Pearls Before Swine by Stephan Pastis for April 02, 2023

Darn! Pig’s commute is 50% longer than originally thought.

The new normal…

I’d be fired if all I wore to a Zoom meeting was a tie!

It can be balanced, but only when Pig stands between the computer and the bed.

He does Zoom meetings without pants.

Does anybody use their camera anymore? In every online meeting I join nowadays, all of the cameras are turned off.

Beats riding the bus.

Left out Pig’s bacon and eggs breakfast, for good reason.

For a fun commute, try launching to work from bed as trampoline.

Rat would just put the PC on the bed and sass at Zoom meetings.

I’m waiting to see if anybody asks how Pig can hang his tie in mid-air.

Yes, I know there’s a barely-visible hook in Panels #4 and #8, but there’s not one in Panel #9 (unless it’s directly behind Pig).

Also, why is Pig saying things to the computer as he’s walking away in Panel #2? Did he leave Zoom/Teams running all night (with the camera on)? (Panel #2 should have him saying farewell at the computer.)

Yes, I’m nitpicking — but I’ve heard somebody has to do it. :-X

I don’t mind if others work from home, but it’s not for me – I like to keep the work place and the home place suitably airgapped.

Now that’s remote learning.

Stephan, you are probably complaining about your work/life balance, from long before the pandemic, until retirement. However, with the new computer drawing programs available, you could be sipping cafe au lait, with your laptop on the table of a sidewalk cafe on the Champs de ELysees, or escaping winter in the shade of a eucalyptus tree, watching the waves of some southern ocean lap the shore.

It’s a longer commute to the bathroom and the kitchen.

Thankfully never had to work that way

It’s the best balance I’ve achieved in 40 years.

Certainly there can be. Makes me wonder if Stephan is Pig in this scenario.

Absolutely!!

My wife’s home office is upstairs. She comes down for coffee, meals and dog walks.

The real key to maintaining the work/life balance when working from home is to have firm work hours and NEVER answer a work call or e-mail outside work hours. Having a separate phone and computer for work helps with this.

This is like sitting at the table across from those who text you…‼️

reminds me of Severance

Glad this is just a comic and none of us has to do that. Would be the beginning of end for civilization.

I manage to achieve a work/life balance, even though I work from home.

Eh but everyone back in office already. But Pig still work from home?

My wife and I were just talking about this. Good thing we are both retired now.

I didn’t realize that Pig had 3 feet.

The commute is hectic.

Change the color of the bedspread, and this is my exact work/life existence.

Yes there can, and miss the heck out of those days.

Ahhhhhh. Pig the businessman. Gotta love the ‘hog tie’!

Well, I did that in the ’90s, way before it became vogue. At that time I had a blazing fast ISDN line, and its inherent remoted AT&T troubles (Ma-Bell, middle manager, so I knew how to get them fixed fast), but longed later for a T1 line. (Just part of my always available T-Secret job.)

Completely unrealistic. Pig would not go to bed after work without first eating cheese.

Produc-tive

If your job is being a comic strip character…

This hits close to home. (höhöhö)

Personally, I’m grateful to be retired and hopefully use meeting software and cameras ONLY to chat with the grandkids (unfortunately hundreds of miles away.)

Do I work at home, or do I live at work?

2 Feet? Disinformation!

Better to ask how there can be work/life balance when you have to commute an hour or longer each way, through heavy traffic, for meetings that could just have been emails… But then I teach, so even if I do that commute I’m grading and replying to texts and emails at all hours anyway.

I can dig it, Pig. My desktop computer is on my desk (natch!) which is in my bedroom, only a few feet from my bed, too! Hey, it works even for us Retired Old Farts!

My commute is literally 15 feet. :-)