I primarily work from home, but on hot summer days there is nothing like going into an air conditioned office. Fact is that my apartment does not have air conditioning and most days I do not need it. But the heat and humidity over the past few days have taken their toll on my ability to work from home.
I tried to work from the library for a few hours with my laptop and their wifi, but other library patrons were bothered by my cellphone ringing and my telephone conversations. So what was next? Starbucks, McDonald’s or Tim Hortons? They all have air conditioning and welcome customers with free wifi – but still not the greatest places to get work done. During busy periods, most fast food and coffee chains are not that receptive to customers who are buying a single beverage and taking up space for a few hours.
While I used to have a private office at Telsec Business Centre, I recently downgraded to a semi-private office that I only share with one other person who is seldom in the office. This week however, the person I shared that office with had a rare in-office week with a number of clients visiting. So it was a bit problematic to be working while visitors arrived.
I knew that if I spoke to Lindsay, who coordinates all the office space in the business centre, she should be able to give me a solution. Her first thought was the shared office space that was available, but she quickly remembered that Telsec was renovating that space to become a co-working centre. Knowing that I only needed space to work for a day or so, she put me into a newly renovated office (the new tenant who leased that space would not be moving into it until mid-August). This office had a panoramic view of Toronto harbour that was amazing!
I was loving the A/C in an office with an wonderful view until the receptionist called and told me the client I was meeting with had arrived. How had I forgotten that I had a meeting scheduled and did not book a boardroom? I knew my only choice was to go to the reception area and bring the client to my temporary office – or to scramble at the last minute to find an available boardroom. I chose to bring them to the office overlooking the lake.
I hindsight, I should have asked the receptionist what boardroom was available and held my meeting there. Holding a meeting in an office with an amazing view was a bit of a distraction for my client. However, once I did get him back on topic to the business at hand, the meeting went as planned and he mentioned that the A/C in my office was much better than his.
Arriving home Monday evening to a hot and humid apartment, I almost wished that I was back in my downtown office working on this blog. While I do not have another client meeting on Tuesday, I am thinking of going back down to my air-conditioned office. If the weather is nice, I might even take a walk over to Sugar Beach – a three minute walk from my office at 1 Yonge Street! Or, I could take the ferry (across the road) over to the Toronto Islands and use my wifi hotspot to get some work done. Anything to get out of my apartment.