3 Things I Miss About Corporate Life (The Trials Of Being A Work At Home Mum)

3 Things I Miss About Corporate Life (The Trials Of Being A Work At Home Mum)

I had a problem last week when my iPhone broke down (I nearly called this post ‘Help, My iPhone has fallen in the toilet!). To cut a very long story short my phone has now been sent off to be repaired / replaced and I am using a phone which the repair shop very kindly lent me but which now seems very old-fashioned. I’ve had my iPhone just under 12 months but had almost forgotten how to use a different type of phone.

I’ve also realised how dependent / addicted to it I am! I’ve lost all my contact numbers, photo’s, videos, diary – I couldn’t even call my mum last Friday as her number was only stored on my iPhone. The worst thing is not being able to check my emails all the time – I’ve felt very jittery when out and about and I go to check my emails and realise I can’t!

Big lesson learnt – always back up your iPhone regularly!! I will also be making a note the old-fashioned way of important numbers in my address book (the real paper version).

Anyhow, this got me thinking of certain things I miss about the corporate life I’ve left behind and the advantages of working in a busy office and having pretty much immediate access to people with all kinds of skills that I don’t have (like how to deal with a water damaged iPhone before it stops working completely!).

It’s worth saying right now that I could list the things I love about my current business and the lifestyle this allows me but it would be a very long list. Much easier then to tell you the 3 things I miss about corporate life:

  1. Healthier eating – when I used to go out to an office each day to work, I’d take along my little lunchbag with my fruit and healthy snacks in to stop me raiding the vending machine every day. Now I work from home, it’s just too easy to keep dipping in the biscuit tin and grabbing some crisps out of the cupboard. I also tend to eat whilst working on my laptop to save time (only having limited hours of childcare) and rarely take a lunch break.
  2. Being able to talk things through – there are times when I’m in the middle of something and just want to be able to bounce an idea around, or I’ve just finished a phone conversation and have a need to talk through what’s been discussed. My husband is feeling some pain from this one as he tends to be the person who gets it!
  3. The IT Department – I can honestly say that I never thought it would be the IT department that I miss most, but there it is. Now I work from home I’m more reliant than ever on technology and get very frustrated at spending my time on fixing printers, installing software and other glitches that seem to occur on a regular basis.

Now, I don’t believe in leaving you with just the problems so I’d better come up with some ways to ease these challenges:

  1. Maybe I can put a fruit bowl in my office? Plan my lunches in advance when I do the shopping so I always have a healthy lunch in. Pretend I’m going out to work and take my lunchbag upstairs to my office??
  2. Build up my support network. Actually, I already have a great support network of other mums working from home and my own coach – maybe I need to reach out and use these more.
  3. I’m going to sign up for ‘Geek Squad’ (this really exists if you look it up) and they can be my virtual IT department.

I’d love to hear what your challenges are as a ‘work at home mum’ and any tips that you can share with us so please leave a comment.

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Alison Bradford

Alison Bradford is a business coach who works with smart, ambitious business owners to get clarity about how they can grow their business and increase profit. Sign up here to learn 6 easy ways you can boost profit in your business today.
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