The happenings of Wednesday August 7, 2024 in Kingston Upon Thames, England
Today marks the major shift in the trip for me. After using our first few stops as a vacation, or holiday as everyone here has described it, I am back to work.
My work plans for the year have been most people's second set of questions when they hear about our trip...the first set being "You're doing what? With your kids? Did you hit your head? No? Well then that sounds amazing"
The work questions usually have the following progression: Are you working during the trip? Is your job ok with that? HOW are you working during the trip. The TL;DR answers are Yes, Yes (and they are reading this), and with forethought and intentionality.
The full answers:
Yes, I am working this year, it is necessary for us financially, and I enjoy it and (think I) am integral to the company.
Work is ok with it. I expect there was and probably still is some apprehension about how it will work out. I still have some as well. But we have trust and openness going both ways, and a great team. We, with most of the onus on me, will make it work.
As for the How, that is the question that really intrigues people, and it is really two questions packed into one. The easier, what is the mechanism by which you will work?
I was already a remote worker, so the mechanism is still remote work. With my trusty MacBook all I need is a good, or (already experienced) not so good internet. I've got an all access pass to WeWork, which gets me into any of their offices worldwide for when there is one that is close enough. When there isn't a close one cafe wifi is usually at least passable, and cafes are pretty accommodating if you order food/beverage on a cadence relative to how long you are sitting and read the room if things are getting busy. In a pinch tourist areas usually have hotels and restaurants with open wifi that extends to outdoor open seating areas. Bring your VPN (Nord in my case)
The deeper, more difficult part of the question is how will you be part of a team? That is the one that took the most introspection and will continue to exert the most pressure on me and the team. And that pressure comes down to two things. The personal: I want to participate in this trip with my family, and the physical: time zones are a thing, and on this trip I will range variously from 1 to 17 hours ahead of my team.
There is plenty of solo work, which I can do on my local time as I want, but meetings and more importantly collaboration are core to our success. This will be even more in focus as we grow the company over the next year.
I've committed to overlapping at least several hours a day, four days a week. That will allow me to attend our major meetings, have time for collaboration, and some flex space for emergent needs. I've also got my phone and often laptop on me when I am awake in emergencies. On the teams' part they are accommodating by moving meetings to better align with my timing. With me in their future Fridays present a Sabbath challenge, so there will be some travel regions with overlap and some without.
So, yeah. That all started today. As I write this from a week in the future I think it is going pretty well so far. The hardest part was the first day back from vacation time I (knowingly) joined back in during a very busy time, within 2 days of launching to a new customer and with questionable at best internet. The launch went well though, all credit to the team.
Finally, thank you to our whole team at Budgie Health. This entire trip undertaking hinged on my working for the year, and you have, quite literally, made the experience possible for my family.
