Working at Home Isn’t Home Anymore

Let’s get something straight: I work at home. People these days who say they work at home do everything but, it seems.

They work in coffee shops with wifi (even the McDonald’s near me now has wifi), in their cars, on boats, while skydiving or sitting in an eagle’s nest in the high mountains.

Why? Because home is becoming the new workplace.

People, by nature, don’t want to be in their workplace all the time.

Those of us who do work at home may stretch and carelessly say, “Weeelll, looks like time to go…Oh. Yeah…”

See what I mean?

You could say it’s because computers are getting smaller. My Mini Netbook is with me all over the house, and I admit I did take it to do some work while I was housesitting for a friend once.

Does the word “smartphone” come to mind? It was Bill Gates, after all, who once said one day we’d all have computers the size of a man’s wallet. I wouldn’t recommend sticking your new $500+ smartphone in your back pocket to try it on for size, though.

And how about cars? More new car ads are pushing the “mobile office” feature now. Even truck commercials tout the benefits of “mifi”, and once upon a time, it was commonly assumed that many truck owners had enough difficulty spelling their name, let alone running spreadsheets on the fly.

The thought of someone in a brand new 5000 pound Dodge Ram zooming down the highway behind my little car while checking his email is NOT comforting.

Are you one of the poor saps without a spanking new ride weighing down your debt load, like me? Don’t despair, get your own mifi! That and a wireless printer/copier/fax and a nice compact monitor, and you could set up your old desktop right there in the old jalopy.

As for me, I’ll keep pursuing the ultimate home office… Just email me before you go anywhere. I want to be sure I’m safely working at home.

This guest post is courtesy of Dan Reingold the top humorist at Work at Home Humor.