Problems You Don't Get at the Office

NAH is finding competition for the mouse can be quite tough when he works at home and the cats' keyboard skills leave a lot to be desired too. We held our second board meeting yesterday - with a cake baking in the breadmaker at the same time after the last meeting's woeful sparseness in that department - and Skimble insisted on joining in with us. He just would not stop climbing onto the table, purring and nudging the various files and papers. The only way we could stop him was for NAH to have him sitting on his lap*. We went flat screen quite a while ago, so we have at least managed to cure the cat draped over the monitor problem before all this mayhem started.

* = NAH's written up the meeting's minutes showing Skimble as an attendee, so I guess that makes him our company's sleeping partner ;)

If you work at home, what unforeseen problems have you encountered which differ from office life?

Comments

  1. Yolanda Elizabet Heuzen24 January 2009 at 09:20

    Fun post VP and oh so true! I've encountered quite a few problems in my home office with many members of the Bliss team (printer, keyboard, mouse) and Tara is not helping either. Perhaps I'll do a post on it too one of these days.

    Have a lovely weekend!

    ReplyDelete
  2. VP24 January 2009 at 09:39

    Hi Yolanda - I thought you'd like this :)

    As for your question on my previous post, I think it must have been peeking when I read about your pond last night ;)

    Enjoy your weekend!

    ReplyDelete
  3. Arabella Sock24 January 2009 at 09:53

    You have distracted me from my birdwatching!! I am sucker for a cat photo. Mine are a nightmare - they sit on the mousemat, they pat the moving cursor on the screen leaving dirty paw marks, they wander around in front of the screen so all I can see is cat bottoms, they think they can both fit on my lap at once like they did when they were kittens (they can't so they form a pile on top of me), they want to go out the window, they want to come in the window, they sit by the printer when it is printing photographs and swipe at them leaving cat hairs stuck to them, they line up in front of my SAD light box so that I don't get any light from it and if I don't give them any attention they thunder downstairs and wreck the kitchen.

    Did you say "work at home"? No chance of that..

    ReplyDelete
  4. Carol Michel24 January 2009 at 12:09

    I don't have any cats here, but when I try to help my mom w/ her computer at her house, they are all over me and the keyboard and the mouse.

    When I work in my home office, the close proximity of the refrigerator and pantry keeps me distracted looking for and eating food!

    Hope your weekend is going well!

    ReplyDelete
  5. petoskystone24 January 2009 at 13:21

    unforseen problem--how long the hours stretch when doing home-based childcare. on the plus side, i have more opportunity to fit in household upkeep whenever a minute pops up.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Monica the Garden Faerie24 January 2009 at 13:31

    Right this very moment, James is laying on my right foremarm. I can use the mouse no problem, but am typing left-handed! I actually prefer my furry friends to many of my colleagues!

    ReplyDelete
  7. Rose24 January 2009 at 14:14

    I don't work at home--not for pay, anyway:) But blogging is sometimes difficult as Toby likes to sit in front of the monitor. It's rather hard to read blogs when there's a big white Himalayan cat blocking your view:)

    ReplyDelete
  8. Anonymous24 January 2009 at 15:16

    I'm typing this while peering round one of my cats. She finds the gap between the keyboard and the monitor very handy!

    ReplyDelete
  9. Anonymous24 January 2009 at 16:37

    No work-at-home problems to relate, but my cat does love to lie in the small space between my monitor and keyboard...and he's a very large, very fluffy cat. :)

    ReplyDelete
  10. Juliet24 January 2009 at 23:24

    I'll have to ask R about this one.

    So far as I'm aware, the main problem he encounters working from home is that there's no-one to stop him playing patience on the computer.

    I suspect he would say that his main problem is having me wanting him to carry the washing up the stairs, or tell me what it says on the metoffice weather forecast when he's trying to concentrate, though.

    ReplyDelete
  11. Aunt Debbi/kurts mom24 January 2009 at 23:36

    I used to transcribe from home and there was always a cat reading over my shoulder, very distracting. Then there were the toddlers waking up too early or going down to late and messing up my schedule. Also, one of the kittens chewed through several cables costing lots of dollars to keep me working.

    ReplyDelete
  12. Susan Tomlinson25 January 2009 at 00:29

    I have to admit, the garden distracts me when I work at home. But since I also write about gardening, then I can claim I'm really working, can't I? (What a sneak I am!)

    ReplyDelete
  13. Anonymous25 January 2009 at 07:19

    What a big cat! I think that it's the same for anyone who has cats. xx

    ReplyDelete
  14. fru Sandeggen25 January 2009 at 13:12

    Looks familiar;)

    At the moment I'm glad I dont have to work at home.
    I would probably get neck problems instantly as one of my companions love to hang around my neck... He even falls asleep, and start sliding down and --ouch!

    ReplyDelete
  15. Zoë25 January 2009 at 14:12

    We have both worked freelance since 1982, when we set up our own Ltd. Co. too. For the most part we worked at Client sites, where ever they happened to be. We chose to live where we do because it was readily commutable for any part of England south of Birmingham, between London, Bristol and the South Coast. For the past 7 years that has been entirely working from home, with the very occasional trip to the office in East Grinstead, and even less frequently trips to clients (Edinburgh, Denver, etc)

    Cats on keyboards are a perennial problem for both of us, as are cats on drawing boards for me.

    The most difficult one to deal with is surprise visits from VAT Man (although this hasn't happened for a while).

    Power and internet outages are the biggest problem however, as we design and develop software that requires us to be connected to our clients via VPN whenever we are working.

    No power, no internet, no work, no income!

    Lots and lots of luck with your and NAH's venture!

    ReplyDelete
  16. Mr. McGregor's Daughter25 January 2009 at 18:55

    My poor beleaguered spouse deals with his numerous work emails every night at home. The problem is that we have only 1 pc and with 4 of us in the house, it can be quite a competition. For the amount of work he does at home, his company should give him a work laptop, but apparently, there's no chance of that. For me, the biggest challenge is the nearly continuous interruptions from the children when they are home, needing something or needing to tell me something.

    ReplyDelete
  17. Anna25 January 2009 at 21:31

    No need for central heating with your own lap cat VP. For me when I was working from home, the biggest distraction was the greenhouse just yards away from the study window. I had to exercise great self restraint.

    ReplyDelete
  18. VP2 February 2009 at 17:41

    Arabella - we've been having those exact problems today. Don't you just love having cats?

    Carol - welcome! Ah yes, the ever present food problem, particularly when NAH is around as he's always offering to go and get the biscuits or cake. I think we're just going to have to stop buying or making any.

    Petoskystone - that sounds quite hard, we're bad enough at just looking after ourselves...

    Monica - you're definitely James' staff not owner then ;)

    Rose - I have that problem with Skimble as he's so big. With Jess it's more her wandering up and down the keyboard and purring loudly in my ear that's the problem!

    EG and Nancy - they always find a gap to fit into don't they? Skimble's really good at finding the space between my knee and the tapestry frame!

    Juliet - I think I give that kind of bother to NAH from time to time too!

    Deb - sounds like a normal day to me over at yours ;)

    Susan - sounds like you have just the right kind of Job :)

    Flighty - yes he's enormous! In this case the camera isn't lying.

    Puspilde - welcome! Luckily it's not got that bad - yet...

    Zoe - sounds like we've got a number of things to keep in mind from what you've just said. Luckily the VAT man won't be one of the problems.

    MMD - that does sound quite a strain on your resources and time! Sounds like your husband does need a laptop though...

    Anna - I also have to exercise self restraint re the garden, especially on photogenic days!

    ReplyDelete
  19. mschapman12 August 2009 at 03:27

    This was me the other day when we were trying to chat! Except, Ike doesn't sleep like that - that's Woody!

    ReplyDelete
  20. VP28 August 2009 at 17:18

    Marilyn - I thought you'd like it and it was just what I imagined was happening at your end of our IM chat!

    ReplyDelete

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