Broadband – the era of high-speed internet connections – has in a great many ways been an equaliser for the Highlands and Islands. A digital Colt .45, if you like, that has overcome in many spheres of life the difficulties and disadvantages of geography and distance.
Among the numerous benefits brought about has been the ability to work remotely from home or off-site office. People I know across the Highlands and Islands work from back bedrooms and a variety of converted garages and outbuildings for clients in London, the USA and even Inverness. They defy geography, distance and urban parochialism – and make a decent living at the same time.
But while we in the Highlands and Islands defiantly shake our collective computer mice at the metropolitan rat race, what, if any, are the dangers of this digital idyll? What don’t they tell us before we go home alone with only a computer, a router and a dog/cat for company?
Let’s hear from someone who knows only too well the potential pitfalls after five years of online working. Me.
Your hearing
One of two things happen. Your hearing either deteriorates through listening to loud music while working, or it becomes more acute. Personally, it is the latter.
With only the click-clack of the keyboard and the low whirring noise from the computer, nothing much else breaks the relative silence except the occasional phone call.
Actually, that’s not true. I’m hearing stuff I probably wouldn’t have noticed before. The distant chirping of a songbird, the two hourly bus service rumbling along the main road. And the washing machine when it finishes its cycle…
It emits a nerve-jangling, concentration-evaporating four note buzzing noise. Not once but six times at five second intervals unless you crack, leave your desk and trip through the hall, the kitchen and into the utility room to switch it off. Apparently, this alarm to announce your washing is ready to hang out is made by the same company that manufactures alarm systems for jet airliners. The type that screeches, “Pull up! Pull up!” at the pilot when the jumbo is in danger of ploughing into the side of a mist-covered mountain.
Your manners
Again, generally these tend to go downhill slightly with no one else around to provide the customary checks and balances of polite behaviour. The exception is when you accidentally bump into a desk or chair and automatically find yourself apologizing.
Significant others will almost always derive some pleasure in pointing out your shortcomings, especially if it involves constant humming or singing of which you were previously unaware.
Your hygiene
An element of will power is required here. If you’re a man, there is always the temptation to “give your face a rest” and dispense with a daily shave if there’s no likelihood of having to meet people and go out.
Without a set routine of cleaning up after yourself, the home office can be something of a chemistry experiment when partly drunk mugs of tea and coffee start accumulating on shelves and windowsills. It’s amazing how quickly mould can grow on the forgotten dregs of a carelessly discarded cup.
The counter argument of not polishing everywhere for fear that the disturbed dust will choke all your expensive hardware circuitry just doesn’t wash.
Your thinking/behavioural processes
With no one else around to bounce things off (the dog/cat doesn’t count) random thoughts and ideas can crystallise rather rapidly only to be deflated just as quickly on further reflection. Well, it sounded to me like a good idea.
Other symptoms to look out for is getting into trouble by being completely unaware you’re saying your thoughts out loud. And making other people uncomfortable by holding one-way conversations with your computer and or dog/cat. (“I was on Skype,” gets you out of the first one, and “He understands every word I say,” usually covers the dog/cat conversations.)
But perhaps the saddest indictment of the solo mio digital homeworker lifestyle is being pleased to talk to a cold call salesperson on the phone just for a few fleeting moments of respite and human interaction until they suss out you aren’t interested in switching mobile phone provider at all and are just up for a yarn.
By now you could be forgiven for thinking that remote working from home is a cold, unrewarding experience. No, it’s not. With your home office door closed and all the hardware ‘spùt-ching’ out heat, it can get quite toasty. And the advantages more than outweigh the disadvantages. More about these next time.
