We freelance workers, especially those working at a desk, have been used to spending most of our work time in the home office. That is why it was comparatively easy for us to adjust to social distancing and home-office work during COVID.
As a translator, interpreter, and voice-over talent, my in-home-office time shifted from roughly 90% to 99% during the last two years. While this does not seem like much of a change, I have to say that I very much missed those 10% of “field work”, be it an in-person interpreting assignment or a voice-over gig in a recording studio. These assignments have always provided much needed professional in-person interaction and made for interesting experiences at various companies.
That is why I was particularly thrilled to be called to Microsoft headquarters this week to participate in an in-person linguistic research project. While I am not allowed to reveal the nature of this assignment, I can talk about my impressions about the atmosphere on the Microsoft campus. I noticed that the space between the various buildings was not particularly frequented by people, indicating that a lot of their staff is still working from home; and those that I worked with that day also seemed to enjoy the personal encounters. It felt good to be greeted in person and chit-chat about such mundane things like weather and traffic. Here is to more in-person assignments in the future!