The Perils of Working from Home

By Morag Polaski

When I first started working from home ten years ago, I really wasn’t sure what exactly that was going to look like. Quite often, when people found out that I worked from home, the response was usually something along the lines of, “Oh, must be nice, going to work in your pajamas and doing whatever you want whenever you want to.” And they had a point. As a contractor (instead of an employee), I have complete control over my schedule, meaning that I don’t have to take time off for appointments or to be in court for one of my Guardian ad Litem cases; I just have to let my attorney client know by blocking out the time on the office calendar.

When I started, the perks of working from home were pretty obvious: no commute; the ability to multitask and do laundry while I was doing discovery; being able to take something out of the freezer for dinner as soon as I realized I needed to; being home when my kids got home from school; having a radio on my desk and playing it as loud as I wanted to; and being able to sleep in. It really didn’t seem like there were any “bad parts” in this scenario. There were, however, negative aspects that I hadn’t really considered.

Because of COVID-19 and the lockdowns that followed, many firms moved to remote/virtual workspaces in order to avoid furloughing or letting employees go. I was very surprised to see how many people were working from home. But it wasn’t long before I started seeing social media posts grumbling about makeshift workspaces. It didn’t really surprise me.

There are definitely some things to consider before working from home. You need to consider where your space is going to be, and it helps to know how long you’re going to be working from home. Will your new workspace be sufficient if you are there for two weeks? What if your time at home gets extended to two months or longer? Does that space still work? What is the other space you’re borrowing from to carve out your office space?

Very few people have empty and available space in their home. Are you converting a spare bedroom, your home gym, your craft space, a portion of your bedroom? How will having your office space co-located with this other space affect the usability of both spaces? My office changed from shared office space with my husband in the converted garage to my son’s former bedroom. The same space also houses all of my crafting materials, my yarn stash, and spinning wheel. I knew someone who had their office space in their craft room, and after a while working there, she no longer felt any desire to craft or pleasure in doing so because she spent so much time in that space working that in her mind, it was no longer a pleasant place to be. Another friend of mine had her workspace in her bedroom. That’s not something I personally would want to do, but she didn’t have any problems with it.

Another consideration I had when I was sharing office space with my husband (who was also working from home) was noise levels. My husband is a very loud person, and when he’s on the phone, I can usually hear him throughout the house. Conversely, I am very soft spoken, and even on a good day, people can have trouble hearing me. I soon realized that I couldn’t make or take a call if he was on the phone because I couldn’t hear what the person on the other end was saying, and, sometimes, they couldn’t hear me because of the background noise.

Animals can also be loud. My dog had to be in the same room as me, usually within two feet of wherever I was, if not closer. I did roll over him on a couple of occasions because I didn’t realize he was snoozing behind my chair when I pushed it away from my desk. He also liked to bark at the slightest provocation. For me it was a no-win situation — I couldn’t lock my dog out of my office because he would sit at the door and whine incessantly, and I couldn’t stop him from barking. I did what I could to minimize the things that would start him barking, and if it happened that he barked while I was on the phone, then I shushed him as best I could, and apologized to the person on the other end, usually telling them that the attorney allowed us to bring our dogs to work. Most people were very receptive to that idea and one asked if he could come to the office to meet me and my dog.

In this time of COVID-19, when not only adults are working from home but also many of our kids are doing school at home, this is another consideration. How does your workspace impinge on your kids’ workspace? Will you be competing for resources like computers, internet, or printers? Will your Zoom meeting interfere with high schooler’s Zoom math class? Do you need to be present to help your kindergartener go around the house identifying things that begin with the letter “A”? How flexible is your schedule or theirs? Can it be worked out so that everybody maximizes their time in this new work/school environment?

I schedule my day so that it looks like I might be taking a lot of “breaks” from work, but they are productive breaks — breaks to clean my house, get the mail, fold a load of laundry, and the like. However, these tasks can sometimes take over and overwhelm your entire day. I have a house cleaning schedule where I spend about 20 minutes a day on one particular area or task, and by the end of the month, the entire house has been cleaned (including washing the windows, cleaning out the fridge, and cleaning the oven), but I don’t get obsessed about making sure my house looks like it’s ready for a Better Homes and Gardens photo shoot.

With the possibility of more and longer lockdowns and social distancing requirements, it may mean that working from home is what will have to happen for most people for the foreseeable future. Working from home can be wonderful, but there is a fine line that must be observed in order to keep your work-life balance, especially if we are being strongly encouraged to “shelter in place” and only leave our homes for very specific purposes and locations. Both your home and your office will have to be configured to suit your needs while still being pleasant places to spend your time. That said, I do believe it’s time for me to put some laundry in the dryer, make another cup of tea, and pull that hamburger out for dinner before I get back to work.

Ms. Polaski began her career as a receptionist in a small law firm in Norfolk, Va., and gradually added more duties until she became a legal assistant and completed a paralegal certificate program at Old Dominion University in 1996. Ms. Polaski earned her Bachelor of Science degree in 2003 from Excelsior College and her Master of Liberal Studies degree from Fort Hays State University in May 2015. In 2006, Ms. Polaski earned her Certified Paralegal (CP) credential from the National Association of Legal Assistants (NALA), and the North Carolina Certified Paralegal (NCCP) credential from the North Carolina State Bar. In 2011, Ms. Polaski launched her own freelance virtual paralegal business, Just A Paralegal Virtual Services, and continued her education, earning her Advanced Certification (ACP) from NALA in Social Security Disability in 2012, Child Custody and Visitation in 2013, and Trademark and Patent Law in 2015.

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