Career and Kids

The best job perk I have ever had

by mike on November 9th, 2006

I officially started what should be a project where I get to work at home through the first week of January. At first I was worried that I would not be able to get anything done from home and would go crazy being cooped up in the house all day.

It is probably too early to tell on the latter, but I am not having any trouble getting work done. In addition, because we use Yahoo! Messenger to stay in touch with the people working on the project, I am actually communicating with the people that work for my company a lot more than normal.

But, enough about the actual work. Let’s talk about what I am getting out of this project.

I get to see the kids every morning. I am normally gone before they wake up. I have even given the kids breakfast and been able to play with them while waiting for my mom (our babysitter) to start working.

I get to play with the kids for a couple minutes when I take breaks. I get to do some laundry when I take breaks. I get to listen to music without headphones.

Here’s a big perk, though.

I live on one side of a river. Every assignment is on the other side of the river. They are doing a construction project on the bridge going over the river that adds about twenty minutes each way. They are doing another construction project on the road leading to the highway. And all the traffic is jammed up trying to use the one other logical bridge. Crazy, crazy traffic that just started about two weeks ago. And, if everything goes well, I will not be driving through any of it until next year when most of it
should be done. Sweet.

Today, I was able to get my son off the bus after preschool and play with my kids and four neighbor kids until dinner time. I also took my mom and the kids out to lunch.

I am saving about $4 a day in gas and probably close to an equal amount in pop/snacks that I should not be eating anyway. I am spending virtually zero minutes in my car as compared to the 60+ that I normally

I have not been anywhere near this positive about work in several months. If things keep up like this, I will be keeping my eyes open for more projects with this working at home opportunity.

For the first time in a long time, I have been reminded about how much of a difference the parts of the job other than the actual pay can be.

Technorati Tags: career, kids, parenting, job benefits, working from home

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POSTED IN: Career, Career and Kids, Managing Work