Today's post is from Shabana Siyed, who is a part of the global marketing team at Citrix Online. On a daily basis, she interacts with workshifters from all over the world with the mission to educate and inform others on the benefits of remote-access technology.
So a few weeks ago, I attended my first HDI conference in Florida representing Citrix Online's GoToAssist. Of course, that meant that I would have the opportunity to workshift and make a pit stop in Alabama...
Why Alabama? Well that is where my family lives, and what better way to break up the trip than to say hello to mom and dad. At least that is what I thought, but once Monday rolled around and the jet lag wore off, I found myself lost in a world of work, unaware of my family surroundings. Sure I was physically in Alabama, but consciously I could have still been in California at my desk. That's the wonder of remote-access technology.
It didn't hit me, however, until my mom (who was just downstairs!) called my cell phone - she forgot I was there (or was trying to make a point)! That was when I stepped away from my computer and checked my surroundings. There I was in Alabama and, impossible to believe, I was ignoring the sweet Indian spices of my mom's traditional home cooking: biryani, chicken curry, dosa, saag paneer... She was whipping up all my favorites and I had been crazily taking all this for granted, especially since I make it home maybe once a year and rarely cook Indian food, and when I do, it is definitely not like mom's. What was I thinking?
Initially, I thought I would save a few vacation days by working remotely, but in that moment I realized that vacation days are there for this reason - to spend time with those you love. So, I logged off GoToMyPC and requested a vacation day to spend time at the movies with my mom, cook food with my dad, and go shopping with my little sister from Auburn University (Go Tigers!).
My short Alabama break before the conference made me realize that we all live in a technology-driven world, and we are very lucky that we can work from anywhere in the world, but the downside is that we can sometimes forget that we need to log off and step outside the "cubical box." In the end, the little moments that we sometimes take for granted are all that we need to make something memorable - like my mom's traditional Indian food in Alabama mixed with a little Bollywood action (random, I know!).
Photo Credit: Roboppy
So a few weeks ago, I attended my first HDI conference in Florida representing Citrix Online's GoToAssist. Of course, that meant that I would have the opportunity to workshift and make a pit stop in Alabama... Why Alabama? Well that is where my family lives, and what better way to break up the trip than to say hello to mom and dad. At least that is what I thought, but once Monday rolled around and the jet lag wore off, I found myself lost in a world of work, unaware of my family surroundings. Sure I was physically in Alabama, but consciously I could have still been in California at my desk. That's the wonder of remote-access technology.
It didn't hit me, however, until my mom (who was just downstairs!) called my cell phone - she forgot I was there (or was trying to make a point)! That was when I stepped away from my computer and checked my surroundings. There I was in Alabama and, impossible to believe, I was ignoring the sweet Indian spices of my mom's traditional home cooking: biryani, chicken curry, dosa, saag paneer... She was whipping up all my favorites and I had been crazily taking all this for granted, especially since I make it home maybe once a year and rarely cook Indian food, and when I do, it is definitely not like mom's. What was I thinking?
Initially, I thought I would save a few vacation days by working remotely, but in that moment I realized that vacation days are there for this reason - to spend time with those you love. So, I logged off GoToMyPC and requested a vacation day to spend time at the movies with my mom, cook food with my dad, and go shopping with my little sister from Auburn University (Go Tigers!).
My short Alabama break before the conference made me realize that we all live in a technology-driven world, and we are very lucky that we can work from anywhere in the world, but the downside is that we can sometimes forget that we need to log off and step outside the "cubical box." In the end, the little moments that we sometimes take for granted are all that we need to make something memorable - like my mom's traditional Indian food in Alabama mixed with a little Bollywood action (random, I know!).
Photo Credit: Roboppy
