{"id":50,"date":"2016-09-30T12:01:04","date_gmt":"2016-09-30T11:01:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.wearecentrifuge.com\/?p=50"},"modified":"2017-01-02T12:00:19","modified_gmt":"2017-01-02T12:00:19","slug":"the-joys-of-working-from-home-cue-car-alarms","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.wearecentrifuge.com\/blog\/2016\/09\/30\/the-joys-of-working-from-home-cue-car-alarms\/","title":{"rendered":"The Joys of Working from Home (cue car alarms\u2026)"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"internet_dog\"
Peter Steiner’s cartoon, as published in The New Yorker<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cOn the internet \u2013 no-one knows you\u2019re a dog\u201d from <\/em>Peter Steiner’s cartoon, as published in <\/em>The New Yorker<\/u><\/em><\/a>\u00a0 <\/em>is one of our favourite phrases. What it means to us is that we can make games in our spare room and sell them all over the world \u2013 and no-one knows we\u2019re sat there in our pyjamas.<\/p>\n

To be fair \u2013 we did spend quite a bit of time converting the second floor of our terraced house into a cool office where we would enjoy working. We have an orange wall for inspiration and a metal plaque on the door that says Centrifuge Ltd \u2013 so that we have the psychological barrier between home and work.\"office\"<\/p>\n

We don\u2019t have much of a commute \u2013 but it is<\/em> two floors up from the breakfast table \u2013 so we feel like there is some effort involved in getting to work.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a bit of a pain when the doorbell rings and we have to hare down the stairs quickly \u2013 only to find the postman has a package for next door but they\u2019re not in so could we take it for them. I think Nathan feels bad always being in when the postman calls \u2013 he\u2019s even got a t-shirt that says \u201cYes \u2013 I am working when I\u2019m at Home\u201d to wear when we\u2019re expecting a parcel.<\/p>\n

Another downside to home working is that relatives and friends think that if you\u2019re at home then you\u2019re free to come out for lunch, tea, shopping or any random appointment they have and would like company. They quite happily ring up any time of the day \u2013 expecting to be able to chat at length about the new Wetherspoon\u2019s menu or to let us know that M&S have the \u201c2 Dine in for \u00a310\u201d offer on again. It is quite hard to say\u00a0 “I\u2019m really sorry I am in the middle of something without upsetting them.”<\/p>\n

Luckily we both get on very well, even when together all the time. It is quite calm in the office most of the time! However, we do miss seeing other people and bouncing ideas off someone from outside of the company. We need to find ways to network with others. There used to be a monthly Stoke GameDev Get\u2013Together at a local Japanese restaurant \u2013 but sadly everyone seems to have moved away or drifted off now. Maybe we need to set something up ourselves and try to get a group of like-minded people who also work at home and crave intelligent company!<\/p>\n

Then, there is the problem of car alarms and other distractions. Being in a residential area whilst working can mean that there\u2019s always something to distract you. Our area seems particularly bad for random car alarms going off. Even worse, last week there was a brief (thankfully!) power cut \u2013 but when it came back on several house alarms started wailing and did NOT shut up! If the occupants were at work then I guess there was no-one to turn them off or reset them. It was very difficult to tune them out while trying to concentrate.<\/p>\n

\"jam2\"<\/a>
Awesome Drawing by miramiramira<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Home working does have it pros too though! When we wake up and put on the local news and hear about the traffic accidents, long delays and torrential rain \u2013 we can smile and grab a few extra minutes in bed before popping upstairs to begin our day. Not having a big commute saves us time, money and sanity. Imagine I used to travel to Birmingham everyday \u2013 which involved a 30 minute drive to the station, a 40 minute train ride and a 15 minute bus journey \u2013 before I could even start work! Then the same back at night. It was four hours of travelling every day!<\/p>\n

Now, I am fresh and awake when I get to my desk. Also, if I have any ideas or there\u2019s any server crisis for Nathan to deal with \u2013 we don\u2019t have to go far to get it sorted.<\/p>\n

Also, think of the overheads! As a very new company starting out we only have our own funds to keep us going until the games we make start making money. So, we save a fortune by NOT having an office with rent or heating or power or upkeep. We can keep costs to a minimum while we make our fortune. Of course, as we get bigger and take on staff then we\u2019ll need to fins somewhere bigger to suit us, but until then we can concentrate on the games and make them the best we can\u2026<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cOn the internet \u2013 no-one knows you\u2019re a dog\u201d from Peter Steiner’s cartoon, as published in The New Yorker\u00a0 is one of our favourite phrases. What it means to us is that we can make games in our spare room and sell them all over the world \u2013 and no-one knows we\u2019re sat there in … Continue reading “The Joys of Working from Home (cue car alarms\u2026)”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[15],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wearecentrifuge.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wearecentrifuge.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wearecentrifuge.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wearecentrifuge.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wearecentrifuge.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=50"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.wearecentrifuge.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":59,"href":"https:\/\/www.wearecentrifuge.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50\/revisions\/59"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wearecentrifuge.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=50"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wearecentrifuge.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=50"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wearecentrifuge.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=50"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}