Before I began to work from home permanently, I had a lot of visions about what it would be like. Now, a little over three years later, I can see where I got it wrong, I got it right and, candidly, I was way off-base. Because the discussion strikes at the heart of why I am so satisfied now, it bears repeating why working from home is for me the best thing ever.
The first myth I had was that I vacillated between this idea that I’d work all day in my pajamas or I’d work all day in business casual clothes. To fuel this dichotomy, I bought both new pajamas and new work clothes right before I left my old job. On one hand, I needed both. On the other hand, I was preparing for any circumstance. The truth on this myth? Both were wasted. I work in jeans and a sweater in winter; a t-shirt and shorts in the summer. And if you think of it, it makes sense. I mean, consider your Saturdays and Sundays. Occasionally, you may stay in your pjs too long. Most of the time? You get up, eat a lazy breakfast, have a cup of coffee or two and then get ready for your day, which includes getting dressed. It’s the same thing for working from home.
The second myth that can sometimes irritate me is that others can regard people who work from home as “not busy” or not working. That leads to strange requests. No, I can’t wait for FedEx to show up at your door. And yes, I really do have to be home by 2 p.m. for a conference call. I don’t find it useful taking conference calls in grocery store parking lots. But folks aren’t way off when they think that you have extra time. It just different extra time. Take today for example. It’s not quite 8 a.m. and my day will likely start around 8:30 a.m. I have that flexibility to choose when my day starts. But, there are some hard markers in my day. I need to get a budget back to a client by my 11 a.m. call. I’m on the phone from 11-noon and then again at 1:25 p.m. until 3 p.m. In between, I have another deliverable for another client so that we’re ready for tomorrow’s conference call. And finally, I’ve got to dig into my schedule and create a three-hour block sometime this week for a fourth client.
So, my time is not always “free” and there are times when I’m incredibly busy. But the flipside is also true. I get to decide when my day starts and ends. If I need to run to the grocery, I can do it either between 11 a.m. and 1 p.m. today or after 3 p.m. I can also block time in my schedule for the rest of my life’s other demands, giving me the flexibility I’ve always wanted.
Then there are the truths of working from home, that I hoped for and expected, but am truly so happy they have come true. First, it’s much quieter working from home. The noise and distractions in my life before I worked from home have largely dissipated. The one big dissatisfier these days has been the advent of zoom calls over regular conference calls. Life was much better when I could walk from room to room with my cell phone at my ear then when I had to sit in front of my computer. As a matter of fact, one of my New Year Resolutions is to dramatically reduce my zoom calls and increase my conference calls.
The second truth of working from home is that I’m now present in my own life. When I used to work out of the house, my life became consumed for about 10 hours a day with all of the things about my job. My home life became something I enjoyed between the hours of 5 p.m. and 10 p.m., when I inevitably went to bed and on the weekends. Today, home and work are a blend. I spend about 25 hours a week on work, spread over four days. There are weeks that it’s 40-50 hours still and then weeks when it’s about 10 hours. Regardless, every day I get to be here, working from home in my own spaces and intertwining real life with work life – and not just chores either. Yes, there is the “throw-in-a-load-of-laundry” between conference calls activities, but there is also a quick chat with my husband or sister, kitty belly rubs, a five minute break out on the back deck in the sunshine, a quick trip to the ‘fridge (often my downfall) and a total integration of these things called work and home.
So, three years and a pandemic later, working from home is still the best option for me. Does it get lonely sometimes? Yes, I can’t deny that it does. And despite not really being an extrovert, I do like people every once in awhile. It was one of the tradeoffs I made and honestly, it wasn’t a bad tradeoff before the pandemic. If I needed people, I called a bestie or a sister for lunch; I headed to the local tea shop for work and tea in a corner booth; or I carved out a few hours and went shopping. These days, there’s a lot less people in my life and that makes me sad. But slowly – painfully slowly – we are all getting vaccinated. And sooner or later, life will return to normal. When it does, I’ll still be glad that I work from home.
The Yuppie Homesteader 