Whats Your Favourite Thing About Working From Home?

Hi BabyMama,

a) avoiding the herd

b) the view from here

I enjoy making more money in a day than I used to earn in a week at most of the jobs I've had in the past. The commute is much shorter and I never have to wonder where I'm gonna' have lunch. :rolleyes:

Phillip

Your statement about getting weekends and holidays off says a lot about what you think of work. For some of us work IS our weekend, holiday, Christmas all wrapped up in one.

It is NOT something to be avoided. For us saying you have weekends off from work is like saying oh 2 days a week I do not HAVE to go boating, to the beach, eating and drinking out etc.

To us work IS a reward and something we prefer to do.

We would never want to avoid work when it is the most pleasurable pastime we do AND make a bunch of money doing it.

For me personally I can barely stand even getting dressed and brushing my teeth before turning on the computer to start work and see what new emails, orders etc have come in over night.

Your thoughts about work is why you probably will never understand the way some of us think, act and live.

Sure about that? What about the missus

-Chris

Deal

I think I just use the old "tomorrow" excuse too much. "I'll write that blog post tomorrow", "I'll create that video tomorrow" etc. Been trying to cut back on this.

Have fun on your trip to Alaska! Don't forget to relax a bit and enjoy yourself

Hi,



Just the first one, the alarm clock one on it's own was funny enough. The rest were good too. Lol.

I work from home, but have a real day job: I do call center work, doing tech support. I AM an employee and get a regular paycheck. (I'm just coming out of a season of extended unemployment and don't yet make a regular income online.)

So I have a boss and regular hours.

But I am SO THANKFUL to work from home! I have some physical problems which inhibit my mobility and make it difficult for me to go into an office on a regular basis, especially if I'm not feeling well.

I just finished the initial 6 weeks of training and had to drive down to Ft. Lauderdale every day. I HATED every minute of it.

What do I love about working from home?

1. NO COMMUTE! (1 hr each way, which meant I left 1 1/2 hrs ahead of time to account for traffic on I-95.)

2. No get-ready morning routine. Since I have some physical problems, I have to soak in the tub each day and so my get-ready routine is 2 hrs. I can jam it into 1 1/2 hrs or if I REALLY hurry, into 1 hour. (But that means no soaking in the tub, which isn't good for my skin.)

The 1/hr-each-way commute plus 2 hr-get-ready routine, plus the lunch hour means I have 5 (count 'em: FIVE!) more hours in my day.

3. More sleep! No getting up at a ridiculous hour or getting home at a ridiculous hour.

4. Huge savings in gas for my car. (Not to mention the wear and tear on my car!)

5. Huge savings on meals out.

6. My comfortable, peaceful environment! I love my house and generally have music playing (low) and candles burning. We've been remodeling and are now moving into decorating, so things are slowly shaping up.

It's lovely and so peaceful, a HUGE change from the office environment. (The building wasn't great and the room I was in smelled of mold. Yuck! I think it was in the ventilation system.)

7. I can do little, personal things on my breaks: eat, get something to drink, put a load in the wash, etc.

8. I can conduct BUSINESS during business hours.

I work a split shift, working 9 AM - 1 PM and then 6 PM -10 PM. (I've never worked a split shift before. But customer service generally isn't a 9-6 or 8-5 job.)

This is HUGE for me. One of my pet peeves with my previous job was my inability to conduct any BUSINESS during business hours because I had a day job. Drove me CRAZY! Yes, I had flex time benefits, but that covers the occassional doc appointment, personal issue (like your car breaking down), etc. I didn't have regular, consistent time off during the business day.

Now I do. This means I can do errands or even do business stuff (hold meetings, conduct a conference call/teleseminar, etc.) DURING BUSINESS HOURS. Yay!

Initially I thought I'd HATE working a split shift, but the more I think about it, the more I like it. If you're just starting IM or don't yet have enough income to live off of, then you probably have to have a day job. Trouble is, it leaves little time for building a biz and you generally have to do it in off hours. IM is wonderful in it's flexibility and allowing you to do it in off hours, but it's still difficult when you NEED to do things during business hours (meetings, teleseminars, etc.).

But either way, you're working a LOT of hours (day job plus biz). My new job schedule just shifts those hours around and give me time during the BUSINESS day to conduct business. Yay!

My split shift also injects discipline into my schedule. I HAVE to get up in time to start work at 9 AM. No staying up all night and sleeping all day. (I'm a huge night owl and can easily get my days and nights turned around in 1 day flat.)

9. I can take a nap during my 5-hr break.

Basically, I like the FLEXIBILITY of my schedule. The traditional 8-hr (9 hrs with a lunch hr) day/commute/go-to-the-office doesn't work well for me. Because of some physical problems, I really need flexibility in my day and little or no commute. Now if my feet and legs blister and swell to the point that I can't walk (yes, it happens sometimes), it probably won't affect my dependability at work (which is key to KEEPING my job).

10. I can play with my cat.

11. I can have my purse and phone nearby. :rolleyes:

Yes, seriously! My new employer makes employees leave their cell phones in their car or check them with security. No cell phones on premises! Since my cell phone is officially an extension of my hand, this was a problem.

They also make their female employees lock their purse in their car or lock them in a locker on premises. No purses, bags or other small cases (like zippered makeup bags and such) allowed.

I had a SERIOUS problem with both of these issues. I'm 35, a professional woman who knows how to behave professionally. Such rules (plus the people and environment) made me feel like a high school kid in a bad inner city school. It was insulting.

I also INTENSELY disliked having to put my stuff through the X-ray machine and step through a metal detector every time I entered or left the building. That tells you something about the type of people they had working there and the environment, though.

My safety is important though, so I'd rather have it than not. But I feel safer at home. AND I'm glad not to have to be around some weird types of people. (It's a large company with a LOT of people.) As a single, white woman with some physical problems, there are just certain types of people I choose not to be around. Though I never felt actually threatened during my training, it was still uncomfortable there.

That's what I love about working from home. Now we'll see if I'm disciplined enough and savvy enough to get this biz off the ground. Then I can brag about having no boss and working from my laptop in Switzerland.

Michelle