Home Offices vs. the Family: Working at home
can mean more family time--if done right
by Todd W. Carter
For two months earlier this year, John Vastyan found a full-time
use for his dining room. And it wasn't exactly what his family had
in mind.
But business is business. So Vastyan temporarily converted the dining
room into his home office and he, his wife, and two children ate
their meals in the kitchen.
"Generally, it's worked out really pretty well," says
the Pennsylvania-based advertising agency executive, who quit his
job to work for a competitor before his new employer's local office
was completed. "But I wouldn't want to stretch it any further--for
my employer or for myself."
Aside from occupying a prime spot in the middle of the house, working
at home brought other inconveniences. When a client from a major
corporation called one day, and the phone was answered by his nine-year-old
daughter, Vastyan had to think fast and offer some excuses, which
"were, I think, ultimately fully accepted," he says.
"Those," he says, "are the kinds of things that you
do when you're working from a home office." He adds, "You're
miles ahead if you get the support of your family." Vastyan
enjoyed that support, though it was "wearing thin" as
the two-month mark approached.
"If I announced to my family, `Hey, you've got to live with
this for another year,' I'd have a revolt on my hands," he
says.
As business becomes increasingly virtual, workers are spending more
time at home. Some approach it informally, setting up shop in the
dining room. Others are finding that a dedicated home office is
the only solution.
"When you're working at home, you have to be even more professional,"
cautions Lisa Kanarek (http://www.homeofficelife.com/),
a home-office expert and author of Organizing Your Home Office for
Success.
In addition to the other benefits of working at home, employees
are finding that home offices can mean more family time. But they
need to fight the urge to work around the clock--and find ways to
make their working hours more productive.
"I guess one of the maladies of having a home office, one of
the disadvantages, is: Does work ever really end?" Vastyan
says. "It's so easy to feel the urge after dinner (that) instead
of spending time with the family. . .I'm just going to complete
this one project tonight."
But it's never that simple. "An e-mail comes in, and now you've
completed that project, and before you know it, it's 11:15 and you've
taken on three other things and you're still working," he says.
That, experts say, points to the key to peaceful coexistence among
home workers and family members: Knowing when to quit. It also helps
to set ground rules, such as banning nine-year-old children from
answering the business line.
"If the home office is the only office, either for telecommuters
or for those people who have a business established there, it's
real important--for the quality of family life--to know the difference
between when you're at work and when you're home," says Judy
Feld, a Dallas-based business coach and publisher of the "SOHO
Success Letter" (http://www.coachnet.com/),
a newsletter for those who work in the new "small office/home
office" environment.
"It sounds like a no-brainer, but really I think those people
that kind of collapse those differences find that it's stressful,"
Feld says.
The work-at-home mom shouldn't be viewed the same as the stay-at-home
mom, says home-office expert Kanarek. "I always tell people
that working from home is not a substitute for child care,"
she says. "If you plan to be the nanny and a work-at-home professional,
it won't work. You can't do both and your kids can't watch TV all
day."
It's also important to find a place to work that's far away from
the madding crowd. It's part of what Feld calls setting boundaries,
whether it's physical location, time, or appropriate behavior.
"Clearly, when you're working at a corporate office there are
certain boundaries," she says. "You usually don't walk
around barefoot, you usually are dressed in the code of the office."
"When you come home, there is a tendency, because you're in
different surroundings, whether you're working for yourself or whether
you're working for a company, to let some of those standards and
boundaries go."
For example, doing business in the dining room doesn't always work.
"I think it would be far more acceptable to everybody if I
weren't in the middle of the house with the only computer"
that has access to a phone line, Vastyan says.
His brother, a sales executive, built a home office in the basement.
And he told his family that he didn't exist during business hours.
"Between 7:30 a.m. and 6 p.m., the kids have to pretend, and
the wife has to pretend, that he's not home," Vastyan explains.
He's convinced that his brother's way is the only way: "You
need to be able to give your employer the full benefit of a fully
engaged, full-time person."
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