Home sick blues

[gwyn]

I love being home. I am a homebody. I like to travel, too, and I like to go out sometimes, but given a choice I will park my ass on the couch and write and watch tv/dvds and be happy with my lunatic cat and cozy slippers. But this working from home thing? I think I'm going to be sick of home really soon. Like, now, already. Part of it is that the new system for work is unbelievably bad -- talk about klugey. These dorks actually force you to use a fackin' freeware email program (Mozilla T-bird) that's really designed for individual web users and not for a company that sends 200-300 mails a day and does everything online. So work is frustrating, and slow, and one big fat kluge, and this laptop is impossible to type on but I can't hook the keyboard up yet because I had to get a USB hub and now I have to get a PS/2 to USB converter for the keyboard I took from the office for this stint. The idea of having to drive out and endure our torrential rain for this stupid converter, all the way to Renton, annoys me. If I'd known... I would have scavenged offices for a converter. Plus I can't get my printer to work, the computer doesn't seem able to recognize it so this is going to make life very difficult for me.

Two days and I'm already buggy and missing the egregious Microsoft campus. OTOH it *is* nice to be able to take a few minutes and kiss the kitty from time to time. Unfortunately it's so awkward that I can't just switch over to the Mac and work on writing stories. At least that would be something. There are tons of unresolved issues, of course, so we're hanging around, waiting to see if they'll ever be resolved. None of us can print from email, for instance -- you'd think they'd have figured that one out right up front, but no... A cynical part of me wonders if we'll ever get up to speed or if the next six months will be this jerry-rigged, duct-taped mess where we have to limp along, figuring out how to work around the things that don't work. I also found last night that even though I want to work on learning Final Cut, the idea of spending more time in this little room just did not appeal at all. I don't know if this is going to go away or if I will never do the things I need to, just to get the hell out of this ugly office space.

How do people who work at home maintain sanity? I realize few jobs are quite as crazed and fast paced as this one usually is (it's been interesting because all the writers are having email trauma, and so no copy is coming in and as a result it's weirdly quiet), so I'm more chained to the back room than most people would be, but... what do you do to not hate your little office and not let yourself feel like a crazed hermit? I have this awful feeling I'm going to become even more of a misanthrope than I already am.

OTOH I have this cool new mood theme of the F&F movies, totally courtesy of mlyn, who not only made it, she uploaded it and everything because I'm too cranky to try to figure it out.

Comments

[kadymae.livejournal.com]

An artist friend of mine works at home and has the luxury of dealing with the issue this way -- the home office/studio.

He goes in, he sets his alarm clock for 9 hours, and when it goes off, he puts down the pencil and walks out. The only thing he does in that room is work, and that's how he keeps it seperate from "home". If his editor calls and he's not at "work" he'll go and pick up in his "studio".

So, if you have an extra room at Chateau Gwyn_R, see if it works for you.

[gwyn-r.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I wish I could do that. But there's no place else to go, really. My butt's numb, I'm stuck to the computer... best I can do is take short breaks, but...

[jwaneeta.livejournal.com]

I work at home and love it. Love it, love it. I was forced to spend a year working at a dreadful corporate job, taking flak 10 hours a day, wearing beastly office clothes, and making precious little money, so I'm very appreciative of my current sitch.

The only place I ever preferred to working at home was a Major Studio, because my coworkers were so entertaining. But if I can't be surrounded by witty, gifted people who enjoy being fans and doing what they love, I'd rather stay in my house.

It's nice to be able to shop during the day, when the stores aren't jammmed with people, it's lovely to never commute, I like being able to help out if an office-bound pal needs a favor. I love my liberty.

The only downside is the creeping fug of guilt that permeates every minute that isn't work-related. I can theoretically always be working, so relaxing feels like a shameful indulgence. But I manage to goof off anyway, brave soul that I am. :)

Wait, another downside: no corporate teat. If something on my computer blows I can't call up the Systems Guy. There is no Systems Guy. I have to sweat out a fix myself or pay a tech doctor to make a housecall, and God, how I hate the stress of that.

Well, hm. Can you redecorate? Move things around to make your home office more habitable? Part of your dissatisfaction might be due to feeling cramped.

But maybe it's just not how you work best. I love solitude, it's mother's milk to me, it's where I find creative joy. I'm wired to like working at home. Liberty and solitude make all the insane deadlines and performance angst well worth it, for me. But a lot of my friends would be miserable doing this.

[gwyn-r.livejournal.com]

I guess that's probably the biggest factor -- I can't go anywhere. I'm stuck here pretty much, and the office is small and filled with stuff even though I purged massively this past week. Tow computers on one desk, plus vidding equipment, so I can't use them both because it's too awkward... no shopping during the day, etc. So far all I'm seeing is a numb ass, sore arms, and not wanting to come back in at night and work on vids or stories. Sigh.

[jwaneeta.livejournal.com]

Oh, dear, that doesn't sound like you're having any fun at all. Clutter in my workspace drives me batty, too. I can't think if I'm swimming in clutter.

Here's a thought -- have the phone guy come out and install a jack in your living room or dining room, and work there. Spread out. Play favorite DVDs during the day, or your fave music. Reserve the office for your vid making.

And who's to complain if you do errands during the day? People get to have breaks, after all. As long as you deliver the product, why do they care how you budget your time?

[minim_calibre]

I'm, thankfully, not on a timeframe like editing for a live site would put me. So I maintain my sanity by taking regular nap and not-at-the-work-computer breaks. The work computer is, in fact, sitting on my bed right now, as I take a break to recover from a morning/afternoon spent fixing the code on speeches that make me weep both as a lover of language and as a soft little liberal human being.

If I didn't take breaks, I'd be so far into full-on resentment it wouldn't even be funny, but part of that's just that I *really* wish I were in a financial position to spend the next 13 1/2 weeks just gestating. (And another part is that I really, really, really hate having to read speeches by hawkish execs from our local branch of the Military Industrial Complex.)

[gwyn-r.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I need to get in the habit of taking a break, but I feel weirdly guilty. Like, getting tea and taking out the garbage is already a break and I shouldn't do more. My coworker warned me about that, but... this is the frst real experience I've had. the deadline driven nature is probably the killer, it sounds like judging from people's responses.

No go gestate! ;-)

[mlyn.livejournal.com]

I could call you and distract you with my mindless babble! I almost did that today anyway.

You're very welcome for the mood theme. I hope it helps. :)

[gwyn-r.livejournal.com]

I'm home now.

I like the color scheme on this one -- the gradient is nice. But now I keep singing Call Me in my head, and it's not pleasant.

[mlyn.livejournal.com]

Thanks! It's good to know what you like, for future reference. I haven't forgotten about the Vins icon, either.

[ascian3.livejournal.com]

I quite like working from home, but I haven't been able to do it in a while, and I've never done it full-time. One thing I often did when I was working at home is take the laptop out to coffee shops with free wireless. The beauty of this is that you can do it from anywhere, so sometimes the coffee shops were elsewhere, like LA or New Mexico. And I liked being able to do that.

Actually "laptop" is a big answer to your question, just in general. I use mine for just about every waking hour at home, and it follows me around the house from living room to deck to kitchen. Rarely in the office; I like to work outside or on the couch.

Onsite here now I do the same thing very often - take my work laptop to a couch or outside, or something like that. I rather dislike normal chairs.

[gwyn-r.livejournal.com]

that would definitely make a difference, but I'm afraid I'm trapped here on a land line. I can't even go out to the couch. The laptop is very lower end and not set up for wi-fi even if I had it here at home. I guess I've always been stuck on desktops in some way and even though this is a notebook computer, it's still chained to a desk and line. Probably when we're using jet packs and everyone's making hologram phone calls I'll still be working on a desktop landline. ;-)

[rainkatt.livejournal.com]

Really really long phone cord from modem or wall, or however you're connected?

I'm not being facetious here; I have an old old iBook with no airport card, and I drag it all over my apartment, using a very long cord, so that I can surf where I want to, rather than being stuck where the wiring is. It's worth the silliness just have the mobility.

[morgandawn.livejournal.com]

I take small breaks. Tea in the kitchen with the radio, pet the cat. Also, when I am on the cordless phone, I get up and walk around the house. I also eat in the living room and watch TV for lunch.

It does get cramped and I feel a need for people. I've gone for short walks and talked to the retirees on the block. And, on occasion, made the odd run to the library.

[mystic-savage.livejournal.com]

Kevin worked from home for awhile. He spread out his work day over 15 hours and took lots of long breaks for eating, exercise, the occasional movie, etc. In fact, he was telecommuting when we were first dating, and I was working evenings, so most of our dates were brunch-dates for the first six months or so.

At first he loved that schedule (which was close to how he'd organized his time in grad school), but it got old after about a year, and then he started being unable to sleep without getting up and programming for a couple of hours in the middle of the night and he gradually started preferring the structure of having an office away from home.

Any advice I have would be based on observing his experience, so actually I don't have advice at all. But if you *do* want to sneak away for a cup of coffee or a walk, I'm childfree (although still without car) on Thursday afternoon.

[rustybitch.livejournal.com]

I love working from home, but then I'm a go-out-a-lot type of person. As soon as I'm done, I'm off to meet everybody at our local café.
However, a friend of mine had a really hard time adjusting to working from home, mostly because she suddenly realized how much of her adult interaction/network (she's alone with a daughter) stemmed from her workplace.
Could be a phase-thing.