PROS AND CONS OF WORKING FROM HOME

 

PROS

No commute – this in my opinion is the best part for me.

I can literally wake up 10 - 15 minutes if I choose to, before I am due to start work and still make it to work on time.

Working independently. Not that I mind working in a team, but sometimes I tend to be more productive working independently.

Great for home work life balance if you are disciplined enough to separate the two.  (I know people who pick up their work laptops at 9pm because they are “bored”). This is especially great for working parents. Think of a situation where a parent has a child who is not sick enough to go hospital, but still needs to be monitored closely, it’s more reassuring to know that you are only a few feet away from your sick child and you can pop in at any time to check in on them. Something else that really hit home for me; I woke up with a terrible headache one morning, it was so bad I had to lie back down for an hour before I could muster the strength to get out of bed. So if this was a regular go into the office situation, I would definitely have called in sick for the day, but guess what by around 10am I was feeling so much better, my headache had subsided and I was well enough to start work by 11am. So because I was home I only took a few hours (it was actually just 2 hours) off, as opposed to a whole day off that I honesty did not need if it was a regular go into the office day.

You don’t have to dress up for work heck you can choose not to shower all day, no one will be any the wiser!

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CONS

No social interaction among colleagues (think water cooler conversations, lunchtime banter etc).

You can’t exactly lean over your desk to ask a question or get a clarification on something, you actually have to pick up the phone and call or send an email. (This one gets to me).

Poor internet connection can mess up an otherwise great work day.

Distractions, depending on one’s circumstances of course. People living with families can relate to this a lot. But those living alone experience this too, that loud neighbour, those noisy kids playing outside, the delivery doorbell ring etc.

Poor work life balance. Yes it’s both a pro and con. Sometimes it can be difficult to separate the two especially if you are working in the same environment. If you do not have a dedicated room/space/area, separate from your other living quarters for a home office set up (which is most people), it can be a huge problem trying to separate the two.  In my opinion if one has a dedicated home office corner, room, balcony, attic, shed or something detached that is outside of your living space boundary, then it is easier to shut that door/draw that curtain at the end of the work day and call it a day until the next morning. But if you are working from your dining table for example, there can be that urge to send that email at 8pm that ideally can wait till morning, or finish that not so urgent task well into the night, so you don’t have too much on your plate the next morning.  Sometimes you end up feeling like you are always at “work”.

 

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