Have Office, Can Travel
Home Office "Pro" #11 (I'm arbitrarily starting with #11 just because I'm sure there are at least 10 other "pros" I've mentioned to working from a home office since beginning this blog): Have Office, Can Travel.
This is something the Man of the House and I have talked about frequently for many years but have never actually exercised. The fact of my job is that all I need is a phone, a computer, internet access, and a door, so it doesn't matter if I'm at home or in a train cabin en route to Paris (as long as it has Wi-Fi). I can do my job. So, when the annual family reunion came around 1000 miles from our home, and I pointed out I have zero PTO hours available, we decided this was the time to take advantage of this working reality.
Welcome to my temporary office at Ye Olde Residence Inn:
As the horrible saying goes, you can't swing a dead cat without hitting a relative around here, so this provides multiple child care / family entertainment options (a concept that is completely foreign to us, by the way, as the single closest relative to our home is over an hour away). Beads and Bunny can go hang out with Daddy, cousins, and such, and I can hole up here and get things done. My actual working hours are flexible, so I'm working on East Coast hours in order to be able to enjoy some family activities in the late afternoon. It requires me to be up and at 'em pretty darned early, but I get the best of both worlds and can have snippets of vacation in the late afternoon/early evening hours.
I would be remiss if I didn't point out that this concept could quickly become a "con" for the workaholic. Or, rather, the workaholic's family. While it's a nice to be able to do this out of necessity, I don't condone this for many, if any, family vacations. Because of our mobile universe it's easy to continue to work at all hours of the day and night no matter where you are. That doesn't mean you should. But I'll leave that for another day.
Great article, by the way, on Yahoo! Shine today: 9 Things Never to Say to Working Moms (Thanks for sharing, Joe!)
This is something the Man of the House and I have talked about frequently for many years but have never actually exercised. The fact of my job is that all I need is a phone, a computer, internet access, and a door, so it doesn't matter if I'm at home or in a train cabin en route to Paris (as long as it has Wi-Fi). I can do my job. So, when the annual family reunion came around 1000 miles from our home, and I pointed out I have zero PTO hours available, we decided this was the time to take advantage of this working reality.
Welcome to my temporary office at Ye Olde Residence Inn:
As the horrible saying goes, you can't swing a dead cat without hitting a relative around here, so this provides multiple child care / family entertainment options (a concept that is completely foreign to us, by the way, as the single closest relative to our home is over an hour away). Beads and Bunny can go hang out with Daddy, cousins, and such, and I can hole up here and get things done. My actual working hours are flexible, so I'm working on East Coast hours in order to be able to enjoy some family activities in the late afternoon. It requires me to be up and at 'em pretty darned early, but I get the best of both worlds and can have snippets of vacation in the late afternoon/early evening hours.
I would be remiss if I didn't point out that this concept could quickly become a "con" for the workaholic. Or, rather, the workaholic's family. While it's a nice to be able to do this out of necessity, I don't condone this for many, if any, family vacations. Because of our mobile universe it's easy to continue to work at all hours of the day and night no matter where you are. That doesn't mean you should. But I'll leave that for another day.
Great article, by the way, on Yahoo! Shine today: 9 Things Never to Say to Working Moms (Thanks for sharing, Joe!)
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