Don Your Way column: Why everyone should try working from home

As I sit down to pen this week's column, things are slightly different than usual.
Darren Burke recommends working from home occasionally, if you can.Darren Burke recommends working from home occasionally, if you can.
Darren Burke recommends working from home occasionally, if you can.

Normally when it comes to crafting Don Your Way, I’m sat hunched over a keyboard five floors up in a rather non-descript office block grumbling to colleagues about the lack of air-conditioning and counting down the hours until I can nip out and get a bit of fresh air.

This week, it isn’t like that.

As I type, the warm morning sun is beating down on my face, there’s a refreshing cool breeze every now and again and I can hear the birds tweeting (by which I mean singing and not sending out inane messages on social media).

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Like back in the day when your teacher decided to decamp the entire class outside, this week’s offering comes to you from a patio table in my back garden.

And it’s absolutely glorious.

The laptop is perched on my knee, there’s a long cool drink at my side (just water before you ask) and I can already feel my face reddening as the May sunshine streams down.

I know not everyone can work from home in their jobs, but those who can should give it a whirl every now and again.

I’ll admit, I’m an office boy who likes the social interaction with colleagues, the chit chat, the banter, the sense of being part of a team of people all working towards the same goals.

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But when the warm weather comes round, there’s nothing worse than squeezing yourself into a stuffy and overheated railway carriage at the top and tail of each day, beholden to some cracked up, refashioned railway timetable (I can already feel next week’s column coming on).

OK, so the WiFi connection might be a bit wobbly, there’s potential trip hazards in stretching the extension cable through the house and into the garden, the constant squinting at trying to see the screen in the bright sunlight and no doubt endless “you been out in the sun?” gags when my colleagues next see my tomato like facial appearance from slightly overdoing the al fresco office lark.

But after the harsh winter and the Beast from the East fun and games, it feels good to be able to do sit under the garden parasol in among the pot plants (and more annoyingly, wasps).

Admittedly, you and I both know that this charade won’t last for long and by the time next week’s column rolls round we’ll have endured thunderstorms, flash floods, a dramatic dip in tenperatures and TV weather presenters using phrases like “wettest/coldiest/foggiest/snowiest May day on record.”

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So if you can do whatever your job entails from the comfort of your own back garden every now and then, go for it, I say.

You’ll feel better for it and give yourself a rare treat.

Now excuse me while I retire to the fridge for a few cold tins (sorry,I mean more hard work and slaving over the slightly warmed up keyboard, obviously).