Published on 12, July, 2020
Hello,
Does anyone here really enjoy working from home and if so what do you do ?
It really hit home to me, whilst out having an early morning walk today by the river, that I would be much happier working from home. I have worked a physical job most of my life and have known a change was long overdue, for years actually. I've realised this is causing me more stress than what it's worth and I'm in the process of minimising as much stress as I can, even if it may involve a loss of income.
I've looked around at some of the most common jobs people are doing from home but don't really interest me, like corporate companies, data-entry, sales and so on. They're just not my cup of tea. I'd much more prefer to be helpful or creative or contribute something positive in some way. I'm just wondering how to go about finding work I could do from home that could be interesting or maybe even meaningful ?
Any insights would be greatly appreciated, thanks in advance.
Working from home was a miracle for me. I posted about it before but I was planning on killing myself in March 2020, and it became abundantly clear to me during lockdown that a busy open plan office environment was the worst place for me.
I was struggling so much with the continual social interaction, having to fake everything etc, but also with sensory issues, the bright lighting, the temperature at work was very aggravating for me, many people wear very strong perfumes (which have always bothered me for some reason, I find perfumes overpowering and unpleasant), and also unwanted touches from colleagues. And the commute itself was also a very unpleasant experience for me because of how crowded, noisy and smelly it was.
I was so stressed out and burnt out all the time and feeling hopeless and like I couldn't cope. It got to the point where I was sometimes not responding when people talked to me, and I would shut myself away in a cold meeting room with the light off and work alone in there, which some people were thinking was weird but they left me alone.
When I describe these things now it should have been so obvious that I have autism, so I don't know why it didn't occur to me or why I slipped through the cracks of the education system in the 90s. I suppose it's because I'm very intelligent and high functioning, and I can fake things pretty well.
But yes, working from home has been amazing and I hope where I work will allow me to continue once the lockdowns end.
I'm sorry to hear you were feeling that way. So glad lockdown worked in your favour in bringing what stresses you into the light. I have never worked in a busy open plan office environment but I just know it wouldn't be for me either. Too draining.
I hope you can continue working from home. At least now you know it suits you much better so you can prioritise working from home from now on.