Working from Home

I have always worked from home.
I am very fortunate in that way.
But it has it's issues.
A commute on the beltway is not one of them.
I have a great commute, up a flight of stairs.
But the thing about my commute? I don't get a snow day.

I find if you work from home you work more hours because you can.
You don't get breaks. No one stops by your desk to chat and waste a few minutes.
Hell, sometimes I find myself wiggling in my seat and realize - "Go to the bathroom dumb ass, it's just down the hall off your master bedroom"

When I first began working from home I had to learn to turn it off.
I would turn on my computer in the morning and think I would just glance at emails before my coffee. But then you see issues, your boss, whatever.
Before you know it you are still in your bathrobe and you haven't even bathed yet and it's 1:00pm.  (and wiggling in your seat)

My poor UPS man actually looked up to view our house numbers one day because I answered the door in something other than my red bathrobe.
Yes, that day I had my hair done, my makeup on and regular street clothes. (dr.'s appointment)
So of course he thought he was at the damn wrong house!
He didn't recognize me without my red bathrobe.
 He even said that to me. How mortifying is that?!
After that I realized I really should get dressed for work. 
Poor man was all confused. That began me dressing each day for work. Not dressing well, but at least I had clothes on and not my bathrobe or pj's which he was used to.

The other thing I had to adjust was answering the phones.
In the evening I would hear my office phone ring and I would run upstairs to answer it.
Always seemed to be an issue that would take hours to resolve.
Before you know it you have been working for another 3 hours and everyone in your home has gone to bed.

Now you all know if your office phone is ringing at 8pm you don't even know it let alone answer it. So after a few years of this I stopped answering my phone after hours.
Yes, I am a slow learner.
Office closed between 5 - 6pm eastern time and no way was I going to answer it afterwards. If my boss needed me he knew my cell. Thankfully he didn't work after hours either!

It's even harder to do when you own the business but now I am adamant about not answering the phone on weekends, holidays and after hours. You need to learn to turn it off or it becomes all consuming. I have a real life outside work and I plan to enjoy it.

Now the good part of being self employed and working from a home office is the ability to walk my dog at lunch.  To wear sweat pants or leggings.  To not wear makeup or heels.
I still work longer hours but I make the hours now.

Just because ones office is in ones home doesn't mean they aren't focused on the job at hand. For some reason people think they can come over to the house, stop by for a chat, or ask me to go do something with them during the day.  I assume these same people are the ones who can't focus on a job while working from home. Maybe they are the type that need the structure of an office environment to actually work.  I know a lot of people say they couldn't focus at home. I get that. My mom never understands this work from home thing.
She figures if I'm home I can chat with her, do laundry and scrub the bathroom.
I asked her if she did that while she was at work. Her answer? "Why no Peggy because I'm not home." She didn't get it.
My father once asked me how I knew what to do?  I found that strange since he was a master plumber who owned his own business and did commercial and industrial plumbing. Who told him what to do each day? 

I have a friend in Maryland who come to Virginia every other month.
She will ask me to go shopping with her at a big Virginia mall she loves.
I always want to do that to her some day at her office, you know just call her at work and say. "Hey, I'm in town want to go shopping?"  But I don't.  
I don't call her at work and ask her to go to the mall during the day.
I don't ask if I can stop by her office to shoot the shit.
It drives me bat shit crazy that I still get that from people.
Not to say there are some days I can't do those things.But to assume I can do them every day and then they get mad because I won't can drive me mad.
I want to shout, I AM WORKING - REALLY!

I am lucky I have always worked from home. I know that.
When I did work outside a home office it was an airport.
So again not stuck in a cubicle or have a boss hanging over me.
I've never worked side by side so to speak of a boss.
If I ever had to work in a cubicle I think I would go stark raving mad.
I would feel like veal all penned in.
It makes me itchy just thinking about it.
A cubicle isn't for me. Just like working from home isn't for everyone.

So as I type this on my lunch break, I hear my dog snoring at my feet, I am eating frozen grapes at my desk and I got to listen to the Inauguration on my Sirius radio online.

I'm pretty damn lucky aren't I??