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CARER STORIES A switch to working from home proves difficult for Darrel
CARER STORIES A switch to working from home proves difficult for Darrel
| A switch to working from home proves difficult for Darrel |
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| Tuesday, 04 November 2008 00:00 | |||||
Darrel is concerned about her wellbeing and wants to take the best care of her that he possibly can. “She is definitely much better when I am at home with her,” Darrel said. “When I am around she has a reason to get out of bed in the morning and I make certain that she eats nourishing food and gets out into the garden and does something productive with her days. “If I wasn’t here, I know she would become depressed and lonely and would probably stay in bed all day, not eat, and not do anything with her time except watch the soaps, which I’m not sure are good therapy. “When I am here I can make sure she takes her medication and monitor how it is working and her general health. This is especially important as she is trialling medication after having had adverse reactions to previous medication her psychiatrist prescribed. “Cindy’s doctor recommends she spend time in a mental health clinic so her medication regime can be monitored but the local clinic is only available for crisis management and the nearest private clinic is two hours away. To help avoid that option, I have made the decision to stay at home with her.” Darrel works as a sub-editor. With a bit of pressure, he has been able to convince his employer to allow him to trial working from home. But it has not been an easy transition. “I can log onto the production system from home via the Internet, but it is very awkward at times getting access to the right people and the right information to check various aspects of my work that I would normally just be able to check by asking the people sitting across the table from me,” he said. “It is very hard to check a simple fact with a reporter who might have written a story and, for example, spelled a name in an unusual way. As a sub-editor I need to check that the spelling was intentional and not an accident, but this simple task involves a call or email and involves more time than if I was in the office and able to just saunter over to their desk and ask them. “There are style and formatting issues that I might seek advice on and here again, I need to email someone to get the answers that might otherwise have been exchanged in a three-second conversation. “The other difficulty is that I can’t access archives, so checking facts from previous stories is also not possible. Nor can I access image libraries, which can sometimes prove difficult. “You don’t always want to be pestering people via email and on the phone because you appreciate they are busy and have their own jobs to do, but it is often the only way to get my questions answered, even at the risk of annoying them. “These problems might sound minor but the cumulative effect leads to quite a bit of stress. “The company is not sure how long they can allow me to keep working from home and that is another pressure I have to deal with. No-one sat down with me to sort out some of these basic job requirements for a remote worker or how to resolve communication issues so that working from home can work for everyone. I feel they think this is a bit of a lark and are not really keen to see the arrangement continue. “I have been looking everywhere for alternative work that I can do from home, but most employers want their staff working from the office. “I have worked as a reporter, in public relations, in a corporate communications role, as the editor of an electronic business magazine and I ran a call centre for 10 years, so I have had a lot of work and life experiences, but it is still hard to find ways to work from home - especially if you live in a regional centre. “It is not really an option to leave Cindy at home alone right now. She suffers from constant anxiety and in her darkest moments has felt there is no future to look forward to. “She is very vulnerable right now and needs my support. I hope my love, support and presence can keep her out of hospital and help her recover.”
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