Cuppa with a colleague - dadamac's online tea-break for people working from home April 8, 2011

I appreciate some aspects of working from home (paid work, purposeful unpaid work, whatever). I like the lack of rush-hour travel and the fact that I can work without interruption - but when I stop for a tea-break I want a bit of company.

Synchronised tea-breaks

I have a friend who works from home as well, so we often sychronise our tea-breaks. One of us will write a quick skype message to the other before before putting the kettle on. If it's a good time for the other to have a tea break there'll be a follow up phone call before the kettle has finished boiling. Then we'll enjoy an at-a-distance social tea-break for a few minutes instead of a solo one. Sometimes we don't even do the voice chat - we just exchange a few quick pleasantries via the keyboard as we have our cuppas - whatever suits us best (colloquial note - "cuppa" - rhymes with "supper" - shortened form of "cup o' tea"). 

Tea-breaks are more than a break for tea.

The thing is, that a tea-break isn't about just taking a break for a few minutes from what you're toiling over (or what you're trying to toil over). A good tea break at a work-place  - in the staff room, or canteen, or even just clustered around a drinks dispenser - is a chance to stretch your legs, pull back from what you're doing and get refreshed by behaving like a normal, social, human being for a few minutes sharing "the good, the bad and the interesting". If you're a bit stuck, a quick joke with colleaugues, or a hint on how to tackle a problem, can give you a real lift. Therefore the lack of a "proper tea break" can be a serious disadvantage of home working (or home study, or home job-searching). On a bad day lack of a social tea-break can impact on your entire working day and productivity - and even on a good day it's often just as important to have a quick social break and the chance to briefly share something amusing or encouraging that has happened.

Work - and no-work - experiences

My experience of work situations (in no particular order) has been wide-ranging -  trainer, trainee, unskilled worker, professional, on secondment, home-worker, semi-skilled piece-worker, casual work, salaried, voluntary, commission-only, hourly-rate, sessional rate,  "only a housewife and mother", full-time employment, part-time, permanent, temporary, self-employed, via an agency, "portfolio worker" - i.e. quite a collection.  My unemployment record - how I came to be unemployed and what happened while I was - is almost equally varied. In all situations the tea-break (or coffee break or kunu break or whatever) has had its place.

Managing the home-workers tea-break

If you work alone, then the tea-break ritual may need managing. Working alone means that all the energy you need to get on wiht the task in hand has to come from you alone, and so a quick cuppa and an injection of "social vitamins" at just the right time(s) can make a big difference to the day.

I've been talking about this to a couple of people, and have decided to widen the reach of the "dadamac at-a distance tea-break".  The more I think about it the more I like the idea that if I collect up a few more online colleagues than whatever time one of us decides to put the kettle on there will be a good chance of finding a fellow home-working colleague doing the same thing, so we can give each other a long distance "smile and a wave" and exchange a few words over our 'cuppas' before getting back to work.

So, potential virtual colleagues out there, if you fancy a cuppa with a virtual colleague during your working day let me know. I'll set up a skype channel where virtual colleagues can greet each other - with a view to having a chat if they happen to be having a tea-break at the same time.  Of course all the usual warnings apply ref not sharing personal details with people you don't know (even in a normal workplace you don't open your heart or your home to "anyone and everyone" you greet in the staff room - but you are civil to them).

Getting started

I haven't decided what to call this yet - maybe simply the "dadamac tea-break". Anyhow - if your current tea-breaks are taken alone and you'd like the chance to share them with other online colleagues (who are busy working, studying or work-hunting at home) let me know - my skype ID is pamelamclean. If anyone is interested I'll set up a skype channel for us, so we can easily check if anyone else is around when we take our tea-breaks.

Now I'm off to put the kettle on - I started early this morning - time for a quick break.