There is a snowman at the end of our street who has been working from home since the first week of December. We know this because he has not moved, he is always at his station, and he has the posture of someone who has been on a video call for three years.
We have studied him. He is better at this than most of us. Here is what he knows.
Pick your spot and commit
The snowman chose the north side of the yard, in the shade of the fence, out of the afternoon sun. He did not choose it because it was pretty. He chose it because it was sustainable. He will still be there at the end of the month, which is more than the snowman across the street in the sunny corner can say.
Most remote workers spend a year rotating between the kitchen table, the couch and a folding chair in the spare room. The snowman's advice is simple: find the shade, set up once, and stop moving the desk.
Dress for the job you have
The snowman wears the same thing every day. Scarf, hat, whatever buttons were in the drawer. He does not pretend to be in an office. He is not in an office. He is in a yard, and his clothes say so, and nobody on his calls has ever seen below the scarf anyway.
This is the great remote-work truth and he embodies it completely: the top half is for the camera, the bottom half is for the weather, and there is no reason the two should agree.
The camera is off and he is at peace
The snowman does not do video. He has a face, it is a perfectly good face made of pebbles, and he feels that a description of it should be sufficient. When he is asked to turn his camera on he does not respond, which is a strategy, and it has worked for him since December.
He has one thermostat opinion and it is non-negotiable
Cold. The answer is cold. The snowman has been on a call where someone said "is it just me or is it freezing in here" and he has simply let that sit. He does not argue about the thermostat. He knows he will win, because he is outside.
He takes his breaks seriously
Every afternoon around two, a child comes out and adjusts his arms. This is his stretch break. He does not schedule it, he does not resist it, and he returns to his station with slightly different posture and a renewed sense of purpose. Most of us could learn from the arm adjustment. Get up. Let someone move you around a little. Come back.
He does not check the calendar
The snowman does not know it is January. He did not notice when the tree went to the curb. He is not counting down to anything, which is why he is the calmest worker on the street. He will work until the thaw, and then he will take the rest of the year off, and he feels that is a reasonable arrangement.
The lesson
The snowman is not trying to be funny. That is what makes him funny. He is a small cheerful person doing an ordinary thing with total commitment and no self-awareness, and that is the whole heart of Snowman Dayz: a snowman living a human life, played completely straight, from the desk by the window to the thermostat war he is quietly winning.
If you have been on a call this week with your camera off and a blanket over your knees, you already work for the same company he does. The uniform is in The Snow Day. He recommends the scarf.