It's been rather an interesting week. Last week, my son had bronchitis and I made the mistake of mentioning to a friend of mine, who accompanies me and other members of our suburb on a regular walk through our suburb (click for more information) that by this week, my whole family should be healthy enough to attend.
After jinxing myself like that, of course, I caught bronchitis within the next two days.
The single worst part of working from home is that there is no sick leave - soldier on is what you do, so I did, with a course of penicillin as my army mate. But Tuesday night I hit rock bottom with raging fever and dizzy spells to go along with the sore throat. Luckily, I felt better by Wednesday morning and was able to get most of what I had to do done, but not without refusing point blank to take on any work for that evening and in so doing, upsetting one of my customers (being virtual, we also can't prove show very effectively that we're ill, and he is one of the customers who does not allow me to outsource).
Thursday I was back to chugging speed, and today, up to about 75 kph if the norm is 100 kph, and I've managed to stay up to date and keep most of my customers' work up to date, except the one mentioned above - who I have a long history with and I know I will hear from him in the next week or so.
A particular transcription I received in this week reminded me of the fact that I truly am virtual (with discussion groups like TAVASA, a great forum for South African VAs and transcriptionists, this can slip one's mind occasionally). My client records his files on site, and this one was done whilst under the attack of a swarm of horseflies!
5 comments:
Glad to hear you're feeling better. Working while sick is the pits and as you so rightly said being virtual often people assume you're making an excuse. Reminds me of when I was pregnant and send a client a photo of my face so he could understand why I wasn't working at full speed.
Glad you're better too. Another benefit for working from home and being virtual is that, when I don't feel well, I can take the laptop to bed and work as little or as much as I'm able.
I'm still working fulltime for a company so there is sick leave. However, as work at home mom it must be difficult to say the least.
That is some inspirational stuff. Never knew that opinions could be this varied. Thanks for all the enthusiasm to offer such helpful information here.
Really the blogging is spreading its wings rapidly. Your write up is a fine example of it.
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