Today is a new step in my life : I’m starting to work for Lanedo, an European GNOME company.
Each change in a life is a somewhat sad. I’m leaving an innovative usability job with a bunch of very good colleagues that I nearly consider as friends. It will be strange to not have philosophical discussions between two running sessions anymore. Or to discover strip after strip that Scott Adams is spying my life.
Each change is a huge opportunity. Working for Lanedo will allow me to work with GNOME technologies, to learn a lot while contributing to them. In summary, a lot of stuffs I wanted to do if only I had more time or more lives.
It makes me very proud to join such a bunch of talented hackers. I hope to meet their expectations soon.
But this isn’t just a job change. It’s a whole life experience change.
Linux required
For the first time as an employee, I will be able to install Ubuntu on a work laptop without having to bypass the IT department security first. I’m required to use Linux. Yes, that Linux that ate me one cold night of 2002[1]. That same Linux that was considered as irrelevant or “student toy” by most of my employers before they knew me.
Even better: I will actually be paid to get my hand in what I like. Open source code, GNOME related stuffs. FOSDEM and GUADEC will now be part of my job[2]. For a lot of you, it’s usual. For me, it’s a dream come true. Making a living from a passion.
Freedom in the time-space continuum
I will work remotely. No need to clock or to pretend being productive while quickly hiding your browser behind some good looking document. Of course, I don’t forget that freedom come at a high price : responsibility.
Working from home is full of challenges. Maybe you could help me by sharing your experience in the comments ?
- How to know when it’s the end of the day? The biggest advantage of clocking is that you can see when you are doing too much. I strongly believe that working too much is bad for productivity. Really bad.
- How to convince my mother that I will not become an autistic geek? She doesn’t know that it’s already too late.
- How to explain to my father that not wearing a tie everyday is not a lost career?
- How will my sweetheart understand that being at home the whole day doesn’t mean I have the time to do all the household work?
- Will the cat understand that I need my chair and my keyboard during the day too?
I should add that “home working” is maybe not appropriate. After all, I’m not required to be at home. I could be anywhere with a good internet connection. That’s why I think I will try to find some friends that are also doing telecommute. From time to time, we could choose to work together. If any GNOME worker in Belgium is interested, drop me a mail.
Looking forward
Freedom, responsibility and Linux. Yeah! Add some loud Rock-n-Roll and you have a real career! Exciting times ahead.
Notes
[1] I should tell you that story one day.
[2] According to Guillaume, GUADEC without a professional badge is not really GUADEC
The Joining Lanedo by Lionel Dricot, unless otherwise expressly stated, is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Belgium License.
Ad 1: use the wonderful Hamster Time Tracker!
Ad 4: soon you’ll have the opposite problem — how do I force myself to do this tedious task a trained monkey could do instead of scrubbing the bath for the fourth time today?
Heh! Félicitations, tu vas travailler avec des chouettes gens, meme si ce n’est que virtuel
Hey Lionel,
Coming across your blog from the planet.
Just wanna comment on working from home thingy, to my experience, home is not really the best place to work from, specially if you’re living with your family
That household-related work and errands would not stop and would come at the worst possible moment when you’re having a tantrum with the code
My experience (not sure if these are good tips) :
1. Try to find a balance and arrange your “working hours” if you have to do it from your home and make sure everyone gets that beforehand
2. Get out some time, find a nearby cafe, restaurants, or where ever is convinience to do some couple hours of work during the day.
If you have some colleagues near by, try to arrange some sessions with them. Renting a nearby virtual office would also be great.
Anyhow, good luck with the new life
All the best.
-arief
Congratulations!
That’s fantastic!
It’s always good to combine passion and work, I really hope I’ll have a chance to do that as well in a near future!
And waiting for that moment… I totally want to know how you got eaten by Linux one night of 2002!
Congratulations cher Ploum … voilà un beau défi pour un nouveau boulot. Je te souhaite beaucoup d’amusement !
Congratulations
If worked at home a few times, and you definitely need a space away from everything, it’s very easy to become distracted by the washing or something else. Also you need to say to yourself, i will work from 8 – 4:30 and stick to it, ok you can be flexible but you must not keep thinking i’ll just finish this, i’ll just finish that or you’ll be working 24/7
Congrats again 
All the best !
Félicitations Lionel.
A vrai dire, tu suis enfin le plan de carrière que j’avais prévu pour toi
Laurent
“For the first time as an employee, I will be able to install Ubuntu on a work laptop without having to bypass the IT department security firs”
Hey .. you can only blame yourselve for that
But Congrats !
Working from home is all a matter of discipline and finding a routine. You’ll discover soon enough what works for you.
For me, it helps to set a list of daily or weekly goals I want to accomplish. Those don’t need to be too strict. For me for example, when writing a network driver, the goals were along the lines of “today I want to see the device on the bus, tomorrow I should be handling interrupts, by the end of the week I should see packets”.
I also find that I can’t transition into “work mode” without taking a shower, putting clothes on and having breakfast. Going straight from bed to work doesn’t work for me. Your mileage may vary.
In terms of working hours: if you have a list of goals at the start of the day, your working day is done when you’ve accomplished your goals. Or when you’ve decided that the goals are not achievable and adjusted them for the next day. You’ll figure out soon enough what goals are reasonable and how much work you can fit into a day without going loopy.
Good luck with the new projects!
I have worked from home for many years. For me the hard thing wasn’t managing my time. The hard thing was getting the rest of the family to actually UNDERSTAND that I was working and NOT available. Sorry for shouting, was I think it’s vital.
And – as others have mentioned – make sure you have a place for work and a place for free time. Even if it’s just a special work-chair, it makes it much easier to set boundaries: “When I’m in the red chair, I’m working. Don’t disturb ever.”
Je me joins au chœur des félicitations.
Ca doit te faire sacrément plaisir.
Congratulations!
I love working from home as long as nobody else is home.
Thanks everyone for the kind words. It is really appreciated.
Philip : I think I will really follow that advice closely. Today, I forgot to shave myself. It shouldn’t happen. (mm, maybe you don’t know what shaving is
)
Des astuces : http://tarekziade.wordpress.com/201…
Hey Lio! Congrats!!
It seems to be a really cool new life… I would love to manage my time and productivity hours like I really want!
And on top of it, it’s really good for the environment if you stay home and don’t have to commute…
I hope to see you soon and hear you talking about this new experience…
Enjoy!
Matt
Hi,
Thank you for this article, good for the environment life.