Telecommuting. Working from home, pros and cons.
Most people view working from home as a good thing, like the best job in the world!
Well, some of it is great, and some of it is not so great. If you are considering working from home, it’s a good idea to at least start with a list of the pros and cons.
Pros:
You don’t have to worry about a wardrobe
You don’t have to commute (thereby saving on gas and providing more time to your day).
You definitely can do things like cleaning when there is a lull in work.
You can make appointments for at home calls or deliveries.
You can more organizationally cater your day to your time frame.
Children (and all the care, and obligations of caring for them)
You basically can create your environment.
You are not micromanaged or constantly interrupted, thereby you get more done in a shorter amount of time.
Cons:
You work alone, therefore you spend much of your time alone. This does not bode well with social people.
Children (you can’t get away from them)
Your house is no longer a real safe haven when you want to get away.
You end up catering to other time frames.
You never leave your house
You get easily distracted
You don’t get snow days
You are judged harder on your performance because nobody can watch you. You will have to track what you do.
With less human interaction, you can actually become introverted.
The adjustment is difficult, if you go from a work environment with a lot of people to none. This is the most difficult thing, and after about 9 months, I’ve settled into being alone. I do things outside my work day (such as spending time with friends, and volunteering) to get my social fix. I also network often and attend trade shows. If you don’t travel at all, networking is very important, and no kind of networking is really bad, even if the event doesn’t turn out great, you never know whom you meet.
So, if you are considering working from home, you might want to start with a few of these and compound or shorten it to your needs.
I will be following up with more articles on Working from home.
Stay tuned!
If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!
