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From the Email Bag – Home-Based and Lonely: Remedies By Christine Durst & Michael Haaren August 9, 2012 Dear Rat Race Rebellion: I’ve been working part-time at home as an online researcher for five months. I love it except for one thing: I get really lonely. I’m single and live by myself, so there’s no one to talk to. I had a long commute before and I hated it, but at least when I got to work it wasn’t an empty room! This is depressing. Help! – Kristen in Charlotte, N.C. Dear Kristen: Isolation and loneliness are the dark side of working from home, and many people fall prey to it. When you think about it, much of our social life – and often even our love life – revolves around “the office,” and suddenly your “office” is empty. It’s not just the gossip at the water cooler, either. Marriages and newborns, birthdays and achievements, illnesses and bereavements – all are recognized and shared at our workplaces. We lunch together or have a drink after work, we make weekend plans, we find dates and mates. When we commute, we leave our empty “bedroom communities” behind, and create our communities in the office. However, until the numbers of virtual workers reach critical mass, isolation will continue to be an issue. But fortunately, you have some options. Here are three. 1. Volunteering. Donating your time can be a great way to get out and socialize, make new friends, and do some good in the world as well. We ourselves work from home offices, and in spite of daily Skype sessions we feel isolated sometimes, too. We volunteer in our respective regions, and it’s very rewarding. Mike in Northern Virginia is an advisor to the Washington West Film Festival (Washingtonwestfilmfestival.com), which gives its net proceeds to charity. Chris in Connecticut volunteers for Relay for Life and other cure-for-cancer events. Your region should have many opportunities to choose from, too. For more on volunteer openings, see VolunteerMatch.org and Idealist.org. 2. Coworking centers. These have been cropping up across the U.S. in response to the growing numbers of teleworkers, freelancers, road warriors, and bootstrapping entrepreneurs working out of their kitchens. Research firm International Data Corporation (IDC) predicts that these “mobile workers” will reach 1.3 billion internationally by 2015. Many coworking centers offer coffee and snacks, a relaxed and friendly ambiance, and meeting rooms as well. Membership plans can be daily, weekly or monthly. A quick search for coworking centers in Charlotte, where you live, turned up Lightbulb Coworking, at Lightbulbcoworking.com. For more on coworking, see Wikipedia at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coworking. 3. Guest speaking. Community colleges, chambers of commerce, groups for freelancers and other small-business owners – these and many more can be sources of guest speaking opportunities. Sharing your expertise in public settings is an excellent way to get out of the house, build your network, and find new clients or employers, too, in one fell swoop. ---- Christine Durst and Michael Haaren are leaders in the work-at-home movement and advocates of de-rat-raced living. Their latest book is Work at Home Now, a guide to finding home-based jobs. They offer additional guidance on finding home-based work at www.RatRaceRebellion.com. To read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate Web page at www.creators.com. COPYRIGHT 2012 BY STAFFCENTRIX, DISTRIBUTED BY CREATORS.COM |
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