The laundry break
February 15th, 2007Everybody takes a coffee break or a cigarette break at some point in their work day. I just fulfilled a fantasy I have had for as long as I have been reading Emily’s Telecommuter Talk: a laundry break. Yep: today, for some obscure family-logistics -cum- frost-on-the-winshield -cum- baby-sort-of-feverish-reasons, I missed two trains in a row and decided I’d stay home to work.
I’ve had my office phone redirected to my home phone, and at 10:30 AM, I took a laundry break and spent ten minutes in the sun to hang out the bed sheets. That was some treat!
It was so grand that I boldly decided I’d indulge in an even grander treat: the 20′ after-lunch nap. Now I know what it is I will be asking from my boss at the next yearly interview: it won’t be a bonus, it won’t be a raise, it will be one day of telecommuting each week.
Mandarine- you are such a delight! If only my husband was satisfied with a 10 minute laundry break when he works from home! But I do agree that working from home is wonderful, and to be undertaken whenever possible, with or without laundry.
I think a mix of office time and home working time is perfect (and sometimes I get that balance with teaching) — I need people around now and then to keep me sane, but I like the independence of being at home. I hope your boss grants your wish!
litlove: I confess I prefer hanging out bed sheets rather than baby clothes (or else it would be a thirty minutes laundry break).
Dorothy: I believe one aspect of telecommuting that people do not get is that you have to have the same amount of verbal contact with colleagues. I am sure I would call them up just to hang around on the phone with them on my morning tea break, just as do in real life. As a matter of fact, I spent most of the day on the phone and have not felt the least bit isolated.
Ahhh, yes, definitely request one day. It could easily morph into two or three…
And you and Dorr are right: you must maintain contact with others. I talk on the phone to colleagues and authors a good deal of the day and meet people for lunch (this requires me to leave the house, which is also a good thing to do occasionally) as much as possible.
‘It could easily morph into two or three’ — that would be next year and the year after that, hopefully. In fact, the unfortunate part is that there are no legal arrangements yet for official telecommuting in my company. Therefore it’s not up to my boss — he can tolerate some unofficial homework, but he has no legal frame to let me do this on a regular basis. Things are changing slowly in France, though, and I have heard the big car manufacturer Renault had sent half of its engineering staff to work at home (to save on real estate).
at last… congratulations.
What a lovely photo Mandarine. Did your bed sheets freeze when you hung them out? Or maybe it was that magical time of day, even in the cold, when the sun comes out and warms things for a little while.
As for working from home, I love those days.
The picture was taken two weeks before. Apart from the windscreen, there was no frost on the laundry break day. And with the southern breeze blowing gently, the bed sheets dried in no time.