For the last 3 and a half weeks or so, I’ve been working from home while my bathrooms are being remodeled. (This project is, of course, behind schedule and over budget, but I digress.) Yesterday, I went into the office for a few things, and I reached a startling conclusion.
I missed my cubicle.
Now, there are a few mitigating factors. In my cube, I have a pretty sweet setup with two monitors and plenty of screen real estate. And currently at home, I have to contend with various construction noises.
The thing that surprised me, though, was that I missed being around my co-workers. And this surprised me, not because they’re a bunch of obnoxious jerks, it’s because I consider myself an extreme introvert. Seriously, if I take the Myers-Briggs personality test and score any less than 90% introverted, I assume that either I misread several questions, or this version of the test is completely screwed up.
You would think that, being this introverted, working from home would be a dream come true. Once the bathrooms are finished, the construction noises will be gone. And I think I could rearrange things so I have a sweet dual-monitor setup at home. Also, I do like to work from home on occasion, especially on Fridays when I know the afternoon traffic will suck. But if I worked from home every day, I think I’d still miss the people.
It’s enough to make me question whether I’m a true introvert. Now, I’m very definitely a shy person, and I rarely come out of my shell around strangers (unless there’s alcohol involved). However, one of the characteristics of introverts is that they tend to be drained by being around peeple. I’ve never really experienced that. I may not get energized like an extrovert would, but I’m not drained either.
I’m not sure what to take away from this. My best guess is that I’m probably at least a little bit introverted. I do enjoy having some alone time, and, let’s face it, this post could be considered serious navel-gazing. I’m definitely shy. But I might just be more of a people person that I thought.
(Irony of ironies, I wrote the entire first draft of this in a crowded coffeehouse. In my defense, I sat alone at a table in the corner, listening to music with earbuds the whole time, and had almost no interaction with anyone who wasn’t an employee.)