Homing From Work? It Also Means You’re Working From Home

Every year we get stupid business phrases that become part of our lexicon:

“Use it or lose it!”
“Necessary evil”
“A seat at the table”
“Thinking outside the box”
“Silo mentality”
“At the end of the day…”

For 2014 I’m calling it – “Homing from Work!”

More people are working more hours

Fast Company published an infographic recently that had some interesting facts about how, especially in the U.S. (I have to say stuff like that now, because I have this international audience, which in itself is funny since the most international I’ve ever gotten is Canada and Mexico! Which I don’t really even consider international — they’re more like Northern and Southern suburbs of the U.S., workers are working more hours, and feeling like they have a healthy work/life balance.

Since 2011, there has been a 30 percent increase in the number of people working more than nine (9) hours per day, and 80 percent of white collar workers feel they have a solid work-life balance.

That doesn’t sound right, does it?

Well, there’s a bit more! Some 93 percent — yes, 93 percent — of workers take care of personal business and family needs during their work day, while at work. There’s a 63 percent increase in surfing and shopping online – more women than men!

Surprise, surprise. If you make over $100,000, you’re more likely to exercise during your work day. Workers under 30 are 76 percent more likely than workers over 50 to visit social networking sites while at work.

Now, that sounds about right!

It’s normal to be doing personal stuff at work

“Homing from work” is nothing more than what it’s always been, but now we have a term for it! Basically, you have some personal stuff that needs to get done, but you can’t do it after work or the weekend, so you do it at work. It’s been going on since the 9 to 5 was invented!

The one thing you need to be aware of, though, is that it works both ways. If you want to “Home from Work” that’s cool, but don’t give me grief when you need to take a call from home or catch up on something during the weekend. It’s not either/or, it’s both. You can’t do one without an expectation of other.

I know you’re checking into Facebook at work. I know you’re booking your airline tickets for your vacation at work. I’m fine with that, but don’t act like I owe you something if you need to work an extra hour one night, or put in some hours from home.

Homie don’t play that. Go ahead and home from work, just know that it comes with an expectation of working from home.

This was originally published on Tim Sackett’s blog, The Tim Sackett Project.