All In A Mom-day's Work
by Lucie Bouchard Antoniazzi
Travel time
There are many reasons why I chose to work from home, but the number one reason has got to be travel time. I’m reminded of this every month when I go to the office for my monthly meeting with colleagues.
Normally, my trek to work consists of walking down the stairs from my bedroom to the kitchen where I set up my laptop to work. Even at a very slow pace, it takes me, at most, five minutes to commute to work. As an added bonus, I don’t even have to get dressed beforehand. Pj’s work just fine to sit at the computer and type.
When I go to the office, I leave with Rudy around 7:20 to catch the 7:30 train. The ride to downtown Montreal is about an hour. Once I get off the train, I have two options. I can either walk for about 20 minutes, mostly uphill, or I can take the subway for about 20 minutes on two subway lines, and then walk uphill for about two minutes to the office. Either way, the trip door-to-door from home to office takes roughly an hour and a half. Needless to say, I get dressed before going to the downtown office. Flannel pj’s and fuzzy slippers aren’t acceptable office attire, apparently.
At home, I can do my work anytime between 7:30 a.m. and 5:00 p.m. I don’t have far to go to get dinner started. Even if I finish my workday at 5:30, I can still have a consistent supper on the table by 6:00 or 6:15. Plus if something happens during the day, like a doctor’s appointment or an emergency at one of the kids’ school, I am available and can make up my work hours in the evening by simply setting up my laptop again.
When I go to the office, I only start my work day around 9:00 a.m., which means that I have to stay until at least 3:00 p.m. to get my five hours in. If I manage to get out by 3:00 (which is usually not the case because meetings are still ongoing at that time), I can catch the 3:30 train, but most often, I end up on the 4:10 train. This train gets me back to the Laval train station around 5:10. I don’t take the car home because I leave it for Rudy to take when he comes in with his train at 6:20 – I take the bus home. In an ideal world, the bus is waiting for me as I walk off the train, it drops me off at my stop about 15 minutes later, and I take a five minute walk home. Of course, since no one lives in an ideal world, the bus has usually left just five minutes before the train comes in, and I have to wait for 25 minutes for the next bus to come. Then I still have the 15 minute bus ride, during which I call home to have Sabrina start boiling some water, followed by the five minute walk. I get home, totally exhausted. I throw some pasta into the pot of boiling water and heat up a can of sauce for a really quick and easy supper.
Why would I choose to travel back and forth to work for three hours or more every day if I can travel for ten minutes, tops? No doubts – I choose home as my office!
Lucie Bouchard Antoniazzi works from home as a technical writer for an engineering consulting/training firm. She also likes to write children’s fiction and nonfiction when time permits, and she occasionally does Web design. Lucie lives with her husband, Rudy, and their three children in Laval, Quebec, Canada. Find out more about Lucie and her work by visiting her Web site at www.luciebouchardantoniazzi.com.
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