Telecommuting/WAHM Thoughts

I think about WAHM life and long-distance working a lot and keep meaning to write a post or several about it.  Here are some fun but true bits that have struck me lately.

1.  You can wear whatever even when meeting with the President of the University or the Chair of the Board.  I sometimes picture them in expensive offices in power suits while I calmly give them advice in my jammies from my lazy boy.  What I do wear ranges from business casual that I might wear to my office to jammies and gym clothes.  I do always (ok, almost always) change out of the actual PJs I wore to sleep even if it is just to other comfy clothes when I start the day as there needs to be some sort of a "shift" mentally and otherwise.

2.  People forget that you are not actually "there."  (This makes me think I'm doing a decent job, for some reason). Periodically, people still forget or have never discovered I'm not in DC it is often a rather humorous conversation ensues. This is increasingly true as the length of time I've been doing this grows.

3. Others often haven't really thought about the work-at-home differences.  For instance, this week, my office decide at long last to buy me a laptop, wireless mouse, docking station, monitor, etc... full set-up as though I were at the actual office. (Yippee!! Much rejoicing!)  We come to the part where they want to know if I want a monitor stand and I'm perplexed as I sit in said lazy boy wondering where on earth I would put a monitor stand:)  I've declined for the moment.  ( I suspect they "think" I'm working at an actual desk and I'm going to let them keep that assumption--unless of course they read this:).

4.  Something wacky can, and inevitably will, happen involving kids when they are home and you are working. This has ranged from a law clerk recently just hearing squeaky Maggie sounds in the background and finding it hilarious.  To B delivering and entire conversation, mostly about the weather luckily, to our contracts work group one day when I thought I had the call on mute.  Most people think it is adorable, but it mostly makes me feel a bit less professional.

5.  In a world of work done mostly by email the odds are good that you will do one or all of the following: forget an attachment (or attach the wrong version/file), copy people you didn't mean to (or forget to copy someone), or reply to say everyone on a list serve with thousands of people....  I have, done all of these things.  I am constantly on my guard trying to prevent doing them again, but probably improves my accuracy.

6.  Weird things happen when you work half a continent away.  Lately, that means weather.  Last week, we were blanketed in snow and ice and while I did battle with that there was just a tiny bit in DC.  This weekend, they are looking forward to perhaps 30 inches! So I often work when the weather is bad here and goofs of up my childcare and then every now and then am off when the weather is OK here.

7. I think I'm addicted to the flexibility of my arrangement.  Seriously. The other day, I wondered and worried how I'd deal with a normal job where we'd all have to be up, dressed and out the door in the morning.  When would I exercise? When would I have time to just snuggle the kids? What would I wear?  Clearly, I have and could do it again, but it is so nice to work these part time gigs, still get to be a mom, and have so much flexibility.  I love it and hope it continues for a long time.

8.  That flexibility I mentioned? You really have to be flexible.  Not only do you get flexibility, but you give flexibility.  Sometimes, something has to be done now or you MUST meet at X time regardless of things like whether you have childcare or your boss will email you at 10pm expecting X done ASAP. Luckily, my current babysitter is great for this and is very flexible too and even able to watch both kids most times of day.  That said, it is a stressor at times.

9.  There is a danger of being insecure about your job because you are both part-time and at a distance. Sometimes, I am very confident about the whole situation and others not as much.  I think maternity leave, for instance, made me think they might realize they could manage without me.  That said, I'm relatively cheap to employ by DC standards and have a knowledge base that no one else does.  For the moment, I'm feeling OK and think my trip back next week will just increase that confidence.

10.  Just Enjoy!  I am so very lucky to have this position/situation at this point in my life and my family.  As you can see above I occasionally let worries slip in to my perfect situation, which is silly.  For now, this is the right place and arrangement for me and my employers.  I am going to try hard to just appreciate it and enjoy what a blessing it is for now and not worry so much about years from now.  I think we're all in a good place.

Up next on the blog look for baby M's six month Update!  Can you believe she is six months old already??? Wow!  Currently, she's having an ear infection + teething, but is such a trooper.  More to come in Miss M's story.