HOMEWORKOLOGY

Welcome to Homeworkology. As a community, we're making homework each and every day.Shawn Gibbons: Welcome to Homeworkology. Ammie, thank you for joining us. I appreciate it so much.Ammie: Thanks for having me.Shawn: Maybe we can just set a little bit of a parameter. Tell me a little bit about where you are geographically, where are you located right now?Ammie: I'm in New York City, Brooklyn specifically.Shawn: Okay. Are you working, completely remotely or hybrid, or what's going on? How are you working?Ammie: It's kind of hybrid. It was completely remote for a long period of time and then it became optional, so it's still optional. That's why I don't really know if it's exactly hybrid. I only recently started going in once or twice a week.Shawn: Oh, that's interesting. Before we get into why you decided to go in once or twice a week when you had the option to stay home all the time, tell me a little bit about what it is that you do.Ammie: I'm a data engineer, so I work in the tech industry. Then the company I specifically work for is kind of, in the pet industry, so very animal oriented.Shawn: You got the pooches on this side and then you have the data engineering on this side. Explain to me, because I don't think I know necessarily what a data engineer does.Ammie: I don't think a lot of people do.[laughter]Ammie: Actually, one of the things that we've been struggling with is trying to get the rest of the departments that we work with within the company to understand.Shawn: Ah, tell me.Ammie: I mean basically what we do is we, data comes in from many sources. It comes in very dirty, so our job is to actually, well, first get the data from the sources, clean it up, and then massage it in a way that it can actually be used for analytical purposes.Shawn: Okay. For marketing purposes and that type of thing.Ammie: Yes, marketing, tracking, anything like that.Shawn: Okay, got you. That does sound like a job that could translate easily at working from home.Ammie: Yes. Agreed.Shawn: Okay. Then you mentioned earlier that you decided to start going back to the office for a couple of days. Why did you do that?Ammie: Well, a few months ago, I actually moved in with my boyfriend and we both work from home. We actually have plenty of space, so our desks are in separate rooms and everything, but now that we live together and we work from home together, I figured some space would be nice, so I just go in a few days of the week.Shawn: Okay. I usually have to soften people up and talk about all the things that they were doing beforehand and whatnot. You went right at it.Ammie: [laughs]Shawn: All right, so let's just talk about-- because I work from home through the pandemic with my significant other as well. The thing that I think that most people took away, either you are working with somebody who you found out that you probably shouldn't even be in a relationship with and-- oh my god, so many people's relationships went exactly where they should have gone anyway. Just the pandemic accelerated it. For those of who actually like our partners, [unintelligible 00:03:50] there are those and that balance needed to be inserted.Ammie: Yes, for sure. Actually another detail on that is that actually, since the pandemic I started seeing therapy, and it was all virtual, for a long period of time, and then it was even virtual when my boyfriend and I moved in together. That was difficult because therapy is private, and so I had it in the middle of the workday too, and it being virtual, made it very easy at the time, but once he moved in, I was like, "You need to be out of the apartment for an hour every week on Mondays," and that was very difficult.We managed that for a long time. Sent him out to do some errands or something for an hour every week, and then once my therapist's office opened up and I could start going in physically again, that's also a reason why I go into the office, because actually, my therapist office is really close to my work.Shawn: Right, right. That makes a lot of sense. I just want to shift just a little bit. In terms of where you were in terms of your head space before we all started to work remotely, did the isolation that occurred for many people when we couldn't see each other and go to work and whatever, did that impact you one way or the other?Ammie: It's actually really funny. I think I had a very different COVID experience than most people. I actually really loved the quarantine time.Shawn: Really?Ammie: [chuckles] Yes. I actually had a great time. I feel like I connected with my coworkers a lot more. We scheduled time to hang out on Zoom, and then I was outside more because it was the only thing we could do, and I would just chat with people that way. It actually had a decent amount of-- I had a great time during quarantine. [chuckles]Shawn: You know what Ammie, I'm so glad that we're having this conversation because there's no cookie-cutter response to all that has happened. For sure there have been shifts culturally and professionally and everybody is changing, and so it's refreshing honestly to hear, somebody say, yes, in some ways the thing that could have been a terrible thing, we decided to make lemonade instead of just sucking down those lemons. Thank you for sharing that.In terms of your professional approaches, how did that work out? A lot of times in a professional space, women feel less visible, so then all of a sudden you're in a place where you're physically remote. Not only is it visibility, but you physically aren't there for leadership, for mentoring, for all of those things. How did you accommodate and make sure that you stayed relevant in your career?Ammie: I think it was relatively easy for me in the beginning. I was the first and only data engineer for my company at the time. It's a startup, and so I was the only person that they could talk to about those things. I was very relevant and hard to miss in a meeting when it was centered around my expertise.Shawn: The beauty of small companies, there is no getting lost in the cloud.Ammie: Yes. Exactly. Actually, now my team has grown larger and we are actually, I would say a majority female, so it's--Shawn: Oh wow. Good for you.Ammie: [laughs] Yes. I love it being in tech and being surrounded by women, but yes, so it hasn't really been too difficult for me. I think in general, whenever I'm in meetings, it's usually, kind of centered around something that I'm the expert on, so it's not too often that I feel lost in the background. Sometimes I'm in meetings that aren't centered on my expertise and I prefer to be in the background, so that's the only time that I feel that way.Shawn: Then have you been able to incorporate younger colleagues or not younger necessarily, chronologically, but just people newer to the organization as well?Ammie: Yes, I think it goes back to just being at a startup organization. As soon as people join, they are assigned to something and then they become the expert on that. Even me, I haven't been here-- I've been here for so long. If I'm not assigned to it, I'm not the expert on it.Shawn: Right, right. I love that. That's an interesting culture, that a lot of people probably wish that they could experience, quite frankly. The last thing I think I really wanted to touch on with you was your physical space because, homeworks and Homeworkology specifically, we're having these conversations to really be able to identify those places where people are implementing habits, and really digging down into practices and disciplines that help us to work from home in a way that is balanced and joyful. What have you been doing to make sure that working from home doesn't feel too heavy?Ammie: I think this is going to be the opposite of what most people say is that, but I work and live in like-- it's very bonded together, in that I take breaks whenever I want during the day, and I might work at night. It all depends on how I'm feeling and where my schedule is. I would say there's not a huge boundary for me. There's probably no boundary, actually.Shawn: You self-please then in terms of your productivity?Ammie: Yes, especially during this past summer. This past summer, I wanted to take a ceramics class. Only available class was Wednesday morning, so I was able to go to classes in the morning for three hours. I didn't start work until 12:00, and then I just worked until 8:00 PM.Shawn: That is fantastic. Clearly, you are of the mindset that my work is my work. I know my responsibility, and it's going to get done. That couldn't work for me because my clients only pretty much are in the office between 8:00 in the morning and 4:00. If I decided that I wanted to show up halfway through the day, they'd be like, "I'm sorry, we need to find somebody else," but because of the type of work you do, that can work for you, but it also, is also the kind of person you are too. The kind of person you are is diligent enough, that you're going to handle your business, and that's pretty awesome.Ammie: It's pretty good. That was a little easier because it was pre-blocked out for a long period of time. I was like, I'm going to do it for two months. For the next two months, this is how my Wednesdays are going to look. Another interesting thing I did was that during the quarantine period, I actually went to Korea for three months. Because of the work from home policy, I was able to go and just work from over there.I had the same mentality, but it was a lot more difficult because of the time differences. It just was a lot harder to manage because now it's just like, if I want to have a meeting right after my class, it's fine, and then I could just do my individual work in the out-of-office hours. When it does come time for collaboration with others, it always has to happen during office hours.Shawn: That is good to know. In terms of your workspace, your physical workspace, are you using all the correct ergonomic tools and all the-Ammie: I think so. Everything of mine is customized. I even have a customized keyboard. My desk serves more than one purpose, it's also my makeup desk. It is messy on the sides, but when it's time for work, I just push everything out of the way.Shawn: In terms of your chair, ergonomic?Ammie: Yes.Shawn: That's the thing that really gets people that consistent and repetitive seated position, and then also even if you don't have a sit-to-stand desk, because not everybody does or can, but just to get up every 55 minutes or so and stretch, walk around a little bit. Those are the kinds of habits that if you start to include them in your day, you will stay energized and productive. I'm glad you found the ceramics class too.Ammie: Thank you. Actually, I do get up a lot during the workday, especially when I-- Actually, I do the same amount when I'm in the office, but at home, I get up a lot because I cook my meals on demand. I don't meal prep. I cook in the middle of my work day, sometimes during my meetings. I'm constantly getting up, coming back to my seat. I also have a dog, I take him out in the middle of the day, so that's good.Shawn: [inaudible 00:14:30] you a question. I'm just randomly asking this. With all of these Zoom meetings or go to meeting or whatever it is that happens to be your flavor, but what is the most annoying thing that you've seen or experienced on Zoom calls?Ammie: I would say mostly just people talking over each other. It's really hard to read when someone's about to speak. That's probably the most difficult thing. Then also a whiteboarding, when you're working collaboratively. We have this thing called Mural which is a digital whiteboard. It's nice. It's nice, but it's not the same as-- sometimes I just need to draw shapes. It doesn't even make sense, but it helps me process in order to draw something.Shawn: [inaudible 00:15:28] with all the scribble scribbles on it. It just helps me remove some of the gray matter away.Ammie: Yes, especially from just my head. Sometimes there's just stuff scribbles in my head that I need to remove.Shawn: I completely agree. Oh, my God. I didn't know anybody else that scribbles end up there. Then I get the one I pay for and then I can speak coherently. On that note, I just want to thank you for your time. This has been fun. If I get to Brooklyn, which hopefully I'll do sooner than not, then perhaps we'll grab a coffee or a tea, and we get to do this in person.Ammie: That'll be great.Shawn: For now, thank you so much. Appreciate you.Ammie: Awesome. Thanks, Shawn. Have a good day.Shawn: Bye-bye.[music][00:16:20] [END OF AUDIO]

HOMEWORKOLOGY

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