{"id":4008,"date":"2020-03-18T10:23:21","date_gmt":"2020-03-18T17:23:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.poly.com\/?p=4008"},"modified":"2020-03-18T10:23:21","modified_gmt":"2020-03-18T17:23:21","slug":"work-from-home-but-not-alone","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.poly.com\/work-from-home-but-not-alone\/","title":{"rendered":"Working from Home, But I\u2019m Not Alone"},"content":{"rendered":"

Transitioning to working from home is one thing but, transitioning to working from home and<\/em> having your kids at home with you is a whole new ballgame. As my son skipped his way to the car at pick up last week after hearing that school is closing, first thing he said was \u201cWe are on vacation for three weeks, what are we going to do!?\u201d\u00a0 Well, um, mommy has to work. And, we can\u2019t go to the movies or go to Dave and Busters. Tech Interactive is closed. And, the mall is total mayhem.\u00a0 My initial response was, \u201cWell, let\u2019s talk about it tonight over dinner.\u201d He\u2019s heard that response once or twice before and knows what that means. That is the response I give when I need him to get ready for some level of disappointment. His quiet response of \u201cokay\u201d was quickly followed by the head down, shoulders folded in, and the phone in his face as he escaped into Snapchat on the ride home.\u00a0 Truth be told, it\u2019s not a vacation, but it feels like one to him.\u00a0 As a mother of a tween, the thought of his brain going to mush after three weeks of online gaming is a scary one, and being the control freak that I am, I simply cannot let that happen \u2014not on my watch.<\/p>\n

\"working<\/p>\n

So, we\u2019re going to put in some guardrails for the next three weeks.\u00a0Not super strict. I don\u2019t want to suck all the fun out of being stuck at home surrounded by our precious toilet paper rolls and paper towels, but enough to put some structure in place so things don\u2019t become so mind numbing that we forget how to tie our shoes.<\/p>\n

I work, a lot \u2014 it\u2019s a super busy time right now. I need to focus. I do video calls all the time. Him coming in and asking for batteries for his game controller while I\u2019m on a video call with my boss isn\u2019t ideal. \u00a0So, a couple things I\u2019m going to try to instill…<\/p>\n

8 Ground Rules to Set with Your Kids While WFH<\/strong><\/h3>\n

1. <\/strong>Set \u2018business hours\u2019<\/strong><\/h4>\n

First things first. What are mom\u2019s hours of operation? With my son, I set defined \u2018business hours\u2019 that he has to (try) to respect. Rule of thumb\u2014 when my door is closed, unless the house is on fire, or you\u2019re bleeding a lot, like soak through one Band-Aid in a minute kind of blood, I\u2019m not interruptible.\u00a0That will most likely be early hours as most days are jammed pack through lunch.<\/p>\n

2. Maintain daily structure<\/strong><\/h4>\n

There will be reading time, online e-learning time, and things he can do by himself. We\u2019ll schedule that in so he has some structure to his day and it\u2019s something he counts on. He won\u2019t love it, but it\u2019s one of the \u201cgotta do\u2019s\u201d.<\/p>\n

3. \u2018Paper bag\u2019 lunches remain the norm<\/strong><\/h4>\n

You can\u2019t be hungry all the time. Our mealtimes will map as close to your school schedule as we can. Reminder, mom\u2019s not whipping up chicken picatta because you\u2019re tired of sandwiches and an apple. When everyone was stealing hand sanitizer out of people\u2019s carts, I loaded up on raisins, trail mix, fruit and granola bars. Help yourself to those all day long. Sorry, they were all out of Snickers and Flamin\u2019 Hot Cheetos, shuckeroonie.<\/p>\n

4. We\u2019ll take a break together every day<\/strong><\/h4>\n

The \u2018when\u2019 may change,\u00a0but it will involve going outside. Exercising in my Mirror with \u201cRachel\u201d who teaches a mean hip hop class. Or, doing something physical with our bodies. Which is good for me as I sit 12 hours in my home office, and good for him too so he doesn\u2019t pass out at the first mile he has to run upon returning to school\u2026\u00a0Yes, I\u2019m already thinking about him returning to school.<\/p>\n

5. Use your inside voice<\/strong><\/h4>\n

Good news is, you don\u2019t need to whisper\u2014 it\u2019s not a library. \u00a0I feel very lucky that I work for Poly. We make products that make working from home much more efficient and block out so much of the background noise. My Voyager 6200 UC<\/a><\/strong> with active noise canceling does wonders when exclamations of disappointment ensue from his bedroom because he almost<\/em> won in his racing game.\u00a0Trust me, those moments can be awfully dramatic. I\u2019ve learned to stop running in there asking, \u201care you ok?!\u201d. Turns out he\u2019s just fine, he just won\u2019t be receiving a virtual trophy anytime soon.<\/p>\n

6. The house needs to be kept clean and orderly<\/strong><\/h4>\n

I may have team members join me at my house for small huddle up sessions, so we remember what one another looks like in the flesh. Don\u2019t worry though \u2014 no hugs and six feet of distance. I just hooked up my Poly Studio USB video bar<\/a><\/strong> so several people can join a call together and be seen and heard from the family room and the kitchen\u2014well beyond six feet apart!<\/p>\n

7. Get dressed<\/strong><\/h4>\n

Video is a must for my calls, so if you do walk in my sweet boy, wave hello, because you\u2019re on camera.\u00a0And, my Eagle Eye Mini<\/strong><\/a> is small, yet mighty and it will find you. Which means, that Hugh Hefner-like robe of yours should be saved for weekends. Get up, shower, and get dressed. And, mommy will do the same. I may even spring for earrings, but let\u2019s not get ahead of ourselves. A virtual background in Zoom, or a blurred background in Teams works wonders to hide Hugh when he does make an appearance.<\/p>\n

8. Be patient<\/strong><\/h4>\n

I can\u2019t drop what I\u2019m doing and run into your room to see how you\u2019ve saved the world this time. I will come when I can. \u00a0And yes, super proud of you always for your new rank as Squad Leader. You go baby. Now back to work I go.<\/p>\n

If we stick to this it\u2019ll be a breeze, right? It won\u2019t. I know that. And, I need to let go of expecting perfection. This is unchartered territory, so we need to go with the flow and hope for the best. If all goes half well, there is also the added bonus of extra time with my son. I can\u2019t lose sight of that. \u00a0Sneaking in a hug between calls, or even during one, is pretty precious and will make my workday something special. Sometimes it\u2019ll work and sometimes it won\u2019t. But we\u2019re doing the best we can. Good luck to all you working parents out there \u2014 we got this!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Transitioning to working from home is one thing but, transitioning […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4010,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[548,517],"tags":[130,131,1546,1547,1535,122,1418,126,215,127,128,129],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.poly.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4008"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.poly.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.poly.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.poly.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.poly.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4008"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.poly.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4008\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.poly.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4010"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.poly.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4008"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.poly.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4008"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.poly.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4008"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}