Count me among the many of you who work in the basement, although I’m not running a micro-business nor am I self-employed. Technically, it’s more accurate to say that I sometimes work in the basement and sometimes I work a bit farther away. For example, I spent last week working in California where there are plenty of home offices but almost no basements (Perhaps a west coast version of WFTB would be called “Working From The Spare Bedroom”?). The trips out of the basement afford me the best of both worlds.
I’m a freelance producer and sometimes writer. It’s the producing work that sometimes takes me out of my basement. Last week, I was on a Los Angeles sound stage shooting an infomercial with a crew of fifty, which is about forty-nine more people than are usually in my basement. We also had one fairly famous celebrity, which is exactly one more than the number of celebrities ordinarily found in my basement.
Despite the lack of celebrities, my basement, also known as my World Headquarters, is a comfortable and productive place from which to work. In addition to my desk (which I built and is the envy of most visitors) the basement is equipped with a gym, treadmill and stationary bike all of which call to me on a regular basis. Unfortunately, more often than not I ignore those calls which no doubt accounts for my need to work in loose fitting sweats. Who knew that the mere purchase of a treadmill is not enough to get into shape? The world headquarters is also outfitted with a large screen television and a surround sound stereo. I find that productivity drops when the TV is on so I try to keep it off during the day. On the other hand, I seem to be more productive with music so the stereo is frequently on usually with Itunes or Pandora.
For this most recent shoot, I spent a week in the World Headquarters prepping the job. I generated countless emails, worked the phones and tinkered with the budget, all while wearing the afore-mentioned sweats and a t-shirt. But the advantages to this set-up are not limited to sweat pants. I’m can run to the store or pick up one of my kids after practice all without missing a beat. And yet when everyone is home, the basement still affords me a quiet place to work.
While working from home has become commonplace today, it is not for everyone. People often worry about letting the distractions of the home interfere with their productivity. It seems some would prefer the structured environment of an office to keep them on track but I’ll take the basement any day. I have very little trouble with distraction when I’m on a project like the infomercial as there is usually way too much to do and little time left for distraction. It’s when I’m between paid work and left with only my own personal projects that I let distractions creep in. When I’m simply rewriting the screenplay, working on the latest blog entry, or perhaps writing a guest column for WFTB, I’m much more likely to find things that suddenly need to be done around the house (I’ve done two loads of laundry while writing this column) before I settle in to work. But eventually I do settle in and there is no better place for me to work.
There are countless other benefits to working at home. For instance, office politics are non-existent in my basement and I don’t wait in line for a cafeteria lunch. Also there are no annoying co-workers in the next cubicle who talk too loud, steal my desk supplies, or reek of too much perfume. On the other hand, I will admit that most people in an office don’t have to deal with a large fluffy cat that complains a lot either. I’m sure that I could go on about the advantages to working from the basement and ordinarily I would but I do still have two loads of laundry to fold and a cat to feed.
About Jeff:
Jeff Vibes is a freelance Producer/Writer who lives in Connecticut with his wife, two sons and one extremely demanding cat. He has been in the film industry for over twenty years. In addition to countless commercials and infomercials, Jeff has also worked on documentary films and movie publicity all over the world.
Originally from Connecticut, Jeff spent twenty-two years living in California before returning to Connecticut in 2001. Since then he has continued to work primarily in both California and New York.
He spends his down time (a misnomer if ever there was one) attending his son’s baseball games. Any remaining time is spent writing unproduced screenplays and personal essays. Some of his writing can be found on his blog “The Random Vibes” at
http://www.therandomvibes.blogspot.com/
Jeff can be reached at jvibes@mindspring.com
Excellent references (all well paid of course) are available upon request.
WFTB – Jeff Vibes
Ok admit it you had a grin on your face this morning when you woke up and saw the snow. If you think the people that you work with that do the daily commute are jealous on a normal day, they really feel it on a snow day. Even though I work from home on a regular basis there seems to be something special about a snow day. The pace of the people around you seems to slow down, you linger round the kitchen longer getting your coffee and reading the paper. I even make it a point to work in my PJs for awhile, maybe it’s the snow or memories of snow days when I was a kid, but I feel calmer.
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