Does working at home mean working on the home too?

I have the luxury of working at home a day or two every week, and among the things I've noticed about the work-at-home days is that my concentration goes up -- and I also get some housework done.

Hear me out: on work-at-home days, I don't have to commute, so I've got an hour's head start on working, and when I finally need a break ... I can get up and sweep, or put a batch of muffins in the oven, or scrub the sink. Then I'm back to work and I can focus, because the little voice in my head reminding me of all the stuff I have to do when I get home has been shut up. On work-at-home days, I don't hit YouTube because if I want a break, I can pull weeds or change laundry loads or whatever.

So I read Jeff Opdyke's little exchange with his wife -- who doesn't understand his reluctance to multitask while working at home -- and thought, "Really? Really?" I was heartened by the commenters on the blog who also had the "Really? Really?" response.

Any of you who work at home -- have you found that it helps with maintaining some sort of overall equilibrium in your life? Or do you have to pretend nothing else exists but your work? How does working at home work for you?

Comments

[sam]

Maybe it's because, as an attorney, I bill by the hour, but I find that it takes me much longer to actually finish a particular task if I'm home. I get easily distracted by other stuff, whereas, if I just come into the office and "buckle down", I can get through whatever I need to in a few hours. Of course, this is probably in part due to the fact that I only face this dilemma on weekends, since I'm clearly expected to be in the office during the week, so I'm more easily distracted.

On the other hand, my "household" productivity goes way up when I'm working from home - I tend to find it necessary to do "useful procrastination", so my breaks often involve cleaning/purging. It's not all a bad tradeoff.

[lisapete]

I had the pleasure of working from home for 5 months while our offices were being renovated. After the initial, inevitable tech issues with the computer, fax, scan, etc. set-up, I found that I just got so much more done during the day at home vs. the office. I saved 45 minutes commute each way which I then used to go for a run in the mornings or at lunch time. I would also complete small tasks such as taking frozen items out to thaw for dinner or emptying the dishwasher or folding a load of laundry. It made me so peaceful because I rarely ever stressed about things being done around the house. Sigh...I really miss those days!

[Kerry]

Okay, all the self-martyring comments from women bitching about how they get less sleep than their husbands because they have to clean are making my hand itch from the restraint of slapping someone. If it makes you unhappy, then negotiate it out, just don't do it, hire someone, whatever. You're not making yourself special by doing it all. I watched my parents do that dance and hell knows I've done it myself in a relationship and you know what--it's not worth it.

I can understand the not doing chores while working at home but I don't think it's just a man/women thing. It's really a task vs. project orientation on how you see the world. I can't multitask very well, because I see everything as a project, but also because it's pretty hard to for me to switch tasks seamlessly. Yeah, my machinery is working all the time, but that's the problem. I usually have a few things that are very large that I'm working through and no space for doing smaller stuff .

[Julie]

I find that I eat more, because I don't have to go all the way to the vending machine or the cafe downstairs--the refrigerator is right here! I need to work on that.

[Becky]

I work from home two days a week, and I'm not much more productive at home than in the office. But the time saved in the commute usually makes up for it.

However, I never do any major chores while I'm home during the day. I'm terrible at multi-tasking, for starters, and if I start doing chores it could be hours before I get back to work. I do try to have the house in better shape at the end of the day than at the beginning, though -- so I'll make sure the dishes are washed, and I'll do one little thing like sorting mail or taking out the trash. That's it, though.

I occasionally run errands during the day, but only if I can make up the work time that evening.

[Polly]

I've freelanced quite a bit, which I do from home, and one of the things I like about it is the flexibility--I can run errands 9-5 when no one's at the store, and then work in the evening (I'm a night owl anyway). I think it saves time overall, I do feel I'm more efficient when I work at home, and I've never blown a deadline because I felt an overwhelming urge to vacuum or clean the toilet (and if I'm really swamped, the house just becomes a sty). I think it's really BS to claim that you can't possibly get a day's work done AND throw a load of laundry in--I have never known anyone who literally worked nonstop the entire time that they are in the office.

[phastphill]

I work at home about one day a week. My wife is currently a SAHM with our newborn. As a programmer, it takes time for me to get in "the zone," and once I'm there I want to stay for as long as I can. Small interruptions cause huge problems. So I come down on the unpopular side of the dispute -- No, I cannot stop every hour to move some laundry. I'd hardly ever be in the zone; I wouldn't get my work done. When I started working from home more regularly, my wife expected me to handle interruptions, this caused tension. But we talked about it, I clarified, she understood, and it's all good.

The WSJ piece is a good example of a couple unwilling to listen to each other, nothing more.

That said, I obviously save time by not commuting, I already do plenty of housework off-hours, and I'm civilized enough to clean up after myself.

[Polly]

No, I cannot stop every hour to move some laundry.

This, phastphill, is acutally something I totally understand--you have to get in the zone to write, too, and regular interruptions are a real pain. (They also tend to happen more often in an office, I find.) I guess I'm just put off by the guy's "How dare you ask this of me!!!" attitude, which would get real old, real quick--and like you say, I think it's indicative of deeper issues.

[Lisa S.]

Yeah, when I'm in the zone, I DON'T pop up and dance attendance on the laundry. I usually manage to fit the household work into the ebb and flow of my concentration.

I don't know how many of y'all are regular WSJ readers, but the relationship between Jeff and Amy Opdyke is a source of enduring fascination for me. After he seriously jacked up his leg playing soccer -- to the point where he needed physical therapy -- his wife was all, "You know, GOALIE, you could injure your head or hands and thereby jeopardize the overall family in terms of well-being. I want you to quit." And he dragged out the debate over two columns with his stance, which was "My happiness is more important than any other concerns."

Like I said, fascinating.

[Stephanie]

The only time that I ever worked from home I had a job that I really, really hated. As in - I think I gained about 20 pounds in 6 months hated. So that could explain why I accomplished marginally more on those days that I worked at home even though I also did some chores, like laundry, while I worked. I'd have wasted that time surfing the Internet and feeling angry and tied to my desk had I been in the office. OTOH, my tasks when I worked at home could be done in short bursts. Nothing really required longer bouts of concentration.

[amanda]

I'm in a different industry than I was when I was freelancing and working from home. I can't speak to productivity -- I was plenty productive working at home and also managed to do minimal household chores. It is easy to get sucked in to too many household chores/errands and fritter your day away but it is just as easy to get back on track. Easier than it is when you're working in an office and there's a million different things to pull your focus away.

The best thing by far, though, working from home was my quality of life. I took daily walks in my neighborhood and over the course of working from home for two years I lost twenty pounds. I was able to take an afternoon cat nap -- ten to twenty minutes -- and then work far more productively than I ever do without that.

There were days when the house looked more horrible at the end of the day than the beginning but I really tried not to do that. The notion that tending to some laundry means getting up every hour is a bit silly. Working from home is a privilege, in my mind, and often it can only be undertaken when you have another stable influence in your life -- a spouse or benefactor which might be covering your health insurance or making enough to cover the dry spells. For that, I think it's important to do some nice things around the house that make your privilege a bonus for them, too. I mean, that's what this column is about, working from home while the spouse works away. Unless you want to piss them off, load the dishwasher for pete's sake.

[Ben]

I've been working at home since December. It's been fabulous for the reasons everyone already knows -- no commute, time with family, time to do new and interesting stuff, like judo and karate. But, candidly, we live in filth. I don't get any housework done Monday through Friday. The pattern is almost the same as it was when I was working in a conventional office: just about everything housework related gets pushed off to the weekend. So today, I did a ton of laundry, dishes, filing, etc. Tomorrow? Another ton of laundry, more cleaning. I'm just too busy during the regular workweek. And when I do take a break, I don't want to be at home. So I'll take a walk or something.

That said, working at home is so less stressful. And the savings on dry-cleaning alone...!

[marion]

"I don't know how many of y'all are regular WSJ readers, but the relationship between Jeff and Amy Opdyke is a source of enduring fascination for me."

Oh, to me too, though I admit I came down a bit more on his side on the whole soccer debate. I will say, though, that they're a couple that don't seem (from his columns) to have a whole lot of...empathy for one another. He loves playing soccer and apparently has since before they met; rather than trying to shift him to a less physically demanding role/team, she doesn't get why he loves it and wants him to quit entirely. He, on the other hand, balks at hiring help with the housework, even though *she's* the one who handles most of the housework and, as we've seen from the column you highlighted, he can't break out of his "work zone" long enough to throw in a load of laundry. (And his objection to hiring help with the housework wasn't financial - he just didn't want to think of himself as the type of person who would pay someone to help with the housework. Except, y'know, he really isn't helping with the housework, so...)

And then there's the other WSJ personal finance column who writes about being sensible with your money but has taken out a sizable home equity loan to renovate her house, IIRC...

[Lisa S.]

Yes! Teri Cullen. I've blogged about her before, and she's another one I love to read because I always wonder, "And which family member's business will she be writing about today?"

The Opdykes are just amusing, if only because the entire column could be called "Ways in which my wife needs to make my life easier." Today's piece, on how having Amy go work part-time because then:

"If Amy scales back her hours, she will pick up more of the family duties. Those chores invariably eat into my workday, or they require us to spend family time at night or on weekends handling the drudgeries of daily life. Eliminating those chores from my life will help my career, and make the rest of my life immeasurably more fulfilling."

That man will do ANYTHING to get out of housework!

[sillyphilly]

"The notion that tending to some laundry means getting up every hour is a bit silly."

Absolutely right. I rounded up. To be more rational:

10:00 AM: put laundry in washer
10:20 AM: move laundry into dryer, 2nd load into washer
11:05 AM: take laundry out of dryer, put 2nd load into dryer, 3rd load into washer
(continue every 45 minutes, which is about how long our dryer takes. YMMV.)

[Amanda]

Wow, so task oriented! Here's how it worked in my house when I worked at home:

10:00 AM: put laundry in washer
forget about laundry for hours
2:00 PM: move laundry to dryer and put in second load
5:00 PM: oh shit! Husband will be home from work soon! Fold laundry or pull it out so he can help me fold it as soon as he walks in the door (he loves that)

next day -- more laundry?

Sorry, I'm still not buying it. Besides, working from home? Less laundry to do! Work is the priority but I still think that both genders can do a little work around the house when working from home.