There's a part of me that loves the environment of an office, the social interaction, the feeling of productivity and contributing to the team, but despite all that I had to politely decline the offer to jump in full time. Getting a glimpse of what I am missing makes me so grateful to have what I have. I recognize that not everyone would like to do what I do, but here's why I do it...
1. No commute. Man, it stinks to watch that gas gauge plummet so quickly each day eating up all your earnings. The time and money I save by cutting this out of my life--huge.
2. Less rush in the morning. I am not a morning person so I love just focussing on one thing at a time..it helps me feel less stressed. Since I don't have to don high heels or do my hair to be presentable for an office, I can get the kids ready and out the door and worry about my own self later (which on days when I'm cleaning means much later--why get gussied up just to get all sweaty and gross in someone else's mess?).
3. The great work/home mingling of tasks. This one probably would drive a lot of people crazy and sometimes it's not great for me (like when work interrupts my family time--the other night, for example, when I had to clean up a flood at 9:30 at night). However, I recognize that my personal life interrupts my work life way more often than the other way around. I love that while I'm making phone calls I can do laundry or pick up the place or load the dishwasher--none of which gets done while I'm at the office.
4. Eating at home. This one is a big deal. It takes time to cook dinner--not just the prep but the cooking time and the planning time and the shopping time. Because of our evening schedule, we have to eat early (we're like senior citizens). If I worked out of the home, we'd be doing take out...a lot. It doesn't always work out for me to fix a home cooked meal every night...I do actually work at home, but those interruptions are the exception, not the rule. One of the reasons I make this a priority is that I like cooking. Someone else might say that they like working from home because they can keep their house dusted. My house will probably always have dust and I'm OK with that.
5. Smaller wardrobe. It's not that I like wearing the same outfits over and over, but doing so really saves money and time. Most of the time no one even sees me so I do not have to dress to impress.
6. Being home for the kids. I love that I get to pick my kids up from school. I love that I am not stressed when they are home sick. I love winter break and summer break and not having to take time off from work or having to pay for day care. This actually should be #1. That is totally the reason I do this job.
7. Working at the office really cuts into my blogging time. The nature of my job is that I do what I need to do to keep the place full and clean and maintained. After that, they pay me to wait around for something to happen: someone to stop by or call looking for an apartment, a delivery, a vendor needs to be let in, a maintenance emergency, someone has a question or need I should respond to, etc. If nothing happens, I get paid anyway. Stuff used to happen all the time. I worked very hard to get to the point where stuff doesn't happen as much. When stuff doesn't happen, I blog.
8. Most of my income is not taxable. I know that's a weird thing to like about your job, but when you consider how much of your income goes to taxes, it's kind of a nice benefit. Of course, it's a little disconcerting how much less I make now than before I had kids, but if I don't compare myself to my ivy-league educated peers, I really don't care. And if I compare myself to what I used to make as a full-time, stay-at-home mom then my little salary looks pretty good. Free rent is a huge savings to our family and that is money in the bank...well, not really in the bank, but money to pay our student loans, which is a good thing for us.
9. I can work anywhere. This has more to do with the invention of the cell phone than anything. When I first started and they asked me if I wanted my calls to go to my cell phone or home phone that was a no-brainer. As long as I have that little puppy, I can work at the store, at the park, at the pool, at the gym, at my kids' school, wherever! So if someone calls and needs me, I say, "OK, I'll be there in 5 minutes." Snazzy. It's not convenient to be interrupted, but who gets to volunteer at school during the work day?
10. I have learned to be alone. I don't always like this. Being alone does not fit my personality, which is why I love Facebook--it makes me feel like I am interacting with people when I can't actually interact with people. I used to feel really lonely and isolated working from home. People energize me so I can get kind of lazy and depressed if I isolate too much. So far, this is not looking like a positive so let me get to the good part. The down side of my extroversion is that I can fill my life with people and activity to the point that I never experience silence and solitude. Without silence and solitude, no matter how "filled up" I am by people, I will never be filled up by God because I can't hear the still small voice He uses to speak to me. This becomes super obvious to me when I have zero silence and solitude for an entire summer when the kids are home. My soul starts to shrivel and I have no peace. Being alone has been very, very good for my soul.
OK that's my list. It's not in order. I realize that some of the stuff could be combined, but then it would not be a top 10 list so work with me here. I truly hope that you can take some time to reflect on the benefits of your job. I find being grateful to be good for my attitude (like when I have to do the really stinky parts of my job). Rejoice today in your lot in life!
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