So officially work-from-home days are being numbered. Its almost a year that I have worked from home (10-11 months) and I am looking forward to transition into an office environment soon, although a little nervous. Undoubtedly this has been one of the best things to happen ever. I started working since girls were 7 months old and they now 16 months and have been working from home with my twin girls with a nanny full time initially to help me during the day. Then parents came over to spend time and help us out for 6 months. And finally we transitioned the girls to daycare and I am transitioning back to 'the office'.
If you ask me I do not enjoy work-from-home in general. I love the hustle-bustle of the office environment. It helps you focus and seperate the work and family life which I prefer. I also enjoy interacting with people etc. But having young babies WFH was a huge blessing and in some sense a miracle for me. Simply cos for my kind of job profile WFH is not an easy option. I was able to watch my babies so closely grow and witness them reach various milestones while having a career that I am really grateful for. Mom always says how she wished she had this option back in the days. She has been a working mother, neither her nor I regret her NOT staying at home (more on that later). But an occasional work from home option would have been nice :-)
But personally for me it helps me have a better routine when I 'go' to work. An occasional day here and there is fine, sometimes it helps you get more work done if your bogged down by meetings at work. But overall having exposure to office environment feels more healthy some how for me. And especially at this point of time when kids also are into daycare. ...It will definitely take me a few days to fall into a proper routine though :-).
My two cents, but its rather banal: Key to WFH is sticking to routine and timings. Overlap between personal and work life to some extent is unavoidable (we have to be realistic), but WFH teaches you to really 'prioritize' in your life. There might be an occasional setback of either work or family life (children's sickness or important deadline at work perhaps?) but of course if either really slips or ends up impacting another part of your life, you are not doing something right?
I dont take a 'lunch' break at work, I eat at my desk and take a short walk or some such break. So taking the whole lunch hour at home does not work for me. But I guess for someone who is used to it, they should definitely take the time out. I used it for running errands like bank or quick grocery or pharma purchases or cook dinner, but rarely. Plus since some of my colleagues were on EST and most of them on PST I could start and finish early or start late and finish late. So luckily I could adjust the day based on how it progressed with kids. Of course meetings are meetings no escaping there. I usually logged in late after kids slept for 2 hours at night (8 to 10 typically) so I could get some time for myself and finish any pending tasks at work plus the feeling of sleeping babies is itself very soothing. So over all I made it work and I completed all my tasks. I was also lucky in the sense that the brand I was working for was relatively a 'low hanging fruit' so results of my performance were evident.
I was also very careful the kids should not be heard in any meetings or chats. I was very conscious of that and made the best use of the mute button. I feel it can rub some people in the wrong way. Every one has different mentalities and when you hear some one is working from home, some can over-analyze the positives rather than the challenges. I was wary that it could be interpreted as me enjoying time with kids along with work while others are putting in those long hours in an office. Yes I dont undermine use of some basic Psycology at work. :-)
But personally for me it helps me have a better routine when I 'go' to work. An occasional day here and there is fine, sometimes it helps you get more work done if your bogged down by meetings at work. But overall having exposure to office environment feels more healthy some how for me. And especially at this point of time when kids also are into daycare. ...It will definitely take me a few days to fall into a proper routine though :-).
My two cents, but its rather banal: Key to WFH is sticking to routine and timings. Overlap between personal and work life to some extent is unavoidable (we have to be realistic), but WFH teaches you to really 'prioritize' in your life. There might be an occasional setback of either work or family life (children's sickness or important deadline at work perhaps?) but of course if either really slips or ends up impacting another part of your life, you are not doing something right?
I dont take a 'lunch' break at work, I eat at my desk and take a short walk or some such break. So taking the whole lunch hour at home does not work for me. But I guess for someone who is used to it, they should definitely take the time out. I used it for running errands like bank or quick grocery or pharma purchases or cook dinner, but rarely. Plus since some of my colleagues were on EST and most of them on PST I could start and finish early or start late and finish late. So luckily I could adjust the day based on how it progressed with kids. Of course meetings are meetings no escaping there. I usually logged in late after kids slept for 2 hours at night (8 to 10 typically) so I could get some time for myself and finish any pending tasks at work plus the feeling of sleeping babies is itself very soothing. So over all I made it work and I completed all my tasks. I was also lucky in the sense that the brand I was working for was relatively a 'low hanging fruit' so results of my performance were evident.
I was also very careful the kids should not be heard in any meetings or chats. I was very conscious of that and made the best use of the mute button. I feel it can rub some people in the wrong way. Every one has different mentalities and when you hear some one is working from home, some can over-analyze the positives rather than the challenges. I was wary that it could be interpreted as me enjoying time with kids along with work while others are putting in those long hours in an office. Yes I dont undermine use of some basic Psycology at work. :-)
2 comments:
nice writing. blessings for ur daughter:)
Thank you :-)
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