Can we talk about working from home?

1. Totally get less done. 2. All of the above 3. No it’s not bad.

I have had the luxury of the following:
– A job that allows working from home whenever you feel it’s necessary. My current job is like this. I work from home approx. 1 day per week.
– A job that was exclusively a work-from-home job. I worked like this for almost 3 years.

1. I get more work done because I don’t have to deal with coworkers. I also don’t have to deal with a potentially stressful commute, which will then result in some wind-down time. Also, I actually work more hours when I am working from home.

2. You mean lunch? I generally don’t take more than 10 minutes. But if I really need to, I can go for a walk or do some dishes.

3. While I love working from home and I’m generally more productive, it is tough to have a difficult day and realize that you haven’t accomplished much of anything. You’re sitting there in your boxers and suddenly it’s time to stop working and you have nothing to show for it. Somehow, it feels less awful if your low-productivity day happens at the office.

I work from home, and have for several years.
I get much more done, but it’s on my time. I take breaks when I want, and I’m more comfortable and relaxed. However, I’m more “in the zone” when working. I don’t have annoying people dropping by my desk. I don’t have to drown out conversations and unwanted background noise/chatter. I don’t have to deal with office politics. I don’t have to deal with wasted time commuting.
Like all jobs, some days are more productive than others. But I find that I’m actually more productive overall, because I can work when I’m feeling the most productive. If I’m not feeling it, I can do something else for an hour or two and get back to it when my mind is more accommodating. I don’t miss deadlines, so it’s all good.

I work from home. I get more done than at the office, because there are fewer interruptions.

For breaks, I take my lunch in front of the TV and watch shows that I have DVR’d. Very pleasant.

I would not take lazy days if I was being paid for working, unless it is genuinely comp time. I actually log all of the hours that I work (for billing clients) or as a double check that I am on course if it is a flat-rate project.

The nature of my work is not tied to any physical locale. I can live and work almost anywhere in the U.S.

We have a busy household. It’s really tough for me to work as efficiently at home as there’s no “buffer zone” to keep me insulated in my work.

I’d love to have a detached garage or outbuilding of some kind where I could install a small home office. Then working at home might be more efficient.

Not having to drive the commute is nice and time that I can better spend with my family.

—

I’m fortunate to work at a company where we don’t utilize cubicles. For offices, we all have our own room with a door. I’ve got my desktop and furniture optimized for my workflow. And we have more snacks and drinks at work than I have at home. With all of the investment my company makes in providing an optimal workspace, I try to get to the office as often as possible.

I got more done at my home office, but only because I was able to put commute time towards work time. My rate of productivity was about the same. I would listen to music and sing while I worked. It was really bad to have a lazy day because it was difficult to catch up after falling behind.

In my last job, at a major high-tech corporation, they issued us all laptops so we could work anywhere. I was allowed to WAH up to three days per week. Years back, when my kids were small, I worked at home full time as a freelancer and worked my tail off, weekends and holidays and everything, to make tight deadlines. I had a babysitter here with them so I could proceed uninterrupted unless there was a crisis.

1. I always got more done at home, sometimes as much as 50% more. There were fewer interruptions, I didn’t have the ambient and often very distracting office noise to contend with, and I was physically more comfortable. I didn’t even have to put shoes on, never mind fussing with hair, makeup, office wear, etc., and you couldn’t beat the commute. That was about 90 minutes saved in the mornings.

2. I always put in my full day’s worth of hours, and often more. But I felt free to redistribute the time: I’d often start a little later, break for a medical appointment or a quick errand, pause to talk to my son. I could also get all the household laundry done in quick breaks during one WAH day.

3. Well, I’ve certainly known folks who took WAH days as a chance to slack off. One woman used to dial into a Monday 10:00 a.m. meeting from bed, I swear, probably with the phone propped by her ear. A little while into the meeting we could all hear her snoring over the Polycom. It was absurd and embarrassing. What’s more, it kind of tarred everyone a little bit. You don’t want people to roll their eyes and start saying “Yeah, sure,” when you say “I’m WAH tomorrow.”

I’d say you can grant yourself a few little liberties, such as a quick run to the drugstore or a phone chat with your mother, but I think it’s important to make certain that WAH days are really productive. Getting credit for a full workday without leaving home is a privilege and can be revoked.

I always tracked my time closely, made sure I had something substantial to show for every WAH day, dialed in to all meetings, and was accessible by e-mail all day. If I went out, I’d let my manager know. This much care was worth it for the freedom to work in my slippers, in a quiet place, steps away from the bathroom (and the refrigerator), and put in a full day without getting on the freeway.

If I needed a chill day, I took it as PTO.

I’m assuming you mean as an employee. My husband prefers to use at least one or two WAH days a month because he says he gets two days of work done for every day he spends at home, without the constant interruptions he gets at the office.

I have had jobs/careers that I worked from home, but still there was a part of the job that was away from home. It was just that my “office” was at home. I was a realtor for a while, so of course I still needed to get out some days and show properties or meet clients. And, I worked for fashion vendors for a while, so I still needed to get out into the stores and merchandise the product, discuss inventory with the staffs, and train people. The amount of work was not much different than when I had a job where I had to report to work, but I could do it while in my pajamas if I wanted to, or out in my backyard by the pool. I could also work while I had laundry washing, so it allowed me to do two things at once. Plus, a more flexible schedule, I could plan a doctors appointment and not have to stress about time off, I could just do the work later in the day. I really liked the autonomy, even though I still had some things that had to get done by a certain time and day, it was not a total free for all.

1. When you work from home, do you get more or less work done than you would at your place of work?
A) Less, because I’ll wash some clothes, empty the dishwasher, etc.

2. If you don’t work the whole time, how do you like to indulge yourself when you’re spending a work day at home? TV while you work? Extra coffee? Naps?
A) Aside from the aforementioned chores, I may squeeze in a nap.

3. Is it really bad to have a lazy day and not get much done? I have to work a lot of late nights and weekends coming up, so I feel like it should be ok to do the bare minimum, especially because my work is never actually done, but of course I feel bad anyway.
A) Of course it’s okay, but like you, I’ll feel guilty even if I’m all caught up.

I’ve been working from home for a couple of years now after being office based. I get a little more work done at home as I am not distracted by my colleagues and I concentrate more on what I am doing.

I have the TV playing the BBC news channel while I work and I drink a lot of tea. It is handy being able to answer the door if you get a delivery. I can’t skive off as head office can tell precisely when we log on and off and how much work we produce and they feed us these statistics on a regular basis.

I take two fifteen minute breaks and a half hour for lunch every day. That is long enough and the days fly by.

I just started a new WAH job, and like others have mentioned, we are literally “on the clock”. Since this job is tech support for a major cable company, it’s not like I can just go take a nap when I feel like it. wish I could

That being said, I love the whole no makeup, no hairdo, no work outfit and no commute thing. Not only does it save me time, but it saves me money not having to buy the work outfits! I can sit there and talk to you in bunny slippers and you would never know it!

1). I worked from home for 4 years. My Manager and peers were 3000 miles away. I got more done than if I was in the location with them because I could totally focus.
2). I would set my work area up outside by the pool. Musc was in the background. Some days I did my job from the Health Club wifi.
3). People have non-productive days no matter if they are at home office or real office. s long as you get your work done and accomplishing your goals a day of sluggishness is going to happen.

I’ve been working from home now for almost 20 years. I get more done. I sometimes take a nap if I need it. I often have the TV on in the background listening to CNN or MSNBC. The one downside of working at home and being your own boss is you foten tend to work your own hours—all of them. But iot would take a truly generous pay and benefits to pull me back into the 9 to 5 world and its constant series of inane meetings.

Now that my work-at-home day has concluded, I can say that I got a good amount of stuff done, not a ton, but when my partner got home and asked how my day was, I could say truthfully say, “Great!” That hasn’t happened in a while.

1. When you work from home, do you get more or less work done than you would at your place of work?

I get heaps more done at home. Even though I have my own self-driven distractions they don’t come close to the distractions I get when I am in my office. People dropping in, phone calls, pressure to go to ‘birthday coffee things’ that I don’t have time for but feel obliged to participate in. I can spend a day at work and cross nothing off my list on occasions. I save two hours just in commuting. I am still in contact via instant messaging, phone and email.

2. If you don’t work the whole time, how do you like to indulge yourself when you’re spending a work day at home? TV while you work? Extra coffee? Naps?

I might dress in my jammies. I have music on in the background. I stop and Fluther occasionally. I put the washing on and out. I work my own hours, start when I want and finish when I want.

3. Is it really bad to have a lazy day and not get much done? I have to work a lot of late nights and weekends coming up, so I feel like it should be ok to do the bare minimum, especially because my work is never actually done, but of course I feel bad anyway.

No it isn’t and try not to feel guilty (in truth I am very conscious of making sure I put the required hours in but I do way more hours than I should if you add them up). I do some work every weekend and often in the evenings. I also put in some really long days at certain times and have to work all weekend over a period of a few weeks every three months. Since this happens regularly, I do take time off and go shopping, watch a movie, just have some mental health time, I don’t feel I should feel guilty at all. Neither should you. If you are paid for 37.5 hours a week, I would bet you do more than that. I know I do. Try to break the guilt cycle.

I’ve worked from home at two different times in my life. The first time, I had a newborn baby and was working full time, mostly from home. I essentially spent every waking moment either taking care of an infant or working. It was very stressful! Plenty of work got done, but the burnout level was very high. The only real upside of it was the fact that I didn’t need much daycare for my child, and was mostly available to breastfeed on demand. Once my second child’s due date was getting close, I quit and became a full time stay-at-home mom. Which was, of course, stressful in its own way. ;)

This time around, I work from home managing Fluther and I absolutely love it. I generally work two shifts a day, and pop in and out in between. I work the hours that suit me, and that can change day to day. If I need to have a 15 hour sleep to recover from a bad fibro episode, or a two hour nap to prevent one, I can do it. I can meet my kids for dinner after school, take them to doctor’s appointments and so on. My productivity is high, and I really enjoy working on my own, especially in the middle of the night while most normal people are sleeping. I do get dressed, but it’s in jeans and a tee rather than work clothes. I don’t watch TV or listen to the radio while I’m working, because that distracts and irritates me. Another bonus for me: I can smoke in this workplace, baby! My work week is definitely more than 40 hours, and I work 7 days a week, but it doesn’t feel like drudgery. It is truly a pleasure. Most of the time, anyway.

I work from home when I’m not traveling. I switched to this particular job about 18 months ago and the requirement to work from home was a tremendous positive in my book.
I’ve worked for the same company for over a decade now – and for the first nearly 8 years I had a daily commute to a downtown office that took about an hour each way (in good traffic. On snow days or other fluke bad traffic days it would take over 2 hours each way—4 hours wasted!) By working from home I have an extra 2 hours of time each day. What a HUGE improvement to my work/life balance.

1. I get more done. If anything, I end up working odd (late) hours because the delineation between work and home has been blurred. This bugs my family sometimes—but it goes both ways. (e.g. I feel no guilt if I start a load of laundry during the day..because I know I’ll be checking email at 8pm.)

2. I eat very nice meals. Once in a blue moon I take a mid-day break and get a pedicure or eat lunch out with a friend. I eat lunches that are far better than what I’d eat if I were packing my lunch or eating out near my downtown office. I tend eat yummy leftovers or freshly prepared whatever-I’m-craving. It’s a huge treat to see my kids at lunch (during the summer when they aren’t at school), step outside and cut some fresh flowers from the garden, have an arugula salad or some of my own fresh basil from my garden on a caprese salad.

3. I occasionally have days where I am just not as productive. I’ll find myself reading TMZ or some other stupid web stuff that I shouldn’t be looking at when I have other work to do.. and because days like this are very few & far between (and tend to be when I’m over-tired or have worked too hard in the previous weeks) and I no longer worry too much about them. 99% of the time I’m far more productive and self-motivated..so when I have one of those rare days where I’m just not with the program..I just roll with it and think: “Tomorrow I’ll make up for this.”

You guys made me think of a couple things I should add: I was, on second thought, more productive from home because when I had an IBS flareup I was able to use a heat pack more easily than at the central office, and could even lay down and use my laptop if sitting became too painful. My job was mostly data entry, so it was fine to be in too much pain to think as long as my hands still worked.

I was also more productive because I could keep working while listening to everyone else talk at meetings. If your department holds longish meetings several times a week like mine did, this makes a big difference.

I would also add one of the downsides is you have to train your family. It is easy for people to think you have plenty of time to do chores, shopping, little jobs for them or it’s okay for people to drop round and see you. Unfortunately you do still need to meet deadlines, you just doing paid work from home. My family is great now but when my kids were younger they didn’t always get that just because I was at home during the day didn’t mean I wasn’t doing any paid work.

@Bellatrix, that comment reminds me of a line I remember reading some time back, to this effect:

“When Dad works at home, he’s working. When Mom works at home, she’s available.”

However, going ahead and hiring a babysitter to be here with my children during my working hours took care of that. We had a great understanding, she and I, and it worked out fine for the kids. I don’t think it’s fair for a parent to expect young kids to look after themselves just because he or she is working. They don’t need less attention just because we have a deadline. We still have a duty to provide for their care; it’s not enough just to be there if we’re not really there.

My kids were teenagers at the time @Jeruba. Not little people. Teenagers can be equally demanding though.

I was speaking in generalities about kids’ need for attention, @Bellatrix, but I acknowledge that I did get the wrong impression from your phrase “when my kids were younger.”

Well the youngest is now 19 and the oldest is 26 and they still have a tendency to think ‘you are at home and available to do my bidding’, just not so often as they used to.