Posts tagged pet hates
5 reasons to hate home working
Jul 8th
1. Incipient madness
So you thought it would be wonderful to get away from the interrruptions of the office and be massively more productive. What you didn’t reckon on was how quickly motivation can spiral down when there’s nobody around to help keep the momentum going. The horrors of the mid-afternoon slump can make you doubt your own sanity.
2. Weight gain
You’re constantly in temptingly close proximity to the fridge and food cupboard, which need to be stocked if the household isn’t going to starve. Snacks and drinks are always just metres and a few minutes away and it’s all to easy to pop down to the kitchen whenever you’re feeling stuck, bored or demotivated (see 1 above).
3. Just leave me alone
Nobody seems to understand the working bit of being at home. They think they can pitch up at any time for a cuppa or a favour. You unthinkingly answer the phone in the middle of a task only to get your mother asking if you are coming to lunch on Sunday and do you like broad beans? Having caused offence with your off-hand response, it is impossible to find your way back to that sweet spot of concentration.
4. I’m never off-duty
It feels more like living at work than working from home. Work haunts you with reminders whenever you pass the ‘office’ (dining room/spare bedroom/garage) door. Paper and bits of IT equipment drift into the corners of every room and the cat chooses your in-tray as its favourite bed.
5. Get me out of here
People are always banging on about how much time and money you save by not commuting. But nobody ever mentions how claustrophobic it gets when you spend nearly all your life within the same four walls. Mind-numbingly claustrophobic to the point where the weekly shopping trip to Asda becomes a kind of treat. Tragic.
What’s up your sleeve?
Jun 1st
One day last week I returned to the computer after a short break to find the broadband connection had mysteriously disappeared. Putting it down to my technological cackhandedness, I waited for A to return from a meeting in the confident expectation he would get us back on in no time.
But no, there was no broadband to be had. BT had a major problem affecting several large towns in the South West and in the end it was almost 8 hours before we were reconnected. In the meantime although we both had other work we could do, we felt disoriented and cut loose, and I was reminded of a recent blog by Judy Piatkus, the founder of Piatkus Books and now a speaker and thinker about new trends in life and business.
We are now so reliant on technology in its many forms that we don’t even think about it as long as it’s working. But as Judy points out, technology and many of our other structures are actually very fragile. Who would ever have anticipated planes would be grounded throughout the UK due to a volcano erupting in Iceland?
She suggests we all think about possible scenarios in our own lives and have contingency plans in place. Not so that we are constantly worried about a disaster, but so that we can be confident we have done our best to prepare for whatever life throws at us.
What would you do if your broadband connection disappeared for the next eight hours? Would you be thrown into panic or have a plan up your sleeve?
R.Day-1
Apr 7th
Tomorrow’s the day we move out of this house…and become temporarily homeless and home office-less until the next house is available. We are unfortunately becoming accustomed to moving, but one’s mind mercifully blanks out between times the relentlesss grind of clearing, emptying cupboards and packing. Every time I am amazed that we have so much ‘stuff’ despite constant clutter clearing and neither of us having much of a shopping habit.
Almost there now though, just a few last bits and pieces to stuff into corners and the computers to disconnect. I hope that next time this happens we can get someone else to pack. I like to say that 12 years of running a cleaning business took me well over the threshold of my cleaning allowance for this lifetime. Well, I think I’m reaching the packing threshold now as well!
And a postscript to that Victor vitriol
Feb 12th
Just as I was thinking I’m probably paranoid (too much working at home probably), I came across an article on remoteemployment.com about how being a home worker could have an adverse effect on your credit rating. Take a look and bear it in mind next time you fill out an application – the tiniest, most innocent-seeming detail could have an impact on whether you are successful or not.
A Meldrew moment
Feb 11th
We’re currently looking for another house to rent in Frome, as our landlords have decided to sell up. It’s not nice having to face the prospect of packing up when you’re happily settled somewhere, but the situation isn’t exactly helped by the attitude of many letting agencies when they ask about your personal circumstances. It goes like this:
‘Are you in full-time employment?’
‘No, we’re both self-employed.’
Pause…‘Self-employed?’
‘Yes.’
Pause…‘Ah…have you been self-employed for more than three years?’
‘My partner has, but I haven’t.’
Pause…’Ah…because you see you’re supposed to… blah blah’
Now I’m fully aware they have a duty to protect their clients’ interests by making sure we aren’t a couple of swindlers who would move in and then never pay a penny of rent, but what difference does it make if you can prove you’re in full-time employment when you apply? You could give up work or get the sack the day after being given the go-ahead, and have no money at all.
We have the capital from our last house sale and are working hard on building what we fully intend will be very profitable businesses, but we are treated as undesirable because we don’t work for someone else or have three years books.
Just another symptom of how the system is still set up for a disappeared way of life. Governments have paid lip service for years to the idea of enterprise, self-employment and small business, but I’ll take them seriously when a self-employed person isn’t automatically treated as a bad risk when applying for a mortgage or to rent a property. You could argue quite the opposite case to my mind.
OK, thanks for reading, I feel a bit better now.
Pet hates
May 29th
Yet another advantage of working from home is that it’s easier to have people to stay – as long as they understand you do actually work, that is, and aren’t there purely to act as their host and guide.
This week we have had a very easy guest for a couple of nights. My cousin has been judging cheese at the Bath and West Show and over supper one night our conversation somehow turned to the subject of pet hates, a very satisfying way to spend time. In fact I’d recommend it as a great way to get conversation and hilarity flowing, as long as everybody present understands that pet hates are so violently irrational and personal that something you loathe may be passionately loved, or never even noticed, by other people.
I’ve collected a few to give you the idea -
Boys’ jeans worn with the waistband below non-existent buttocks
Wallpaper
Builder’s tea
DIY stores
Marzipan and icing
Talk radio DJs
Honda Goldwing motorbikes
White walls
‘Going forward’
Weak tea
Moulded plastic garden furniture
Fruit cake
Once you get started, you might find it hard to stop!
