I’ve been reading many blogs lately written by work at home moms and dads who work for themselves.
I still work for “the man”. My goal is to one day work at home for ME.
Working for someone else has advantages, such as the wonderful health insurance benefits that covered our oldest daughter’s ICU stay this year. Without that coverage, we would each be working three jobs for the next few years to pay that enormous bill! Another perk is my 401K. The company has an excellent matching program and I now that I am fully vested the money is all mine.
One disadvantage is having to travel now and then to participate in projects or company meetings that require face-to-face time. I don’t mind occasional travel and I enjoy meeting up with my fellow co-workers. However, it does take a lot of energy for me to coordinate my children’s care, meals, and schedules so that I can go away.
This past week, I went to one of our offices to work on a migration project. I could have done the majority of work from home and employed a local consultant to help, but I decided to go and save the company some money.
I haven’t left Baby A alone yet, so Dad and the youngest kids came with. It worked out great because I was able to get things done while he took the kids out exploring a new town. They also enjoyed frequent trips to the hotel pool and meals out.
It was a long and hard workweek for me and I am exhausted. I am happy to be HOME and thankfully I don’t have to travel again until sometime next year.
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Wendy Piersall of eMomsathome.com asked, What’s the Best Part of Working at Home?
The best part for me is having more time to spend with my family. It’s incredible to be here for them when they wake up in the morning, to eat lunch together or take a walk mid-day, to not have to pump milk for baby A, to make and share a lovely home-cooked meal together. There are many little things that boil down to being together more…time is so precious…and working at home helps me have more time to make happy memories with my family.
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One common work at home challenge, is dealing with friends and family members calling on the phone to chat.
People assume because you are home, you are easily accessible and hey…it’s a casual workplace, right?
I faced this same problem when I first starting working at home.
One quick “personal” call would turn into an hour long gab-fest and then my work would fall behind.
While my schedule is more flexible now that I work at home, I still have a full workload and need to stay focused in order to get things done.
Here are some practical suggestions I’ve learned to establish boundaries:
Establish a schedule and advertise it. I generally work from 7:30am – 4:30pm and I let everyone outside the home know I am unavailable during these times.
Keep a separate phone for work and home. I have a phone number for work that I have not shared with personal contacts. I do not answer my home phone during my normal working hours, my voice mail does all the work for me! I return calls after work.
It’s not only the phone that distracts and wastes time!
Separate your e-mail accounts. I have one e-mail account for work and for personal use. I only check and respond to personal e-mails once a day, usually at lunch or after dinnertime.
Separate IM accounts too. Honestly, instant messaging can be a huge time waster. I found that personal IM’s would interrupt my thoughts and workflow, so I keep my personal account logged off during my working hours.
By setting and enforcing YOUR rules, friends and family will take your work seriously.
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