Management by walking around

When I worked in an office, part of what I did was management by walking around.

Now that I work in a home office, my management by walking around is a little different.

Back then , I'd walk through the departments I managed to see and be seen. I probably learned more by walking around than I ever did in the endless meetings.

Now, I walk through the halls of the house to put a load of clothes into the dryer, or through the kitchen for no other reason than to go through the kitchen.

Back then, I'd chat with the department personnel.

Now, I yell at the squirrels as they try to make their way from the roof to the bird feeder hanging in front of my home office window.

If squirrels were the only stress then I could argue that, at the end of my second year of retirement, I'm as laid back as laid back could be.

But I'd be lying.

Certainly it's less stressful than the office job with the corporate responsibilities of budgets, deadlines and personnel matters.

But retirement -- especially a retirement of part-time self-employment as a web content provider -- has its moments.

I still deal with budgets -- two in fact, the personal budget and the business budget. I let my accountant sort it out to keep Uncle Sam happy. Funny how Uncle Sam always ends up being happier than me come Tax Day.

I still deal with deadlines, imposed by the people I write for. Back then, I worked a day job, Monday through Friday, for years. What deadlines I had I could usually meet within those parameters those days and those hours. These days I work every day of the week -- it's a piecemeal schedule of a couple of hours here and there during the morning, afternoon and evenings. It's enough to keep me busy, but not so busy that I can't find enough hours to do those things that being retired offer.

It's all good.

I don't deal with personnel who work for me but I deal with the people for whom I work. Generally, we deal with each other by email, occasionally by phone, almost never in person.

The only living things I see during my walk throughs are the birds that come to the bird feeder. They are my office pets. I provide them with seed; they provide me with a distraction of flight, color and behavior that is often amusing, particularly when the male goldfinches are trying to establish territory. I make them happy; they make me happy.

My nemeses are the squirrels. They're like that poorly performing employee you know you have to deal with by trying to change their behavior ... or by getting rid of them.

Maybe the character of work hasn't changed so much after all.