Anyone work part time at home?

I left my job in May to be at home with my boys. Big decision, but I love it.
Anyway, I was offered a job from another company I knew from my last job. They came to me to help out with events. Said an average of 15 to 20 hours a week give or take. I couldn't pass it up... Make money and work from home. Love it was part time too so I didn't have to work all day.

Anyway... Two months into the job I'm finding myself working so much. First month was quiet and just copied in on emails or listening to conf calls.
Now they aree giving me more work and having me run with some events. I find myself working a lot more. Yes I do have some small downtime inbetween stuff. Just bc I'm not on the computer for a moment or so. Now I get a lot of pop up conf calls to be on shortly or emails needing a response ASAP then calls a lot more.
The point was part time to help alleviate some work from the main person and now they're giving me stuff to take over. It would be great if I didn't have a 1 and 3 yr old. I have about 2 hours while 3 yr old is in school and 1 yr old is napping and then it's juggling everything. I was doing spreadsheets till 9 pm last night. I'd love to get a helper or sitter, but I don't make enough for that. What would be the point if my paycheck goes to a nanny for a part time job. I really like it too. It's interesting and I can eventually move further up, but was thinking in a year or so of doing small things.
Anyway, I should be happy to have a job. Just seems to be more consuming working from home then when I was in an office all day.

Re: Anyone work part time at home?

I work 2 jobs from home- 1 full time, one part time. For a few years it was just the full time. I can tell you that working from home can easily suck up your life. You so have flexibility like you said, but there isn't that hard stop of having to leave the office at a certain time.

A few suggestions:

Is the company aware that you're putting in so many hours? Are you paid hourly? You should keep track of ALL of the time you spend working. keep a journal. Make sure you're being paid for the hours you work.

Keeping a journal or a calendar is really good for another reason- your own time management. One thing I find about working from home is that you really need to claim your own time. If it's work time, then you have to try your best to not take that personal phone call, or make sure the kids are settled as best as you can (Can you leave them with a neighbor or get someone to watch them for just maybe 2 hours so you can ave productive time?). Or when it's nap time what's when you've gotta be really on top of the work. Similarly when it's time for lunch or time to be with the kids, ro time for bed you have to turn off the computer and not let work get in the way of that.

I struggle with this DAILY. I have to not let one job get in the way of another job, not get too distracted by personal stuff, and most often I struggle just making sure I do make time to eat, exercise, and sleep because those fall by the wayside. My advice is to really make an effort to micromanage yourself and protect your time. It may be you can get paid for the extra hours you work and that might make childcare worthwhile, but if not, then you need to guard your time and only give the job the time they're paying for. It's hard for me because I'm a manager and I'm salaried and I have to work until it gets done and my second job is a business so I have to always be working, but I still ahve to try to compartmentalize or I'll go insane and something will fall through the cracks

ETA: I re -read your post again. About the pop up conference calls you need to work with them to set hours when you're on call for those, and when you're not. If you're always tied to the computer you'll have no balance

Message edited 1/9/2013 12:40:25 PM.

Re: Anyone work part time at home?

I do, but my setup is different from yours.

DD1 is in K and gets home 3:15 M-F.

My DS and DD2 go to daycare T-Th (I drop them off around 9 and pick them up after DD gets home from school and after I wrap up work and start dinner, that could be anywhere between 3:30-5:30).

On Mon and Friday, I'll take calls while the little ones nap if necessary. I also put in some time in the evenings when necessary but only after the kids are in bed (there have been nights when I am up until 1 or 2 am).

I am a project manager in the financial services field. Although we agreed I would work around 20 plus hours I often putin more time. However it's a trade off. Since I have 3 kids, I take as much as I give. I volunteer at DDs school on Thursday mornings and stay through lunch. I take off the days the kids are sick or school is closed. There are plenty of times when there is a critical meeting and I have a screaming child that I am trying to mute in the background (sometimes all 3!) so it can be stressful at times but most of the time I'm covered.

I feel for you, I really like my job and my setup and my firm. And, I get paid well for the amount of time I put in. There is no way I could do this without having the setup I do. I don't think I could work at home without having a few decent chunks of kid free time and the pay needs to be enough to support that. Maybe you can renegotiate since they are using you more? Enough to bring in a mother's helper or sitter?

Message edited 1/9/2013 12:54:45 PM.

Anyone work part time at home?

I don't but, I have friends who do. They do a portion of their work during set business hours and then fit in the remainder outside of that time. They have childcare set up for that set time.

One friend works M-F for a set 5 hrs a day and then does a few extra hours when she has time (I can't remember if she's 25 or 30 hrs a week). Her kids go to daycare during this time.

Another friend was 20 hrs a week and she worked 2-8 hr days on Tues and Thurs and then made up the other 4 hours when she could fit it in. During her set time, her kids were in pre-school or with a sitter.