That Sweet Working Vacation

For a lot of people (and that probably includes YOU) the term "work from home" becomes synomymous with "a working vacation".

Coming from a person who's been doing this on and off for more than a year now, I believe that i'm more than qualified to tell you that the analog is crap.

First off, I don't even really get that term "working vacation". The only way that oxymoron could have existed is if it was developed in the 50's (or 80's), where everyone trooped to "an office" to work for "eight hours" and then "went home". So any sort of "work" you invariably did while you were out of the confines of "your office" and under the sun--preferably with Martini in one hand, shaken and not stirred--falls under the category of a "working vacation".

Nowadays, it's not the same thing. With the advent of a laptops and WiFi, there's really no excuse for all that working to stop. And if you're pretty smart and have made yourself (studpidly) inexpedable to your place of work, time spent sunbathing while sipping exotic libations can be considered "billable".

But if you're just like the rest of us expendable drones, it's probably considered "overtime". Most likely "unpaid". Meaning, it's work that you would have missed and brought with you so that you could take that vacation, which you desperately need because you were going crazy "at work".

Ha. Bet that changes your mind about brining your laptop to the beach with you, huh? Did you tell your boss about the SMS function on Yahoo Messenger? In fact, did you (you fool!) even tell your boss about Yahoo Messenger?

Because if you did, he will never. let. you. go. NO.

Much as I love the convenience of being "wired" and "connected", there are some days when I most definitely do not want to be wired or connected to anybody.

And if you think that's bad, then try doing that when you work from home. Where your job and your house is all located in one place, where your daily grind starts a mere few paces from your bed.

Never looked at it that way, huh?

Sure, you can go to work dressed in your jammies or even buck naked (though it can be a bit drafty). You can take an extended lunch or even work while watching HBO (which hardly works) You can bail whenever you want and go to the mall, or sleep when you feel like taking a nap. And you never, ever have to worry about getting dressed and putting on some make-up and taking that annoying drive to work.

Those are the perks and believe me, they are wonderful perks. But like all things, there's a downside with working from home. And they are mainly:

A) You actually do have to go to WORK. Like, sitting down and doing what you would have done in the office, only this time you have more comforts, or as we call it: distractions. It takes an awful lot of discipline to not spend the day eating, watching TV, or surfing the net.

B) Errands. You still have to do them. Usually in the middle of the day, and at the most inconvenient hour. But you know what' worse? Other people's errands, and them asking you do to them. They figured that since you just sit at home, watching TV and only occasionaly do some work, you have some time to take their car to the garage or do their shopping. Basically all the things they can't do because they're at work.

C) Breaking momentum. With all the distractions going around, any sort of break will take an awful amount of dedication just to go back. Mostly because these breaks tend to be fun, like a really nice BW movie on Replay at Cinema one, which you absolutely have to watch because studying the language and cinematography is monumental to furthering your writing career.

D) Three letters: ADD. It's not a good idea to have this when you work from home, but if you're like me and your home job rakes in a hecka lot more than a regular office job, your just going to have to suck it up and wear blinders to your computer.

E) Longer hours. Not only do you feel like the hours extend to forever, but working from home often forces you to work more hours. Why? Because you get paid more. Work from home jobs are usually paid by the hour, unless it's a packaged assignment. In which case, you try and finish the job as soon as you can so you can ask for another assignment. Thus, alloting it more hours.

F) Paid vacations. We don't have any. Since we are contracted, we only get paid for the hours we work. So no special benefits like pension funds or health and group insurance. You pay your own benefits, go out of the house and to the government agency to pay for said benefits, and yea, you (cringe) take the trouble of computing for your own monthly income tax.

G) Paying for your own equipment. Unless it's in your contract, you probably will end up paying for your own equipment and utilities. And sweetie, that electricity bill sure jacks up if you've got that PC on 24/7.

H) It gets lonely. Humans are a social creatures (and yes, that still includes me) At some point, you do miss just turning around and having an officemate to talk to while working. You can turn on the television, but you'll probably end up watching it. You can make a phonecall, but the desperation will probably make it last a few hours. Besides, who can you call? Everyone's at work.

In the end, working from home is great, but it may not work for everyone. If your social and love going out, staying home is probably not a good idea, especially if your only reason is to avoid rush hour commutes (after all, what else would it be, hmm?)

It works for me because as a (struggling) screenwriter, I need the flexible hours. I don't make my living writing scripts yet, so I spend most of my days in my paying writing job, while using the free hours to polish my script or do some networking or research. So if you look at it, I pretty much work all the time.

It also helps that quite a bit of my friends work odd hours or work from home too. So most of the time it just requires clearing a day and making up for it tomorrow or next week, or meeting them early in the day before they go to work. It doesn't take as much planning as it would if all my friends and were in a regular nine to five schedule.

Bottomline is, think very hard before you quit your nine-to-five for a work from home job. It may not be what it's cut out to be.

Better yet, stop telling me that I got the better end of the stick because I work in my jammies (which, for the record, I no longer do) and get to sleep until noon (which I can no longer afford to do either). Let's have you sitting in my chair when the ceiling feels like it's closing in and you start talking to the walls.

Now if you'll excuse me, the plaster has spoken. It says I need to go out to the mall and go see that movie.