To get cross at people who think working from home means you can do other stuff during the day?

[bettycocker]

Why do people think that I will be able to do odd jobs, house work, run errands and have visitors round during the day, just because I work from home? DP is not the main culprit here and DC are teenagers now, so they are relatively self sufficient. It's everyone else.

Say I am working 40 to 50 hours that week, why should I take a break for a few hours and work late into the night? Do people not realise that it is exactly the same as working in any other environment?

If someone works from home, they might actually want to finish at 5:00 - 6:00. And no, I don't want to talk to people on the phone about non-work related things. I don't want visitors during my working hours. I can't pop out for the day, make it up in the evening and work through into the night. I can't spend an afternoon or morning doing odd jobs and make the time up later. Why is that so hard for people to grasp?

Yes, in theory I can be flexible if I need to be, but I like to be flexible on MY terms.

AIBU to be pissed at people's attitude to my working life. I have tried to be polite and it doesn't work.

GhoulWithADragonTattoo I don't think people assume that everyone that works from home is skiving, just that they have the option (in some not all cases) to be more flexible.

I experience the same as a night worker. People assume I'm free all day to swan about doing household tasks and go out for lunch. Erm, no, I'm asleep. Then it's "oh how nice for you, to be able to nap during the day," in a thinly veiled tone of 'lazy mare'.

I am now dreaming about a luxury chalet at the bottom of the garden to work from! With coffee machine, pa etc

I worked from home, pre-DDs but in a call-centre job (in-bound only). I had to be at the computer with my headset on waiting for the next call and I had to answer them fast. During work times I was at work and while you could do housework in breaks it was frowned upon if you logged off for 'personal'.

I'm planning to work from home again, doing therapies. On those days the phone will be off and there will be a note not to knock (I'm away from the road so hopefully no nuisance knockers) as I can hardly nip off in the middle. But I could pop the washing on between clients.

I've just started working in an office again after working from home for the last few years.
I'm being driven demented by people asking if I'm finding it hard to be working again. I have been working, non stop, for ten years. They know this. Just because its at home doesn't mean it's not work.

YANBU. I get the same and it drives me letmo. My mother thinks that I can just drop everything to chat about curtains for an hour, my neighbour greets me with "Not working today then?" if he sees me go into the garden. The other thing that really, really gets to me is that my study is not considered my work environment. It regularly gets random stuff dumped in it (outgrown teddies and unwanted odd socks in the workplace, anyone?) I find that the printer paper's mysteriously disappeared overnight or - and this is the biggie - Things Have Been Moved.

I secretly dream of doing Very Nasty Things to those who wander off with stuff from my study.

I think I might work for the same company as PIGS. I have worked from home, worked sometimes from home and worked from an office. All jobs though have required me to travel to clients as appropriate.

If I am honest I like to be out 50% of the time and working at home 50%. It has helped over the years with nursery pick ups at say 1800 as I am not travelling from say London.

Where I think we have gone wrong in IMHO re home working is not stating that it is not an opportunity for you to have babies and young children at home too and save on child care costs. Having screaming children in the background or the person who are calling constantly saying 'hold on a minute, let me just go and sort that out' is unprofessional.

Break time.

I freelance have deadlines. Also, I like to have a routine. Other things can wait until evenings or weekends. That's normal isn't it?

and have deadlines.

I have just started working from home, setting up my own business. I thought I would be able to be flexible, go to the gym, pop to town, do house stuff, meet friends and indeed I have. Consequently I have achieved very little in my new venture and earnt even less!

I've never worked for myself before so it's been a real struggle to go from SAHM for 9 years to home is now a place of work too. Today has been my first full "office day" and I've achieved quite a lot! (just having a quick sandwich)

YANBU. I work from home and earn most of my money in the hours when DS is at school. If I don't knuckle down then we don't have enough money, but a lot people don't seem to be able to grasp that concept.

It is difficult and in my company some people DO come into the office. They cannot work at home for whatever reason and perhaps they dont want to give up the space at home or even dont want to be seen to be available out of hours. Maybe they know they wont focus.

Working at home it is surprising how many people are still on line at say 2000.