How does this co-working thing go again?

December 15, 2014 6:28 AM

After management shenanigans I've decided to leave my current company and head out into the world. I've landed a contract role in my home city for a 10% salary bump and am looking forward to a new challenge. Only thing is that the new role is exclusively office-based, and I've been telecommuting for > 5 years. Help me adjust to (UK) office life again.

My old company (technically I work for them until the new year, but let's start as we mean to go on) was made up almost entirely of remote employees; we had some offices but most of the time I worked from home. This suited me just fine; I'm very self-motivated and the flexible hours allowed me to build up a separate side-business, so long as I put in my required 40 hours a week.

Obviously, I'm going to have to get used to set office hours again. I'm worried that that will affect my side work (as a filmmaker), since I was able to arrange things flexibly before. I'm concerned that having a commute (admittedly a short one; ~40 minutes, half of which is a walk to my local metro stop, and in summer I'll cycle in) will kill my spirits.

All of this may or may not be anxiety over nothing, but I'd like some advice from you, hive mind:

- How can I keep my side-work from being crushed by having a proper dayjob like normal folk do?
- Can you suggest strategies for avoiding turning into an automaton with structured work hours?
- If you've been through a similar transition in the past, what did you find easiest to adapt to? What did you find to be the hardest? What should I prepare myself for that I haven't yet considered?

posted by six sided sock to Work & Money (3 answers total)

As to the film making: I've always been in a 9-to-5 (or morning-to-whenever) office job and I do theater all the time (on a community theater level, but I'm very committed to it). The thing I've learned is that I won't allow the job to interfere with my theater schedule, just as I wouldn't allow my theater activities to interfere with my job schedule. Both need to be honored, because I have commitments to both. I've been very up-front with my bosses about what I'll commit to and what I can't, and they've totally understood. I do my job (and I do it well, if I can be not-humble about it), but if I'm in rehearsal, I won't answer a phone call about work. I'll get back to you when I'm done with my other commitment, the one that makes it easier to handle hard days at work.
posted by xingcat at 7:24 AM on December 15, 2014 [1 favorite]

Your commute is pretty long, actually. 40 minutes? You spent 80 minutes a day getting to work and back? Move closer, and use that extra time for your side work.
posted by oceanjesse at 12:47 PM on December 23, 2014

Response by poster: Your commute is pretty long, actually. 40 minutes? You spent 80
minutes a day getting to work and back? Move closer, and use that
extra time for your side work.

It's 40 minutes if I walk from my house to the nearest metro stop (~25
minutes). If I drive there and park it's ~5 minutes to the metro, then
15 minutes on the metro, then a five minute walk to the office. Most
days I'll be walking, for fitness and to give me buffer time between
work and home.

Moving isn't an option right now, and I love my home anyway :).
posted by six sided sock at 8:42 AM on January 3, 2015