This is week 5 of my fancy new job (look I’m even on the website – it’s official!) (also, at which point does it stop being new?) (also, is it okay to use multiple sets of parenthesis in a row?). As I may have mentioned at some point, currently, I’m working from home. The ability to telecommute was one of the many things that made this job very appealing to me, but to say I wasn’t a bit trepidatious going into this would be a complete lie. I’m not always the most disciplined person, I tend to procrastinate, I like the social aspect and camaraderie that comes from having coworkers in close physical proximity. Amazingly, I fell into a pretty regular pattern quickly – work from our house in the mornings, eat lunch, then find some place with free wi-fi to work in the afternoons (Panera Bread, Busboys & Poets (despite their status as a socialist enclave), and the Shirlington Library are current favorites). In my 4.5 weeks with the Franklin Center, I’ve managed to get a relatively large amount of work done. Building a development program from the ground up is a daunting task and having all the choices in the world is almost as paralyzing as having no choices at all when it comes to strategic thinking and planning. We’re chugging along, moving forward, laying the groundwork for next year, etc.
One of, if not the, most frustrating aspects of this new job has nothing to do with the work or my co-workers, but with the fact that few of my friends or family members take the working from home thing seriously. I truly believe that they think I sit around all day in my pajamas watching television and goofing off. That because I don’t get up and go to an office outside our house, but instead sit at a dining room table, my work is less valid, my job less “real.” They don’t think about the fact that because I’m flying solo, I’m my own IT department, my own procurement officer, my own supervisor and assistant. That when, last week, my work laptop refused to connect to the wireless in our house and my blackberry stopped getting emails, I couldn’t go whine to an IT guy, but spent about 90 minutes on the phone with Comcast and Dell, then spent another couple of hours troubleshooting email and blackberry issues until I fixed the problem. All by myself. And I knew this was going to be the case, that on top of a lot more responsibility and a different organizational model and mission, I was going to have to function in a very independent manner, I just really wish my friends and family could understand and respect it.
It is nice that I can grocery shop during the middle of a workday if I need to. Or I can run a quick errand or sleep in and work late. But working from home also means you never leave the office. That the work computer and documents and everything else are always there. Just waiting for you. Taunting you. Wondering why you’re watching television (even if it is the weekend) or chatting with friends (even if it is 8:30 at night).
Working from home also means your entire kitchen full of food is always available to you and that the exercise that was built into your life as a public transportation commuter is now gone, which is clearly reflected in the way my clothes fit. So on a semi-related note, look out South Beach Phase One, I’m back.
“But working from home also means you never leave the office. That the work computer and documents and everything else are always there. Just waiting for you. Taunting you.”
I’ve found working at home (when I’ve had to) much more relaxing and peaceful, no one coming in with questions, interrupting your flow of ideas, no aggravations (although I def. understand the IT stuff). Sometimes I’m more productive at home than at the office, how messed-up is that?
Stac, I agree, my work may come at odds times and in fits and spurts, but I’m able to focus in a very different and much better way than I could when I had to get up and go into a real office everyday. My biggest complaint really is the fact that some people in my life don’t seem to understand or respect that I still actually have to do work, much like college, where I appeared to goof off a lot, but still did pretty well. The stakes are a bit higher now, though!
C’est la vie, I suppose!