A New Way To Work

I’m taking a quick break from the other work I’m doing at the moment to comment on working.

I’ve held three paying jobs in my life: Pizza Hut, UTeach Student Associate, and the University Catholic Center.

Pizza Hut’s working conditions are easy to assume. As a cook, my role was to make the pizza or pasta dish to the exact specification passed down from on high. Variation or invention was not allowed. I earned minimum wage ($5.15 at that time). I didn’t really need the job as a high school student, but I wanted save some for college and have some financial options. I didn’t last very long.

At The University of Texas at Austin‘s UTeach Natural Science program had a Student Associate position which, basically, paid you $10 an hour to “volunteer” somewhere within the local area that would benefit you as a future educator. I volunteered at Anderson High School to organize their chemistry storage area. No structure or supervision. I think I worked there for about six months.
Next, I went across the street and started at the University Catholic Center. For five years, I did a little bit of everything being paid various wages and salaries. Structure, but variation and invention was useful. I had supervision and oversight, but nothing oppressive. As a young man finishing college, starting out in the world and eventually, starting a family, it was a great setup.

As of March 1, I’m now a field agent for the Knights of Columbus. Basically, I’m self-driven completely now. The major difference with this new role and my previous jobs is location. We converted a second bedroom into a home office that is my primary work location. My contact with my boss will be mostly by telephone and once I have my bearings set, I may hardly talk to him if everything is going well.

What’s the work/home balance? How do you make that happen when the physical boundary between work and home no longer exists? At the UCC, I worked when I was at the UCC. When I was at home, I was off the clock (excluding some
e-mail processing).

I’ve followed Lifehacker and various other blogs for sometime now that include a good amount of content aimed toward freelancers and other folks who work from home, so I have some ideas. They’re all untested by me though. This is an interesting experiment (with live ammo) .

I’m trusting that the Holy Spirit will lead me toward the balance and I’m hoping I’m paying enough attention to realize it when I see it.