Most people I tell that I work from home believe I work in my pajamas and maybe from the bed…and that is sometimes true 🙂
In the recent months I have been getting more and more questions from friends but also people I randomly meet about working from home. How is it? Do you work in your pajamas? Do you need to start exactly on time? Does your boss know if you’re late? Some people ask even deeper questions about communication challenges in remote collaboration, ensuring quality of your work and personal motivation. So I thought I’d address all of these myths here today and, if this sparks your interest, I’d be happy to develop any of these topics in further posts.
So let’s start with the questions I get the most: Do I work in my pajamas? The truth is I do 🙂 many times. In fact, until recently, most days I used to work in my pajamas, or some comfortable attire. However, since my team and I started sharing the camera during team meetings and calls, I at least make the effort of making myself presentable from the waist up. The video sharing really helps bring us together, especially during a period when we don’t see each other in person too often. It also helps facilitate the communication, as sometimes only sound and no visuals (no body language in particular) can make the interaction more difficult especially with people you have known for a short amount of time.
How does the schedule look like when you work from home? This is another question I get frequently. Truth is – if you are not careful you can end up working more than you do when you have a 9 to 5. And this is because you can start working as soon as you wake up and can stop…when you need to sleep. So while working from home is flexible and can allow you to schedule some personal errands during the working hours – my team and I try to take a 30 min break every day to exercise, go to the gym or meditate – it can also be the enemy of your work – life balance. I will probably develop this in a separate post soon as it requires much more attention.
Working from home is great – you choose which 18 hours a day you work.
Myth number 3: as amazing as working from home is due to the convenience and flexibility, it can be rather lonely. If you are not careful, you can spend 8-10 hours per day, or more, on your own, in your home office. And of course, you do talk to many people during that time. But there is little to none personal or in person interaction. This is why I have made it a purpose to work every Friday from a different coffee shop around my house. This way I get to meet and interact with other people when I want to get that extra energy and vibe.
All in all, home office has been a real blessing for me, especially after having our son. I can make sure I plan my household chores and my business meetings and tasks in such a way that at the end of the day I am done with both and can dedicate good quality time to my family.
I would love to hear your experience with working from home and/ or address any other myths you came across about working from home.
Until next time,
Laura
