My employment situation has been resolved. As I reported earlier, EFI has decided to close the Vancouver office after this month but they have offered some of the engineers the opportunity to continue to support the Splash product while working from home. I was lucky enough to receive one of those offers and decided to accept it after investigating a couple of non-EFI opportunities. In addition to continuing at my current salary, EFI has generously offered to pay for my home office expenses including a cell phone and a faster internet connection. When the office closes, I’ll also have my pick of computer equipment. EFI has structured a bonus program for me to encourage me to stay until next July, but I have been assured that my employment could continue well past that.
I’m both looking forward to working from home and a bit anxious to see if I can do it effectively. Controlling distractions and being self-disciplined have never been my forté. However, I will now have tremendous flexibility in my schedule, will no longer have a commute and won’t even need to shower (unless Tina makes me). Losing the social aspect of working in an office is a negative but I do most of my socializing via Twitter and chat these days anyway. I’ve really missed being able to listen to music at work and I’m glad I’ll be able to blast the tunes to my heart’s content now.
Overall, the positives far outweigh the negatives and I’m glad for the opportunity.
That’s great news Mick – congrats, and good luck with the WFH status. As you know, I’ve done it for 8 years (or maybe you didn’t realize it has been that long?) and it probably took me 2 years to get the discipline right and adapt to the social deprivation. Sometimes I still work too much tho’… 🙂