As I write this, I'm sitting at home. Or, am I in my office? Actually, it's both. As one of the many who work out of a home office, I often ponder whether it's a blessing or curse.
The company I work for requires that all it's sales people and managers work out of a home office. We do have a sales & training headquarters along with a separate administrative main office. For the last 14 plus years, I've worked from home.
While somewhat different from a home based business (in which case, I could be the owner versus reporting to someone), being an outside sales rep who works from home shares has much in common with the owner of a home based business. .
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One the one hand, most days start when I want them to start! I'm an early bird, my headquarters in on the East coast so I'm usually on the phone or computer by 6am. Conversely, I end when I want them to end. My customers are all on Pacific time so I usually go pretty late in the afternoon.
Another plus of working out of the home is what I wear when I'm here. It's always cool to say, "Yep, I wore shorts & flip flops to work today". Sure, I do see customers and wear the jacket/tie outfit but around the home office, it's very casual!
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I take breaks when I want. I do have a manager but I'm not micromanaged to the point that I need to detail to him what I'm doing every hour. I'm also flexible enough to take my daughter & son to/from school and assorted activities. So far so good, right?
However, the flip side is that I'm always near my home office. It's too convenient to check work email post 5pm. Many days, I pull ahead work at 10pm so I can get those extra few minutes of sleep the next morning. When you work from home, it's tough to escape work. I can't just lock "work stuff" behind a door or leave it on a desk in an office building. Many times I've thought about how great it would be to just leave at 5pm and not see or do anything associated with work for 14 hours or so. I do take days off and vacation, but that dang work issued laptop is always close.
From home, I can go to doctor's appointments and run small errands at times when most workers are stuck in office buildings. Freeways and stores are less crowded.
But, from a social aspect, working from home makes it tough to have work friends. I can't go out for happy hour with the gang from the office. However, at home, the 'fridge is close by, the beer is ready and there's no worry about driving home after having a couple of cold ones!
So, if you work from home, do you like it? What would you change if you could? I'd like to be more disciplined and not let my mind wonder to non-work related activities. If you're an office worker, what appeals to you? Would you work out of the house if you had the chance?
