I’m Not Off: I’m Working At Home Today

I, too, have a weekly work-at-home day and though I have told family and friends repeatedly that I am not "off" but working, I generally field at least 3 calls before 10AM asking what I'm "doing with myself" on my "day off." True, there are definite perks to being home: I always stop at Dunkin Donuts for coffee after I drop my son at Pre-K, and wardrobe wise, I rarely advance beyond yoga pants and a hoodie. I am able to do 3 or 4 loads of laundry over the course of the day. Sometimes I steal out for an hour for a kid-free Trader Joe's run, a treat for me. But I am accessible and interacting by email and cell phone all day and am perfectly confident that my company gets its money's worth from me on my home day, because I am not distracted by office chitchat and answering mostly pointless phone calls all day. I've been doing this for 4 years now and still seem to be at square one with debunking the myth of my "off" day.

I am Lauren's manager, and the guilty party cited above. It's a weird verbal quirk, this use of "off". I never actually think Lauren is not working when she is at home, as she knows. But some verbal laziness stops me from using the slightly more syllabic "working from home today." Maybe "off" comes out more because working at home is some sense going off the corporate grid? In any case, dear Lauren, have no fear: I know that you are simply off the physical corporate campus, not off and not working.

I think its quite hard, I am a stay-at-home daughter who used to work for an executive search firm, which was purely telework and although I thought this would be a fix for being able to be there for my mother who has MS and work at the same time, this purely telework position was a nightmare. I was always being called to do little errands in the middle of working. My mother never understood that I had to actually work, while I was home.

I work from home one day a week and take a "short" day - I meet the boys at the bus at 3. I have one boss who is a great guy but has a real problem calling me at home on my work at home day. I was not considered for a management position b/c I won't give up this day - so I'm sticking to my guns. It's important to my sanity and I am more productive.