I never thought I would earn a living in my bedroom, but I have for the past 14 months. When I started the job in DC, I drew a sharp line between work and home. Simply put, I didn't work at home, I didn't sleep in my office. I did this because on my previous job, I found myself working 1 or 2 hours a day at home, in addition to working in the office, and working on weekends. Work dominated my life, I was physically and mentally burned out. For 12 years I succeeded at maintaining a good distinction between home / personal time and work.
All of a sudden with COVID I am doing working and sleeping in the same place. For the most part, I had been doing well in separating work time and not work time. Recently the line has started to blur, I am finding myself working early in the morning, and after dinner in the evening. A confluence of several major projects all demanded my attention, stretching time well past the time reflected on my time sheet. Weird, I am salaried, but we report hours. But time sheets never reflect more than the standard hours, great works of fiction, more of a what percentage of time is charged to each project than a true reflection of the hours worked.
I have long known I need to learn to say no. To set limits. At my age, I think I will retire before I learn that skill. I was talking with an old friend who retired last year. She said it was liberating and disorienting, to hand everything over and walk away.
I have so far, preserved my weekends. Allowing my office computer to go to sleep Friday afternoon, and leaving it to hybernate until Monday.
Still I need to return to balance on Monday through Friday. I need to say no, I need to delegate. I need to be realistic on what can be done in 40 hours a week.
A couple of weekends ago, I took the convertible in for a car wash, the prices have gone up significantly in the past year, (30%) and the owners car was parking in one of the detail bays, it costs a lot of money to keep tires on that and pay the speeding tickets.
With every job I had, I never had one where I could work from home. And just as well...as I'm one of those people who leaves work at the door when I left the building. Work bluring my home life would unsettle me.
ReplyDeleteSince I left the farm, all but one job, followed me 24 hours a day.
DeleteDuring my last job working for someone else, I could be found working in the office, on the road, and from home day and night with clients in many time zones around the world. It was awful and I had almost no control. Conference calls at 3 in the morning (thank god Zoom didn't exist), customer service complaints at midnight. I had absolutely no problem walking away from that. We used to have a rule when we commuted together in years past. We would choose a place along the route home and we weren't allowed to talk about work after that point. It was freeing.
ReplyDeleteA classmate of mine had a lot of clients in western Asia, to get away from the 3 AM conference calls, he moved to Switzerland (the firm he was with had an office there.) I need to sharpen some lines.
DeleteWhen I was a newspaper reporter, I was incapable of leaving my work in the newsroom. It was exhausting. I've come to visit because Debra devoted a post of memes to you.
ReplyDeleteLove,
Janie Junebug
Janie good to hear from you, the memes were fun. I do mostly research, resource development and consulting anymore, it is easier to separate work from not work. Newspaper writing, everything is a potential story.
Deletesince I was forced out of my job last june, I have come to appreciate the afternoon nap.
ReplyDeleteI look forward to that flexibility
DeleteI'm pretty good about turning the home office into the work office, and then back again by day's end.
ReplyDeletethe non stop work cycle creeps up on me
DeleteYou're smart to recognize the dangers of overwork! Now you can strengthen your boundaries again.
ReplyDeleteI am starting to look forward to returning to the office and banning work, outside of the office.
DeleteThis has certainly been a strange time. My job is so people centric, I didn't think I could make it work remotely. But, I have and it appears to be working well. When I'm done for the day on Thursday, I close that laptop and I don't open it again until Monday morning.
ReplyDelete30 hours of zoom calls this week, and edits on a major funding proposal. I have three major project proposals in the works, if they are all funded we will need to hire someone, and my job will be funded past my projected retirement date!!!!
DeleteI loved the first line!
ReplyDeleteIn response I say "I never thought I would earn a living in my boxers"
Don't let the APA secret police hear that
Delete