Ask Readers: Working from Home Myths?

Victor Blick says on November 20th, 2006 at 8:49 am

* Oh, you must watch your kids/pets/tv/chia pet all day, then, right?
Oh no. When I work at home, I WORK at home - away from elements that are not work related - TV included.
* You have less distractions.
My phone rings often and I do get quite a few IM’s BUT I am not privy to extraneous office chatter which makes it easier for me to concentrate.
* You can work whenever you want.
I’m afraid not. My hours match normal business hours.
* You can save a ton on tax deductions!
I’m in the UK and work for a company as a full-time employee so I do not get any tax deductions of that ilk. My commuting costs however are substantially lower and that is where my savings comes into play.
* OMG!! Working from home must be like heaven on earth
Perhaps that is a bit of an over-enthusiastic statement. I do enjoy working from home; no commute, dress as I please, etc - but at the end of the day, it is still work and I work just as hard, if not harder, compared to my time inside of my employer’s office. I work harder to make sure my presence is felt throughout the organisation even though I’m not in the office as much as others.

Working from home is good but it is not a free joy ride.

WTL says on November 20th, 2006 at 10:38 am

I am 100% self-employed. There are some great advantages - I can work pretty much from anywhere, and do once a week.

However, some of my friends think that self employment is a life of relaxation, luxury and vast amounts of money.

Yeah, right. Being a one-person shop, I work *a lot*, and I don’t leave the office to go home, like most people, so work is always looming in the background.

But, I wouldn’t go back to work for anyone else (unless it was hideous amounts of money).

jdan says on November 20th, 2006 at 12:18 pm

I worked from home for 2 years in Tech support and Training Development.

The good:

1) You don’t have to take a shower or get dressed to start a meeting.

2) The commute is fantastically short.

3) No distractions from people in the office asking for this and that.

The bad:

1) It requires a significant amount more effort to stay in touch with what is really happening in the office or on a project. You miss all the little subtle clues that we take for granted (like people muttering about schedule or a particular developer, etc. over the cube walls).

2) It requires a significant amount more effort to make sure people remember you are contributing. You have to be active and vocal in every conversation/thread you are involved in. “Out of sight, out of mind”.

3) No/little social interaction. For some people, this isn’t a problem. For me, a somewhat social person with no social life outside of work, it is a big problem.

4) Constant interruptions from people at your home. It is very difficult to train family that just because you are home, it doesn’t mean you aren’t working.

5) Motivation can be tricky. With no one else around working feverishly, and no one around to motivate you, you have to self-start. This can require a significant amount of discipline.

6) You NEVER leave the office. Once you get started, you also need discipline to know when to stop. My biggest problem working from home was that I would never stop working. Sure, I was amazingly productive, but the rest of my life went to hell.

My advice:

-Don’t work from home if you lack discipline to self-motivate and to know when to stop working.

-Get a door. Having an office with a door is critical to creating a good working environment. I think even better would be a separate building/shed in the back yard that could be used as an office (or an Airstream! http://headrush.typepad.com/cr...../post.html)

-Create a routine. Just because you don’t have to shower, shave, and get dressed doesn’t mean you shouldn’t. Build a schedule and stick to it.

-Get out of the house. Make sure you go somewhere that isn’t your house everyday, or you will start to go a little stir crazy after just a short period of time (which will likely hurt productivity).

Ok, that’s all for now.

–jdan

Deanna says on November 20th, 2006 at 1:12 pm

This is more a freelance misconception than a home-worker misconception, but the biggest thing I get from friends is that they don’t realize that I can’t take vacations like I used to. I recently explained to a friend of mine that it cost me a huge chunk of change just to stay home and not work for two weeks this summer — she was shocked when she heard the number, and I explained that it was what I normally would have made in that time period. So, vacations are about a jillion times more expensive than they ever where when I had my measly 2 weeks off from an employer…

Virgoss says on November 21st, 2006 at 3:37 am

This is my 3rd month working from home. I’ve read a lot of Steve Pavlina in summer and decided to quit my job and start freelancing. It was rather impulsive step. I thought “now or never”, because I was afraid to change my mind taking into account all the reasoning of my friends and relatives.

The first 2 month were a real struggle.
First: I gone out of money and had to lend much. The payments I was waiting were postponed several times. I got desperate muds from time to time. So, save some money before quitting your daily job.

Second: I realized that it’s a real problem treating with myself. Making myself work, focusing on the main points, seeking for a good motivation. Maybe the main thing you should always remember is “Why I’ve chosen to work at home? What benefits it gives me? Now and in perspective”.

The thing which helped me a lot was meditation. I also read a lot of positive thinking books and articles.

There is also a well-known phrase “the journey is that matters not the goal itself” and it’s indeed right. Don’t forget to have a joyful life every day!

Brent O. says on November 21st, 2006 at 5:45 am

I telecommuted for five years and gave it up about a year ago. There’s a lot of info on the web about the short-term pros and cons, but the long-term drawback for me was the glass ceiling. It’s harder (but not impossible) to get a serious raise or promotion when telecommuting in IT. The classic excuse was, “You’ve already got better benefits than everybody else - you work from home.” Well, yes, but that doesn’t mean I don’t deserve more money over time.

For me, the biggest myth was that telecommuters saved money. Not so much. If you live and work inside the same walls, you’re dying to get out for both lunch AND dinner, which means you spend even more on restaurants than your in-office coworkers.

My telecommuting tip: to be really successful, send your manager an email every morning with a few bullet points of what you did yesterday, and what you plan to accomplish today. Then recap that in a Friday afternoon email, and recap it again on a monthly basis. Your manager will know what you’re doing without having to pester you, and better yet, when HIS manager asks what you’re up to, he can simply forward that email up the command chain. The managers will start asking, “Hey, why aren’t the rest of my employees in the office doing this? I know more about Tim the Telecommuter’s progress than I do anybody else around here.”

Jason says on November 21st, 2006 at 6:02 am

Very interesting. Here in the the UK’s 2nd city the concept is just taking hold.

I work for a large US corp and have been working at home sporadically for a couple of year - the longest single period being 3 months.

I have similar tips to those already mentioned, I know working at home isn’t straightforward. Get a routine, always ‘dress’ for the office etc.

However let me add this - if everyone else thinks you got it made, maybe you have !

If you’re working at home do it sensibly. Make sure you go swimming at lunch time. Or cut the lawn. Or have late night and sleep late!

Why ? Because otherwise there is no point and you’re just providing free office space for your company.

Jen says on November 21st, 2006 at 8:19 am

I’m not gonna lie, I love working out of my home. However, there are certain disadvantages that have already been touched on here. For example, you’re always at work. If you have any kind of work ethic, you’re always staring at that computer as a tool for profit, not for casual play (at least I do anyway) and find myself enjoying computer time less and am trying to make a habit of doing more things like this.

Another thing I’ve found is if you’re a smoker and you smoke in your home, you smoke a hell of a lot more!

My cats don’t understand why I don’t want to stop to pet them or play with them. I’ve tried reasoning and it just doesn’t work.

Finally, I’m not an extremely social person but that little interaction I had at an office is missed.

In my opinion though, I still think the pros outweigh the cons.

Glenn says on November 21st, 2006 at 6:56 pm

I occasionally work from home. The only misconception I get is from my wife who looks at me and wonders why I didn’t do all the laundry and clean the house too.