A Skype dilemma

[BecauseImWorthIt]

I work from home and use Skype to communicate with my business partner and our PA, who also work from their homes.

I also use it to communicate with other people I work with - freelancers and suppliers - so it's an important bit of 'kit' for me. It's also important that I show my status as 'online' when I'm available.

However, I have recently been asked to add someone to my Skype contacts who is someone I have got to know from another forum ( yes I use a site other than MN from time to time!).

I was quite happy to do this - we're participating in a specific challenge together - but this person has taken to sending me messages at all times of the day, whenever she sees me online.

She's very pleasant, and I have no problems talking with her, but it gets a bit intrusive when I'm trying to get some work done, and as she knows that I'm online, if I don't respond it makes it obvious that I'm ignoring her.

It's only been a couple of days now, but I can see that I'm going to have to deal with this in some way.

I can, obviously, keep telling her I'm working, but I wondered if there was any other way of 'splitting' skype at all, so that I can have a work face and a personal face, IYSWIM.

Any suggestions?

Get a second (secret) user name for important things?

Can you not explain that you work from home and that means there are times when you are apparently online but aren't able to stop to chat.

If you set up another username it might be more sensible to set up the social one, and invite her to be your friend/contact on that, instead of on the account you use for business. Then take her off that one and and log on to your social account when you're not working.

Or set your status to Not Available or Away and tell your business contacts what that really means. In my experience it never stopped anyone (my niece, for example) from contacting me anyway but she doesn't get so peeved when I don't respond.

On second thoughts, make a point of not responding unless you really want to - eg right at the end of the day. Do respond - but only when you are available/ready and don't feel pressured. You make the rules and stick to them. She'll get used to it.

Thanks all - think I'll just have to keep telling her I'm busy working. Hopefully for her the novelty will wear off soon.

OOhh - LL telling someone not to be so nice!

Thank you very much though. I had no idea you could block people. That's exactly what I need.

But she's stopped messaging me today anyway!

(Maybe she's a MNetter and she read my post? )

Thank goodness I use a different posting name on the other forum then!