"I wish I could work from home - then I could catch up on my TiVo!"
"Man, if I could work from home, I'd be going to the beach every day."
"It must be NICE to work from home - you don't have to drive in to the office, worry about what you're going to wear..."
I still remember when I used to work in the field - I'd get the kids dropped off and drive the 30 minutes to the hotel, walk into my shared office with half a dozen people in line to talk with me and set up my laptop while I took the first of the disgruntled.
Ever take the Myers-Briggs Personality Test? I'm a huge "J," I love structure and like to plan and organize my days. If someone in the office asked "Where do you guys want to go for lunch," I'd ask "What time do you guys want to go?" See - I like to plan. I can be anal at times, I know. So can you imagine what it did to me to have to give up my plans for the day due to unscheduled appointments?
In my last position before this, I was the Operations Manager at the hotel and doubled as Human Resources Manager. All those people in line? They weren't waiting for me so we could chit-chat or ask about a new process we implemented. If I had been smarter during those days, I might've requested they schedule time with me - but then there goes the whole "Open Door" policy, right?
But at the end of the day, I'd pick up the kids, head home and start dinner. My focus was either at work or with the kids, and the kids didn't have to compete for my attention. Nice and simple.
Telecommuting (or working from home) tends to complicate things a bit. You still have to get up early to get the kids dressed and fed and brought to school on time. Earlier still to get your workout in - 'coz if it didn't happen in the morning it wasn't going to happen at all.
So after you've survived the morning rush and are ready to start work, you still have to make sure the 2-year old is safe and entertained. But it wouldn't be healthy to let him sit in front of a TV all day and you still have diaper changes, snack time and meal time and naptimes... So you squeeze in some time for e-mail and meeting planning and projects here and there, and then it's time to pick up your 1st grader and you have to hurry back because you have an e-mail that needs to go out to the whole region by a certain time but of course, Jacob wants to stay for after-school recess with his friends and you start chatting with the other Moms...
And after you've been home for an hour or so and Jacob's finished his snack and started his homework (hmph - if I'm lucky), it's time to pick up JC from school. His afternoons alternate between volunteer work (tutoring other students) and practice (either football, soccer or basketball) and now it's time to start dinner.
It feels like you're juggling and multi-tasking from sun up to sun down. Gone are the days when you didn't have to shuffle back and forth between work and kids and bills in the same hour and now you get to put ALL your hats on at the SAME TIME.
So you're trying to figure out what you can cook quickly (since you forgot, again, to take something out of the freezer) and then the phone rings. The work line.
CRAP! It's one of your bosses and you're needed on a last minute conference call to take care of a little emergency that just flared up. Well, OF COURSE you take the call, even if you hadn't gotten the 2 monsters settled yet and you TRY closing the French Doors in the office, but after 15 minutes of the boys to themselves...
Jacob: "MOOOOOOM!! Joel just took off his diaper!!"
Mom's still on the phone and it's not like I can holler back to him, without looking like an unprofessional idiot at least. But because he thought I didn't hear him, Jacob comes running into the office...
Jacob: "MOOOOOOOOOOOOM! MOM! Joel just PEED on the carpet!"
And - silence. I wasn't talking. My bosses weren't talking. Even Jacob was quiet - watching, waiting. Then one of my bosses said, "Did he just say -?" and we all just started bustin' up.
Thank goodness I'm blessed with such wonderful people to work for.
And for Nature's Miracle, as well.
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