Does being awkward help with home working?
Home working mindset
I’ve just added a new photo to the latest Home Office gallery. It’s from Claire Dowdall, who’s a marketing trainer in Shropshire, and something she said about home working in her accompanying text has made me think.
‘I don’t do well under other people’s rules, but my defiance can work in my favour when setting my own’, says Claire. That applies to me too and I’m sure to plenty of my readers, who get a kick out of home working because they can do things their own way and not be accountable to someone else. Maybe it takes a little bit of awkwardness, of not wanting to go along with the standard way of doing things, to make a success of home working?
We all have to work with and for other people, naturally, be adaptable and make compromises when necessary. But I certainly enjoy the feeling of going against the herd when I do little things like go for a coffee during the working day. When I ran my cleaning business I used to go out early in the morning to check that offices had been properly cleaned, and driving home against the flow of commuter traffic gave me a real buzz.
That feeling of operating outside the mainstream can help during difficult times of home working and give us the energy to work at what many people might perceive as peculiar and ‘anti-social’ hours. It can also enhance creativity, and prompt us to try new things.
Do you sometimes like to stick your tongue out at rules and convention? Do you get a kick from doing things your own way? How has being awkward helped you with home working?
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Completely agree! I have come to accept that I just don’t work well for someone else on their terms. I’m fine with working for my clients but every job I’ve had working for someone else has never been a long term option. I’m what they call ‘difficult’ because if something doesn’t work, I challenge it. Regardless of my position within an organisation, I won’t hold back if I think change is needed and change is always needed.
I love that word ‘difficult’. My friend Ann called it ‘difficult is what people call you when you aren’t doing what they want you to’.
Yes, indeed, and so much more now that things happen so quickly. Lately I’ve come across a couple of companies whose customer service departments don’t seem to want to hear anything other than gushing praise. Reminded me of a boss years ago who initiated an employee survey and then got uppity when I didn’t give her top marks for everything!
Yes, absolutely spot on! It’s great to be able to do your own thing and make your own schedule.
I can relate to this.
When I started my business I felt frustrated for no apparent reason. Then it clicked – what I was meant to be doing was combining offering tax returns with my mentoring and coaching skills (from my psychology background).
After all, if I was not tackling what I needed to (copywriting, that’ll be you) because of feeling a bit fearful and resistant and under confident – then other people must be for their accounting. So I’ve combined the two.
I did once rebel by putting milk in my Pepsi – that one is not to be recommended.
I used to work for the Health Sector in a huge open plan office. Our only privacy was our ‘pod’ dividers and I remember being interrupted by rubbish questions so many times, I brought a sheet in from home and fixed across my pod entrance for 2 hours a day so I could get some work done. Even my boss had to ‘knock’ on my pod divider before he was allowed to squeeze round the sheet. I’m much better working independently from home – but then I am an Aquarian. I wonder how many aquarians are home workers? We are a strange bunch.
I’m an Aquarian too, Penny! Maybe I should run a survey to find out which star sign is most likely to work from home. I think you’d like the guest post about self-made millionaires for 2 big reasons:
Guess who is in the majority?
And guess what age they are? :0)
https://www.workfromhomewisdom.com/2012/09/07/self-made-millionaires-infographic/