Who works from home now?
This is a sponsored post, yet the expression of my love for Office 365 and my Microsoft gadgets, which are allowing me to work all over the darn place this summer, remains my own.
If you had told me a dozen years ago, when I declared a holiday for at-home moms, that I would be writing this post on a bus in the Lincoln Tunnel, I wouldn’t have believed you.
For a decade, my June holiday, “Please Take My Children to Work Day,” was a tongue-in-cheek homage to the beleaguered stay-at-home mom, which I had been for a few years. It was even officially declared in about a dozen states. Seriously. I have the declarations with official gubernatorial stamps to prove it.
But that day was about being home, and today was about being on the go.
Since my kids were little, I have been a stay-at-home mom and a work-at-home mom, but now I am a sometimes-commutes-to-New York City-mom for an ongoing project that has me working on buses, trains, and in Starbucks throughout the east side of Manhattan. (Tip: The Starbucks on Second Avenue around 33rd Street has free WiFi, and electrical outlets under every seat.)
Though I am still a work-at-home mom, I am also a work-from-anywhere mom. If I had taken your kids to work with me now, they would learn how to type on a bus (bumpy), a train (smooth), and in Port Authority (smelly in spots).
To keep this show on the road (and on the tracks), I have a few on-the-go must-haves:
- My Surface 2, which is part laptop, part tablet
- Office 365, an annual subscription service with Word, Excel, etc, that goes on up to five of my devices
- OneDrive, where I store what I’m working on to access from home or on the go
- My WiFi hotspot and various device chargers
- Sneakers (I learned my lesson with blisters on Day 1)
- Bus and train schedules (in apps on my Windows phone and in print, crammed under my stuff in my bag)
- My Starbucks gold card
- And a “Don’t mess with me” expression. This is New York, after all.
So where do I work nowadays?
I work on trains:
I work at the Starbucks in the bus station:
I work in parking lots:
I work wherever they let me put my feet up and my WiFi on:
And yes, I work from home:
Though I no longer celebrate “Please Take My Children to Work Day,” I encourage you to, if you’re home with the kids and need a break.
If however, you’re like me and working on the go, I recommend all my must-haves. And I did so today, on the bus, when a 20-something asked me, “How is it to type on the bus?”
“Bumpy, but doable,” I answered, before folding up my Surface 2, and heading home.
For three years so far, I have served as a spokesperson for Microsoft’s Office 365. It’s a match made in Penn Station.
