Live/Work Blog

Hi, I’m Max Comfort, serial live/worker. Been at it since I was 12. Doing this blog and hope you’ll find it interesting, inspiring, irritating and generally something you feel moved to respond or contribute to.

First I need to introduce myself and my two assistants.

My background - many years ago - is in architecture and Architecture. Spot the difference? Small ‘a’ architecture is bloody big office blocks and shopping malls, built to make a huge profit for developers who don’t usually need to make any more money. Big ‘A’ Architecture is about buildings that serve, nurture, and inspire their occupants, buildings that are soundly built, of generous proportions and that incorporate the latest in ecological innovation. You pick.

More recently - for the past 16 years in fact - I’ve been a portfolio worker, as described by Charles Handy in his book ‘The Age of Unreason’. It means that I do lots of different things for different people - you might know it as multi-tasking. Mostly what I do now is help others make a good living out of something they are passionate about. Seems quite normal now to use words like ‘passion’ and ‘love’ in relation to work, but I can remember the day I first used ‘love’ in a speech on the future of work to a bunch of supra-shoulder-padded execs in a swanky Mayfair hotel. Scary. 1997 - a good year for love. Got married that year.

So I train, teach, coach, mentor, write, facilitate and - in my spare time - I work with local groups on regeneration projects.

Naturally, I do this from my base at home in the Cotswolds. You know - stone walls, sheep, cows, tourists, shops that close at 5.30pm, too many caravans - that sort of thing.

Here I should introduce my cats, the Fabulous Burmese Boys (FBBs), Manuka and Ginkgo, who come to help me with theeeeeeeeeee ttttttttttttttttttttyping. They are just a year old, very inquisitive and moult a lot. Ever hoovered your keyboard? They also have a canny understanding of which document you don’t want them to lie down on right at this minute.

I’ll be writing a bit more about this later, but I wanted to introduce the concept of Sod’s Law for Homeworkers (SLH) - yes, there is one. Please add to the list as we go along. Here’s a couple for starters:

* SLH1: If you ever summon up the energy to tidy your desk, the Dark Forces (DFs) will magic 10 telephone calls in quick succession. Desk disappears under growing piles of paper, files and other detritus. G&T required (don’t on any account look at your watch) in order to Put Things Away.

* SLH2: If you don’t get to the phone in time (listening to ‘I Haven’t a Clue’?), you’ll always end up having to ring back someone who loves long conversations and lives in New Zealand. Thank God for the Phone Co-op’s cut-price calls!

Now for one of a series of Max’s Useful Tips: try turning the PC/Mac off as you go to dinner. Much later, replete with food, fine wines (the local offy are doing a great line in Rioja for £3.99) and three hours of Eastholbycorrydale, you’ll find it easier to resist the ‘I’m just going to check my emails, darling’ when it’s time for bed. (Jo suggested that one). That’s Jo, as in partner, other/better half, whatever. In this blog I’ll be referring to her as “Her Indoors” (HI), although she seldom is, being another crazy multitasking live/working type like me.

Just had a little problem with the FBBs. While I was on the phone to a particularly uptight client they decided I needed to know it was time for their dinner. (You’ll have gathered that Burmese talk a lot - loudly.) Worrying now that he will be left wondering why the conversation seemed to be a lot shorter than usual and if there was something horribly wrong with my bowels. Recall Richard Branson’s autobiography and the way he developed his quick pitch technique (page 43 in the paperback).

Next time: Will there still be office blocks in 2020? Do we care? When a client phones in the middle of a noisy family dinner do you drop the Bloody Mobile (BM) in the gazpacho or dive out into the garden to avoid the withering glances from HI? Answers on an email please.

Plus a discourse on the economic benefits of live/working. (No, not just about not having to pay through the nose for a Costa coffee, but other things like lower car costs, fewer suits (yes, we’ll be covering naked typing) and not paying for two premises.

Finally, a question to leave you with - if live/working is the business equivalent of home-educating, how do we tackle the social isolation and replace the gossip round the coffee machine?

See you