Not Just for Knowledge Workers

Working where you live isn't just for the technorati and the multi-level marketers. It turns out that a lot of different kinds of jobs are done by people who work and sleep in the same basic space. Jobs like:

1. Sailor: When those folks are at sea, they sleep under, swab, and otherwise live and work on the same decks all the time. Of course, most of these folks also have a land-based home, possibly populated with family members, but when you're on a three-year tour of duty, you really have to consider that you "live" on board.

2. Submariner: Perhaps this is a form of being a sailor, but again people serving on submarines live and work in quarters closer than almost any home office situation I can imagine.

3. Field Biologist: I may be romanticizing this job, but living in a platform tent in the jungle and wandering outside to make observations, wrangle snakes, or collect the nightly data downloads from the camera trap sounds like a pretty amazing working arrangement.

4. Parent: This is a second job that many of us already have, but parents are working to nurture small children -- what an important job and one that you generally do from your home (and car, and out on the playground, and at the doctor's office, and all those other places you drag the darn kids).

5. Farmer: I've written about this before -- farmers live and work in their small business, and are on their own in determining what work needs to be done on any given day to keep that business profitable.

6. Commander In Chief: The Oval Office is just down the hall from the presidential suite at the White House. Nobody worries about the President working in his jammies.

Well, I do a little bit. But I'm sure it only happens during times of national emergency.