Hello Again! Have you Missed Me?

 Every once in a while, I have spent less time updating and participating in my blog than I want to. However, I wasn't aware that I had yet to make any posts since 2023! Part of this has to do with using a variety of other avenues to communicate and being in a mode of looking for work and doing contract work for the duration. It has left me little time or attention for blogging.

That, however, led me to realize that it was violating my prime reason for making this blog in the first place. That was a promise to learn in public and share what I learned along the way. I have learned quite a bit over the past 16 1/2 months since I held my last full-time job and my current gig (more on that later ;) ). I'll be blunt, much of my time and attention has been hunting for work and getting the chance to do interesting work. I've developed course material for teaching manual testers to become SDETs. I co-authored a book with Matt Heusser on "Software Testing Strategies" and while I am happy that it has been well received, I'm realizing I've been terrible about actually talking about it and what's in it. I've worked on a variety of writing assignments, one of which was writing landing page content for a QA company in South America that wanted a more human touch in how their information and services appeared to an English-speaking audience. That was a neat experience and one I learned a great deal about how to improve my writing for a different audience. 

I had several opportunities to develop and deliver talks that are built around the material in our book, which means I have stepped out of my comfortable wheelhouse of Accessibility and random topics and getting to look at some interesting challenges. I talked about the puzzle pieces of good testing and had the chance to deliver them a few times. Matt and I have presented a few times now on Lean Software Testing (which we should mention is not the same or related to the LEAN startup) and it has turned into a great way to look at the way we test and how to help organizations and individual testers improve their overall testing efforts (and often without having to ask for permission ;) ).

As I am at PNSQC this week, my history of doing live blogging to capture my thoughts and impressions still alive and well. I realized that PNSQC 2023 was the last in-person event I attended, and thus it has been a year since I've done these. Apologies or you're welcome, depending on where you fall on that sentiment.

It's good to be back. Let's try to keep this conversation going. 

OK, I'm At Home, All the Time. Now What?

As I have had the past few weeks to be at home full time, there is a definite difference between "working from home" and "sheltering at home". Even when I was working from home, I had the freedom to go out and do other things. Grab food someplace, sit in a Starbucks and work, drive out to band practice for a few hours each week. With Shelter at home policies in place, most of these outlets are not available at present.

I am practicing social distancing to the best of my ability. I have a protocol I use where I use chlorine bleach and towels to help me as I touch surfaces. I carry two zip lock bags that have towels sprayed with chlorine bleach and a handful of N95 masks that I use at different times. I use these when I need to go to the store, which has been a handful of times.

Some people are going to say "no big deal, I'll just order online." Not a bad idea, if you can get the items you want on time and what you want in the quantity you want them. that's not been a foregone conclusion these past four weeks. Several orders that I have made are still in process and of the items I have received, many have been rationed to only a few items per order. This is totally understandable considering the situation but it's a new reality for a lot of us. We are not used to having to wait in line and then to have limited supplies on hand.

The items that are less available are amusing and frustrating. I have yet to see toilet paper in any store I have been to in the past month. I have had trouble finding long-grain white rice, plain flour and I have yet to find any yeast in any store. Fortunately, a friend of mine had a large quantity of yeast she willingly split in half to share with me. I was also able to return the favor by giving her apple butter and apple jelly that I had processed and canned back in December. It has been nice to have it as a bartering currency :).

So what are some positives? Well, there have been a few. I am definitely doing a lot more from-scratch cooking. that's been made a little frustrating by the fact that my oven gave up the ghost last week (it needs to be fixed but for the time being I have a large toaster oven and a range of dutch ovens that I can put on the range if needed so I'm not totally out of options ;). Up until I received the yeast I was making several batches of Irish soda bread. Very good and hearty, lasts a good while, and leftovers, if you make a lot of it, can be frozen for later.

I am taking advantage of a variety of techniques to make basic food items to have on hand such as paneer and labneh from milk, exploring a variety of colonial recipes including a terrific "bread soup" that is exactly as it sounds; water, stale bread, and a hunk of cheddar cheese are all that is needed to make a rich and filling soup that is literally pure comfort food :).

I'm fortunate in the fact that I have a pair of dogs that need to be walked a couple of times a day so I do take them out but I make sure I steer well clear of anyone and walk them down and up my hill. That's my daily "venture outside" exercise as well as a bit of time tending to my backyard each day. to be honest, I could probably spend a little more time on this. It needs it. Additionally on an exercise front, as I have reported in the past I have a mini-trampoline in my office and that mini-trampoline is the foundation of my standing desk. I jump up and down on it a fair amount of the day and that also keeps me moving, gets me tired, and makes me feel a bit more accomplished at the end of each day.

If I'm being frank, I've spent the past few weekends sleeping more than I normally would. I want to say that that is a reflection of not going anywhere or doing any events but truth be told, each week is just exhausting at this stage. By having my partner Christina home with me all day, as well as my two daughters (granted, they are both adults) that changes the home dynamic from when it is just me at home. there's been a need to separate my work life and my home life a little more during this experience and communicating with my team has also required more cycles mentally to keep in touch and keep things moving. That takes a toll on a person and yes, sleep is needed. I have not felt bad about the need for more sleep and I would suggest if you feel like you need it, take it.

One thing that I have taken some additional comfort in over the past several weeks has been to go back and organize my workspace and home. My office itself has been reorganized and refactored multiple times as I am spending much more time in here. Why would I require and reorganize a room I already spend every day in? At least for me, each day is a chance to see if there's a better way to do something as compared to the day before.

An oddity that I have been coming to grips with when it comes to my own attitudes is I really dislike visible cables. It's a strange thing to obsess over, I agree. If I am in the moment of working on something, I do not mind having a few cables visible or needing to wire/rewire various things. However, after a little bit, that desire to have things more carefully placed just comes to the fore and I get into the rewiring habit and break everything down to figure out the optimal clean layout, or as close to optimal as I can get.

As I have been going around the house and organizing/ cleaning, I have to say that I am noticing a lot more items that I find myself saying "if I'm ever going to use this, wouldn't now bring that to the fore?" I think I have gone through the house and deliberately made sure I am using something or can make a compelling case for everything I currently have. I of course have some blind spots in this regard, especially out in my garage, as I have projects I have been pledging to get involved in for years and they are still well hidden behind cabinet doors and in boxes of boxes. That may well be a task to take on in the coming weeks but for the most part, it's still a place I have yet to want to tackle.

 Each day and week brings something new and it also causes me to have to think and adapt to a reality that is unsettling and foreign. All I can do is approach each day as a unique opportunity, do the things I hope to accomplish, and give it my best. That "best" varies, to be honest, and I think it's important to realize that, for many of us, it is going to vary for some time. Some of our tried and true systems will work for us and several will be found lacking. We all have different ways to cope with how we are dealing with these times and in that sense, I'd suggest one additional item and that's to check in on your friends and family, perhaps a little more often than you might in normal times. We, of course, care about each other's health and welfare but this is more of a personal "hey, are you OK?" kind of check-in. Some people are good about saying how they feel and putting it out there. Others not so much. It may seem like a little thing, but a phone call, text, or email and saying "hey, I hope you are doing OK" can make a huge difference to someone.

So in conclusion, know that being home full time is weird for many and this climate is weird even for those of us who are home all the time. Everything has been upended and there's little outside of our own spheres that we can control at this point. All we can do is do our best with the situation we have at hand. I wish you all well and "stay safe out there".

Some Advice for My New Working From Home Compatriots

It's strange to think that I have been working as a remote employee for two and a half years now (or close enough, officially since the end of October 2017). In those two and a half years, I had to make a number of adjustments and I had some painful and frustrating realizations during that time.

With the spread of COVID-19 and numerous Shelter-In-Place orders, many of my friends and colleagues are discovering what it is like to work from home full time. In fact, this may well be the single greatest experiment of its kind. Telework has long been championed by many and it has just as vocal detractors. Still, for many of us, it is a way of life. 

My engineering team, due to the high costs of real estate in the San Francisco Bay Area and decisions of our head office back east (or what was our head office at the time; our head office is now in the UK ;) ), was converted to being a 100% distributed team. For Socialtext (my core team until literally today for the past 7 1/2 years), this distributed attitude was built into the DNA of our company. When we were acquired, our new parent company tried to have us be more of an in-place/in-office team, but it never really took. Thus, when the decision to go full remote for our team was made, we were well able to deal with it. Now, our colleagues who are very used to office life and all it entails, are having to work remotely and all that entails.

Recently, we had a chat about some of the things that those of us who were veterans of the remote work world would suggest to our colleagues. As part of that, I figured some of my readers who are now in the same space might find this interesting/valuable. 

Disclaimer: some of what I am going to suggest is context-specific. I'm fortunate in that my children are grown, albeit two of them are in the house with us at this time (my son is sheltering in place down in Los Angeles and so far as we have been told/he's told us, he's doing alright). My advice may or may not be appropriate for those with younger children or other situations but I still hope my suggestions may be helpful.

1. You Used to Commute. Preserve That Time

Consider your former habits and your time that you would take to get door to door to work. You may consider the fact that you no longer have a commute to be a time saver. It certainly can be and if you are sure you will not be commuting again in the future, feel free to ignore this advice. Otherwise, determine what your average daily commute is and what your habits are/were around that time. Consider doing a virtual commute.

What I mean is, think about those things you did. Did you walk to a train? Did you drive? If so, what did you do from the time you left your home to the time you sat at your desk. Seriously consider how you used that time and try to duplicate it. For me, I used that time to listen to e-books or podcasts, or to read/work on various projects. That time is still important to me. While I do not always preserve that time, I do try my best to allow myself a "commute hour" or so in the morning and in the afternoon so I can keep that time. I have also literally rolled out of bed and started working. Some days I've logged off work and rolled right into bed. It's a real danger and an easy trap to fall into. Thus, I encourage you to give yourself some literal transition time.

2. Get Dressed For Work, At Least a Little

OK, I confess, I vary on this. I do dress each day but a lot of time I dress in workout clothes and stay in them. Other times, I will actually get up and "suit up" as though I was going across the country for a corporate face-to-face. Again, this helps to fight the "roll out of bed and go to work" attitude. Believe me, I've done that, a lot, and on the whole, it tends to feel a little depressing.

Your mileage may vary on this but seriously, I find that my attitude and my demeanor jump up considerably when I suit up for work. Again, suit up can mean getting into workout clothes, wearing what I'd wear for a meeting, or to really have some fun, embrace the whole #ReverseCasualFriday and really get dressed up. That can be a lot of fun, a little silly and yes, it can definitely punch up your mood, especially in a team meeting. This past Friday, I literally wore a Victorian frock coat, vest high collar shirt, silk cravat, and a derby hat. Silly? Maybe. Did I feel great? Absolutely :).

3. Try to Keep to a Set Schedule, if You Can

The promise of telework is also its biggest danger. Remote work is often touted as "I can work anywhere at any time" and that is often true. Just as often, that can morph into "I will work everywhere, all the time". Have I done this? I most certainly have. That's why I'm strongly suggesting to keep it in check.

I get it, deadlines happen, there are crunch times, situations may call for being flexible. Still, it's easier to deal with those on a case by case basis than it is to get into a habit of being always on and then realizing you need to scale back. If you worked specific hours before, again, try to keep to them as much as possible. If the team as a whole decides to make some modifications, that's OK, but make sure you aren't all falling into the same time trap. Remember, for many of you, you will be returning back to an office at some point and it can be difficult to then have to pull back from an arrangement that just sort of happened due to circumstances. This goes double for if you have younger children that you have to take care of now for an extended period... and on that note...

4. Set Office Hours and Regularly Scheduled Breaks. Post Them for Your Family

Getting everyone on the same page is going to be a challenge, especially in this arrangement currently. It may not be realistic to work a full eight hour day and say to everyone, "Hey, imagine I'm not here." That doesn't work very well with young kids and shelter-in-place orders, especially if they are trying to do school work and have other needs. Your schedule will need to be flexible but to that end, if you can, try to establish key blocks where you can say "during these times, I need to be focused".

I find it best to schedule these in two-hour increments at the most. From there, it may be necessary to take an hour to handle family stuff, cook meals, a shift towards helping with school work, or any number of other necessary things that don't coincide with a full workday. Schedule those shift times, and then schedule those focus times as well. Again, my kids are all adults now, so this is easier now than it was a few years ago. Still, if you can do it, try it out. 

I've found that these tweaks can save your sanity and overall physical health as well. If you have the ability to take a short walk in a way that observes shelter-in-place guidelines, do so. Take some time to exercise, listen to music, go into an area outside if possible and breathe a little bit. Whether or not this is a temporary situation or perhaps a more permanent part of your reality, I encourage you to take some time and set parameters so that your work life and your personal life have some separation, even in this time where it all to easily can blur into one. In any event, this is coming from someone who has fallen short on all of the accounts above at one point or another, hence why I suggest these; I have failed so you don't have to ;).