There are many things I am enjoying about my new assignment and among them is the opportunity to live life outside the SCIF. I have spent almost all of my 25 years of naval service working in a Sensitive Compartmented Information Facility (SCIF). For the unfamiliar, a SCIF is a specially accredited room, building, trailer, etc. where committed professionals process classified information. Anyone who has ever visited one knows that there are specific rules as to who can enter, what can be brought into and out of the SCIF, and how one conducts themselves while inside. There is a reason behind most of the many rules that govern life in the SCIF. And for many of us, there are very few of our assigned official duties that we are able to execute outside the SCIF. The SCIF is our place of duty. It is where we do our work.
I have a very different job now. The work I do is not classified. The mobile technology issued to me is far less constrained than I am accustomed to. And the foundational tools we use to collaborate across our team are powerful, free, and the very same I use in my private life. The tether to the SCIF has been cut and I don’t believe that I have ever been afforded the opportunity to be so productive.
Last week, I was at a social for my son’s school and had the opportunity to meet some very engaging people. I talked about many things with many other parents and considered myself fortunate to be among such an open-minded group of people. I inadvertently glanced at my watch and noted that it was 0900 on a Tuesday morning. The idea of not being at my place of duty at that hour on a workday remains foreign to me and I felt that pull to the office tug at me. In preparation for my exit, I asked another Dad if he had to go to work that morning. He simply replied, “Sean, work isn’t a place I go. It’s something I do. So, yes I have some work to do, but I don’t have to go anywhere specific to do it.” Such is life outside government, I guess. Then I realized that though I am still proudly serving within government, there was no reason that I couldn’t adopt that very philosophy. The nature of work I am doing and the tools available to me didn’t require me to be ‘at’ work to ‘do’ work. What a foreign, yet liberating concept.
Since that rather obvious statement, I have slowly acclimated to working when I need to from wherever I might be at the time when such work needs to get done. I have been able to get up early and do some work from home, enjoy mornings with my family, and even take my son to school on occasion. I have walked to work mid-morning taking calls along the way, pulled up a teammate on video chat only to find him in his living room getting work done, and collaborated in real-time on documents with others miles away while enjoying a football game. I have momentarily left the SCIF and the constraints of government to witness what work life can be in the 21st century and is for many. And quite honestly, I don’t know why others would settle for less given the option. I don’t know why we are adverse to giving more teammates the very same option.
I enjoy what I do as much as I ever have and in some aspects even more so. At the same time, I enjoy how I am allowed to work more than I ever have. Technology now affords us the opportunity to work in ways we only imagined. A lack of creativity, an affinity for regulation, and a general distrust of others limits us in ways we are unwilling to admit. Life on the perimeter of government service is amazing. Seeing into both the public and private sectors at the same time makes the contrast greater than ever. The way we work must change. And clearly, it’s the public sector that needs to do the changing.
- Work: Something you do or a place you go to do it?
- More powerful: Technology you use in your personal or professional life?
- Is work driving how you live or is how you live driving the work you choose to do?
Sean, spot on and fully in sync with your “transition”. Went through the same waters a year ago. I also heard the mantra of “work is not where one goes, but what one does” from a colleague (inside the SCIF, no less!) who had done previous training with industry at Microsoft while in uniform. It is now my mantra and I have embraced it. You are in a great place to fully explore the “government perimeter” as you so well put, and explore new mediums of communication – albeit with an eye towards being that change agent for the Federal?Gov’t space…enjoy!
Thanks, Jack! My eye is focused exactly as you describe.
Much of the work done in govt offices is shrouded by secrecy but not really classified. All of that WILL BE re-evaluated . One reallly can accomplish more AWAY from our designated workplace. Work itself needs to be redefined. Outcomes.
Really appreciate the way you framed that. HOW we work will inform WHO chooses to join and remain on our team. The cultural divide will continue to widen if we are committed to holding on so tightly to the 20th century models.
There will always be places where we have to “go to” work. As an inpatient nurse in the current paradigm, I have to be at work where the patients are. However, as initiatives like “Hospital at Home” evolve, I may find myself at patients’ homes delivering care (but, you can see, I’ll still need to “go to” work). At this time, providing hands-on service is not something that can be accomplished remotely. “Face-to-face” care can possibly be delivered remotely, but truly, when we’re sick, we crave that physical interaction in the hopes that something will take away our misery.
I love my patients and colleagues, but I don’t necessarily want them taking up “psychological space” within my home, so the blurring of boundaries between work and respite concerns me.
I guess what I’m saying is that there are certain professions that will always require a presence, and I’m okay with that.
Concur 100%. Presence matters and your example is spot on. Thank you for doing what you do and the way you choose to do it.
Sean: Isn’t it a shame that (in general) our society demands our physical presence at “work” during the exact times when our young children NEED our time and attention? And, when we’re done with “work” (retired) they’re already grown and gone?
Before I retired about 5 years ago, I worked for a large government contractor headquartered back in the DC environs. I live out west. We had connectivity, and most (but not all) of our work was unclassified. There were times when I could have worked out of home on my own computer and with my own resources (especially during bad weather) and avoided a lousy commute in snow along with all the crazy drivers trying to get to their work. However, “policy” back east was that you had to be IN the office to work. Yet, when it snowed about 6″ in DC, they closed the office and told their employees to stay home and work from there until the roads were clear and safe to travel.
Sometimes, we expect “face time” to be the operative nature of work, instead of the production resulting from our talent and experience.
Love it…well said! During my recent CO tour I experimented with allowing a valued teammate who wanted to relocate out of state to be close to family, yet still execute his job. Though we missed seeing him around the office regularly, we kept him on the team, he contributed even more, and we proved to ourselves that with the proper tools, committed teammates can greatly contribute to life inside the SCIF while well outside it.
Loving this post. I recently underwent a similar transition. At work in the private sector they know me as “the guy who opens the blinds” because every time I enter a conference room, which are all on the outside of the building, I move along the wall and open all the blinds and let the sunlight in through the window. 21 years of submarines and SCIFs…
There is a small downside. It used to be that when one was away from work, you were truly away from work. I used to look forward to traveling for work because usually, my separation from a SCIF’d office space with permanent chair at a TS terminal meant that I wasn’t expected to answer email or work phone calls. I could focus on building relationships and learning new things. I’d get some of my best thinking done when on travel for work because my brain was occupied with work-like-subjects but was unconstrained by work rhythm. Now, traveling for work is harder because I’m expected to work two jobs- remaining connected to the home office while making new connections elsewhere.
Great post! It’s very interesting to observe what life is like “outside the SCIF”. I’m amused by the brief feeling of shock to see people using their cell phones at work, then realizing that they are the vast majority, and I’m the one in a foreign situation…then realizing that I already know this but still get amused anyway. I look forward to one day experiencing that newfound flexibility.
A friend of mine who works for a large silicon valley organization was gracious enough to give me a tour of the facility; I couldn’t believe the quality of life services available! Admist the awe of it all I asked him about balancing work and the rest of life. He could get a ton of work (or maybe all of it?) done from his iphone, but did that also mean he could never leave “work” either? Like anything else, it was an area that needed examining to ensure everyone was on the same page with regard to work expectations. The additional flexibility also seemed to make expectations more complicated. If a team member sends a message/text/email/etc at 9pm on a weeknight, or 11am on a weekend, etc, etc, what was the expectation on how long it would take to get answered. It seemed like that depended on how easily the request could be answered, how important the answer was, and how urgent the answer was. All this adds up to a lot more complexity; not a good thing, not a bad thing, just different.