Remote worker of 3 years still has to field 2pm lunch requests from neighbors, friend who assume they're always free

Are remote workers allowed to draw boundaries around their time, too?

When you're working remotely, you might have to remind everyone that you're still working. Since most people associate being busy with being out somewhere, you probably have to explain that just because you're at home doesn't mean you have nothing to do. Maybe you have parents or neighbors or friends who pile requests onto you just because they can't understand that you still have a job even though you don't have to go into work. This can be frustrating, since remote work is definitely still real work. You have to do everything you normally would, you're just not in an office. Disruptions can be equally frustrating as they would be if you were in an office. In fact, when you're working remotely, you have to protect your time even more than you would otherwise. When you have to be completely self-motivated, you need to take particular care of your space and time, lest you get sucked in by the responsibilities of the household. If people are constantly coming in and disrupting your peace, you might not get anything done. That's what happened here, where a remote employee had a lot of complaints about the way their friends and family were treating them. Even though they were fully employed and working harder than ever, they were tired of being treated like they were sitting around the house all day. They wondered what the larger community of remote workers would think about that.

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via Domenico Loia

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Three years remote and I still can't explain to people in-person why I'm busy at 2pm on a Tuesday.

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Commenters shared their perspectives on the story.

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Everyone has a different relationship to remote work, and no two jobs are the same. Some allow more flexibility than others, and it's up to you how to engage with that. The problem is, though, that some people expect more from you in your personal life if you have a flexible schedule. They might then put you in situations that are difficult to mitigate. Commenters gave advice and anecdotes from their personal experience, and it became clear that this was a bigger problem than just what was going on in this story. Keep scrolling to get the full picture.
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