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Thread: The down side to working from home

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    The down side to working from home

    Hi all I haven't been online in a while except just to manage my website. The family and I have been sick with flu and I'm just recovering from bronchitis & tonsillitis which has affected business negatively because I can't teach while being so sick so while off sick there is just no money coming in. So the down side to working from home vs. being employed is that there is no paid sick leave and if that is not bad enough you also have the added expense of doctors’ bills which are never planned for and always tend to pop up at the most inconvenient time in my life.... ....!!!

    Then there is the lack of respect and recognition from family and friends when you work from home because they don't see working from home as work, they rather see it as sitting on your ass all day!!! My husband and his mother are the worst when it comes to this, just because I work from home they expect me to have all the time in the world to drop EVERYTHING and jump to their every demand, but they would never dream of taking off work to do their own dirty work. This really makes me so mad but they never seem to sneer at the income I make that provides for everything!!!

    Then there is also the unsteady and unreliable income you just never know from where or when your next pay cheque is coming in so you can never make any long term financial commitments because you just never know if you will have the funds on time to make payments.

    Other than those few gripes I can't really complain because at least I am earning an income (thank goodness for the online work when I can't teach) which is better than nothing at all, I have my financial independence and I am more flexible for my family.

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    My wife and I have been working together for 5 years. We firts worked in a little factory but we have worked from home for the past two years. We changed the lounge into an office and the dining room into a lounge. We work from 8am till 11pm (on ad off). Its good for her because she gets to deal with the kids as and when required and I get to do collections & deliveries & get a lot of work done late at night. We work our asses off and its a way of life.

    Make it very clear to your husband and mother that if he gets retrenched (or dies) you are not reliant on an employer to enable you to look after the children. Shit does happen and then we need to fend for ourselves. Another thing to point out to them is that your business is not location dependent. You are able to ply your trade wherever you are, so if you were to move to NZ like most do, you will be able to continue running the business.

    BTW: If your husband doesn't support your endevours then who the hell's endevours does he support - he should support his wife and family and leave his mamma's apron outside your front door.

    Bottom line, your family need to realize that you are producing an income and that your time is your own. Some people will compalin whatever you do - so you may as well do what makes you happy.

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    the up side is you get to determine your income...

    dont worry we all have the same problem...the family think its great having you work from home...they can just shout for you when they need you...no matter if you are in the middle of an important telephone call or as far as they are concerned you just play on the internet

    i have considered moving my operation to a workshop/office...thank goodness i havent...my family has become more important than my bussinees...which means i dont make as much money...but a least i am enjoying watching my little one grow up and sharing those special moment with her...no matter how small and insignificant they may seem...they are worth more to me than all bill gates and the fella with the funny hair dos money to me.

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    You know I run two businesses just to make ends meet I have my computer training business and then my online business so my computer training hours are between 10am -4pm so that I can be more flexible around my 2year old daughter who I must say is the light of my life..... and then my 11 year old son also has his school things so with these hours I can still spend time with my kids. But then I need to do some work online in the evenings and my husband gets so peturbed he feels that because I work for myself that I don't have to work in the evenings or on the occasional Saterday morning which I think is very selfish of him at times.

    The one argument that we often have is this that when his boss tells him (my husband is an electrician) he has to work late or on a weekend I must just accept it because its work and I never fight with him when he drops everything to go "work", but if I dare to ask him to look after our daughter for 2 hours on a Saturday morning so that I can teach a client he has such a faffy because as far as he is concerned its not work!!! When I used to teach on Saturday mornings I used to come home with R700 every Saturday for 4 hours work!!! It was always my best teaching day. So ja unfortunately he doesn't see what I do as a job or work but he has no problem expecting me to pay my half of the household expences even though he earns double what I earn and I think alot of the attitude comes from his mother.

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    So ja unfortunately he doesn't see what I do as a job or work but he has no problem expecting me to pay my half of the household expences even though he earns double what I earn and I think alot of the attitude comes from his mother.

    This is rather interesting - it never ceases to amaze me how people do things differently. My wife and I have a number of bank accounts & credit cards - we both have access to all of them. The wife does all the bookkeeping so she generally controls the money - anyway, if it was up to me nothing would get paid because my mind is like a sieve. There is no such thing as my money, her money or our money. Money is simply a tool, like wate or electricity.

    Anyway, the way I see it is like this, anything that is done in the persuit of bringing money into the business / family is seen as work. The effort put into making money should be respected and cherished.

    I also don't know what the issue is with looking after kids, my wife used to travel all over the country and the girls stayed with me, even when they were still in nappies. Don't get me wrong - I can also be a hardass ahole but there are things in life that are just to important to sneer at.

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    If I may, respect is not just a word... Right now he is calling the shots and I wish to ask you why? To watch his own child is asking too much? Well then I fear he does not respect you or your child. This doesn’t sound like much now but I am willing to say that you have been together no longer then 5 years?

    Also I am willing to say that he doesn’t respect your job because he doesn’t want to do nappy duty while having a beer and watch sport on TV. So in short your job is an inconvenience to him.

    If I am wrong please allow me to apologise... But again, any money earned is exactly that. It is money earned! If he is making double and he is expecting you to pick up the bills then this tells me he has a real ego problems and good old mom is there to keep the ego nurtured.

    Honestly if it is an ego problem nothing is going to change him... Sorry but advice wise I would say start looking because without respect there cannot be a relationship.
    peace is a state of mind
    Disclaimer: everything written by me can be considered as fictional.

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    You know, I think that it may come from "traditional roles". Traditionally, as you would well know, there was "womens work" and then there was "mens work" Could it be that he, and his mother view the marriage through traditional eyes.

    The entire issue may not have anything to do with your working from home as such, but more with the fact that as soon as you are at home, you are automatically seen to be in the traditional role of wife and mother. Its very hard for people to look at the same situation and see it from a different perspective i.e. during 8am-5pm the wife is at home working and from 5pm-8am she is at home in her traditional role.

    ...food for thought...

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    I suspect some of this notion of "having the time" to run kids or run errands during working hours comes from an employee's view of the self-employed. The employee has a boss and therefor believes he/she has little discretion - certainly far less than the self-employed. What the employee fails to consider is that the self-employed also has a boss - the customer; and unlike the employee's boss the customer doesn't pay when you're not delivering under any circumstance - being self-employed means no paid leave. Zip. None. Nada.

    OK - this doesn't apply when you get away from forms of business that rely on billable hours as their foundation, but probably does apply to most micro business owners in the self-employed bracket.

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