While at work the other day, we were discussing coffee and other general Work at Home topics. I have no clue how we went from coffee to Roombas but it gave me a brilliant idea!
I want a Roomba to bring me coffee with the push of a button!
Now, I can certainly bypass that and just purchase a coffee maker for my office and get on with my life but this is in the category of NEAT! I have always wanted a Roomba because they are just....cool. However, I am cheap, and I squeak and it is not likely that one will be in my future. UNLESS (so the Lorax says, Love the book by the say. I can read it emphatically to you, with my voice, without the book, right now, and LOVE it. Ah, but I digress) someone buys me one then I will happily put it to use!
Add in the coffee integer....I push a button, send it out to "navigate the heckacious hallway traffic" and get fresh, hot, coffee and bring it back to me. Oh the joy! I would even go so far as to install a little "RooombaDoor" for it to come into my office without human intervention. OMY that would be soo cool. I could bring it out when we entertain and it would be great!
Alas, things like that have yet to exist but it is cool to think about. What neat gizmo would you want to bring YOU coffee?
What do YOU think?
(Note: Ya, this is a short one. My brain is fried today. Poo.)
Reader suggested posts. Other blogs I write and prompts from my readers.
Showing posts with label work from home. Show all posts
Showing posts with label work from home. Show all posts
Thursday, January 8, 2015
Saturday, January 3, 2015
Day 3: Quarter machine bouncy balls in my brain and I went to work
I went to work yesterday and it was Friday, my day off. I get one day off a week and you would think I would take great care to avoid the office when I don't have to be there. For those of you who DON'T know what I do for a living. This may seem laughable.
She gets up, gets dressed, eats breakfast and has coffee. She gets in the car, drives ALL the way to work, sits down, turns on her computer to start her day. THEN she stares mouth agape at her computer screen realizing she could have slept in and avoided the whole work place thing. You had ONE job girl, to enjoy the day off and you flubbed it up. However that is nothing like how it actually went down.
Background! I work from home. I have done so for many, many years. I have a very small hallway from the bedroom to the office which encompasses about five steps or ten shuffles. There is also access to the bathroom in said hallway and that is why I sometimes say "navigated the hallway traffic." Ya, that is supposed to be funny. Though, I think I have used that so often that I don't find it as hilarious as the first time I said it. (TINY digression there. Hehehe.) Any way, this is more of how it went:
I woke up, brushed my teeth, got dressed, made coffee, navigated the traffic in the hallway, sat down at my desk and started to get my workspace up and running. As I navigate my way to the support chat that I have to utilize, I announced to the fellow employees the following important message:
She gets up, gets dressed, eats breakfast and has coffee. She gets in the car, drives ALL the way to work, sits down, turns on her computer to start her day. THEN she stares mouth agape at her computer screen realizing she could have slept in and avoided the whole work place thing. You had ONE job girl, to enjoy the day off and you flubbed it up. However that is nothing like how it actually went down.
Background! I work from home. I have done so for many, many years. I have a very small hallway from the bedroom to the office which encompasses about five steps or ten shuffles. There is also access to the bathroom in said hallway and that is why I sometimes say "navigated the hallway traffic." Ya, that is supposed to be funny. Though, I think I have used that so often that I don't find it as hilarious as the first time I said it. (TINY digression there. Hehehe.) Any way, this is more of how it went:
I woke up, brushed my teeth, got dressed, made coffee, navigated the traffic in the hallway, sat down at my desk and started to get my workspace up and running. As I navigate my way to the support chat that I have to utilize, I announced to the fellow employees the following important message:
Morning..........DO YOU KNOW WHAT I DID? DO YOU KNOW WHAT I JUST DID? I AM SUPPOSED TO BE OFF TODAY!!! WTFLIP! GOOD BYE! **Michele has left the support chat.
I was so mortified that I was at a loss for what to do next. So I wrote. All of my blogs got something yesterday. I know on one of them I already told this story and if it was this one, I apologize, however this is going somewhere I promise. I even had the intention to study and that would have been great had I actually did it but all that writing made me tired and I ended up sleeping the day away anyway. (Except for the part where Cal's best friend came home after five years and I was rudely awakened by him to get up and watch him hop like a rabbit down the driveway to greet his friend. I needed the air so I was ok with that. ACK! Digression again! You are all in for it today!) Now we turn down the road I wanted to talk about in the first place. You know me, back story and all.
The compulsion to write struck me in the head like a baseball bat. Every little thing I did was followed with a voice in my head going "Hey, that would be a great post! Whip out the phone and write it RIGHT NOW cuz you got time and its your day off!" That is all good but I usually stew on a post for a day or so because I have to think about exactly how to word it. Sometimes I will fork it out right there but it falls short of my own expectations and I am never satisfied. The ones that I think about for at least 24 hours are the best ones to me because I have had time to contemplate the course of action. Still, I only fork out my posts in one sitting because that is how I believe a blog should work. (Warning: I DO have a post coming that I have been a week working at. It is a serious post and nothing like this. Probably why it is taking so long.) I know, not everyone blogs like that but this is just me. So, yea, the voice. While they were all great ideas, it made me tired. I never realized the creative process could whoop you azz like that. Of course, I never had an over burst of creativity like that either. No wonder artists and writers are sooo....different when they are about their craft. I have to learn to use this to my advantage. However, I do not do sleepy tired well. My Cal will tell you I can fall asleep within seconds of laying down. Once I am sleeping, that is it. TKO. Game Over.
I wish there were a way I could sit down, get it all out and NOT be tired when I am done. It makes me tired because when there is more than one story in there (and there always is, I am trying in vain to finish this book that's not on paper yet,) it feels like those quarter machine bouncy balls just recklessly bouncing around inside my brain cavity. It just turns everything in there to mush. I have to sleep that tired off and while I am asleep, I imagine my body is un mushing my brain and making it whole again. Once I am whole, I wake up. I must say that when I wake from that kind of sleep it is a deep, hard sleep. I assume its because it takes a lot of work to un-mush a brain huh?
Until then, when I have days like that, steer clear because I am having an 'artist' or 'writers' moment.
Horrible, horrible feeling.
What do YOU think?
Sunday, April 6, 2014
I did it! I am now published! Check it out!
I wrote a book and finally had it published! I am soooo excited!
Check it out.
facebook.com/MicaaMilesAuthor (Please like my page if you have a Facebook.) :)
You can also find "WAH Professionals" by Micaa Miles on Amazon, Kindle, and create space stores.
It is also available on Amazon UK!
Here is a link:
http://www.amazon.com/WAH-Professionals-Micaa-M-Miles/dp/1494828685/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1396800654&sr=8-1&keywords=wah+professionals
Check it out.
facebook.com/MicaaMilesAuthor (Please like my page if you have a Facebook.) :)
You can also find "WAH Professionals" by Micaa Miles on Amazon, Kindle, and create space stores.
It is also available on Amazon UK!
Here is a link:
http://www.amazon.com/WAH-Professionals-Micaa-M-Miles/dp/1494828685/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1396800654&sr=8-1&keywords=wah+professionals
Tuesday, May 21, 2013
Back to Work Reality Check
I have been back to work about three weeks. I understand that it may not call for a reality check and no, I have not been out of work for years. It has only been about two months. I have finally found another WAH job that I love and it is certainly keeping me at 40 hours a week.
I fail to remember that working at a job you love does take up a great deal of your time and you no longer have the luxury of doing things like you did when you were not working. I feel that people should work at least a little bit. It keeps idle minds from getting up to no good and it keeps you focused and goal oriented. I remember when I was not working it was simply a chore to get up and actually clean the house! Yes! Now that I am working. I still have a momentum built up when I get off work and am able to at least straighten up and get dinner and laundry started.
Of course I sound like a career stay at home mom. I am! Only that I have a forty hour a week (getting a paycheck) kind of job and that is just like getting out of the house and going to the office everyday. Only I do it in my fuzzy slippers!
Working from home is a lifestyle and not many people are prepared for it because it takes dedication and some changes in your current lifestyle to ensure that it is successful. Many people believe (erroneously) that they can work from home and still have the daily interruptions of the dog barking, their children constantly in their face, or even be able to get up and run to the door should someone ring the bell. That could not be farther from the truth. You have to have the gumption to sit at your desk your entire shift and work. That is what they pay you to do. Especially these companies that pay you by the hour and they take out taxes like a regular paycheck. They pay you to work and you need to be at your desk working. Whether it be chat support, phones, or letter writing, you are paid for the time you are working and it is a real job.
Sure, there are draw backs. Nobody wants to have the highlight of their day to be the point when they get out of the house to go to the store for a soda run. That is no fun. There is a delicate balance that needs to be considered and it takes some practice to put it all into play. While the opportunity for more hours is endless, you do need to make time for yourself and your family similarly to how you would do at a traditional office job. It just takes a bit more effort than normal. Also, don't fall into the staying in your jammies all day either. That is a bad habit and not healthy!
So, while WAH is not for everyone, it is a great opportunity to do something that is beneficial to American society and it brings the much needed customer service jobs back home. Just don't mess it up or the great companies that provide this service for their clients and employees will go by the wayside much like traditional jobs have been sent to South America, India, and the Phillipenes. Keep these jobs at home. Literally!
I fail to remember that working at a job you love does take up a great deal of your time and you no longer have the luxury of doing things like you did when you were not working. I feel that people should work at least a little bit. It keeps idle minds from getting up to no good and it keeps you focused and goal oriented. I remember when I was not working it was simply a chore to get up and actually clean the house! Yes! Now that I am working. I still have a momentum built up when I get off work and am able to at least straighten up and get dinner and laundry started.
Of course I sound like a career stay at home mom. I am! Only that I have a forty hour a week (getting a paycheck) kind of job and that is just like getting out of the house and going to the office everyday. Only I do it in my fuzzy slippers!
Working from home is a lifestyle and not many people are prepared for it because it takes dedication and some changes in your current lifestyle to ensure that it is successful. Many people believe (erroneously) that they can work from home and still have the daily interruptions of the dog barking, their children constantly in their face, or even be able to get up and run to the door should someone ring the bell. That could not be farther from the truth. You have to have the gumption to sit at your desk your entire shift and work. That is what they pay you to do. Especially these companies that pay you by the hour and they take out taxes like a regular paycheck. They pay you to work and you need to be at your desk working. Whether it be chat support, phones, or letter writing, you are paid for the time you are working and it is a real job.
Sure, there are draw backs. Nobody wants to have the highlight of their day to be the point when they get out of the house to go to the store for a soda run. That is no fun. There is a delicate balance that needs to be considered and it takes some practice to put it all into play. While the opportunity for more hours is endless, you do need to make time for yourself and your family similarly to how you would do at a traditional office job. It just takes a bit more effort than normal. Also, don't fall into the staying in your jammies all day either. That is a bad habit and not healthy!
So, while WAH is not for everyone, it is a great opportunity to do something that is beneficial to American society and it brings the much needed customer service jobs back home. Just don't mess it up or the great companies that provide this service for their clients and employees will go by the wayside much like traditional jobs have been sent to South America, India, and the Phillipenes. Keep these jobs at home. Literally!
Sunday, April 28, 2013
The Future of Tech Support
Many of you already know that I am a technical support representative by trade. Good times. Goooooood times! (Cosmoism) It never occurred to me that the children pay attention to what I do when I am at work. Yes, I work from home doing this stuff. In every technical support situation or any electrical "fix it" situation, you begin with checking that it is plugged in properly and unplug everything and then plug it back in one piece of the equation at a time. Simple stuff. That will fix about seventy five percent of your issues then it goes into the more complicated stuff.
Before I began to do this, the way to fix things was to beat the holy crap out of the thing or kick it and pray that it continues to work for at least the next three months or so as you begin to save funds to replace the thing being stupid in the first place. What did your television ever do to you?
With all that background, let me get to what I am ranting about. I often worry about what our number nine is going to do when he becomes a functioning member of society. I would hate to think that he is going to work at a fast food restaurant for the rest of his life as a burger flipper. I know he loves his video games and taking things apart and he can pick apart a game to the very stitch. That is something. There are actually jobs out there developing video games and what not. His math skills are excellent and he loves math period! If reading were to be as fun for him as math, he would be dangerous! (The next Dr. Sheldon Cooper???) So we talk about that a lot and he loves electronics. Great! There is a future there at the moment.
I was sitting in here on FaceBook (what else do I do with my free time?) and there must have been some issue with the living room tv as I heard the following conversation:
Nine: Joshua! Don't hit it! That won't make it stop!
Six: But that fixes the other TV!
Nine: I know but we are going to try something else.
Six: OK.
Nine: Turn the TV off first, then the cable box and let me check something.
Six: ***turns off the TV then the cable box***
Nine: I have to check and make sure it is plugged in to the wall. We may have knocked it loose playing Xbox yesterday. ***Grunts and mumbles as he crawls behind the TV stand to check the plug***
Six: Can I turn it on yet? I wanna watch Robot and Monster!
Nine: NO! Let me get out of here first. We are going to turn things on one at a time!
Six: ***pouts*** Ok.
Nine: Ok, now, Turn the cable box on first
Six: ***pushes button***
Nine: Now turn the TV on.
Six: Yay!!!!! We did it! It works!
Nine: Told ya to listen to me, we have to do it one at a time or it wont work. You don't have to hit it.
For my fellow WAH peeps that have worked in Tech Support. You can imagine how proud I was sitting here listening to that interaction! I was beaming so loud you would have thought the Sun came to visit my office.
Anyone else have a WAH story to share?
Before I began to do this, the way to fix things was to beat the holy crap out of the thing or kick it and pray that it continues to work for at least the next three months or so as you begin to save funds to replace the thing being stupid in the first place. What did your television ever do to you?
With all that background, let me get to what I am ranting about. I often worry about what our number nine is going to do when he becomes a functioning member of society. I would hate to think that he is going to work at a fast food restaurant for the rest of his life as a burger flipper. I know he loves his video games and taking things apart and he can pick apart a game to the very stitch. That is something. There are actually jobs out there developing video games and what not. His math skills are excellent and he loves math period! If reading were to be as fun for him as math, he would be dangerous! (The next Dr. Sheldon Cooper???) So we talk about that a lot and he loves electronics. Great! There is a future there at the moment.
I was sitting in here on FaceBook (what else do I do with my free time?) and there must have been some issue with the living room tv as I heard the following conversation:
Nine: Joshua! Don't hit it! That won't make it stop!
Six: But that fixes the other TV!
Nine: I know but we are going to try something else.
Six: OK.
Nine: Turn the TV off first, then the cable box and let me check something.
Six: ***turns off the TV then the cable box***
Nine: I have to check and make sure it is plugged in to the wall. We may have knocked it loose playing Xbox yesterday. ***Grunts and mumbles as he crawls behind the TV stand to check the plug***
Six: Can I turn it on yet? I wanna watch Robot and Monster!
Nine: NO! Let me get out of here first. We are going to turn things on one at a time!
Six: ***pouts*** Ok.
Nine: Ok, now, Turn the cable box on first
Six: ***pushes button***
Nine: Now turn the TV on.
Six: Yay!!!!! We did it! It works!
Nine: Told ya to listen to me, we have to do it one at a time or it wont work. You don't have to hit it.
For my fellow WAH peeps that have worked in Tech Support. You can imagine how proud I was sitting here listening to that interaction! I was beaming so loud you would have thought the Sun came to visit my office.
Anyone else have a WAH story to share?
Tuesday, April 9, 2013
Working at home, MY hours this time!
Working from home again and I finally got some hours that I can deal with. Now, lets hope that I can deal with the job itself and the people. It is a family owned company and not very big but it is working with some very national clients. I like that. So far, they are very understanding of the family obligation thing and it all seems kosher for that.
I also like the fact that there are possibilites for more money. Most of the WAH jobs that I have worked in the past pay a flat rate and only offer bonuses or vesting in a 401k or tenure raises. Yech! There is such thing as a standard of living and I do believe you should take care of the folks that have been with you for a while. After all, their spot is something you are not spending the money it takes to train them in their job for the first three months they are with you and they know the flow. Catch me? There are a great many advantages other than tenure, family atmosphere, and the hours. The seem to understand that we are human beings! I love that! I also get to expand my social networks a little more because most of my "friends" are virtual anyway.
I love my little circle of WAH peeps. They make me laugh and they understand the statement: "They don't let me out much." Certainly I don't get out much. But, when I don't feel like getting dressed, I can go to work in my fuzzy bunny slippers! I get a discount on my car insurance because I don't drive back and forth every day and my kids can be in the living room while I work. Now, let me explain that last statement. We have clear boundaries and expectations there. There is not a party going on out there and I have to have zero background noise. BUT, if I do not have a sitter, it is not a disaster, I can get them occupied with a board game with their older sister (shes legally old enough to babysit) and still go to work and not have to miss out on a bill or something. I can also do laundry on my breaks and I don't have far to go to get home.
Right now the only drawback is that sickness is not a call out reason because I have the flu, currently, and I am not dying nor am I going to the ER for something that I know will pass in 7 or 8 days. So I tough it out. It is not affecting my phone voice and I can sit in here and sweat it out. (My office is like a sauna anyway.) So, yea, I have to pretty much call in dead, right?
So, don't knock it until you try it. Just be aware of scams and follow the requirements. Sometimes you may have to pay for a background check but do your homework. If it is legit, you will note that in your research.
WAH its what I do! :)
I also like the fact that there are possibilites for more money. Most of the WAH jobs that I have worked in the past pay a flat rate and only offer bonuses or vesting in a 401k or tenure raises. Yech! There is such thing as a standard of living and I do believe you should take care of the folks that have been with you for a while. After all, their spot is something you are not spending the money it takes to train them in their job for the first three months they are with you and they know the flow. Catch me? There are a great many advantages other than tenure, family atmosphere, and the hours. The seem to understand that we are human beings! I love that! I also get to expand my social networks a little more because most of my "friends" are virtual anyway.
I love my little circle of WAH peeps. They make me laugh and they understand the statement: "They don't let me out much." Certainly I don't get out much. But, when I don't feel like getting dressed, I can go to work in my fuzzy bunny slippers! I get a discount on my car insurance because I don't drive back and forth every day and my kids can be in the living room while I work. Now, let me explain that last statement. We have clear boundaries and expectations there. There is not a party going on out there and I have to have zero background noise. BUT, if I do not have a sitter, it is not a disaster, I can get them occupied with a board game with their older sister (shes legally old enough to babysit) and still go to work and not have to miss out on a bill or something. I can also do laundry on my breaks and I don't have far to go to get home.
Right now the only drawback is that sickness is not a call out reason because I have the flu, currently, and I am not dying nor am I going to the ER for something that I know will pass in 7 or 8 days. So I tough it out. It is not affecting my phone voice and I can sit in here and sweat it out. (My office is like a sauna anyway.) So, yea, I have to pretty much call in dead, right?
So, don't knock it until you try it. Just be aware of scams and follow the requirements. Sometimes you may have to pay for a background check but do your homework. If it is legit, you will note that in your research.
WAH its what I do! :)
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