I’ve officially been working from home for over one month.
I don’t know why, but I feel like I need to reiterate the fact that I’m EXTREMELY lucky that I still have a job and I am able to work from home.
But working from home is something I never thought I’d say I didn’t like. FOR YEARS, I was always so jealous of people who were able to work from home. A lot of it obviously stemmed from not feeling like I had enough time to work on my side business.
And then once I realized I was doing a job I didn’t really love
, I kept thinking over and over how much happier I would be if I was working from home.
Well, fast forward a few months into a new job that I love, I can truthfully say
I HATE WORKING FROM HOME.
Why? HERE’S WHY…
i miss being social
THE. NUMBER. ONE. FACTOR.
I’m naturally a super social person. Sure, I occasionally like sitting in and being by myself. But this quarantine has taken it to a whole new level. I enjoy being able to be out and about with people. After working home for over a month, I can’t believe I ever even complained about going to an office every day.
You better believe I won’t be doing that going forward.
Our current office set up was in “pods”. So our merchandising pod was HOME. I was just starting to get comfortable in my new environment. There are four of us on my team and we are all so similar, yet so different. But the laughs I’ve already had at work are so insane. I thoroughly enjoyed going to work every day. We worked so hard, but still knew the importance of taking small breaks to just chat and laugh with our coworkers.
I cannot wait to get back there and hug them all!
i have a weird routine
These days, the most routine I have is rolling out of bed and opening up my laptop. I know this is mainly my own fault, but like, I just don’t have it in me to wake up earlier, shower (I was always a night showerer), and put make up on for the day. Who would have guessed that I’d miss my morning wake up and commute??? Not me.
If I was at my house, I would wake up around 7:15AM to be on the bus by 8AM (I know, it takes me ZERO time to get ready). If I was at my boyfriend’s place, I’d wake up around 8:30AM and be out the door by 9:10AM. I’d walk to the R/W train on 22nd and Broadway, and hop on the subway. I miss walking into my Times Square office building every day, heading up to the 5th floor to get my iced coffee and breakfast – either oatmeal or cereal – and then heading up to the 14th floor to my desk.
Routines are so important, so not having one is definitely something I hate about working from home.
i don’t have the proper set up
This is another big factor. My desk at work had two monitors, a ton of space, all of my folders and linesheets, etc. When I started working from home on March 16th, I stayed at my boyfriend’s apartment. I don’t think we truly anticipated how long this was going to last, but nonetheless, I’m still here. For about three weeks, I was working from the couch and an ottoman as my desk. Not ideal. Luckily, my angel of a guy, cleared off his desk and set up a station for me so I can be way more productive.
There’s also the fact that everyone is pretty much on their Internet. So the Internet here has been slightly spotty over the last two weeks. Connectivity is another issue I didn’t think about going into working from home. One day, the WiFi was out from 12PM-7PM. I couldn’t get ANY work done or attend our virtual meetings. How crappy is that?! Again, very lucky someone was able to come fix the issue, but still – ANNOYING. I MISS CORPORATE INTERNET!!!
i feel guilty
I honestly feel guilty about working from home a lot of the time. When things are slower, I can’t just ask my boss or someone on my team to show me something that I haven’t learned yet. I’m still relatively “new” around here, so it’s been a struggle to stay busy unless I have things I’m told to do. I think I’m finding a groove: I’ve been doing a lot of market research for our team, starting projects earlier than normal, and making sure I’m all caught up on emails. Yet, I still find myself feeling guilty if I even take a 30 minute break. The first week or two was pretty rough in terms of being super productive. I did the work I needed to, but found myself getting distracted by what was happening around me (mainly the TV if I’m being super honest).
And those are really my honest feelings about working from home. I know if this was a “different” situation, I could most likely fix all of these issues (i.e. work from a coffee shop, buy a second monitor, actually wake up and get ready for the day). But right now, this is our reality and our normal…and ya know what? I’M JUST NOT LIKING IT!!!
Tell me – did you work in an office and now you’re all of a sudden working from home? What are you doing to make the situation better/easier?
photos by allie provost
(taken early march)