Am I being stupid, or is it just me that thinks working from home means you should be able to get more work done in the comfort and convenience of your own home?
My husband phones me and asks if I have the house cleaned, and "what's for dinner?" My son needs collecting at 12.45pm because of the prize giving speech night for his school. My daughter needs collecting from school at 3.30pm and then want me to take take her to her friends house and, oh by the way, because it's speech night tonight, make sure you're ready by 7.00pm.
And I thought that by working from home I'd save time on getting dressed and travelling to work - no such luck. It's the new phrase for multi-tasking.
I've had similar conversations today with Sharon, (my right hand man (so to speak)) who works as a virtual secretary for me. We both love our jobs. We have the flexibility we need; we don't have to answer to nasty management (only our wonderful clients of course); and we have a great team bond and get on with each other very well. And we are also paid according to our performance. Not that large corporate incentive malarky - Sharon is paid by the amount of work she produces. If she doesn't type she doesn't earn. If I don't bring in new clients none of us get paid.
So to all those work-from-home-wannabes, listen up! It's not all it's cracked up to be. You'll have lots of jobs to get through and only one workplace which you're never far from. Think again about putting that load of washing in the machine if it means you'll miss that deadline for your client and it's a hard choice to make whether to finish the urgent piece of work or leave your kids waiting outside of school.
I now have a super-duper UMPC ( ultra-mobile computer). It has a big orange and gold sticker on it: "Always being connected!!!"It's going to help me work smarter and make the most of whatever time I have to do my job. Even now, while I'm sitting in the audience, back row of the Liverpool Philharmonic at speech night tonight. I just need to work out how to turn now the brightness of the screen and plug in the earphones (I'm looking into bluetooth connectivity if anyone has any advice in that area).
Work from home - never! I may as well sit in the car with my UMPC and always be connected.
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3 comments:
Yes, working from home has the buzzword here, WORK - I wasn't expecting an easy ride, far from it, as any working mum will tell you, there are always things to fill your day, but I certainly wasn't expecting it to be this hard. Yes, it is a major decision, do you let the dinner burn or just do a quick spell check - do you let your child silently bleed to death from a grazed knee, or do you just HAVE to email that client. Decisions decisions - but don't get me wrong, as Jayne says, no nasty bosses, and even better for me, NO OFFICE POLITICS - the same old story, some poor girl leaves the room and it's a case of "Did you see her skirt, sooooo last season". Yes, working from home no picnic, but bring it on!!!!!
Hi Jayne - I found your blog via a link through Phoenix from the Ashes.
It's amazing when you work from home and you get all these people thinking you have a heap of free time. I have a neighbour who thinks it's ok to call round a lot in the day, so I just don't answer the door anymore.
Nice to hear from you Catherine.
My mum used to pop round as soon as she heard I was home. She was a great help with the ironing while I worked on my computer. Funny enough I haven't seen her for a while. Perhaps she doesn't like ironing after all.
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