Thanks to the graciousness of the amazing Yvonne DiVita, I had a chance to guest-blog for her today at Lip-Sticking: Smart Marketing to Women Online. Here’s an excerpt:
Imagine this: You’re at work in a corporate cubicle. Your teen appears, pops his head in your cubicle to say hi, then goes to the next cubicle and and turns on the television. Hip hop music floods your cubicle. Or this: Your spouse, standing just a few cubicles down, calls to the dog at your feet, “Pluto, do you want to go out for a walk?” Pluto tears out from beneath your desk, barking his enthusiastic reply and blotting out everything your client is saying to you from the other end of the telephone line. Or this: Your best friend calls repeatedly to chat anytime she knows you’re in your cubicle, because to her that looks like you’re free to socialize. Or this: Just at the very moment a hot new client prospect rings you up, your little one revs up her Fisher Price Dora the Explorer Talking Cash Register.
If you were sitting in your corporate cubicle, would you expect these things to happen or tolerate them repeatedly if they did? Probably not. If you work from home, then you may already have lived many moments like these. They may even be having an impact, if subtly, on your success.
Women tell me that the small day-to-day conflicts they experience while working from home can add up to more tension than they anticipated. One of the special challenges of a home-based business or home office is that the “home” part of it doesn’t go away while the “office” part is in session. Whether you use your dining room table or have been able to create a separate office, as long as the two spaces are in proximity, the challenges of coordinating professional and family life are close to home indeed.
Maybe you nipped these problems in the bud early on and have been able to create a home office environment that generally works effectively for everyone. If, though, you’ve found it a challenge to get your loved ones’ real attention and action on recurring collisions of home and work, consider this:…
Read the rest at Working from Home: When Home and Work Collide.
