Sunday, July 25, 2010

Sitting coffee in hand/cats at my feet


...and wondering why I'm not at the beach, not outside, not enjoying the sunshine.

Oh yes, that would be because I'm working from home this weekend.  Oh the joy - no please stop me now.

I had an interesting conversation with our HR director a few weeks ago.  Her father aka the owner/president of the company, frowns on us worker bees taking work home over the weekend.  He feels that we should all have weekends off and take a full week vacation (or two as the seniority dictates) each year.  Kate and I talked about how that's just not the way it works anymore.

The era of taking the family off for two weeks, no work, no phone calls, no emails, has sadly left us.

No I don't exactly *have* to work from home, kitties at my feet, coffee happily being consumed (decaf as it is).  I *could* go in at 4 a.m. and put in 12 hour days for 5 days.  For one who is scheduled a mere 40 hours a week, as as salary paid exactly that (and as backup HR, I know the overtime laws - I am definitely non-exempt), putting in 60 isn't always the best move.  Sometimes I'd rather be with hubby though currently that involves something Jackie Chan playing on the tele only barely audible over his snores.

Still, home is more comfortable.  I can sit braless in my favorite tank top and shorts.  I'm also doing laundry (watch her multi-task folks) and obviously at the moment I'm taking a break because it was either this or listen to Harold try to convince me that the journal entries would be *much* more fun with a couple of glasses of chardonnay.

There's a reason why most accountants can't drink on the job, good at numbers though we may be.

So here I sit, trying to convince myself that getting my work done equals sleeping IN til 4 instead of opening the doors at 4.

So here I sit wondering just how I could work from the beach.  It's probably possible, but those pesky margaritas ... probably safest to stick to coffee, snoring husband and purring kitties.

that photo is from Rehoboth from last year.  Whenever we go to the beach either it's too cold, too rough, or somebody doesn't feel well.  I love the ocean.  However, with my eyesight, it doesn't love me without a keeper.  Still, to fall asleep to the sound of the waves is a joy unparallelled.

2 comments:

Cris said...

So, here I sit, with caffeinated beverage, procrastinating on the work I brought home. As you note, the advantages: can multi-task, divert myself when stuck with a ball thrown for Buster, put I-Tunes on random for white noise much better than the cubicle culture....We Americans work so much harder than Europeans. I have beaucoup vacation hours, but no time to take...something wrong with this picture. Cheers!

Unknown said...

We do work too hard, not as hard as some cultures but definitely harder than many.

Work set up my ability to dial in from home after I had to come in the day I disconnected Mom. TPTB decided then (after I told them leave me alone for two hours, let me do payroll, and I was heading back to the hospital) that it might be wise since I am the only person who can do my job to make it easiest just in case.

Thankfully that was the only just.in.case (leave it to Mom - the edict went out years ago Nobody Dies on a Tuesday - yeah like she ever listened to edicts?) but you just never know.

I will always remember the commercial that states that Americans live to work and the Latino culture works to live.

Of course I still like the idea of a two hour siesta each day :)