Working From Home or Harder Than It Sounds

I work from home. After decades of working for large corporations (and being downsized multiple times), I now work part time for a tiny entrepreneurial company. It’s been a strange adjustment.

For example, one friend keeps asking when I’ll get a real job. Others assume that since I’m home I’m not really working so I easily talk on the phone for an hour. Or two.

I do love the commute - about 10 seconds to go upstairs into my office. There are some days when I get stuck in traffic though — especially if there’s been a two cat pile-up in the hallway. Sometimes I have to wait for the HazMat crew (me) for a cleanup involving cat barf or remnants of small unfortunate prey. 

I even have a dress code: I must wear clothes that I can answer the door in. No jammies or bathrobes. No working naked. I must wear shoes. (OK, I do cheat on that one.) Also, no TV, no personal calls, and no visitors while I’m working. OK, let me amend that. No two-legged visitors while I’m working. Most days it’s a constant fight with the cats to keep them off of the keyboard. I’ve tried locking them out of the room - you’d think there was a herd of banshees on the other side of the door. It’s not worth the drama.

But there are downsides as well. I am the IT department. And the mail room
clerk. And the janitor. It’s hard as heck to have a water-cooler conversation since I’m the only one here. It gets lonely. The money I save on gasoline is spent on heating and air conditioning. (That money saving tip about getting a programmable thermostat? - doesn’t work if you’re always home.) I am self- insured. I know that employer-provided insurance is not as common as it once was, but man, it hurts to write that check. 

I also pay my own quarterly taxes and Social Security. I realize I always had paid that, but it seems like a lot more money when I actually have to write the checks. Let’s face it, when the employer takes all that from the paycheck before you see it, you don’t miss it as much.

And the distractions are many and varied. I’m a sitting duck for the door-to-door salesmen or religious sects. Girl Scouts lurk in my shrubs at cookie time. I don’t even answer the home phone anymore. 

Plus I feel really guilty if I’m doing anything other than work, even though I’m technically part time. I actually have three part-time jobs including dog-walking (ironically, for the friend who asks when I’ll get a real job). I swing from feeling guilty if I’m not constantly glued to the computer and upset because I’m not being Susie Homemaker (since I’m home.) I still can’t convince myself that it’s OK to work in the yard on a weekday.

Will this arrangement last forever? Nah, probably not. But I’m glad I’ve had chance to try it.

Oops - gotta go. Seems like someone burned the microwave popcorn again.