It’s been a long journey as a software developer, I started more than 10 years ago and I never experienced a remote job. When I started to work I was a consultant so for me was normal to travel across North Italy. The commuting time was terrible and all those business trip were stressful because one day I was in Milan, the day after in Bologna and so on.. 🤯

Then years later with a family it was necessary to be more close to home so I found a job very close to where we live

I’ve never taken too serious to work from home but with the pandemic everything changed.

The pros of working from home are evident:

  • 🚦 office is 5km from home but there is always lot of traffic so it takes 10 minutes by car to reach the destination
  • 🚗 just before 9am all parkings are full so I have to park the car at 10-15 minutes away
  • 🤵 there is a dresscode so I have to dress business casual - this means that I need to buy clothes which I would not wear elsewhere and I have to take them to the laudery to get washed
  • 😷 with COVID new rules I have to wear the mask all the time to be safe so it is very uncomfortable and I still have a chance to get infected, why risk?
  • 🍴 eating at home helps me to eat healty
  • 🏃‍♂️ during the 1hr pause I can also do a workout
  • 🚘 going to the office means owning a car, I would like to be less dependent to it
  • 🤒 here in Italy it was common to work with flu or cold.. imagine the consequences!
  • ☕ at home coffee is better (thanks Nespresso!) and is priceless to sit outside in front of the sun with coffee and a book to rest 10 minutes
  • 📦 being in office means less flexibility - if the courier has to deliver a box and nobody’s home, then I have to pick it up at the postoffice, at home I can just answer the intercom and ask to leave it in the courtyard

At first I thought I would have worked from home for a very short time, just to wait the pandemic to pass, but after weeks everybody has realized that it would have taken time. Here in Italy remote work was never considered as “work”, we (as italians) have this mindset that workers must work from the office, spend 8 hours on their desk watching the monitor. The pandemic created a need and people started to consider remote work in good light, the government started to talk about it and started to recognize it not just as an alternative but as a “new” way to work. We arrived to this point because companies were scared, they were not able to embrace new strectly measures imposed by the Covid-19 laws so working from home was the fastest and cheaper way to let people work 🧑‍💻

During the lockdown we were closed at home, scared to go out to the grocery, sanitizing everything came home from amazon boxes to food. The schools were closed so working with kids around us wasn’t easy at the beginning: we were not prepared to work from home and they were not prepared to see us working from home. For them it was like a normal weekend. We needed some time to find a balance. But after a month it became our new normal 🧘

The lockdown has helped us as a family to be less busy and to spend more time outside with children. We have rediscovered bike rides short trips and our mountains (Appennini) and we enjoyed a short trip to sea 🌊

When the lockdown finished, my company and my wife’s company decided to extend the remote working it was the perfect opportunity to taste the digital nomadism! Schools were still closed so we decieded to move for 3 months to a holiday destination ⛰️ not far from home, in this way we were able to let kids be free outdoor while we were working, it was special!

Now we are back to home, I’m still working from home, my wife now goes to the office 2 days/week and kids are going to school, a lot changed for the better and I consider this high quality life. Now I take kids to school by feet or by bike so I can be more eco-friendly and make the commuting more fun. I still meet collegues for a pizza or sushi, friends for a drink and I say lot of NO to useless events/meeting/appointments 🍸

This is my first post in english, so please be kind! 🙏🏻