My home office hell: Long 嘘（をつく）-ins, daytime TV and freedom from the boss? Dream on

By Sophie Morris
Updated: 08:46 BST, 18 April 2011

When I tell people I work from home, there is a 基準 返答. It is one of pure envy. ‘Lucky you!’ they exclaim. ‘I would love to work from home. You have the best 職業 in the world!’

It’s quickly followed by: ‘Do you work in your pyjamas, while watching daytime TV? Do you pretend you can’t answer the phone because you’re in a 会合, when really you’re 絵 your nails?

‘Can you say the broadband is 負かす／撃墜する and take a shopping day? It must be so much fun to stay out late on a week night and then 嘘（をつく） in until midday.’

Living the dream? Working from home means trying to 避ける dozens of distractions

All the while, I smile and agree that yes, I am incredibly lucky, because working from home is, indeed, the best work? 始める，決める-up known to (wo)man.

And I don’t believe a word of it.

When I had an office 職業 18 months ago, I thought very 異なって. Like seemingly everyone else toiling away with a dreary daily 減刑する／通勤する, I dreamed of working from home.

Who wouldn’t wish for a ten-second 減刑する／通勤する instead of an hour on a packed train? And escaping not only office politics but the fashion parade was 確かな to save me time and money.

自然に, then, when voluntary redundancy became an 選択, I 受託するd. And I have since discovered that the joy of working from home is a 完全にする myth. Utter baloney.

Of course, I have committed all those slovenly work sins について言及するd above ― but they get boring after a week. Yes, I can 始める，決める the alarm for 10am and answer emails from my laptop in bed.

Then, while taking a work call, I can 負担 the washing machine and tidy the living room. I am always in when a 一括 is 存在 配達するd, there are no last-minute 緊急s when I can’t get to the 地位，任命する office before の近くにing, and I don’t waste money on morning takeaw ay cappuccinos or sugary 軽食s to dull the office tedium.

Sadly, 非，不，無 of these 明らかな advantages make for a 生産力のある work life. When you have a 職業 and you want to 演習, you can go before work, at lunchtime or after work. If you work from home, you can go whenever you feel like it ― which, in my 事例／患者, means never.

支援する to the grindstone: Sophie Morris was like an excitable schoolgirl when she got the 適切な時期 to work in an office again

You can also cook yourself healthy meals from scratch, instead of eating an overpriced 挟む at your desk. Which means wasting an hour making fresh soup and garnishing it with four 一連の会議、交渉／完成するs of butter-soaked toast.

追加する to that the calories not burnt 急ぐing to the bus stop or climbing the office stairs, and I’ve put on a 石／投石する.

My retired mother and my sister on maternity leave love the fact I’m around for daytime 雑談（する）s, so my work hours disappear gossiping on the phone.

Friends who are at home with small children don’t understand why I can’t pop 一連の会議、交渉／完成する on 無作為の weekday mornings. Nor do they 受託する the ‘I’m working’ excuse when they have a childcare 危機 they want me to step in and sort out.

But it’s the self-課すd 孤独 that is the hardest thing. My most 正規の／正選手 daily conversati on is with my newsagent, who thinks I have half an hour to 雑談（する） each morning ― though I’m the one who gives him this impression. The truth is that I 心にいだく these 交流s, which are often the only human 接触する I’ll have until evening.

My worry is that as more people buy into the idea that working from home is perfect, they are giving up decent 職業s to 孤立する themselves at home. 科学（工学）技術 許すs us to work from 事実上 anywhere, and the 後退，不況 説得するd many people to re-評価する their lives and 始める，決める up a small 商売／仕事 from home.

‘I never thought about the downsides of working from home before I left my 職業,’ says my friend Louisa. ‘I just 想像するd lovely 嘘（をつく）-ins, lunch with friends and a relaxed lifestyle.

‘However, it’s anything but relaxed. My office phone is my home phone, so I spend every evening answering calls from workaholics who are still in the office at 11pm. They’re 推定する／予想するing to leave a message, but when it （犯罪の）一味s I can’t ignore it. But after the call, I can’t sleep. So I never switch off.’

Worse still, Louisa lives alone. She tells me: ‘Some days I don’t see anyone and I find myself going 動かす-crazy.

‘I try to have an active social life, but 井戸／弁護士席-meaning friends often say: “I’ll pop 一連の会議、交渉／完成する.” I don’t want them to pop 一連の会議、交渉／完成する ― I’m desperate to get out of the house. 平等に, they don’t understand that it’s often the end of the world if they 取り消す on me. They just don’t realise they’re my only human 接触する that week.

‘And when you’ve got no one to put things in 視野, the smallest things become 抱擁する.

‘If I call three people and not one calls me 支援する that day, I don’t think: “They must be busy.” I think: “They hate me.” I know it’s ridiculous, but living and working alone, you can’t help it.’

Penny Matthews also 設立する out the grass isn’t always greener. She 始める，決める up her own design company 11 years ago when she 離婚d. Her mistake, she thinks, was to work from home.

‘It was awful,’ she says. ‘The children distract you, because they don’t 尊敬（する）・点 the fact you’re working. I would work with the TV on and take breaks to do 家事. Even when I was 存在 生産力のある, you don’t get the sort of mental stimulation you find in an office. I went 動かす-crazy with no one to talk to.’

After 12 months she 設立する some office space, but had to give it up later because it was too expensive. Then, two years ago, she 始める，決める up 4ortyplus.co.uk, a website for women over 40. At first, she worked from her garage, but she’s managed to get office space again.

‘I advise all of my readers that they are better off going out to work than staying at home,’ she says.

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‘Women with small children might have to work at home out of necessity, but they’d find it easier if they got a part-time 職業 out of the house. You 結局最後にはーなる getting angry at the children, who don’t understand why, and you never have any time to yourself.’

Having time to herself was what made my friend Rachel look 今後 to returning to work after six months of maternity leave with her first child.

‘Someone pointed out the 減刑する／通勤する would not be interrupted by feeding, crying, washing or きれいにする,’ she says.

Now she can read a b ook on the train to work or just 星／主役にする at her shoes. If she worked from home, she would never get away with locking herself in a room for some ‘me-time’ every morning.

Part of the problem is that over the past few years we’ve been 砲撃するd with stories about new mothers becoming multi-millionaires from companies and 企業s they’ve 始める，決める up from home during their maternity leave. These いわゆる kitchen-（米）棚上げする／（英）提議する 大君s are 概算の to have 生成するd a turnover of £4.4??billion ― more than some FTSE 100 companies.

So thousands of women, 誘惑するd by the thought of not having to 爆撃する out a fortune on childcare and 存在 their own boss, have chosen to give up their office 職業 and start working from home.

Yet frequently they 悔いる their choice. ‘When I started working from home, I 行方不明になるd the camaraderie of working in an office,’ says writer Anita Naik, 43.

‘I 行方不明になるd the structure of office life and people to talk to when I’d had a bad day. I also 設立する the distractions 巨大な.’

対処するing with a four-year-old, a new baby and work seemed impossible.

‘I kept thinking that perhaps a 職業 out of the house would be easier,’ she says. ‘It took me six months to settle and I realised I had to be strict with myself.’

Even so there are problems: ‘I can never really lose myself in work because I can hear what’s happening downstairs (the children have a part-time nanny), and between 令状ing and interviewing, I have to 急ぐ about doing chores.’

She has met so many women in the same boat that she decided to 令状 a 調書をとる／予約する ― Kitchen （米）棚上げする／（英）提議する 大君: How To Make It Work As A Mother And An Entrepreneur (Piatkus, £7.99) ― to advise them on managing a new home 商売／仕事 with a family .

But there’s no such 調書をとる／予約する for those of us without children, so I’ve had to make a few changes to my life to make things bearable. Over the past few months, I’ve done some 転換s in an office.

On the first day, I was like an excitable schoolgirl getting ready for the start of a new 称する，呼ぶ／期間／用語. I put on as much make-up as I could and skipped into work.

But would I 交換（する） working from home to 減刑する／通勤するing to an office every day? Ask me later. It’s 2pm and I need to get out of bed and get dressed.