I am sure my neighbours wonder about me and my other half all the time. I used to get out of the apartment at 8 plus in my formal business suit, ready to get my car started so I can get to work on the dot. Everyday for the past couple of years.
Suddenly, it all stopped.
Now I no longer do that because I work from home. Well, I don’t lounge around in pajamas (I think that’s just plain laziness if you don’t get out of your sleeping attire when you are not sleeping!) but I still sit in front of my computer. In fact, it’s now a laptop instead of the regular PC.
I don’t have any other colleague (except for my husband, who is also glued to his computer). I still work about the same number of hours (if not more) and I sometimes force myself to take a break, go out to the balcony and sip some fresh air.
I don’t work any less really considering that one tends to work more when there’s no official off hours! We basically work weekends too if we have nothing pressing to do. There’s really no time to hang loose and sit around watching TV in your pajamas. But most Malaysians still don’t get the concept of working from home.
Friends think I am enjoying a Datin lifestyle. Can work if I want to. Or can go out shopping whenever there’s a sale.
“Wah, you are so lucky.”
Not so my friends. I think working from home takes a lot of gumption, because there’s no dragon breathing down your neck. You become your own dragon. When you become your own dragon, you breathe more fire.
But the upside is, you find work a lot more satisfying. After all, you are doing the work you love best otherwise why quit the rat race?
A lot of people I meet tell me that it must be nice to work from home. I enjoy it because my work is something I feel strongly for. It won’t be that great and amazing if one’s not dedicated to the craft of working. For the first few months, you feel like an uncaged bird after years of slogging nine-to-five. You suddenly have all this newfound freedom. You may not want to chain yourself down to a PC.
So if you really want to work from home, have a game plan in place before you do so. It helps a lot if you are doing something you love (I don’t know how many times I’ve exhorted this) and you are the type to use technology to help you with your work. Otherwise, you’ll be sprinting back to your old job in a blink.
I guess even my folks, relatives and neighbours are often wondering how I make a living by being online all the time. How can one make a living cooped up in an apartment?
Strange to say, we do it rather nicely. I know another girl who also works from home and she makes a good living using technology. Her boss is in the US while she is here in Malaysia and she earns the kind of money every designer just plain dreams of.
So the next time you see a bunch of people who don’t seem to hold typical jobs, maybe you could ask them if they work from home, and ask them what they do.
It’ll be quite surprising to hear the things they could tell you.
Psst..I work in my pyjamas. 😉
Hi lcs: haha, you DO? But seriously as a work-at-home person too, don’t you find it irritating that people assume all sorts about you, your time and your business?