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via Nicolas Menijes
Remote employee overwhelmed because he's getting distracted by his kid.
Recreated scenario included to enhance reader understanding.
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I work in a corporate environment in a leadership position. I am the sole provider for my wife and 2 kids (8 & 12) so I take my job very seriously as losing my job would be extremely detrimental to our life, especially given constant layoffs and a shifting landscape in my field (engineering/technology).
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My wife and kids often come into my office after school or whatever to sometimes just say hello or ask me for something, which I don't mind generally. However in my position I often run large meetings with my team or other executives, including my boss or boss' boss. In those scenarios I am typically on camera and prefer that my kids aren't coming on screen. Numerous times this has occurred and I try to shoo them away politely by muting my mic and saying "not now, please go away" or something along those lines.
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My wife feels that I should be able to tell my group to excuse me for a second while I acknowledge them and tell them eye to eye I will help them later. My feeling is that if it happened once in a great while that'd be fine, but this seems like it happens about once a week and I try to tell them it's not ok to come in while I'm working on a meeting. Apparently this means that I'm not putting my family first in their minds.
Am I the AH here for setting a boundary and taking my job seriously?
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Remote worker trying to focus despite her kids' interruption.
Image for illustrative purposes.
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The first time I got a remote job, I was very nervous about how much of daily life would come into play when mixed with my job responsibilities. I don’t have kids myself, but it stressed me out to have to lock myself in a room to make sure I wasn’t going to get interrupted by my cats or neighbors. It felt like it was very unprofessional to have my furry friend sit right in front of the camera in the middle of a very serious meeting. That’s why I was always going to extreme measures to make sure nothing unpredictable would happen.
But remote jobs come with these sorts of situations. Inevitably, while I was attending a meeting with all my superiors, my cat got past all my protection barriers and sat right in front of the camera, demanding some of my immediate attention. Everyone noticed, and the meeting stopped. I was completely embarrassed, thinking that I was going to get in trouble for that unexpected appearance. But it's not what happened at all.
Different from what I expected, everyone started laughing and talking about their own pets. Some of them even introduced their furry companions to us all, making the whole situation a lot more wholesome than what I anticipated. It made an ordinary moment feel special.
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Online meeting.
Stock photography for depiction only.
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Now, after a couple of years of being a remote worker, my perspective has completely changed. Kids interrupting meetings, pets sitting in front of the camera, and any other house life interruption have become my new normal. Even though it stressed me out at first, I have learned to celebrate it and cherish those unexpected moments during my work schedule. They might be small distractions that take the entire team out of the seriousness of the job, but they also connect us in a human way and help us see our coworkers as normal people.
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via SeventyFour
Stressed remote employee.
Scene shown is a visual representation.
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To the person in this story, my advice is simple. Children interrupting important calls and house life mixing with work life is part of the deal when you’re a remote worker. The best way you can deal with that is to stop taking it all so seriously and learn to enjoy the wholesome interruptions that give you a reason to connect and laugh alongside your workmates. Also, you could have a conversation with your kids about your off-work schedule to let them know that they should wait for you to be done when they need to talk to you. Finding the balance as a remote worker is not easy, but it is definitely very possible.
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Remote employees of the internet had a lot of opinions about this tricky scenario.
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Your wife is wrong. Would she come to your office in another building and insist that she has the right to open your closed office door and walk into a meeting? You need to explain to everyone in your house that the room becomes your office during specific times and you cannot be disturbed unless it is an emergency. Be advised that some people start to argue that everything is now an emergency. My coworker made a sign and put it on the door of her office that said listed the conditions that truly constituted an emergency. It was her children that were the problem.
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I work from home. Not anywhere near your level, but am a manager. My husband knows not to bother me while I’m in the office. Your wife needs to understand that working from home is a privilege, and needs to be treated exactly the same as if you were at the office. If it wouldn’t be appropriate for them to interrupt you during a meeting in the conference room at work, it’s not appropriate at home during working hours when you’re running a meeting. Close and lock the door.
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It is astonishing the numbers of adults who don’t understand the “work” part of working from home. I agree with the lock the door or put a sign out folks. Just because you are home doesn’t mean you are available! My DIL works from home and isn’t even supposed to throw in a load of laundry on the clock!
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You need to sit your kids down and set boundaries. They're old enough to know better. Find one of those Do Not Disturb signs on Amazon, where you rotate to when you're avaliable. Your wife is just being disrespectful right now.
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