face-to-face with a coworker

I’ve worked from home since before I had a job.

My final year of grad school I completed at a distance of fifteen hundred miles. And when I started my first job a month after graduation, my boss and office was almost three thousand miles away — I did spend my first month in the Mountain View office, but other than that, I was remote. And ever since then, I’ve been a remote worker. For the most part, this suits me just fine. No commuting. No office politics. I set my own schedule and get things done. Plus, I can work from wherever I am, be it on the beach at Half Moon Bay or at my dining room table.

Until IBM bought my sweet little French software company 4 years ago, we had annual meetings. I not only got to meet with my coworkers at least once a year, I was able to travel to some interesting places. But since the acquisition, I’ve not gotten to travel for work and miss seeing my coworkers. In fact, I don’t think I’ve seen any of them since I paid my own way to go to a meeting in Austin back in November 2010.

Yesterday, I finally got the chance to have dinner with a former co-worker. He still works with the ILOG Optimization products, but in a different capacity and is no longer someone I interact with regularly. But, for me, it was close enough. Someone who understands what I do and knows the people I work with. And talk about remote — he came all the way from Shanghai for a meeting here in Atlanta.

I have dreams of getting to see my manager (who lives in France) and some of my coworkers (mostly in France) one day again. But for now, I’ll take whatever opportunity that presents itself.

john and the girls – 23 jan 2013