8 signs you work from home and live in Charlotte

But for every pro of working from home, there’s an equally convincing con that could send you running back to regimented arms of office life. There’s no divide between work and home so it’s tougher to find a hard stopping point and thus easier to work longer hours than intended. It requires discipline in the face of daily distractions like laundry and pets and the strange urge to redecorate your entire house for no reason. And working from home is isolating and lonely at times, which is an environment I thrive in for productivity but is also one that makes me converse with my cats like a complete psycho.

Perhaps worst among the working from home cons is the general assumption that it’s code for “watches TV all day.” I regret to inform you I haven’t turned on the TV yet this week. But here are 7 stereotypes that definitely fit Charlotte work-from-homers like me.

You owe rent at Earl’s Grocery. Sometimes you just need to get out. Free Wi-Fi, ample seating, convenient and strategically placed electrical outlets… WINE. Yeah, Earl’s is the ultimate co-working space and you can’t tell if you owe them your life or a small fee for the prime real estate you occupy on the regular. Probably both.

You don’t know what day it is unless it’s an event day. Is it 11 p.m. on a Friday night? 6 a.m. on a Sunday? Who knows because you’re working all the time anyway. All you know is if it’s #weloveCLT it must be Wednesday, if it’s an #instabeerupCLT day it must be Thursday and if it happens to be a Creative Morning it must be Friday. Everything else is a blur.

You could rent an office with the amount of money you spend on coffee. Or at least a seat in an open coworking space. You’ve run the numbers and for the cost of your $5 daily latte habit, you could at least land the cheapest membership at one of Charlotte’s many coworking spaces. But you won’t do it because 7th Street Public Market is your coworking space and a latte from Not Just Coffee is your rent. Sounds logical and fiscally responsible.

You know the Wi-Fi passwords everywhere. And they’re saved to automatically log you into the network. 7th Street Public Market, Sunflour Baking Co, Earl’s, Dowd YMCA, every single coffee shop. You’ve got it under control.

You escalate interactions from email to real life happy hour meetings just to see a fellow human. Oh, you attached that document for my review? Thanks. Can you print it out for no reason, put it in a binder and bring it to The Summit Room at 5 o’clock so we can review it together over the best cocktails in town? Perfect.

You hit highly trafficked areas at off times just because you can. YMCA between 8 and 11 a.m. when the 8 to 5 crowd is already at the office and not on lunch break. Harris Teeter any time other than Sunday and Monday evenings when people are gearing up with groceries for the traditional work week. I-77 literally any time but rush hour.

You work out ALL the time. Just kidding. You might look like you’re on your way to that bi-weekly STAX boot camp or OMB Yoga on Tap class, but it’s 6 p.m. and you’re just still in your pajamas. It’s one of the perks. Or punishments. Either way, carry on.

You spend so much time interacting with humans online, you fumble a lot of your real life interactions. Sorry, just trying to CTRL+F your name in my memory but the search returns no results so I’m just going to call you by your Twitter handle until all neurons are firing properly if that’s cool with you.