PLSO The Oregon Surveyor May June 2020

Professional Land Surveyors of Oregon |  www.plso.org 11 Letter from Leo Teleworking OrYSN Corner By Leo Litowich, PLS MY SPARE BEDROOM —I am not wear- ing pants. Depending on the state of the world when you read this, you may not be wearing pants either. COVID-19 has driven many of us from our offices and into our homes. What happens when it’s over? Some of us may be loath to return to an office. On September 17 of last year, The New York Times published an article that I be- lieve fits in the Young Surveyors’ section of thismagazine: “Young People Are Going to Save Us All fromOffice Life.” Workers of my generation have already begun advo- cating for dispersed employment. I am an office employee of a private civil engineering firm specializing in land de - velopment. Thankfully, our clients have giant bank loans to keep paying us, and multi-year jobs to keep billing on during these times. The last time I was offered a raise, I negotiated more paid time off instead. I value my time and freedom as much as money. Here’s a quote from the Times article: “In a survey of 11,000 workers and 6,500 business leaders by Harvard Business School and Boston Consulting Group, the vast majority said that among the new de- velopments most urgently affecting their businesses were employees’ expectations for flexible, autonomous work; better work-life balance; and remote working. (Just 30%, though, said their businesses were prepared.)” Raise your hand if you felt like you were in the 30% who was prepared for forced telework when Executive Order 20-12 came out on March 23. We weren’t. I’ll tell you that I think our office’s “computer guy” movedmountains for his colleagues. And Newton’s Laws still apply: The mountain he moved will not move back unless act- ed upon by another object. Why not take permanent advantage of all the effort we put into making distance work possible? Last week, I was called into the office while our department manager took a paid day off. I spent the whole day on the receiv - ing end of “drive-bys”: people coming to my desk and task-saturating me with non-urgent items. By the end of the day, I was hopping mad. While I have been teleworking, I sit at a computer connect- ed tomy work email andMicrosoft Teams, with a cell phone at my side that can re- ceive texts and calls. What necessitated all that face-to-face interaction? Couldn’t all those assignments have been transmit- ted tome at home? Here’s the Times again: “The youngest people entering the work- force don’t remember a timewhen people weren’t always reachable, so they don’t see why they would need to sit in an of- fice to work.” Excuse me, I’m just going to heat up a bur- rito that I did not have to write my name on to store in a shared refrigerator. Okay, I’mback. Did you notice I was gone? I didn’t think so. Here’s the Times again: “A survey by Werk, which helps companies add flexibility strategies, found that old - er employees are just as likely as younger people to want flexibility. They’re less like - ly to have it, though, because they’re less likely to ask for it.” My father travelled for work extensively. He had a car phone like the one below that freedhimfromrememberingwhere all the payphones inMichiganwere. His officehad call forwarding. No one ever knew where he was, but he was always one phone call away. Why can’t we have this life, too? COVID-19 has forced all of us to adapt to telework. I encourage all of you tofindways to offer the privilege to your colleagues, once we have a choice.  x Leo Litowich at the Third Meridian in Illinois. Photo courtesy of Leo Litowich. Old car phone, similar to what Leo’s father used to telecommute.