Tell me about working at home (SAHM/D included)

In My Humble Opinion
1

I work at home, and have worked at home since I graduated college. In high school and college I had my share working at “traditional” jobs outside of home, but this has been my life for 5 years now.

I see people on television who work out of their homes and their experiences don’t seem QUITE the same as mine. I am curious to know what other people’s work at home routines are like.

My routine is really set:
Wake up around 10, go into office and check email, say hey to my 2 coworkers (over IM), see what’s up. Have some cereal at my desk. Work some. Have a quick (20 min or so) lunch, work more. Leave my desk around 5:30 and shut the door - not to return again until the next day.

I leave the house every day after work to go work out or go to my bowling league. On Fridays if I don’t work out I try to plan a date with a guy or go grocery shopping, or do my personal finances. Saturday and Sunday I rarely venture into my office.

I’m lucky in that in my old house and new house I had my own room as an office. In the old house is was a small 4x5 room off the side of the family room. I did have to interact with at-home “roommates” (read: parents) when I was at my old house. Now at the new house it’s all SILENCE and I love it. No tv, rarely any music, no distractions.

My job doesn’t really require much in-person client interaction, so I don’t get dressed until I leave for the day. My “work uniform” is just jammies.

For the first year, my partner and I worked together in his house. We used to work 24 hours a day. Took me a year or so to figure out that working 24 hours a day is stupid and didn’t do anything except make me sick and crabby.

So, other work-at-home folks - what’s your schedule like during the day? Stay At Home Moms and Dads, what do you do all day?

2

I’ve never had a permanent job where I worked from home every day, but I’ve had two kinds of “work at home” situations.

I’ve also never had a room that was exclusively an office. At best, office/guest bedroom (the bed was a sofabed, so it wasn’t too obvious). But there is always a space that any visitor naturally calls “the office”, with a desk large enough to hold my computer and its periferics (including my forearms, I hate those so-called “computer desks”), a corkboard, whiteboard, etc.

  1. Translation work. I would have a meeting with the client (his place or my place, they choose), do the translation itself at home, then copy it onto a disk and give it to him along with the originals. In this case what I’d do is:
  • wake up bloody early as usual
  • do my usual “before work” things until breakfast time: laundry, cleaning, killing me a few computer-controlled enemies
  • have breakfast, shower, get into comfy clothes that I wouldn’t be able to wear to a regular office
  • sit in front of the computer, work until it’s time to make lunch or until I’m done, whichever happens earlier. Take advantage of bathroom breaks and water glass breaks to streeeeeeeeetch like there was a cat somewhere in my ancestry
  • after lunch, back to work until I’m done or too tired to go on.
  • go for a walk to remind my eyes that there are things more than one yard away

Wish I could do that for a living! I’m the Speedy Gonzales of translators; if I took in enough work for a good income, translated it at my usual speed, but didn’t bring it in until the day before the due date, I’d have loads of free time.
2) Home-office for one or two days. This is while being a consultant.
One of the things I’m great at is data cleansing: take an enormous amount of text extracts, turn out an Excel file listing all the incoherent details. But it’s the kind of work where you basically tell the computer what to do and then go into graybar land for a few hours, so it would be dumb to do it in the office. My bosses usually understand this.
Another example: I’m in the US, we are working for customers all over the Americas, it’s July 4th. So I volunteer to be “on duty”, but I’m not going to a 200-desk office where the only people will be myself and the guard that walks by occasionally.

  • basically like above, only when I come in I check email and say “hi” to people over Lotus Notes, when I go I say “goodbye”, and I’m never far enough from the desk that I’d miss the “ping!” of Lotus Notes if someone wants something. Oh, and I put in the same hours as if I was at the office.
3

For the past 8 months, I have been working from home. I work for a company based out of Washington DC, but moved to California to live with my boyfriend. Luckily, I was able to keep my job and telecommute. It’s only temporary - we’re supposed to be moving back to the East Coast in a few months if all goes according to plan.

Anyway, I get up about 7 am (which is 10 am EST) as my boyfriend is leaving for work. I always work in my PJs. I get online and login to my company’s network via PCAnywhere. I start working. I’ll eat some breakfast at my desk and fill up on caffeine as the need arises. I don’t have a separate office, since we live in a small apartment. I have a desk in the living room with my computer.

If I’m feeling energetic and productive, I can theoretically be done working by 3 or 3:30 pm, which is nice! BUT one of the major pitfalls of working from home is all the TEMPTATIONS… the main one being the temptation to take a little nap in the mid-morning, when all my East Coast co-workers are taking lunch. I really need to stop doing this, as it screws up my sleeping schedule, but I have just never been a morning person! Oh and another temptation… the urge to surf the SDMB too much! :wink:

All of us at the company keep in touch by logging into Skype every day, as about 1/3 of us telecommute. Still, I do feel pretty isolated and lonely working at home by myself.

All in all, while I am grateful to be able to work from home in order to be with my boyfriend, I really prefer to be in the office. I just don’t feel as motivated at home. And I get stir crazy being at home all day! Also, while it seems really awesome to be able to work in my PJs every day (it saves on laundry!) I really do miss being able to get up, take a shower, put on nice clothes, get in car and drive to an office, interact with other humans, etc. Some days go by when I never get dressed or leave the house, or speak to another human besides my boyfriend, which is not good for the mental health.

I can’t wait to get back!

4

I’ve worked from home going on three years now. My work uniform is a pair of shorts and a tee shirt, or if I’m feeling adventurous sweats. Here’s my rough schedule.

6:30 Get up wash up, get the boys up.
7:00 Turn on the computer and phones.
7-7:30 Check e-mail and phone messages.
7:30-8 Answer all paper and e-mail request for quotes.
8: Usher boys out the door.
8 till done: Return calls as needed.
9ish - 10:30 Check the SDMB/websurf/while eating breakfast
10:30 till Noonish - Market research
Noonish to 2 Check SDMB/websurf
2 - 3 process orders and fax to main office. Send Market reasearch to main office via e-mail.
3-4:50 various. mostly playing games and web surfing (most of my customers are on the east coast.
4:50 Turn off the phones. leave desk.
5: 2 mile walk or 30 minutes on the exercise machine

During the above I may receive between 2-20 calls, either request for information, quotes or tracking information.
I used to have a separate office for my desk, but my oldest son wanted his own room. I will again when I we buy our house this summer and everyone will have their own rooms.

5

I, unfortuantely, am not able to work from home yet but my agency has started a pilot program in another division. I’m looking forward to when this program comes to my division–no more spending an hour commuting each way via public transportation!

6

I’m a stay-at-home mom with two daughters, almost-6 and almost-3. Everyone has a different way of doing things obviously, and this is possibly the most self-defined job there is, but here’s my schedule for the usual Monday:

Get up at about 7 with husband, we shower, get kids dressed, eat breakfast. He takes off for work (he’s a software engineer for a radiation therapy company, to put it as briefly as possible). I like to check e-mail, etc. too.

9 am, school starts–I’m homeschooling my oldest, who is doing kindergarten. We read a little together and watch a Latin lesson on DVD, then go to the table. While she does handwriting practice, I strip my bed, start some laundry, and do some dishes. We do some math together, and as she does the worksheet portion of the lesson I continue with laundry and put new sheets on the bed. During the week we will also practice map work, spelling, and language arts as well. (Meanwhile, the younger sister is playing or pretending school or fussing.)

10.30am or so, she goes off for ‘recess,’ I noodle on the boards a little and do some more laundry and so on. Then I call her in and we do some serious reading about whatever our study topic is (today we started learning about Native Americans–she really went for the Anasazi). Then we read a folk or fairy tale, usually one that goes with the people we’re studying.

By 11 or 11.30 we’re done with school and we relax and think about lunch. I make lunch, we hang out until

1.00 naptime for everyone! The little one really sleeps, older daughter stays in her room for quiet time, and I relax. Today I finished a quilt top, woo!, or I will catch up on paperwork, read, or watch a DVD if I’ve rented something my husband doesn’t care for. No housework allowed during this time, or I would never relax at all.

3.00 naptime is over and we get ready to go out. On Mondays it is the gym and then the 5-yo’s karate class. Later in the week there is a music class, grocery shopping, random errands, or library visits, but we usually have to get something done, or visit friends.

Then we get home, make some dinner, eat around 6-6.30, get ready for bed, and my husband and I collapse together and read or watch TV or whatever.

We usually manage 3 full school days per week, and have friends over at least 2 mornings instead of school. I am usually behind on housework. Sometimes I go to work at the library, where I sub as needed, in which case the kids go to friends. Last week I took the girls down to Sacramento for an overnight visit to a cousin and we went to the zoo.

7

I run a small English school for ladies and kids out of my home. The classroom has a separate entrance but it doesn’t have a toilet so I have a stream of kids trampling through my living room all day. My office is in tatami room which is off the living room, so I can be with the kids.

My day - get up between 6 and 7:30. Six gives me a nice leisurely start, 7:30 involves screaming obscenities to get everyone out of the door!

Shower, yell at kids to get up, get breakfast ready, put kids clothes to warm (we live in a cold climate and have only one heater for the whole house which is in the living room - makes winter mornings hard to live with.) Kids are breakfasted and out the door by 8:10. I take them to school as the big one’s school is too far to walk and the little one’s is on the way.

On Mondays I teach English right away at the older one’s school. We get there at 8:30, there is no registration period if I am there, it’s right into English and I am out the door by 9am, my teaching done for the day!

Monday is my office day. If its a quiet week then I am on my own, right now there’s a huge amount of prep for the upcoming school year which starts in April here, and my ads are coming out next week so I HAVE to be ready by then. I have a part time admin assistant and recently she lives at our house…

Monday afternoon is my own kids extracurricular activity day and I have it to a fine art driving backwards and forwards over town till 6pm to get one to piano, one to Korean and both to swimming lessons.

Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday I teach all day until 6pm when I go to pick up kids from their extended daycare programs.

Fridays I try really hard to keep free for me but that usually means bank, dentist, hospital, shopping (the boring kind) etc. I do occasionally have lunch with a friend. Kids come home early on Fridays and either loll about, have friends over or go to friends.

6-9pm is picking kids up, dinner, homework, bath, story and bed time.

9pm I am exhausted but I have to do the next day’s prep. (I have a curriculum but physically dragging out six hours worth of stuff and arranging it in order takes some time and there’s always stuff that I have put off that needs to be done.)

Somewhere in the middle of that my laundry and cleaning doesn’t get done, and then all the students traipsing through the house think (know) what a slut I am. I am seriously thinking about hiring a cleaner person if I get enough students to justify that. Something’s got to give…

8

I’ve been full time working from home for about two years now. My schedule is usually:

6-6:30 - wake up/shower/get dressed
7 - catch a bit of TV downstairs, have some coffee, firing up the laptop for a bit of work or SDMB as the mood catches me
8 - up to the office for the official start of my work day
Take an hour or so for lunch, more or less working through to the end of my day, 12pm on Mondays and 6pm the rest of the week.
As time allows, I’ll take some breaks, drop the wife off at the train station, etc. but nothing more than 15-20 minutes.

Generally, I’m fully dressed with jeans and a t-shirt, normally I’m not one to work in PJs or sweatpants.

9

Interesting stories so far. I am glad I don’t have kids to watch while I’m at home - seems hard!

Also glad to see that SDMB surfing is a part of everyone’s regular schedule :wink:

One more question…I find my day is completely full when I am “at work” and even if I am just goofing off and not doing anything really important, I can’t get out of the work “zone” and break off to do anything else.

When I was living with my parents, and sometimes even now, it took a lot of time for people to get the idea that I am “AT WORK” and “WORKING” all day before 5:30PM and not to disturb me. No I can’t just take you to the store, no I can’t do something with your car, no I can’t take a day trip with you because you have the day off. … that kind of stuff. Anyone else have a hard time convincing others that you are AT WORK even though you are “just sitting at home”?

10

I’m the weird one who works “off” hours.

I usually don’t get up and going until 10 am or later … go to the computer, check e-mail, listen to phone messages. I may do a bit of work in the home office but usually I’m getting ready to go to my “office” office.

Usually at the “office” office at 12, sometimes earlier, sometimes later. I have leased the space 'cause the two guys in the office next to me there need someone to help out with “spillover” work. I’ll work until 5 or 6 then.

Come back home, walk the dog, usually 2 miles. Cook supper, check on teens (I’m down to 2 now w00t!) then back to the computer until 9 or 10.

I get more done after dark, dunno why. Part of this sucks because I’m self employed, and the taxes really bite my arse. Part of this doesn’t suck because I set my own hours.

And yes Zipper it took THE LONGEST to convince my baby sister that I’m really REALLY working at 8 pm. Leave me alone! I’ts the best time for me to concentrate and turn projects out. :stuck_out_tongue:

11

dangermom, I’m in awe of you! Of course, you have more practice - maybe I’ll get organized someday.

On a good day, I get up shortly before my daughter, put on my gym clothes, and have both our bags packed and ready to go. I have breakfast and goof off on the computer (see? I’m doing it now!) till she wakes up. To get her changed, dressed, and fed (she’s 2.5 btw) takes at least an hour. We go to the gym, she stays at their daycare. If it’s an extraordinarily good day, she won’t have a dirty diaper right in the middle of my workout, requiring me to stop and go change her. But usually I just expect to have to do that.

I get my shower at the gym, then feed myself and maybe get some housework done while Chloe has lunch and takes a nap. Then the afternoon is usually spent with me struggling to get dinner put together and/or some cleaning done while Chloe tries to stop me.

On a bad day, she’s monstrously needy or cranky, and I try to stay out of the house with her - the playground, friends’ houses, the library, the store - anything to keep her distracted and happy. And at dinner we eat sandwiches or takeout in a messy kitchen.

Either way, by the time she’s asleep, I might throw a load of laundry in or spend ten minutes cleaning the kitchen, but mostly I’m drained - time for TV and bed. Again, if I’m really together, I’ll pack our bags for the next day.

12

Sometimes. It’s gotten better since I’ve moved out of Manhattan, and my office is a spare bedroom that’s out of the main living area, instead of practically inside the living room. It’s also helped that I’ve had a month or two where I’ve been really jammed and can’t get away for very long. That sort of puts it right out there that I’m working and can’t take time.

My wife is normally home during the day, so I try to set aside social time, just like the old office coffee break.

13

I work home full time for a technology company in Virginia. I used to be at the office everyday like everyone else, but my boss flipped a gasket when I turned in my resignation after my wife got a job in Seattle. He decided to let me telework instead of finding someone else to replace me.

Monday to Friday goes like this:

5:45 AM Get up, bush teeth, get dressed (jeans and tee shirt), etc.
6:00 AM Start working.
11:00 AM Lunch break.
12:00 PM Back to work.
3:00 PM Turn off PC.

I’m not so sure I could go back to the daily commute and office grind after working from home more than a year. Maybe I’ll have to return to an office again someday, but I don’t miss being in the thick of things at all. Working alone is more suitable for me. I get a lot of work done; most days the biggest distraction is the cat begging for dinner around 1:30 or 2:00.

A lot of what I do requires the computer to process data for 10 or 15 minutes at a stretch, so there is no trouble taking short breaks for whatever (like feeding the cat!) while the CPU is churning away.

I also get a lot of trouble shooting phone calls to help other people with various problems. VNC and Remote Desktop Connections are, IMHO, much better than having them grab me by the ear and drag me to their desks–which is what I used to have to do when I was just a few cubes down the row.

14

I’m doing it at the moment. It’s a blast.

For those who have trouble applying themselves, a mate of mine told me the following story:

When he was living in England, he knew a bloke who worked from home. Every morning, he would get up, have a shower, get dressed in business clothes, have breakfast, pack his briefcase, then leave home, walk clockwise around the block, and come back home and start work. He would work business hours, with a lunch break. Then when he finished, he would leave the house, walk anti-clockwise around the block, then come home, change into comfortable clothes, and relax.

Might be worth a try. :smiley:

15

It’s the practice. When I was about to have my second kid, I realized that I was going to have to get better at things. Somehow, it’s gotten easier over the past few years to get out the door and stuff. However, the house is still pretty wrecked.

And, hey, I’m not the only one who has to stop working out to go change a dirty diaper! Last time I was horrified to discover that there were no actual diapers in my diaper bag, and luckily the daycare staff gave me an extra–only one size too small.

As for scheduling, today we had a very exciting day. We skipped part of naptime to go to the roller-rink for the monthly homeschool roller-skating day, which was tons of fun. Carrying a 30-pound toddler while roller-skating is a good workout, it turns out! We then had a late nap, and in the evening I took my oldest to the library for the Science Dad activity–we magnetized needles and made them float, and she got pinched by some rare earth metal magnets. AND she lost her first tooth, and I’d better go get it now from under her pillow. Goodnight.