By Vera Babayeva, originally published on Workitmom.com.
On a Monday morning last month, my live-in nanny pretended to be sick and I naively believed her, and left her alone to get better. (I took my two kids, ages 4 and 1, to my mother). In the evening, I came home and found her copy of the keys in the mailbox and a note on the coffee table.
I was angry, lost, shocked, and excited. Excited because I thought this was my opportunity to finally work from home. I took Tuesday off. My husband took Wednesday off so I could go to work and ask my boss to work from home while I find a new nanny. At first my boss made me feel that he was doing me the biggest favor in the world. I felt the same way. Wow, I thought, working from home is a luxury.
I was even more excited once it was real. But little did I know that working from home means seeing your children all the time. Now that’s a good thing, but it’s not when you have to work. Your responsibilities blur. You are working one minute and next minute you are a mom.
Then there are the resources. Remind yourself of how strict the company is when you use their resources for your personal use. Now you are home using your resources -- phone, electricity, computer, etc. -- for the company.
When working from home you work more hours for two main reasons. First, you justify your work by saying, "I wouldn’t be home until 6:30 p.m. anyway so I might as well work past 5 p.m." Second, you are worried about impressing your boss. Because you don’t want them to think that you are watching The View while working from home. So you keep working after putting the kids to sleep, to make sure you are up-to-date. Instead of working eight hours a day, you end up working 10 to 12 hours.
You also eat more, because the kitchen is right there and you are not “paying” for the food at the moment.
There is one good thing about telecommuting: You don’t have to deal with traffic, gas prices or public transportation.
Taken all together, I don’t see telecommuting as a glamorous way of working. Work is work anyway you put it. (Oh, and I made sure to tell my boss that me working from home benefited him more then me).
What about you? Do you have a telecommuting experience? Do you find it helpful or unhelpful to work from home?
After constantly seeing how women get discouraged from starting
businesses, accomplishing multiple streams of income, or simply
fulfilling their passion, Vera Babayeva was inspired to create www.womencanhaveitall.com to help women bypass negativity, overcome doubt and discouragement to pursue their dreams.
For more articles and blogs written by real experts -- working women -- check out Workitmom.com!
My telecommuting experience: Not everything I expected
- by , on Fri Jun 27, 2008 5:39am PDT
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Posted by Fri Jun 27, 2008 9:36am PDT
Report AbuseI don't have children so I think my working from home experience will be quite different. Once thing I notice is that there is so much less distrations when you're home alone than in the office. No one can just stop by to chat or ask a question.
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Posted by Fri Jun 27, 2008 12:07pm PDT
Report AbuseMy son is in school so I'm hoping working from home will allow my to ditch the after school and vacation care. I start monday and I'm really excited.
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Posted by Sat Jun 28, 2008 2:37am PDT
Report Abusehi gays i think you we have to think something that can be accepted by other.
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Posted by Sun Jun 29, 2008 8:51am PDT
Report AbuseDoes anyone know how to get a good job working from home? I have 3 children and no nanny, I have to stay home right now and don't have much money to invest in all these online home businesses. Please help me find something...Have a Blessed Day :) bambi121030@yahoo.com
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Posted by Mon Jun 30, 2008 9:29am PDT
Report AbuseHi michele r here is a somo info for you:
westathome.com, cloud10corp.com, calldesk.com, ictgroup.com I hope this can help you.
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Posted by Mon Jun 30, 2008 11:07am PDT
Report Abusehello michele r,
I sent you an email that you may find of interest. It's really great!
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Posted by Mon Jun 30, 2008 12:10pm PDT
Report AbuseI have no children and have been working from home since last November as a freelance designer. At first it was great - then it got lonely. The one thing I really missed was the social interaction at work with my coworkers. They all still work in an office, so it's really hard to schedule time to see them as they want to relax at home after working all day.
The flexibility is great. I can take a break during the day and sit outside and read for a bit, and I'm definitely saving money on food and gas. I would eat out for lunch almost everyday before.
To aid with the non-social thing, I got a part time contracted job with a local company. I work three days a week for 5 hours in the office. That gives me a reason to shower and the excitement to be around people for a few hours that day.
People keep telling me that I have the ideal situation to have kids right now. I don't know how anyone could get work done with their kids around. Talk about distractions!
I completely agree about working more too. Although I am my own boss (mostly) I do have clients to answer to. I find myself feeling guilty watching tv in the evenings sometimes thinking "I could be working on that project...." That's been pretty tough to not think about. If I do work on stuff in the evenings to get ahead though, it does make for a more relaxed morning the next day. My clients are too busy reviewing what I've sent them so they're not calling me at 8am ; )
I think it's something different for everyone. The company I'm working part time for also has a copywriter who works from home all the time. She has two young kids. She basically makes sure to fit in 20 hours of work each week, not necessarily being between 9 and 5. I think that works best. Then if you need to attend to your kids for a few hours you can. Just pick up working on stuff later.
Good luck : )
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Posted by Mon Jun 30, 2008 9:47pm PDT
Report AbuseI'm a software developer and work from home or work or any other place from the same laptop.
I used to work from home Fridays then decided to change because I worked less at the office than at home :)
I then switched to Wednesdays to take a break in between the week.
Then switched to Tuesday so I can study for my Tuesday class if need be while I "work".
The truth is it's no big deal I really don't miss the social aspect as I can find that at starbucks, or the beach, or any place with a hotspot. But it is very convenient not to have to be at work at 10 - 10:30 I'd rather just sleep an extra hour. That's actually the best part.
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Posted by Tue Jul 1, 2008 12:24pm PDT
Report AbuseI work from home and have 2 kids (14 and 11) and so far I love it! I've done this for about 5 years, 2 years since the divorce. It's great to be able to go have lunch with the kids ar do stuff at the school with them. And when they're out of school, I'm not scrambling for a sitter.
The only thing I don't like is people who call just to "chat" since they know I'm home--that and the "since you're home anyway, can you....?"
I wouldn't trade it for anything.......
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Posted by Thu Jul 3, 2008 8:26am PDT
Report AbuseI can honestly I love working from home and have been for the past two years. It saves you so much on gas, lunch road rage (lol)to say the lleast. However, the down side is you do see your kids more, it's take a while (months not days) for them to understand that from 8am to 4pm mommy is "not home" and don't scream outside my office ever please. I love that I'm just mins away if they get sick or have a really important school finction or dr appt, because I no longer miss the whole day and income becuase it wouldn't make sense for me to work half a day and coomunte so far. The poster that mentioned not having to pay after care- this is great if you don't have to answer phones from the time they get home til you're finished for the day. So bottom line is it can be great, but think it through and oh yeah youmight not want to tell too many friends and fam you work at home b/c they really do call all day to chat or have you look up stuff. Personally if it's not my hubby I don't answer! Email me- i'll see it! Good luck to all joining the teleworking community!
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