I LOVE remote working. I manage my time the way I see fit and I’m much more productive without dealing with as many meetings, or having them go as long. I also usually have X-Plane running at the same time- Can’t do that in the office.
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Spent 2011-2019 in the office just like most of us always have, then along came covid.
Initially we transitioned to 12 hour days from 10’s, and splitting the staff in half, with each half working different days. God I loved that. Most people weren’t going into to work so the commute was amazing, and the office was finally quiet (I despise open office floorplans).
After that it went to full work from home. You can’t teach law enforcement emergency driving on zoom unsuprisingly.
They basically gave us busy work, and an account on linked in learning for “professional development.” Busy work was done in short order, and I got soooo many certifications. If anyone needs a certified manager for “Organizational Change,” I work for DCS modules. I did my approximately 8 hours of work whenever I felt like. Couldn’t sleep? Time to become certified in “emotional intelligence for corporate planning” at 0300-0700, and then get certified in “teaching adults by adults” from 1500-1900(I was wondering if there was a “teaching adults by cats” class I could audit). My boss was extremely chill, but yes I answered phone calls, emails, and texts at odd hours. The flip side was I could probably have been doing so from poolside in Vegas and he wouldn’t have cared one bit. He was always good about this, and was never a chair or clock watcher when we were in the office prior.
I was not a fan of the few times I had to teach on zoom, I much prefer doing it in person. For those of you who can do it, hats off.
We came back as a “be in the office if you need to be, otherwise stay out.” That was also awesome. Classes got run, we had meetings we needed them, etc. Everything ran very nicely, and honestly I just missed having the down time at work to hangout with my friends at work. This was honestly my preferred option as the amount of people and brass in the office was much lower on any given day, and I never had to teach on zoom again.
When we finally came back to the office full time, we had a new boss. He complained having us in the office made things “a social hour,” and didn’t like my reply of just let us stay home then. I put up with that mess for about 18 months before I moved over to a different unit that has a patrol function, so can’t really do that from home.
Overall, I have always been lucky and really liked at least some of my co-workers wherever I’ve worked here. Being out of the office and not having the chance to hangout on the regular kind of sucks. Beyond that, I appreciate having flexibility to work where I want when I want. If you trust me enough to teach 100 new police cadets the “whys” behind use of force with no supervision, I’d like to think it’s reasonable to trust me to read case on my laptop in my recliner when I feel like it.
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I loved EVOc! Instructors are nuts, but thats part of the fun!
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