So, yes, it’s unfortunate how single-minded people can be when it comes to not recognizing working at home as real actual work.

Best,
~v.v.

I keep thinking that it would be great to find a job out of the home so I won’t work so hard all the time.

As I read through the comments I reflected more on my own life. It’s no wonder people are jealous of those of us who work at home. We really do have it made. There is very little about our jobs that we can’t stop for five minutes to watch the kids put on their play or have a meal with the family or just go outside and throw the ball around.

Many of us that right (and have a lap top) also have the ability to take the office with us where ever we go. We can write while we take our parents to the doctor’s office – or while we wait for the kids at their practice.

I do think it takes a special breed to work at home – like Deb said in the post. We are self-motivators and self-employed (just like those that own a business that is based outside the home). And most of the time we are the great multi-taskers – able to balance writing, laundry and lunch all at the same time.

Don’t get mad at the people who can’t relate (or who are so jealous that they want to make you feel guilty). Just smile at the knowledge that you do sit around all day doing the things that you love surrounded by the people and the atmosphere that you love – and you get paid to do it!

Today, my boyfriend came home and mentioned he went out to lunch with his coworkers and they were asking about me. The girls said it must be nice that I’m home all day because I can do the cooking and his laundry and the bills and what not. That’s not true however, and he asked me tonight,after explaining his conversation, why I didn’t do those things (we split everything evenly now). Instead of being a mature adult, I walked into the other room and didn’t talk to him for a few hours, but I was pretty upset. I came back and told him that I could do all those things during the day, but if that’s the case, not to expect me to be able to pay any bills; otherwise, he could hire a maid.

He shut up after that.

But I can understand being upset if you work 10-hour days and then someone implies that because you work at home you must not do much. In my case that would be true.

One day one of them asked if I was still freelancing. I said ‘No, I got tired of having to guesstimate my income each month, so I’m working for a traditional company’.

I meant this as ‘I’m still working at home writing, but I’m doing it for one company and I get a fixed monthly salary.’

They took it as ‘I’m driving to a business and working all day, and finally have a ‘real job’”

This person began asking me about it – hours, work, position, etc.

I said I was working from 8AM to 5PM 5 days a week, that I had to collaborate with different departments and compile the information and research, turn it into a manual any idiot could read, that I had to process lower-rank writers work into the system and edit it where necessary before shipping it off to the head editor, and that I was responsible for gathering the monthly invoices from all of the writers and entering them into the system.

She said something on the lines of ‘sounds hard, are you ready for a real job after playing around at home?”

I told her I was working from home. She hasn’t mentioned anything work related to me again.

Again, thanks for voicing this out. Glad to find people who share my feelings.

My point was actually that as energy costs soar and jobs change over time, more and more people will be telecommuting and not always as freelancers or consultants. My husband actually just went to work-at-home this week. He works as a telephony programmer for a very large corporation and nobody has made snarky comments about that!

Of course, there’s an article in itself, “Making Work-at-Home Work When More Than One of You Work at Home”

Personally, I’ve heard way more positive comments than negative ones about how I earn a living. In fact, I don’t ever remember anyone saying that I “sit around at home all day” — mostly the comments run along the lines of: “I couldn’t do what you do!”

I’m not sure who works harder: office workers or the freelancers. I really do think it’s individual. Right now my husband is hustling his butt around his workplace, while I’m posting this response.

However, I don’t believe this post is without justification. I get comments all the time from friends, family, and coworkers that I don’t work. I kept my office job part-time since I was just starting out in freelancing because I wanted to make sure the bills were paid. Frankly, it’s a distraction to me and I’m not sure I’ll keep it much longer. But, I work at a bank so when I make the rare bank run (I have one client who insists on paying by check) they’re always like “Oh, you’re off today! Must be nice!” Aaaarggghhhh! My answer is always very snippy and rude now because I’m so tired of it. “No, I’m not off today. I have a job just like everybody else, thank you very much!” And then I leave.

I think what’s hardest for me is that I don’t really have anyone to talk to about it. I have ONE friend who supports what I do, but she doesn’t understand the work that I do, so she can’t really offer encouragement. Everyone else is hoping I fail so they can say “I told you so.” So that part’s hard, but I knew it going in. No one wanted me to do this.

Even still, that doesn’t mean they don’t work hard at their jobs. In fact, several of my friends are the hardest working people I know. So, yes, I agree they don’t understand freelance writers and in some ways I simply think they’re envious of what we do – because they don’t understand all of it – but I don’t think that means we work harder than they do.