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Thanks to the current economic debacle, I'm sorry to say that yours truly has become a statistic, and am now one of the many unemployed and semi-unemployed in these United States. It's not a surprise really; my employer's fortunes have been on the decline for the past 18 months, give or take a month, and the added economic fallout to the building trades has all but sealed the fate for all who are employed at Give-it-up Contracting, Inc. In the short span of two weeks, my hours have decreased, first from 40 to 30, then from 30 to 20, and this week, I expect to see little more than 10 hours on my pay stub.
The good news is that, being the practical person regular readers know me to be, I anticipated this situation and made contingency plans. I've increased the number of shifts I work at that posh Concert Hall on the banks of the Potomac River (my fellow fully-employed workers are a generous lot), I filed for partial-unemployment benefits some time ago (just in case....), and I'm doing some work from the comfort of home for a local performing arts school who is trying to expand their opportunities by obtaining arts grants from various institutions. These efforts, and thrifty habits, should keep the wolf (a.k.a. Citibank Mortgage) at bay until another employment opportunity crops up.
If I'm honest, this decreased-hours, working-from-home situation is a pleasant change of pace from the normal 8-5, but I couldn't take it as a steady diet. Reason? I've uncovered a surprising fact I never knew: I'm completely useless when it comes to working at home. For me work, a proper job where you receive compensation in exchange for a service, should take place in the well-structured environment of a real office complete with photocopier, scanner, desk and free coffee. Work doesn't have the same appeal when I'm sitting on the sofa typing away on the PC that sits on the coffee table; I find myself procrastinating on simple tasks to the point where even cleaning the bathroom is a more appealing prospect. Conversely I find I can't write my column anywhere but home because I'm then working for myself, and so should be working from home. Imagine how much money I could have made working instead of spending time coming to these conclusions...
Perhaps if I had a proper home office, something distinct and completely separate from "home" it would be different, but I don't, and after years of making my home a place I go specifically to close the door on work and the rest of the world, I'm finding it a bit difficult to divide my attention now. Hopefully, I won't have to try much longer. I've had some very promising interviews with proper companies who have pleasant, professional office environments where I can work to my heart's content. Then my living room can return to being a place of relaxation and my home computer can revert to its correct function; solitaire and on-line shopping. In the meantime however this weeks column will have to end because the distant cry of the wolf approaching my door means I need to get back to work.
