Home Is Where the Office Is

She loves unconditionally She protects with ferocity She provides with tenacity She encourages with pride She corrects with consistency She teaches with foresight She weathers with perseverance She listens with understanding She counsels with wisdom She considers with respect She challenges with reason She celebrates with joy She suffers with worry She embraces with gentleness She reaches with confidence She waits with patience She carries with strength    She loves         She loves To the baby crying softly, your Mamas are here To the child feeling lost, your Mamas are here To the teen seeking answers, your Mamas are here To the man who couldn’t breathe, your Mamas are here. To the country demanding better, your Mamas are here. 

Welcome to the wonderful world of working from home! The COVID-19 pandemic has delivered many new faces to this particular environment, and I want to offer a little perspective as a remote worker since 2006. A little background - I worked in both health care and corporate office environments from 1997 - 2006, then began my own productivity consulting business until 2008 when I had my first daughter, and then signed on as a remote employee for a company located on the opposite coast  So, I've: a) Worked full time in an bustling office b) Pioneered a sole proprietorship - working from a home office /workspace c) Assimilated into a remote work environment with team mates and clients in a variety of time zones d) Attempted to conduct regular business responsibilities with young children when childcare wasn't available or a child was sick And as of March 16th: e) Struggled to feel productive and/or successful as a - full-time remote worker - parent - short order cook -...

"Wow! You look great! Where did you have to go today?"  These are the words that completely changed my work life about 10 years ago. What caught my husband's eye when he came home from work that day?  Well... I had showered and washed, dried, and styled my hair. I was wearing jeans and a casual, but clean, top. I may have slicked some Vaseline on my chapped lips. In other words, I was not in my usual home office attire: yoga pants, loose sweatshirt, pony tail. The thing is, I didn't have to go anywhere that day.  Yes, I had put some effort in preparing for the day, and, interestingly, I felt satisfied in a way that I had not for quite some time. I had been really productive and focused all day. My interactions felt more animated and engaged during my conference calls.  It was in that moment - seeing and hearing my husband's reaction and realizing how such a small investment in self-care had positively impacted my whole day - that I decided I needed to st...

It's a topic that seemed to strike a chord with my Home Officer Network last week: how do we involve our kids in activities that help them develop that sense of community, the importance of giving back, and overall gratitude for the things we have that are so easy to take for granted? While there seems to be more opportunity during the holidays to find a variety of volunteer and donation opportunities, we all came to consensus that this empathy, kindness, and giving spirit we wanted to instill in our families was not about a one-time event. This is where I, once more, was so grateful for the collective wisdom and experience of this group of moms. For Tweens and Teens There are more opportunities for kids 12 and older to do more hands on volunteering, for example in food banks or toy drives. However, two moms shared about Lion's Heart , which is a volunteer organization specifically for kids in 6th - 12th grade. All it takes is finding a local chapter or forming your o...

Those of you who have read The Happiness Project , by Gretchen Rubin, are familiar with this little gem, but it is one of those life rules that saves me on a regular basis. If I come across something that can be done in a minute or less, I do it right then and there. The minute that it costs me up front is FAR LESS than the mental space, worry, and inevitable clean up of the larger problem I caused by neglecting it in the first place.  How many times a day do we think to ourselves, "I'll RSVP to the event this afternoon." "I'll remind that client about the conference call in a few minutes."  "I'll confirm with my boss later." When? When I have more time? More time than 60 seconds ? The more those quick little tasks add up in my brain, the more overwhelmed I feel. And so, the rule: If it can get done in less than 60 seconds,  do it now!  This applies to household stuff too. Dumb stuff... like making the bed. My whole life I was told to make...

Working from home can sometimes be deceptively luxurious. You might think you'll have time to start dinner, or run a load of laundry, or vacuum a room - and occasionally that might be true - but most often you don't. Dinner prep is usually just as rushed for me as it is for any other working parent. But then you hear through various news reports / books / blogs / magazines that family dinners are so important!  Your family will fall apart if they don't eat dinner together!!! Well, maybe that just feels like what "they" are saying.   Despite a decent attempt, dinner feels like a battle to be won, not an event to be enjoyed. I guess it was a bit of a relief to find that my fellow Home Officers often feel the same way. With meetings and deadlines and carpools and homework and soccer and softball and conferences and dog walks and heaven-knows-what-else, getting anything in our kids' stomachs for dinner can feel like a triumph! But I know that the...

"I'm so jealous! You get to work in yoga pants." Or, "I'd love to be able to work from home and spend more time with my kids." Here's the thing: working from home can have a lot of benefits. For employees, it can provide flexibility and improve the work-life continuum (or as I like to define it, the balance of love-to's and have-to's ), and for employers, it can reduce overhead costs, increase productivity, expand the pool of potential employees, and reduce employee turnover. Without the proper guidelines, however, what should be one of your company's greatest assets can become a major liability. Here are the 5 Steps to making telecommuting or working from home work for you and your boss: 1. Enclosed Office Space While many experts recommend setting up a dedicated work space, I'll go one step further and say it's most beneficial to set up an office space that has a door that you can close to remove yourself from your person...