According to an internal E-mail I received yesterday, I had responded, a few months back, to another, asking whether I occasionally work from home. And apparently I’d indicated that I do. I’m not sure what possessed me to respond so: must have been dreaming of distant manuscript- and application-productive days past, when, being a shared noisy office minion, I would bugger off out of here to drink wine and play music at volume get some peace and quiet, so I could meet whatever deadline. Nowadays, home is where I’m more likely to unproductively knock off a blog post – something I haven’t been doing much lately (as evident from this ramshackle, lazily titled effort); yet it’s not as though there hasn’t been sufficient stimulation, what with Indarjit Singh’s confused and confusing Tft(b)D take on freedom of speech (which translates roughly as free speech is fine as long as it doesn’t bother anyone, otherwise it shouldn’t be quite so free); and the seemingly all over rather quickly fuss about Craig Venter’s synthetic life, despite the best hysterical efforts of The Daily Mail, and the arguably-mistitled Science paper (because it’s not ‘creation’, which plays straight into the boring, unoriginal, desperately sensational ‘Playing God’ knee-jerking, but rather ‘invention’); although I guess I kind of missed the boat on those – but which, as I’m not employed to do, I can hardly (legitimately) claim as ‘work’ now, can I?
Should have seen it coming, eh? It transpires that those of us who, in flattered self-importance, unthinkingly replied in the affirmative, are now required to read a bunch of documentation on home and lone working, and Health & Safety… and to complete a ‘H&S Training Module’, and a questionnaire… ( What the …?! ).
So, do I adopt my usual, attitudinally bad policy in response to such bureaucracy (- ignore it!)? Or announce that, henceforth, I will no longer work at home?
Decisions, decisions. Oh, there was another E-mail last week – a very important one. Crunch time is approaching.
Lee Turnpenny 
I didnt get anything from this post….
I should better drink and read.
Oh all sounds so familiar! Next they will be asking you to bring in your passport to be photocopied even though you have worked there for 42.5 years, on the off chance you might be a terrorist.
Ahh, but blogging can be considered time spent working! You are communicating the fruits of your (presumably) publicly paid work, with your public. Surely University head honchos can only approve of such a lofty aim?
Mike – the Real-World answer to that one is:
Or announce that, henceforth, I will no longer work at home?
Lee is better to give priority to work at home for a while is good for health for as brain.
This reminds me of the huge file of Health and Safety forms we had in my old lab, covering the risks and precautions needed when dealing with every chemical we might encounter in our work. There was even a form for water, where the instructions in case of spillage were to mop up the spill and clean the area liberally with…water.
Sorry, Vishal, I didn’t expect that anybody would; so, following a posting lull, I’m pleasantly surprised that this actually resonated with a few. ’Don’t try too hard’ is a good motto, sometimes.
Mike, as my particular work as not been too ‘fruitful’ of late, I tend not to communicate on its fruits. I rationalise this as an (intermittently) maintained hobby (do I have my priorities wrong?).
Lou – brilliant! I predict somebody here is one day going to trip over one of the yellow ‘Caution’ notices placed at the top of the wet stairs after cleaning.