Work at home? Or not?
I'm having this dream again: I wake up, slide out of bed, slip on
my furry-on-the-inside slippers and stumble out into the kitchen
to start a pot of good, strong coffee. While the coffee's brewing,
I fire up the computer, download my email and make my to-do list
for the day. I get the kids up and off to school, and wander into
work a little while later, still clad in my Victoria's Secret jammies
and my slippers… Oh, wait a second. I'm not sleeping, and this isn't
a dream.
I'm a stay-at-home, work-at-home mom. Much as I hate to admit it,
there are those days when I don't get "dressed" until sometime before
I have to pick kids up from school. How do I manage this? Well, I'm
self-employed, for starters. But even before I became self-employed,
I had a job that allowed me to telecommute. It's great now, but in
the beginning, it was something closer to that Oh-No-I'm-At-Work-In-My-Underwear
Nightmare.
Most of us who work outside the home have the luxury of going to
a workplace that's equipped with all we need to do our jobs. Whether
you work at McDonalds or in a hospital, at a law firm or the library,
generally all the "things" you need are close at hand.
This is not necessarily so when you telecommute. Imagine essentially
having to clone your workplace and stick it somewhere inside your
home. Talk about nightmares!
When I began telecommuting, all I really needed was my computer
and a telephone. Or at least that's what I thought. I soon discovered
that I also needed a fax machine, a file cabinet a scanner, an answering
machine, a color printer and a whole bunch of pretty pricey software.
Oh, and did I mention a quiet place to work?
Transitioning from my away-from-home office to an at-home office
was, to say the least, more than I bargained for. And my employer
was, except for the software I needed, not forthcoming with funds
to make any of it happen. Over time, I managed to acquire all the
equipment I needed to be at least as productive (if not moreso) as
I was when I actually commuted into an office.
Having my office in the middle of the family room (not the optimal
configuration, but it's what I had to work with) brought with it
a whole set of hurdles that I'd never encountered as a work-away-from-home
mom. Friends popping over to say "hi" because they knew I was home,
the urge to do housework (sick, I know) because I was so conveniently
there, and perhaps most annoying, the ability to work nonstop all
day, no breaks, no lunch (no wonder I was more productive). Along
with those hurdles, though, I had new freedoms and a whole lot of
benefits: no hour-long commute to work, no daycare costs, the ability
to arrange my schedule to accommodate more readily for the needs
of my family, not having to worry about what the dog was doing inside
the house alone all day., etc.
Learning to balance the pros and cons of having a home office was
a real challenge. How tempting it was to work into the evening when
I had stacks of work to do and my employer was breathing down my
neck wanting to know when such-and-such a project would be finished.
More times than I'd like to admit, I caved in to the pressure and
worked ridiculous hours for no overtime pay. If I'd been at the office,
I'd have packed my stuff and simply gone home at the end of my scheduled
workday, leaving whatever unfinished work waiting until the following
day.
I finally decided to throw the towel in and start my own business
- home-based, of course. Transitioning from telecommuting for an
employer to working at home for myself was relatively easy. Again,
the hardest part was to resist the temptation to work non-stop. Having
the tools of my work so very available made them very attractive
- I'd find myself sitting down to do "just a little work" when I
had leisure time.
The most important lesson I've learned from going down this road
is to clearly identify my priorities each day, and balance my time
so that neither my work nor my family is getting short-changed. I
can work, when I need to, late into the evening, but I can also,
when I need to, take an entire day off to spend on a class field
trip with one of my children.
©2002 Hilde Mott
Hilde Mott is a graphic artist/web developer living and working
in island paradise in the Pacific Northwest. Married for 16 years
and mom to two teenagers, she struggles daily for her sanity. You
can find Hilde at www.iwgd.com
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