What It’s Like to Work From Home

Have you considered working from home? Have you wondered how to do it successfully? Well, I can’t even begin to tell you how to work from home, until I paint the picture of my own home office scenario.

My name is Kari Klein and I am the Manager of Global Performance for a technology company in the Boston area. I live in an apartment in Cambridge, with my neighbors Harvard and MIT. My home office is a small room off of our kitchen at the back-end of our apartment. I have a great desk and shelving setup (courtesy of IKEA), of mixed metal and wood. The shelves cover 3 out of the 4 walls, leaving some room for two windows, a closet door and the entryway into my office (no door).

I have an eclectic mix of stuff on my shelving…everything from business books to old magazines and journals that I’m keeping, folders of information that I once thought was important, binders of materials from my recent graduate courses, office supplies, framed photographs and of course, my treasured Red Sox and Celtics keepsakes. Like anyone else who has a home office, I have combined the professional and the personal information into one large blob of stuff that is somewhat organized all over my shelves. Ironically, I usually can locate things in their exact location, so I guess it’s working for me!

Now, on to the more important inhabitants of my office. I am a self-professed technology junkie, but I do strive to use things that help me be more productive in one way or another. I have my personal desktop computer, with the 21 inch flat screen monitor and surround sound speaker system (I work really well to music when I’m not on calls), my work laptop is front and center, my all-in-one office jet printer, my photo-quality color printer, my iPod, my home phone, my cell phone, 3 portable hard drives, my pocket pc and all of that is connected to our high-speed wireless home network.

On top of all of the stuff and electronics that work in here with me, I have my regular home co-workers, Simon and Tiger. Tiger likes to come in and sit right next to my laptop…she is a cat who appreciates the warmth of the laptop fan as much as my petting her. Simon, on the other hand, is a cat who prefers to remind you it’s all about him. He likes to jump up on my desk, walk around the back of my laptop, s-t-r-e-t-c-h down onto my lap for a hug and a pet, and then circle back up on my desk again. I’m never surprised to bring a little fur back with me into my outside office.

I hope that I’ve given you a good, initial picture of my home office and my working environment. I am looking forward to sharing home office tips and stories with all of you over the coming months. With my 8+ years of full-time and part-time home office experience, I hope I can help someone out there think of another way to do something, and maybe even an easier way. If nothing else, I’d love to prove you’re not crazy and you’re not the only one that has a FedEx delivery driver who notoriously always rings for deliveries in the middle of your most important conference calls and web meetings.

For now, I’ll leave with you the anticipation of new ideas and tips to help you successfully work from home, while I hop in the shower and then cook dinner. The hour at the gym this morning, which was sandwiched in between conference calls, was a while ago, and while you can’t see me sitting in my gym clothes, I can and need to move past the workout this morning. Bye for now!

Kari Klein is the Manager of Global Performance with Nuance Communications in the Boston area.