Working from home is one thing. Working part time is another. Doing this so you can be with your preschooler is yet another. Doing this all effectively is the balancing act. I’ve been working contracts from my home since my daughter was born, so when I decided to go back into an “office” situation, I didn’t really know what to expect. What I did expect was that I would manage to do it somehow, as I have everything else in my life thus far. The fact is, the transition is difficult in ways that I didn’t anticipate. I’ve also discovered new passions and priorities I didn’t know existed in me previously, while at the same time being held back from fully going for them as I would have in the past. Yes, it’s hard to work a few hours in the office and then switch gears and go pick up my daughter and switch gears again later to work while she naps and back again when she wakes up, and back and forth every morning before she wakes up and after she goes to bed, when I get most of my “work” work done. But it’s honestly most frustrating to care about the work I’m doing, the people I work with and the company I work for and simply not be able to put in the hours or the mental capacity to contribute as much as I desire to and know I can. I don’t know if I’ve ever been in that position before, wanting to work MORE ;). On the homefront, I’m pleased that the schedule allows me to be there for my daughter outside of preschool and know that she needs preschool to prepare for kindergarten in a little over a year. However, when she’s crying and saying she’ll miss me every. time. I. drop. her. off… well, you get the picture. There is a bright side, however. I hold on (and my boss holds on) knowing that gradually over the next year, my daughter will be in school more and I will therefore be able to work more. For now, being barely full-time stretches the limits of my being able to balance these two crucial parts of my life in addition to managing to keep the house from becoming a total pigsty, cook once in awhile and actually talk to my husband once in awhile (who helps out tremendously), oh yeah, and sleep a few hours a night. Some days though, I look forward to when the reason I’m not getting any sleep is because of my 80 hour work week again. Life was so simple then.

Simonie

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So I got a Blackberry Pearl recently (see my previous post for why I need one). Mainly because I wanted the cheapest, smallest PDA phone out there. I just wanted to be able to get my email when out and about, between work and my daughter’s activities, etc. I had an iPAQ back in the day and was addicted to that thing for years, but this is the first time I’ve had anything beyond the free phone that usually comes with a 2 year contract. I’ve never even had a camera phone before. The Blackberry has been doing its job and more for me and I’m glad I went this route, but I’m surprised it took me several days of using it to realize that I just gave myself my own leash! What’s great is that now I can get my work email anywhere, but what sucks is that now I can get my work email anywhere! I had a similar experience when I was interning in a hardware installation group and begged to have a beeper like everyone else, until I actually got one and got beeped crossing the street with a cart full of equipment and freaked out. Back to the Blackberry. It’s not “crackberry” to me, but it is useful and I have gotten a little camera-happy, but that’s another blog entirely.

Simonie

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Of the many excessively long IVR prompts available for our listening pleasure on systems that refuse to review and update periodically, one of my favorites (or least favorites) is “press 1 to page this person”. Who does this exactly? What is the audience for this? That tagline is on just about every voicemail system out there. These useless phrases waste precious time, including “to obtain information about our company, go to our website at www.notwhatiaskedfor.com”. As a friend of mine said recently, “the last time I paged somebody was in 9^th grade to get dope.” Maybe some caveman just woke up and is still using a pager because it’s so easy a caveman can use it, but would he want to?

Simonie

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Watching the Republican Presidential Debate the other night on CNN, I was surprised to hear Tancredo, one of the Republican Presidential candidates say on the subject of immigration something to the effect of our immigration policy will not be correct “until we no longer have to press 1 for English and 2 for any other language”. Now, I agree whole heartedly that no interface should say “press 1 for English”, which should be the default, with only “press 2 for Spanish (or another regionally relevant language)” spoken in that native language instead, but I’m surprised to hear a somewhat obscure presidential candidate display such voice user interface design expertise. Of course, that’s not what he meant at all and if you haven’t guessed before, I will now have to reveal my liberal bias. I realize that the republican platform most often includes conservative views on immigration and immigrants and English as the National language, etc., but a statement as direct and harsh (to my ears) as that one just further confirms my general decision to not vote republican. I watched the debate, I liked what some of them had to say, and it’s important to check in like this once in awhile, but every single one of them said at least one thing during the debate that I cannot stomach. Tancredo just crossed by my political as well as my linguistic boundaries.

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