Facebook Office

Facebook Office

For the past two weeks I have been anchored in my home office doing research and gearing up for a couple of major projects all the while checking into my Facebook Office.  Since my move to The Dalles, OR there are little distractions that take me away from my home office.  Having spent 23 years in Portland there were always very good distractions, such as a text message inviting me to lunch, or coffee from a friend.  A client asking for a quick meeting, and then having two of my children living in Portland, always dropping whatever I was doing when they showed up.  Even then, I often took my laptop to a local coffee shop where you always see friends pass through and familiar faces.

I am the new gal in a small bedroom community where the only Starbucks in nestled inside one of the local grocery stores. It’s not like I can take my laptop and camp in the fruit section with my coffee and make or meet new friends.  I have made some lovely friends here in this beautiful community tucked aside the Columbia Gorge, however I am still the new kid.  The only visitors to my home have been repair people and the neighbor kids in the late afternoons.  The only faces I see during the day are those whom I scheduled for Skype calls.

Now enter the world of Facebook.  I use to wonder how some people are on Facebook so much. Who has time for that?  I work in this space, and Facebook is a social media platform many of my clients are using, and it’s effectiveness in business is there, but the constant updating and chatting with the winds of conversations has me smiling.  Facebook, more in the past four weeks, reminds me of my back office at Skip To My Room.    I once owned a lovely kids furniture store in Lake Oswego, OR. My office was tucked in the back.  I had over 50 employees and my door was ALWAYS open.  Employees would pass through all day long.  I had chairs in front of my desk and a candy dish that never emptied.  I kept it full and employees would come back, take a seat, grab some candy and we’d start gabbing.   These moments kept me connected to the heart of my team.

My team is now scattered.  I drive into Portland 1-2 times a week to connect with them.  However we, every single person I work with, now connect throughout the day in chit chat on Facebook.  Facebook is a new extension of my office.  I am a social gal.

Long before there was social media, there was social Elizabeth.  Tuck me into a small community and isolate me in my office and I will go crazy. I am the middle of five kids, and have five kids, and have grown up with people around me. I embrace community.  We are born to be in community.  I may not be sitting across from you physically, but I am on the other side of that comment, post and update.

I now understand why a dear friend of mine is on Facebook A LOT.  She is a writer and sits long hours at her computer. She lives in the country and has little access to people in her everyday life.  That is now, kind of sort of, my life as the new gal in town.  I live up a hill at the end of a road. No cars passing through.  The only excitement is when Eddy spots a Pheasant running through the field.

Facebook is my new office.  It is my watering hole of conversation. It’s that fresh cup of coffee I am drinking while you are updating and I am reading and commenting. Join me for that first cup in my Facebook Office.

I have that tab up and when it starts blinking it’s a friend or client messaging me into their day.  Much like that back office of someone passing through,  pulling up a seat, minus the expense of filling a candy bowl.   I love when a client messages me for a quick question. I can guarantee that the meter is not running when we are messaging back and forth over business, personal and building that friendship.  You are invited to my virtual office. Pull up a chair and wave  hello as you are passing by my Facebook Office.