Making it work

Why it's great to work from home:

• no driving in traffic
• flexibility
• you don't have to make friends with, let alone talk to, coworkers
• you can surf the web without having to click over to your Word document at a moments notice

Why it sucks to work from home:

• better things always come up
• screaming children in the background of important phone calls
• cringing when the phone rings
• not knowing any of your coworkers
• always feeling the nag of work

I should be grateful. I called my boss and asked if I could start working again after a 9 month hiatus. He lined me up right away. But this time he told me he would get me a cubicle and a computer so I could come in once a week. My heart stopped. Having my own cubicle means commitment. Commitment means responsibility and responsibility means anxiety.

Before John was born I suffered from some pretty bad anxiety surrounding my job. I had a real issue with feeling totally incompetent in my position. When it comes to archaeology I still feel like that.

I am pretty good at faking it. I think because I enjoy some aspects and not the rest. I am not passionate about it. I do not retain facts like my colleagues. I like the big picture. There is not enough big picture in a field dominated by minute details.

So I am trying again. It is a means to an end, not a way of life. That's what it is--a way of life for most of the professionals. I am content to sit at the computer and do the writing but don't ask me to commit my life to it.