with Britt Reints
Forget the 9 to 5; Full Time, All the Time is a blog about the mobile working life - when you have the freedom to work from anywhere and the responsibility of always having your smartphone turned on. Britt Reints works as a freelance writer while traveling fulltime in an RV with her husband and two kids. She explores balancing real-life bills with an unconventional work life, and finding time to maintain relationships with family and friends.
You can also find Britt at InPursuitOfHappiness.net.
Categories: balance, office life, the 2nd shift, the juggle, working from home
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The company I work for is a relatively large, global company, and in my opinion, it has a surprisingly small law department: it consists of one other lawyer and a paralegal. As a result, my job can be really demanding – it’s not unusual for me to work more than 40 hours per week, and spending the odd weekend or an evening or two to drafting contracts or negotiating deals. Thing is, I actually feel pretty lucky: at most other companies similar to mine, working these hours would require sacrificing a lot of family time to make the job work. However, when I signed on, part of my deal included working from home several days a week – and on days when I do go into the office, I’m usually free to leave at 2:30 to pick up my daughter from her school. Sure, it means that I finish the day’s work many evenings after she goes to bed; however, not having to punch a clock means that for most of her waking hours, I’m available to her.
Again, I don’t kid myself: I realize that I’m incredibly lucky that I’ve managed to work a lot of flexibility into my gig. That said, I’m also pretty realistic in the knowledge that this “flexibility” may cost me as far as future career opportunities with this company, unless I’m willing to give it up – but to be honest? I’m okay with that – I became a parent later in life, and feel pretty pleased with what I accomplished in my working career prior to my daughter’s birth. Right now, it’s all about figuring out what I can accomplish as a mom.
I’m curious: how do you work flexibility in your lives so you can be the best working mom you can be? If you haven’t yet, how would you like to make that happen?
I wish I had the answer to that.
With no husband at home to pick up the slack my days are long and I’ve found that my work is suffering. I left the office on Monday at 4:30 on the verge of tears at the impossibility of my work load and went for an hour long run. The run helped of course and I returned yesterday with energy and worked til 6:30 - but the fact is that Zac called 7 times between 3 and 6 to ask if I was coming home soon.
I usually leave work in time to pick him up from his extra curricular activities (with the intention of completing whatever I was working on at home) but then pass out reading him a story because I was up at 4:30 to go for my much-needed-sanity-inducing-run. So no work gets done at night and I return to work with that feeling of anxiety, wondering how I’m going to get through it all.
So as you can tell I haven’t found the balance. If anything, I’ve leaned too far towards making sure I’m always there for my boy! (which isn’t a bad thing but with bills to pay and no salary except whatever bacon I can bring home it’s a bit tense)
tash | June 4th, 2008 at 7:47 am
I work in high-tech where every employee gets a laptop. I always took that to mean that there was flexibility in when/where/how I could work. So I work from home whenever possible.
I used to have scheduled days at home, but now find it better to keep my schedule open. I WFH on days where there are minimal meetings - and juggle my administrative work in project management (like status reports, responding to emails, etc) while getting the laundry done.
I put a lot of hours into the 2nd shift - it’s when I get a lot of work accomplished. For the most part, I don’t mind getting to bed until after midnight.
Robyn | June 4th, 2008 at 4:11 pm
At my previous gig leaving work at 6:30 was considered being flexible. One time I was leaving and the senior partner asked me where I was going. I said to go home and relieve my nanny, who had to pick up her kids. He said I think you need a new nanny.
Right.
I love hearing stories of women who have found a way to work in a more flexible way — maybe the most of us who do it, the easier it will be to find jobs like this.
Nataly | June 4th, 2008 at 5:44 pm
Great questions, does anybody have the answers. I am a self employed therapist and I also run an online business. The reality is I never stop working. Work to me is everything I need and have to do daily for family, career, or house. And those are the basics. I have one child who is almost two. I struggle with feeling like I am constantly pulled in all directions. Balance? I can teach it to others but when it comes to my world, it’s all unbalanced. Please give me the answers!
Kim | June 4th, 2008 at 8:05 pm
Flexibility is awesome — and can also be a curse. I work more hours than ever at home than I ever did an an office.
Also, holy crap, Nataly, I can’t believe that senior partner said that to you. Whoa.
Kristin | June 4th, 2008 at 11:56 pm