The Kid Zone

I l @ ve RuBoard

If you work from home with children around for part or all of the time and you have a dedicated office, you can start teaching your children that when the door is shut, they must respect that serious work is going on and that you must only be disturbed for crises. " Crises ," however, has different definitions for adults and children. You might feel that a crisis means the toilet is overflowing and flooding the bathroom. Or that two siblings are fighting a "Wrestling Deathmatch" that looks like it might lead to actual bloodshed . "Crisis," to a child, may mean the peanut butter can't be found or your child has just finished the last ”the very last! ”chocolate chip cookie in the Keebler bag. So good communication, just as it is in an outside office, is key. Define what crisis means and never, ever assume.

If you are fortunate enough to have an office with a door, this can help you get into the "office mindset." This can also create a mental line of demarcation between being "in the office" and being "at home." A door creates an illusion or atmosphere of professionalism and helps cut down on distractions.

On the other side of the shut-door policy can be that when the door is open , the kids are free to bother you within reason. Many parents who make the choice to work from home do so with the idea that they will be available "just for a cuddle," and that's precisely why they decided to work from home in the first place. Cuddle breaks are not part of corporate culture, but they can, wonderfully, be part of home office culture.

The other nice thing about a door is something you may not have thought of when setting up a home office: It allows you to shut your work in. In other words, one of the pitfalls of working from home is never leaving the office behind. Every time you walk past that desk, it's a reminder of what you've left undone. (Conversely, many home office workers have told us they feel guilty walking past piles of laundry or undone dishes. It's a double-edged sword.)

Workaholic tendencies can be very much magnified if you start your own business or work from home. Shutting the door after you physically leave the office can be a way of separating all that work from your personal life. If you are without a door, consider putting files away and not leaving them on your desk, or doing some sort of ritual that signals to your mind that the day is, indeed, over.

Now what if you do not have a door on your office and you've got those gremlins in your house? Erica doesn't have an office with a door. Her home office is set up in what used to be the dining room. Chosen for its natural light and picture windows , it is in the traffic route of the house. From there, she can keep an eye on three kids, the dogs, parakeets, rabbit, and general mayhem. A desk and fantastic shelving provide the space to work. Because she does not have a door, she instead has a sort of "code word." When she is on the telephone and cannot be interrupted , she says, "This is business, " while giving her kids the evil eye. It doesn't work all the time, but interrupting a business call to report that the rabbit is loose in the kitchen is a more serious offense than, say, interrupting a call to Grandma. Setting up a code word, and, for that matter, sitting down with your kids periodically and explaining what you do and why it must be quiet sometimes, is part of running a successful home office. Just as you would communicate with your peers in an office environment, remember that your family, if you have one around you at home, is now part of your Board of Directors.

I l @ ve RuBoard