The Work at Home Perception

Kay Stephan, a business etiquette consultant in Canal Fulton, worries about what potential clients might think if they knew she worked from home.

Her business card lists her office address as Suite 203 -- the third bedroom on the second floor of her house.

``I would never tell them that (I work from home),'' Stephan said. ``They would tend to think of my business as rinky-dink. Perception is a lot, unfortunately.''

When I ran across this article my first thought was, "old article", then I read the date, February 6th, 2004. Huh? My guess would have been 1984.

An open letter to Ohio, home of the Beacon Journal:

Dear Ohio,

Welcome to 2004. I would like to introduce myself, my name is Ty Tribble and I am proud to be a work at home dad. If my 3 year old runs into my office and starts rambling about Star Wars on the XBOX while I am on a business call, I say, "excuse me for a moment", let my son know that I am on the phone, he runs off, I continue my call by saying, "that was my 3 year old and he wants me to play XBOX with him, I like to consider it a corporate perk of working from home, sorry for the interuption, where were we?"

Perception will have a lot to do with your reaction. Performance will help with longterm perception as well. So if you run a home based business or work from home, PERFORM. Show people that it can be done, and then enjoy the freedom you have to go on your 6 year old daughter's field trips and play the occasional game of Star Wars on the XBOX with your 3 year old.

Sincerely,

Ty Tribble
Work At Home Dad