Tuesday, May 25, 2010

Working from home & surviving it

I know lots of mumma's want to work from home. Of course you do.....BUT.....it's not as easy as you think it might be. It's incredibly hard to find something above board, there are plenty of shonky type ads but they will never come to anything.

The thought of working in your jarmies all day is good at first BUT it's very hard to be productive when you look like a schlep. It just is.

No matter what there will still need to be some sort of outside contact, be it face to face with clients or via the phone.
The children will still interrupt you no matter what. You will likely still need childcare at some level so can go meet with people or at least make a phone call without a "muuuummmmmeeeee" in the background.

You need huge amounts of discipline to really knuckle down, people drop in because they know you are there, you quickly load the dishwasher before you start, then it's time for lunch before you know it.




Reality pic. Betty trying to feed through my back and Cyclone pressing all the keys on the computer. Me looking a TREAT.

I used to get up after the 4am feed and get 2 hours of work done in the silence. Kids up around 7-8am. An hour or so of phone calls after lunch and my day would end. I also needed face to face time sans children - if you have a business at home client contact is just as important as the work you do...or you won't have any business. I can't tell you the amount of times I tried to sound professional during a call with a 2 year old Cyclone banging on the door whilst I hold it shut with my foot. I hid in the wardrobe a few times too. You still need childcare working from home!




However this was the face I presented to everyone. Yanno, making it look sooooo easy.
After awhile I got a little sick of being held up by the parent company as a mascot for 'how easy it is to work at home'. It wasn't easy. It sucked. Yes I made $$$, yes I worked hard but EASY it wasn't. I didn't feel it was fair to present like this without giving people the actual reality. You can't set people up like that. I had a few fallouts with a *insert swear here* from the parent company over this so she completely cut off my supply line.

Thus ending my business. The Bitch.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Yeah! Some honesty about working from home! I think any mum thinking that making a bit of money from home and the like should be forwarded to your post.

Love the feeding through your back shot ;)

Diminishing Lucy said...

Shudder at the supply line being cut off.

You talk so much sense Luce......xx

Wanderlust said...

When the kids are babies or toddlers, there is just no way. I had to put mine in care to get anything done, which defeated the purpose. When they're a bit older, they can entertain themselves for stretches. But they still want your attention if you're there. That's just the way it is.

jo said...

TBS@H biatches- boo to them
jo