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Thursday, July 28th 2011 · 0 COMMENT

Do you share the dream?

The dream of working from home where children (if you have them) play happily at your feet, you’re free to make your own hours and, best of all, you can spend the entire day in your PJs? Sounds too good to be true? It is!

Working from home and maintaining professional manners can be a tricky tango. In reality, the dream is interrupted by a laundry pile that calls our name, office hours that make a punch-clock look appealing and living day after day in yoga pants. The same reasons we wouldn’t (or shouldn’t) tote a load of whites to wash at the office should motivate us to establish good work-from-home boundaries.

Here are a few tips to make working from home comfortable… in a mannerly sort of a way.

A dress code that’s more than your birthday suit.

A perk of working at home is the dress code, or lack thereof. But just as the saying goes “you are what you eat”…so you are what you wear. Fashion designer and co-founder of the popular fashion blog Shopafrolic Liz Lange reminds us, “When you are dressed-up it sets the tone for your day, you feel better about yourself and thus are more productive. You need to dress for yourself. I always get dressed even when I am working from home or when I am sick.”

Getting dressed up, even just a little – something between a power suit and birthday suit – is less about other people and more about us. The better we feel, the more productive we will be.

Ring a ding ding…

Those who work at home can’t afford to pick up on the first ring; they must schedule their phone meetings carefully. A scheduled phone call ensures we are prepared with the necessary paperwork/e-mails on hand. It also helps us to limit our background noise.

Kate Lewis, author of The Civilized Minute, reminds us of the following: “It’s unprofessional to be on a call, walk to the sink, turn on the water, scrape the lunch remnants down the disposal and flip the switch.” In this situation (clank) it’s not what we say (flush) but what they hear, that will taint our professional image.

Once you hit send… there’s no getting it back.

Proofing those e-mails and checking them twice does make a difference between what’s naughty and nice.This reminder would have saved me early on in my career when, while trying to iron and poach eggs, I sent an e-mailed bio reading, “Works with Pubic Schools.” True story.

Although accidents and mistakes happen, working from home has its share of distractions and sometimes it’s easy to hit send mid-chaos. So remember to put down the iron and focus on what you’ve said and how you’ve spelled it.

Office of one doesn’t mean we work alone.

Work-from-home professionals juggle daily work tasks with those who live in our work space. From children to roommates, this can be a tricky task… and by tricky I mean frustrating. Communicating ahead of time and setting boundaries are key to keeping peace on the homefront.

It’s always helpful to alert family members to phone meetings ahead of time, by saying, “I have a call at 10 a.m. and I need not to be interrupted!” rather than yelling while the phone is ringing “It’s a work call!”

When it comes to how you would like family to communicate, set boundaries such as, “If you need me when I’m typing, please just wait patiently until I’ve finished. I’ll do my best to stop and acknowledge you,” or “If there’s an emergency while I’m on the phone, I’ve set these Post-It notes aside for you to write down what you need.” After all, who wants to be known as the office grouch…especially in your own home.

With a few manners under your professional belt you’ll find working at home more comfortable, even without wearing yoga pants.

Mindy Lockard is a nationally recognized etiquette writer and speaker. Through her work with Mindy Lockard Gracious Living she strives to uphold the values of gracious living in today’s modern world. Keep intouch with Mindy, The Gracious Girl, on Twitter, Facebook and The Gracious Girl blog.

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