Everything You Thought You Knew About Working from Home Is Wrong

By Lana Winter-Hebert

With the rise of telecommuting, more people are working from home than ever before. It’s not uncommon to see words like“remote” or “offsite” in job listings, and it’s estimated that in the United States alone, approximately 16 million people work from their home of fice at least one day a week.1. telecommuting： 遠(yuǎn)程辦公；offsite： 現(xiàn)場(chǎng)外的，廠(chǎng)區(qū)外的；estimate： 估計(jì)，判斷；approximately： 大約，近似地。There has also been a massive in flux in self-employment, as sites such as Etsy allow folks to make products and sell them online without having to worry about overhead costs for a physical store.2. in flux： 匯集；Etsy： 美國(guó)一個(gè)在線(xiàn)銷(xiāo)售手工藝品的網(wǎng)站，該網(wǎng)站集聚了一大批極富影響力和號(hào)召力的手工藝術(shù)品設(shè)計(jì)師。在Etsy，人們可以開(kāi)店，銷(xiāo)售自己的手工藝品，模式類(lèi)似中國(guó)的淘寶；overhead costs： 營(yíng)業(yè)成本，管理費(fèi)用；physical store： 實(shí)體店。

That said, it’s important to remember that just because someone works from home doesn’t mean that they’re either slacking off3. slack off： 放松，懈怠。, or working any less than you are. Those who have never done so may have some misconceptions about what working from a home of fice is really like, so let’s put those to rest,4. misconception： 誤解，錯(cuò)誤的認(rèn)識(shí)；put sth. to rest： 終止。shall we?

“You work from home? How do you get anything done?”

People who work from home tend to work a LOT more than those in of fices, as there’s no real delineation between work time and home time,so work hours spill over into what many would consider to be “personal”time.5. 在家辦公通常比在辦公室工作的時(shí)間更長(zhǎng)，因?yàn)檗k公時(shí)間和家庭時(shí)間沒(méi)有明確的界定，所以工作時(shí)間就會(huì)擠占所謂的“個(gè)人”時(shí)間。delineation： 描述，解釋?zhuān)籹pill over： 溢出。Distractions such as TV, dirty dishes and such really don’t come into play, as home-based workers realize that their income depends on one thing and one thing alone: how productive they are.6. distraction： 干擾；come into play：開(kāi)始活動(dòng)，起作用；productive：富有成效的。As such, they’re not exactly sitting around in PJs all day, especially if there are regular video Skype meetings happening.7. PJs： 睡衣，pajamas的縮寫(xiě)；Skype： 一款即時(shí)通訊軟件，具備視頻聊天、多人語(yǔ)音會(huì)議、多人聊天、傳送文件、文字聊天等功能。(Of course, they might just be in PJs from the waist8. waist： 腰部。down, but it’s impolite to ask.)

越來(lái)越多的人選擇在家辦公，除了家里舒適的環(huán)境和安靜的氣氛外，更重要的是不用早出晚歸、長(zhǎng)途奔波，不用穿正裝，還可以想什么時(shí)候休息就什么時(shí)候休息……這似乎是不少人心目中完美的工作模式。然而，在家辦公卻會(huì)遇到很多分散注意力和浪費(fèi)時(shí)間的事情，如親戚朋友的突然拜訪(fǎng)之類(lèi)。因此，這種上班模式可能更容易使人疲勞，而且多數(shù)人很難協(xié)調(diào)生活和工作之間的平衡。在家辦公，真的不像人們認(rèn)為的那樣輕松。

Although you may be tempted to9. be tempted to： 忍不住做……。tell people how lucky they are that they get to stay home all day, keep in mind that they’re probably working 12+ hours a day. Sure, self-employed folks may not have to commute for an hour either way, but they’re likely using those extra hours for work.10. self-employed： 個(gè)體經(jīng)營(yíng)的，自由職業(yè)的；commute： 通勤。Most self-employed people (including freelancers who telecommute), don’t have things like medical/dental coverage,paid sick leave, or other types of health/personal insurance that’s often covered by full-time employers, so a couple of hours’ worth of extra work may mean that some savings can actually be squirrelled away.11. 大多數(shù)自由職業(yè)者（包括遠(yuǎn)程辦公的自由職業(yè)者）都沒(méi)有醫(yī)療/牙科保險(xiǎn)、帶薪病假以及全職工作者所享有的種種健康/個(gè)人保險(xiǎn)。因此，額外幾個(gè)小時(shí)的工作量其實(shí)意味著多存了一筆錢(qián)。freelancer：自由職業(yè)者；coverage：（保險(xiǎn)）承保范圍；squirrel away： 儲(chǔ)存。

“Since you’re at home anyway, I figured I’d just stop by12. stop by： 順便拜訪(fǎng)?！?/h2>

It’s very bad form to just “drop in” on someone who works from home,13. bad form： 失禮的行為；drop in： 偶然拜訪(fǎng)。as they are WORKING. We wouldn’t just show up at someone’s of fice for a chat, and the same goes for the self-employed.While you may be tempted to stop by to see a friend/relative because you miss them and you figure that they can make time for you if you just show up, ask yourself if you would do that sort of thing if they worked in a standard of fice setting—if the answer is “no”, don’t do it.

If someone drops by for a visit, most workers will be gracious14. gracious： 親切的。and polite and try to make a bit of time to socialize, but that really throws off the entire work day. Think about a situation in which you’ve settled into a groove, and were then interrupted by a coworker, a phone call, or an impromptu meeting.15. groove： 最佳狀態(tài)；impromptu： 即興的，即席的。When that happens,one’s train of thought derails and falls into a lake, and it’s really dif ficult to draw it back into working order, doesn’t it?16. 這種情況一旦發(fā)生，思路都便如列車(chē)脫軌，墜入湖中，而將思路重新拉回來(lái)卻是相當(dāng)困難，不是嗎？derail： 脫軌。Please be considerate17. considerate： 考慮周到的。.

“Hey, I know you work from home,so can I get this done tonight/this weekend/right now?”

People who work from home need down time as much as of fice workers do—possibly more, considering that whole working 12 hours/day thing—but many folks assume that since the person telecommutes, they’re always available.18. 在家辦公的人和在辦公室上班的人一樣，也需要休息時(shí)間?？紤]到每天工作12小時(shí)，他們需要的休息時(shí)間可能要更多一些。但是很多人都認(rèn)為，既然這些人遠(yuǎn)程辦公，那么他們肯定可以隨時(shí)工作。down time： 停工時(shí)間。I’ve heard countless freelancers mention clients who have asked that they work on weekends in order to make the client’s life “easier”, and texts/emails are often sent at all hours of the day or night, as clients assume that freelancers and such are perpetually chained to their desks.19. countless： 無(wú)數(shù)的；perpetually： 永久地；chain to： 拴在……上。

I once received a text message from a client at 2 a.m. on a Wednesday morning, asking me to have a piece edited and polished20. polish： 改進(jìn)，潤(rùn)色。for 6 a.m. so they could review it before going in to work. When I explained that I had been sleeping and had no plans to get out of bed until 7:30, they didn’t understand: I worked from home, right? Why couldn’t I do this?

“Wow, you must have so much free time! Let’s go to ___ today.”

Uh, no.

Working from home does not mean that one’s schedule is malleable21. malleable： 可塑的，可變化的。.There are often online meetings to attend, deadlines to meet, etc., and it’s no more viable to skip off for an afternoon of frivolity as it would be if mired in an of fice environment.22. viable： 可行的；skip off： 偷偷溜走；frivolity： 無(wú)聊的活動(dòng)；mire： 使陷入。Sure, sometimes work can be rearranged so that excursions can happen, but those have to be planned well in advance, not just on a whim.23. excursion： 短途旅行，這里指在工作時(shí)間外出；on a whim： 一時(shí)興起。If you’ve asked a self-employed friend to do something in the middle of the day and they turn you down, please don’t try to coerce them into it or guilt trip them for not going, unless you plan to reimburse them for the time they won’t be spending at work that day.24. coerce： 強(qiáng)迫；guilt trip： 使感到內(nèi)疚；reimburse： 償還，賠償。

Working from home can be incredibly25. incredibly： 非常地。rewarding, and the majority of people who do it find they are much more satis fied with their jobs.