Re: Telecommuting Advice?

[Michele <michele -at- krautgrrl -dot- com>]

Hello all,

I've been telecommuting for almost 10 years. I have my own office and my 
husband has his own office, both on the main floor of the house. I 
finally relented this year and hired a cleaning lady so I could stop 
worrying about taking care of a four bedroom home with two main floor 
offices and a basement family room. I work during all different hours 
and have become very accustomed to tuning out my children. They have 
their own phone line, I have one for work, and a home line. I'm not 
quite so rigid as to take designated breaks because each project I do is 
different and I am hardly micro-managed by any of my clients. Although I 
have to admit I have some clients who don't have boundaries and email 
with issues on the week-ends, which I try to keep work-free for the most 
part, but maintaining those clients is a priority so I happily oblige 
them when they email on week-ends.

Now, on to Posada's comment about friend/family boundaries. This has 
been a very tough pill for me to swallow for 10 years. Because I work at 
home various and sundry (my dad is especially guilty of this) will call 
on my home line when I'm working. Usually I don't even hear that line 
because my music is loud and I can't hear it ring. People from my 
children's school (the one that goes to a public school mostly) think 
that they can interrupt me whenever, because, well, I work at home, so I 
must not "really" be working. My dad does this as well. And as he is 
long distance, it's a bummer, and he doesn't get the boundary thing so I 
rarely speak with him, I mostly email. Friends used to be notoriously 
guilty of this but most of my current friends are so swamped at their 
day jobs that they leave me alone and use email. The friends who have 
crises will call on my business line and if I have time I will gladly 
give it to them, otherwise I tell them I'm on deadline and schedule a 
time to talk.

Boundary issues are tough, a lot of people may end up being miffed that 
you are drawing a boundary. Heck, I know people in my personal life who 
I've given the flush to because they despise it when I establish a 
boundary---god forbid I take care of myself!

I suggest you learn to tune things out, not just noise, but desires to 
re-arrange the furniture, which is really about procrastination and 
working in a home office takes a person that can multi-task well and not 
procrastinate. If you're clocked in with Client A and Client B calls, I 
clock out of Client A and clock in with Client B. Once off the phone, I 
clock out with Client B and clock back in to Client A. But I'm an anal, 
list making, everything in it's place kind of gal, who takes pleasing 
clients so seriously that the cleaning lady had to be hired as the house 
suffered and I felt overwhelmed with having to cook dinner, wash, fold 
and iron laundry, monitor homework and the like during my off time that 
cleaning the house took a backseat.

That's my own experience and advice, do with it as you will.

Michele

---------------
Michele E. Davis, Writer
Kraut Companies
612-824-3516
612-309-6903 (cell)
www.krautgrrl.com
www.krautboy.com
and the uber geek empyre




John Posada wrote: