Today’s blog features Ruth from Marketing Simply’s garden office as part of my Home/Work project. I visited Ruth and Sarah on a very windy day in January to photograph their workspace in Ruth’s garden.
What type of business do you run? I run a bijou marketing agency, working with local and national business owners and their teams with their ongoing marketing actives, either through empowering them to learn how to do it themselves or by saving them time and energy and doing all or some of it on their behalf.
When did you start working from home? It was January 2013.
What made you decide to work from home rather than in premises offsite? It was a no brainer after starting part-time work for other people aged 11 through to full-time work up until 35, I did not want to sit in traffic for 2 – 4 hours a day or have huge overheads.
What do you like best about working from home? Flexibility.
Are there any difficulties in working from home? It has taken some discipline to actually switch off at the end of the day and ‘leave’ work, having a garden office which is 20 paces from the house does help.
What is your favourite feature of your workspace? My cat enjoys me being around and shares the office space in the garden, which moves to under the parasol on nice sunny days.
To find out more about Marketing Simply visit www.marketingsimply.co.uk or connect with them on Twitter: https://twitter.com/rufusboo or Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/simplyruthonlinemarketing/
Home/Work is my current project documenting people who work from home. ‘Home’ is a recurring theme in my work – I am fascinated by our interactions with objects and spaces, particularly our homes, and with the number of home workers on the increase I thought this would be fascinating to investigate.
According to the Office for National Statistics, “There were 4.2 million home workers in January-March 2014, or 13.9% of those in work. This was the highest rate of home working since comparable records began in 1998.” Visit www.ons.gov.uk/ons/rel/lmac/characteristics-of-home-workers/2014/sty-home-workers.html for further information on these statistics.
I am hoping to photograph the workspaces of lots of different people, working in a wide range of industries, but all of whom work from their home or within the grounds of their home. I am interested in how people create these workspaces and how the lines between home and work are defined or blurred. If you work from home and are interested in participating in the project please get in touch!