Working at home can leave you risk averse (when you have disabilities)

For the first 20 years of my career life, I worked for others, outside my home and loved it. No matter how sick I felt, getting dressed for work, walking into my office and seeing my co workers, distracted me and cheered me.

Now I spend my days alone – talking with clients or my virtual team on the phone and the computer. But the payoff is that it’s just a flight of stairs to my office with lots of sunlight and total control over my surroundings.

When your office is in your house, it’s easy to forget what it’s like to leave home to go to work. It’s good to do this every once in a while. That way when you’re lonely working solo , frustrated being a one woman band or tired of the financial risks and worry, it’s good to get a dose of the alternative.

The reminder came last Friday when I traveled to NYC for the day to attend a Roundtable for career and health bloggers held by cancerandcareers.org. which is sponsored by Cosmetic Executive Women Foundation. First what to wear. Always the “fashionista ” part struggles with my physical needs.  My feet ache in the best of circumstances — the right one is swollen from the bunion surgery. Ditch the heels even if they’re low – wear the boots.  Gotta’ pack extra Poise pads, ostomy supplies, eye drops for dry eyes, food to snack on since ileostomy is happiest when I eat every few hours. And the laptop, power cord, palm pilot.   Skip the leather briefcase – go for the big lightweight bag.

I’m thinking, what’s the big deal?  It’s 2 cabs and 2 trains each way. But just leaving your house means unexpected physical challenges lurk everywhere. Sure enough, the long walk to the train, rain meant getting a cab in NYC was impossible.   And all the while, my feet ache, I’m shlepping my heavy bag and my bladder is going haywire as it does with too much caffeine and my body under siege.

It’s getting harder than ever to leave my home because it’s just so much easier to stay at home. That’s not a good thing, though. It’s a short slide to becoming fearful of pushing yourself and taking risks.

The roundtable was terrific. I was in a room with people who see that chronic illness can wreck a career – and care.  But I’ll tell you more about that in the next post .

Rosalind  aka cicoach.com