What its like to be a stay at home working Mum!

As you would imagine I speak to a lot of people day in day out on the phones. It will often come up in conversation about my office set up as clients ask if I am on my own working as its so quiet in the back ground which is unusual for call centres, unless of course they hear my dogs bark which will lead them to question why there are animals in my place of work!

As soon as I confess to being a home worker the response is most often ‘oh how lovely, id love to work from home’ or ‘i bet that’s wonderful’. Well, yes. There are huge benefits to working from home. Not having to drive on the ice and snow in winter (which where i live – out in the middle of nowhere – is treacherous), escaping the rush hour traffic of a morning, choosing my own hours and working around my children so I get to maximise my time spent with them, having the choice of turning the heating up or down and even the station on the radio i want to listen to. But there is the other side of the coin – as there always is.

The biggest down side for me (and its completely my own doing) is the that you don’t ever leave work. Not like locking up, getting the car and going home. Its always there, the laptop calling me as if it’s a needy toddler, its way too easy to work in your spare time just to catch up or get a head start for the next shift. Or my worst vice, answering the phone just because I can hear it ringing!! I know there is a huge split as a lot of my colleagues have nailed down the ‘Out of Office’ and when they finish work they are finished until their next shift but I think the majority of us fall in to the trap and temptation of doing just that little bit more, that extra hour. Or three!!

Eating whatever you want from a stocked cupboard is not always a perk for those of us less disciplined when it comes to eating habits. Most days I grab a cup of tea, packet of biscuits and a bag of crisps to take back to my desk for my lunch :/ because its quick and easy. Working evenings when the children should be in bed but instead they are up and down the stairs shouting Dad for a range of things that mean they get to keep sleep at bay for just a few more minutes such as needing a drink, there’s a spider under the bed, needing a plaster for a red mark they created on purpose by scratching their arms/legs and all sorts of other things. If Daddy isn’t playing ball they knock at my door!

Also you aren’t in an office environment with other human beings, so whilst we have each other on hand (and I have my dogs for company) on the phone we are physically working alone every day of every week and for some it can be just too lonely and isolating. Now call me the grinch, but I love it. I enjoy interaction with others don’t get me wrong, but working from home means i don’t have to put up with the frustrations of that one annoying colleague (most offices have one of those don’t they?!) who either talks too much, asks too many questions or takes the biscuit and doesn’t take their fair share of the workload. I get the best of both worlds as several times a year I do get to meet up with colleagues arranged by the company so we can all get to know one another well and every December we have our fantastic Christmas Conference where pretty much most of the company gets together (usually on a cruise) for 3 or 4 nights to have some drinks, meet guys from the cruise lines and enjoy some time just being work friends away from work.

So there you have it. My take on being a stay at home working person. It isn’t for everybody that is for sure, but for those of us that are suited to it, its a fantastic opportunity and I wouldn’t change it for the world 🙂