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W@H Not Just For The Dogs Anymore

April 6th, 2020 by Jackie Baxley

What does working from home look like for you? Maybe you’re sitting at a multi-monitor display or in an arm chair with your laptop on top of your lap? Maybe it looks your kids sleeping in or teenagers going stir crazy from cabin fever. Maybe working from home is just the reassurance of a gleeful pet. HRP strikes a work/life balance unlike any other company. So how do you stay balanced when work and home are the same place? In “W@H” our continuing series on working from home, we’ll be getting some insight into that day to day of HRP employees.

It’s hard to know what you can count on these days. What you’ll see in each installment of “W@H” is that you can still count on HRP to work harder than ever to Move Your Environment Forward.

Our first dispatch from the home office comes from Jackie Baxley, HRP’s Environmental Health and Safety Practice Leader:

I’m writing this blog at 5:30 on a Friday.  But, I’m still at work – which means I’m still in my sun room. 

Being in consulting, I commonly work from home but these last few weeks have been unique.  As a mom, a wife and the owner of a 10 month old puppy, my tips for working at home have grown and adapted:

• Set office hours.  The first week I was still waking up at 6:00, having my morning tea, watching the Today Show, and walking into the Sunroom at 8:00 to start work.  Now, I barely get out of bed by 7:00, still watching the Today Show, and stumbling into the sunroom at 9:00.  That’s ok, I think 9:00 has become the new 8:00.  So, my office hours are 9-6.  However, I’m in consulting which really means I really don’t have office hours and I’m always available.  So, call me at 7:30, just realize I’ll still be in my robe and slippers!
   
• Communicate with the family.  In the house we announce lunch time and getting off of work or school.  Until that time, we respect everyone’s school and work boundaries.  Admittedly this is easier for me because I have a teenage son.  I have nothing but love for those out there balancing with younger children.  An element I never thought I would need to communication in working at home was “no flush” times.  Our sunroom (my office) shares a wall with our downstairs bathroom so on more than one occasion I’ve been on a call or online meeting and can hear the toilet flush.  Now, if I’m broadcasting a webinar – we announce the downstairs bathroom is closed!
   
• Nothing you can do about a puppy.  What can I say, my puppy loves me, and if I’m on a call that is when he wants to play.  Just this morning I put him outside while I was doing one of our Pop Up Webinars and he stared at me through the window the entire time.  It was a beautiful mild sunny morning in South Carolina so I really don’t know what he was complaining about.  As I’m wrapping up my day today, I look down and he is looking at me like it is time to get off work.  Yep, your right, 6:00 on Friday now, time to go outside and play.
   

Jackie S. Baxley, PE, EHS Practice Leader at HRP Associates, Inc.