NOT PHONING IT IN: Despite living in a tiny studio, Upper East Side couple Steve Zembrzuski and Kendra Newton make their telecommute work. (Astrid Stawiarz)
When TriBeCa resident David McFarland took a new sales job last November with a West Coast tech firm, the change required him to trade a corporate office gig for telecommuting from his dining room. His new co-worker? Girlfriend Marissa Vicario, 34, who had recently left an office job to start a health-coaching business from their two-bedroom apartment.
For the couple of four years — who have lived together for the past 3 1/2 — working from home together means adjusting to a new workplace dynamic.
“It’s distracting just having someone else in the apartment, and you can get sidetracked into other conversations,” says McFarland, 41. “But sometimes you get to focus and be more productive than [you would be] in an office environment, where those water-cooler moments and distractions happen more.”
Such perks — and pitfalls — of thecubicle-free life are at the center of the debate sparked by Yahoo’s telecommuting ban last month (Best Buy and Bank of America have also recently rolled out similar policies). And while they’re familiar territory for the growing ranks of telecommuters and home-based workers — according to the Census Bureau, 4.2 million more people worked from home in 2010 than a decade before — work-at-home duos like McFarland and Vicario often experience another level of bumps and benefits.
“Couples who both work from home need to work harder to address the potential challenges of telework,” says Cali Williams Yost, CEO of the New Jersey-based Flex+Strategy Group, which consults companies on flexible work situations. “One of the key factors to success for telework is being able to do it seamlessly and without distraction, so couples need to deliberately and intentionally coordinate their schedules.”
And that’s exactly what McFarland and Vicario do every night, by discussing each other’s next-day schedules to keep abreast of conference calls or other distracting workday happenings.
“There’s a lot of give-and-take that goes on,” explains Vicario. “We communicate a lot more now than when we were in corporate jobs.”
Their at-home office hasn’t just been a boon for their relationship — both claim it has boosted their careers.
“Overall, I am more productive working from home than I was in the office,” says McFarland. He cites a lack of interruption from colleagues: “In previous jobs, people would often walk in and out of my office throughout the day, and I would lose a lot of my day.”
Indeed: A 2012 Stanford University study revealed remote employees are more productive than their office counterparts.
But some of this increased productivity might be the result of working longer hours, according to a 2012 Bureau of Labor Statistics report that found that telecommuters are more likely to work overtime — by an average of five to seven hours a week — than people who work in an office.
And burning the midnight oil can pose its own set of problems for home-working couples, notes Manhattan career coach Stacy Kim.
“Work can so easily spill into home life when you’re telecommuting,” she says. “You need to have clear boundaries.”
Indeed, the line between work and nonwork can be hazy — and when partners aren’t on the same page, frustration can ensue. Just ask freelance publicist Kendra Newton and her Web developer boyfriend of two years, Steve Zembrzuski, who have been working out their Upper East Side apartment together since February 2012.
“Sometimes I’ll be trying to go to bed, and he’ll be working from his iPad in bed, and it’s just glowing in my face,” says Newton, 31.
And vice-versa: When Newton joined her beau working at home last winter, he says her TV-watching habit during the workday was an issue. (And it’s a common one: A 2012 study by mobility software maker Citrix found 43 percent of respondents copped to watching TV or a movie while working at home.)
“It was challenging learning to work through each other’s distractions,” agrees Zembrzuski, who eventually settled on a pair of interruption-proof headphones.
This sort of clash over workplace styles is a potential hiccup for work-at-home couples, says Manhattan-based executive coach Roy Cohen.
“It becomes a challenge when significant others have habits — such as being sloppy or having a loud voice — which may not be an issue in a relationship but become monumental as work colleagues,” he says.
That’s where clear communication comes in.
“We definitely have to be very verbal about what we’re working on,” says Newton about how the pair cope. “Steve will tell me, ‘I’m trying to wrap something up — just give me 15 minutes.’ ”
Boundaries don’t just apply to a clear division between work and play.
“You need to have boundaries of, ‘Where is your work space; where is my work space?’ ” says Kim.
Seeking such space — and solace — is a key issue for the pair, who share a tiny 350-square-foot studio. With no other escape from one another than thepartitioned-off kitchen, the couple make a point of escape — even if it’s just a trip to the grocery store.
“A lot of people who work from home get lonely,” says Newton, who works next to Zembrzuski, 35, in side-by-side armchairs. “With us, we have the other person there to help motivate each other or to bounce an idea off of.”
And what about spending 24/7 with your other half? The risk, says Manhattan psychologist Joseph Cilona, is “we time” overload.
“Being in the workplace can provide [you] with an important break fromcouple-related dynamics,” he explains. “When this is missing, frustrations can get projected onto the other work-at-home spouse, even when it has nothing to do with them.”
Sibrena Stowe de Fernandez knows the feeling: The self-employed media specialist works from her Bayonne, NJ, condo alongside fiancé Alex Geraldino, whose procurement job for a government agency requires him to telecommute three days a week.
“If I’m having an annoying work situation, I’ll definitely vent to him,” admits Stowe de Fernandez, 44, who moved in with Geraldino last May after a 1 1/2-year courtship.
But the couple make the best of their flexible work days, enjoying midday gym sessions and meals together on a daily basis.
Most of all, Geraldino believes telecommuting allows for a better relationship with his bride-to-be.
“When you come [home] after eight hours at work, it’s not really enough time to spend with a significant other,” says Geraldino, 42. “I think [working from home] actually enhances the quality of life.”