Three things you should know about me:
1. I’ve been working from home exclusively for nearly four years now.
2. I love it.
3. I’m also kind of done with it.
But no! Ha! Only two of those things are true. The real truth is, I’m not done with working from home. Yes, it’s a little more challenging at the moment, in the current environment, than it has been in years past. Yes, there are even aspects of my career that I’ve had to kind of give up because they only take place in an agency setting (which I can expound on later, if people are interested). But overall, I’m into it. I love it (as noted in #2 there).
I recognize that people who are being forced to work from home right now might not necessarily feel the way I do. I’m seeing a number of people surprised at how desperate they are to get back to their usual office life. Because working from home, intentionally or unintentionally, as a freelancer or a displaced office worker, often doesn’t live up to the tropes.
So for all of you who are still settling into the work-from-home life and finding a lot of areas that don’t meet your expectations, here are two truths and a lie about remote work, from someone who knows.
Round 1: Work-from-home myths
1. I never wear real pants.
2. I set my own hours.
3. My pets are in my office all the time.
The lie is #2. Yes, it could be said that I set my own hours to an extent — but the hours I set are 8:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. I’m an advertising copywriter. My clients are businesses and agencies, and they work 8:30-ish to 5:30-ish in their time zone, so if I want to work with them, that’s generally when I need to be available. I do have the freedom to fit errands and personal time into my schedule in a way I never could when I worked in an office, and I can frequently put off work until later in the day if I’m just not in a creative zone at a given moment. But the whole sleeping-until-10 thing isn’t really a thing for me (and not just because I’d have a rat terrier jumping on my bladder at 6:29 a.m. anyway).
Beyond that, though, working from home does offer a lot of freedom. I don’t really wear real pants — I don’t work in my jammies, because I find it hard to focus when I haven’t gotten up and showered and changed (there’s another Work-From-Home Myth for you), but I’m essentially all-leggings, all the time. And I do generally have at least one of our three nonhuman animals in the office with me at all times. It’s actually better that way — my office overlooks the back yard, and the Designated Dog Window overlooks the street, and if the dogs are watching the street they are going to bark at some joggers or dog walkers or whomever, and it is going to be when I’m on a call. In my office, they’re probably asleep, and they’re probably snoring, and I’m probably jealous, but it’s quiet. And I love having them around.
Round 2: Interpersonal stuff
1. I don’t get lonely.
2. My boyfriend and I don’t get tired of each other.
3. I love never having to see people in person.
The lie is #3. I really don’t get lonely — I know people who work from home are encouraged to go out and meet people, go to networking events, and things like that, and I do have a few activities in which I partake. But I’m also a super-introvert, and conversations via email and Slack and Hangouts satisfy much (though not all) of my need for human interaction. I do live with my boyfriend, who also works from home, but we barely see each other during the workday — which probably contributes to the fact that we don’t get tired of each other. He has his office, and I have mine, and at 5:30, we meet in the middle and talk about our day.
All that said, I do sometimes miss seeing people in person, particularly my clients. Phone calls and teleconferences mostly get the job done, but there’s something about face-to-face conversation that gets lost when you’re working voice-only. A Zoom meeting is a lot more convenient than having to put on clothes and drive to someone’s office, but I do sometimes wish we could all turn on our cameras and exchange facial expressions from time to time.
So there you go, clients. I sincerely do miss seeing your shining face.
Round 3: Personal stuff
1. It’s easy to separate work life and home life.
2. Focus isn’t a problem.
3. My hair has never looked better.
The lie is #1. When work and home happen in the same place, there’s bound to be some overlap. I do the best I can — I try to use my office only for work, and if I have to use the computer for anything non-work-related, I’ll take my laptop out to the couch. I even have separate coffee mugs for workdays and weekends. (The workday ones are blue.) But my office is still always right there, and when we’re having the usual how-was-your-day-honey conversation while we’re making dinner my office is still right there, and conversely when I’m working, the dishes and laundry and such are always right there, so complete separation is impossible.
All that said, and believe it or not, focus really isn’t a problem — and that’s pretty big for someone with nuclear-powered ADHD like I have. In that respect, working from home has been better than working in an office. Without the noise and bustle of office life outside my door, and people popping in with questions, and really unflattering fluorescent lighting, I’m able to focus a lot more effectively. (I do have the occasional “SQUIRREL!” moment, but there’s an actual squirrel in our back yard that’s been stalking me, so I give myself a pass on that.) I’m actually more likely to run into the opposite problem, which is an underappreciated effect of ADHD: hyperfocus. It’s 2:30, and my boyfriend is asking if I ate lunch, and I didn’t, because the last time I checked it was 10 a.m. and I was sitting down to write some web copy, and also I really have to pee. It’s great for productivity, although not so much nutrition.
And since heat-styling occasions are few and far between now, my hair is in great shape. It’s very shiny. People comment.
Are you running into any unexpected challenges as a newly minted worker-from-home? Drop them in comments. I might actually have suggestions. And if I don’t, I can at least offer sympathy, because for real, I love my dogs, and I love my boyfriend, but my office doesn’t have a door on it and the dogs always come to me when they need to pee and I feel like I deserve some kind of Extra Points for it, but we don’t really do points, so there’s nothing, so yeah, I totally get it.