I love my office. It’s clean, it’s modern, it’s decorated in contemporary, minimalist fashion. (Except for my desk, which is absolutely cluttered with disorganized papers). My office is functional, and it’s all me. Well, save Harry’s half, which is all his. His half is usually empty unless he’s in town.
But I digress. I love my office because it allows me one very important thing: privacy. I have plenty of privacy during a day at the office, and I think that’s fantastic.
Working from home (as I do from time to time) is a whole different story. While the décor is still mine, my privacy is, apparently, a public affair. People call on the phone constantly. The neighbors need to talk to me. Friends stop by to visit without warning. Some even just walk right in the door. For some strange reason, no one seems to understand two very important words: I’m working.
It’s really a rather amazing phenomenon. No matter how much I stress that no, I can’t talk right now, I’m trying to get this work done or that no, I’m sorry, I can’t visit long, I have some work to do, no one seems to give a damn. It’s not that people don’t care. It’s not that they don’t respect me or see that I really am working. It’s like… well, it’s like I’m discussing a foreign concept. Work from home? I’m home, they want to see me, I should drop everything and lose my concentration to keep them happy, they think.
The frustration of being continually interrupted at home had me spewing off a monologue of irritation to Harry via IM (mostly because he’s the only person that will listen). It also had me wondering what solution would get the message through to people. A sign with office hours? Most likely. I’m drafting one up now. An answering machine? Got that – and when the machine picks up instead of me answering, people panic and think I’ve fallen, hit my head and am in need of emergency care because I can’t come to the phone. (I’m a big boy now, mom, really…)
The worst thing about the situation is that I cannot – absolutely cannot – seem to get people to understand that working hours, whether they be at home or the office, are ones that are to be disturbed as little as possible. Unless, of course, I am forceful about my need for peace and quiet, which risks coming off as rude. Polite people don’t throw other people out when they come to visit or cut phone calls short, you see. But I need to do something.
There had to be a solution on managing people, I thought. Some great theory for achieving mental understanding that work, no matter where it occurs, requires focus and concentration. That working from home was just as sacred a situation as working from the office.
I did find a good article about establishing boundaries for the work-at-home individual. In fact, I found a few good articles after using the keywords “establishing boundaries home office”. Unfortunately, only a small handful dealt with managing other people. The rest were about tackling my disorganized desk. Apparently people are not the only ones that need boundaries. Paper needs them, too. Ah, well. Back to building an office hours sign…
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