If You Work From Home, You Still Need to Balance Your Life

Working from home, or telecommuting as the marketing gurus like to call it, is nothing new. Many companies have been doing it for years. My wife did it for the last decade of her job, and I began implementing it in my company via IP telephony in 2001.

But many of you began experiencing it for the first time at the start of the pandemic and are still struggling to balance your work and home life. The only significant difference should be that you don’t have to drive to and from work, and you don’t have to spend as much time dressing and getting ready for work.

This should be time back in your pocket, right?

Then why is it many of you are working longer hours?

Because you feel that you need to or should.

Because that’s who you are.

Because the companies you work for will let you.

But you need to stop. You don’t owe that extra time to your company. It’s a job. You are trading a set amount of your time and a specific portion of your accumulated knowledge for money. That’s all a job is. That’s how jobs work. It should be a win-win, so don’t come out on the wrong end of a win-lose equation.

Imagine this scenario. It’s payday, and you check your bank account to make sure your paycheck has been deposited. You do a quick calculation and write a check for 10% of the gross. You take that check into your boss’s office and say, “You’re paying me way too much. I want to give some of this back to you.”

No?

Then why would you work 10% longer than your job requires? Isn’t that the same thing? At least 134 countries have laws setting the maximum length of the workweek; the U.S. does not.

I know, that’s just who you are. You get to the end of the day, and the work isn’t done, so you work a little longer.

Was the work done then?

No?

Guess what. The work is never done. That’s how jobs work. If the work is ever done, you’re unemployed.

Many years ago, I owned a construction company. Whenever I got a couple of new employees and had them adequately broken in, I would approach them one morning and give them both an equal amount of work. “Whichever one of you finishes first, gets a free lunch.”

I guess they never heard that old saying.

They would both tear into the job hard and fast, competing for that meal. At lunchtime, I announced the winner, but told them, “Now that I know you can work that fast, I need you to do it every day.” For the price of a hamburger, I increased their output.

I know what you’re thinking. They must have been idiots to fall for an obvious trick like that.

But isn’t that what you’re doing?

Hmm, I think I’ll give the company an extra 10% work for free.

I know that nine to five is a thing of the past. It’s more like eight to six, or six to six. But whatever, there is a limit, and you are the one that is going to have to set it. If you want to work harder and longer for the same money, your employer will get out of your way and let you.

After I began working in the corporate world, my first couple of jobs expected a certain number of hours. And I gave them those hours. But since I hated the traffic and the commute, I came in earlier and earlier and left early. In the end, I was working six to three. If I needed to occasionally put in some extra time, I might stay until four, but that was the exception.

In my last job, I noticed an odd pattern. Nobody but me came in early an everyone worked late. After a few weeks, I realized what was going on. The owner of the company would stroll in at ten and would frequently stay until six or seven, even later. So the other managers began to emulate that schedule. It had nothing to do with the amount of work they produced; they wanted to be seen working. That way, they could be labeled as a team player. Leading with a bias toward certain individuals is one way a manager can lose the trust of all its employees, including the favored ones.

I wasn’t a team player. I know this is a shock to some of you.

But because of that, it didn’t matter how early I came in; no manager could leave before five. So, I still came in a little early, but not six. And I left at five. Not five o’ one; five. Almost without fail, someone would comment on how punctual I was about leaving for the day. “What time did I get here this morning?” I would ask. This was met by a blank stare.

You know what happened because of this? I didn’t get any gold stars. I didn’t get any pats on the back. I didn’t even get an attaboy.

But I did get a paycheck. Every two weeks. Just like everyone else.

Everyone else who worked until seven or eight at night so they could impress an owner who didn’t give a shit about any of them.

So, where am I going with all of this? I’m glad you stuck with me so far because we’re about to get down to it.

If you worked, say, from eight to six when you worked in the office, then you should work eight to six while working from home. The lack of a commute is your benefit, not your employer’s. Their advantage is savings on utilities and possibly real estate. That hour each way you used to commute? That now belongs to you and your family. So don’t give it away.

If you are the type to fall into the trap of working harder and longer because you are now working from home, that tells me that you are probably a highly productive person. That means you manage your projects and tasks, perhaps with some software. Go back and look at the amount of work you produced when you worked in the office.

That’s how much you should be producing now. Not more. The same. When that amount of work is done, Mr. Slate blows the whistle at the Bedrock Quarrel and Gravel Company, you yell yabba-dabba-doo and go home. Or across the hall.

Maybe because of fewer distractions, you get your work done in less time than you used to. What then? Unless you are an hourly employee, you’re still done. It used to take you till six to get everything done, and you didn’t get home until seven. Now you are finished at five. Go home. Be with your family. Take up a hobby.

Maybe alpaca farming.

I know many people who now work from home, and because their office is right there, they are always in it. They used to put in long hours; now they put in longer hours.

Don’t be that person. Don’t give part of your paycheck back to your employer. Give it to your family.

Give it to yourself.