account.
• Receive passive income from dividends and real estate.
• My background provides some flexibility to switch industries.
• Invested time searching for self-funded health care and believe we have affordable options at our disposal (if needed). I highly recommend reading Tanja Heister’s Work Optional. She did a phenomenal job covering this topic for those interested in early retirement.
• The gig economy provides many opportunities to generate income. Kevin is my go-to resource for options we could consider.

The Beautiful Surprises

It’s only been a week but I gotta tell you, I’ve enjoyed working from home.

There’s nothing like waking up, having breakfast, enjoying fresh coffee and then heading to my home office. Not having to commute has been awesome.

With schools closing, it has been a challenge keeping our boys entertained during an extended spring break. We’ve set a schedule for our 6-year-old to keep up with school work; however, the 2-year-old does not want to play along.

He certainly demands time. Even though our daycare decided to stay open we made the decision to keep him at home.

Having the flexibility to take breaks to spend time with my family has been great. While this is a nice perk, I have to give a lot of credit to my wife.

We are fortunate to have one income that gives us options. My wife stays at home raising our kids and taking care of our house. For sure her job is harder than mine.

Under our current circumstances, this has been a blessing.

If we both had to work, I’m not sure how well we would manage.

I was also happy to read this post that was timely for someone who rarely works from home.

In summary:

• Set up a dedicated workspace: If you’re using a laptop there’s a temptation to work from everywhere around the house. For me, that doesn’t work especially with kids running around the house. I get to my office when I start the day and when I’m done, I’m done. I don’t bring anything out of the office. Besides, my setup is pretty sweet. This is another one where the credit goes to my wife.
• Have the right equipment and supplies: so far I’ve been able to get by with my laptop. But to be honest, once you have two monitors it is difficult to go back.
• Set meetings to check-in: we have scheduled daily standups to cover what we did yesterday, plans for today, roadblocks and parking lot items. The meeting invite was updated to include a skype connection. If conflicts exist we simply send the same information via Micorosft Teams or email.
• Encourage a flexible schedule: given our individual circumstances, we’ve all shared out working hours to make sure there’s awareness in case anybody needs help from a team member. So far we haven’t had any issues and this is one of the perks of working from home I’ve enjoyed the most. Aside from meetings, I get to set up my own schedule. As long as I get the job done nobody cares. Below are a couple of pictures with some of the perks of having a flexible schedule and being able to work from home.
• A lesson for everyone: even though working from home is not a new thing, it is for me and our industry. In addition, working from home came as a result of the Coronavirus COVID-19 and not because it was a request by employees. Patience and grace are words we’re sharing amongst ourselves to support each other and make sure we stay productive in these difficult times.

Final Thoughts

Working from home has been a great experience.

The first week went by pretty fast without issues negatively affecting my productivity.

If anything, I feel I was actually more productive.

Ask me in a couple of weeks and we’ll see If my answer remains the same.

For now, the plan is to continue the routine but include more work out sessions using videos we found on amazon prime video.

The 6-year-old will continue to make progress with schoolwork and the 2-year-old … well, he’ll just have to stay out of his hair 🙂

For us it’s all about taking things one day at a time doing things we don’t normally do:

• Cooking together: have become a fan of cooking keto recipes!
• Eating together: gotta love being able to sit down with the gang.
• Date night: we’re dressing up, putting the kids to bed and then coming downstairs to enjoy a great meal.

Stay healthy, stay home and I’ll see you in the next post.

JJ