For almost the past year, I’ve absolutely loved my office. I’ve loved my desk, I’ve loved the lighting, the break area, the office mascot, and especially my coworker. That’s because my office has been home. My desk has been the dining room table, the lighting ambient sunlight, the break room my kitchen, the office mascot our fuzzy pup Ruby, and my favorite coworker my wife Lana (who also works from home).
There’s no commute, no parking hassle, no expensive dine-out lunches, and no need for a tie. There’s technically no need for pants either, but I keep it classy.
However, working from a home office, for those who haven’t had the experience, is not quite the archetypical roll-out-of-bed-and-go-to-work paradise of freedom and ultra-relaxed dress codes most people understand it to be. There are pros, and there are cons. I thought I’d break it down here. This will either cement your desire to quit your job and join one of those weird pyramid schemes, or it will change your mind completely about wanting to give the work-from-home world a shot.
Why You Want to Work From Home
- You can quench your fascination with hanging out in your underwear. There, let’s get that one out of the way first.
- People don’t knock on your cubicle wall to drop urgent items in your lap. If there’s an out-of-sight barrier between you and those people, it means a project has to be really important to be dropped on you.
- No commute. That means huge savings on gas, mileage, auto wear and tear, time, and stress. Did I mention no commute?
- Focus. If your home is tranquil like mine usually is, you can focus on work more than you can when there are chatty coworkers and invitations to play with the life-sized chess set in the courtyard. Sometimes a squirrel in the window will create some ruckus, but it’s rare.
- Flexible hours. This does not mean you can start working at 10am and stop at 3, but it does mean you have some leeway in when you can start and stop. This is mostly because of … the lack of commute!
- Lunch with loved ones. I get to hang out with my wife during lunch break. There aren’t enough good things I can say about that.
Why You Don’t Want to Work From Home
For every silver lining, there’s a dark cloud to be wary of.
- There are no coworkers. That means less social interaction, and less real-time information when the you-know-what hits the fan at work. No office beer pong, and no spontaneous meetings to decide what to do about that time-sensitive issue that just popped up. This alone can be a huge deal breaker for some.
- Communication is mostly email and chat. Some thrive with this arrangement; others of us are sloppy typists. Sometimes real-time communication is best carried out in person, with spoken words and visual aids.
- Skype. For whatever reason, some remote employees seem to like being on live video, which can be a replacement for in-person communication. Then again, some employees loathe being on camera. You may or may not have pet peeves like this.
- Focus. For some, home distractions are just as impeding as work distractions. If you have young kids or a lot of family members living with you (or even needy pets), you may have a difficult time doing anything productive during the day. For that reason some remote workers are most productive at night. This, of course, means less sleep and less family time. Your ability to erect barriers and zone into work play a huge role into how productive you are.
How does working from home work for you?
