Monday, February 8, 2010

Change and Signs

For those of you on a break from conventional news, the DC-Maryland area was hit with more than 2 feet of snow last weekend. It started on Friday and many Federal Government offices began closing at Noon, schools closed early, businesses allowed staff to leave before 5 PM.

By the time the snow stopped and the clouds parted on Saturday evening, it was fairly clear this storm would have significant impact on the area for several days. In fact, at this writing (9 PM on Monday), some of our roads have still not been plowed. And almost all of them are risky - Interstate 95 included.

The forecast is predicting another 10-20" of snow tomorrow afternoon into Wednesday. Schools remain closed, the Federal Government will be closed tomorrow and many private businesses have already told their staff to work from home.

I am curious how much commerce has stopped. Granted, retail and restaurants are suffering. A local steakhouse was closed for 3 days and had to throw away a significant amount of food - that amount of loss will hurt any business. Most everyone else I know continued to work. We worked through the weekend with email and conference calls. We here at Cybercise got quite a bit accomplished without the regular demands (or distractions) vying for our time. We also had time to play in the snow, take photos, cook, read, chat with family and friends, and enjoy the wonder of it all without anywhere we had to be. While getting more work done!

Could blizzards be a way for us to recognize change is needed? Do we have to drive 30+ miles to the office each day wasting our time and polluting the environment only to sit in a cubicle or, worse, in a meeting for 8 hours?

I, for one, think we can take Blizzard 2010 v.1 and inbound Blizzard 2010 v.2 as a sign for change. What if we each telecommuted 2 or 3 days a week? I theorize we would: get more actual work done, help the planet, improve our quality of life, have more time to exercise, have the energy to cook a healthful meal for our family, save money (our money = gas + clothing + lunch out and our employers' money = power + office supplies, etc.). With all of that we would be less stressed and have time to take better care of ourselves... therefore we'd be more healthy, therefore saving our health care system.

Can we all simply realize there is a much better way to live?

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