The Pros & Cons Of Working At Home – Because There Are Negatives
When I was growing up I always envisioned myself in a corner office, donning a power suit, overlooking a big city. Maybe I just watched the movie Wall Street too many times as a youngster or something. I worked in the corporate world right out of college and quickly worked my way up to the corner office. The problem was it was overlooking an industrial park parking lot, there was no power suit (thank goodness!), and it was nowhere near what I wanted.
After miserably dragging myself to work every day for 6 years, often 6 days a week, I was over it. I was burned out, unhappy and overall pretty miserable. It was about this time that my wife was pregnant with our first child. We used those next 7-8 months to get our affairs in order and I was going to quit my job to stay at home with our kids. That ended up being a journey that lasted for 6 years as our second child was born 2 years later.
How I Started Working From Home
I would take some jobs on the side on the nights or weekends just to feel like I was accomplishing something. After a few years of that I wound up writing for Shawn at Miles to Memories and I have loved every minute of it. I get to work AND be a full time parent, the best of both worlds right? Well not always, there are definitely pros & cons of working from home. I know many of our readers work from home and thought it would be fun to see if people have the same thoughts on the subject that I do. You can also share this with that spouse or significant other that thinks you should be getting more done since you are “at home” :).
The Pros Of Working From Home
Let’s start with the positives because there are many. I will limit it to the 3 that I find most important. I also don’t want you to think I don’t understand how lucky I am that I get to do this. It is a dream of many but as with most dreams they are not all rosy and perfect.
The Freeeeeeeeedom
I am sorry, every time I hear the word freedom I hear it in a William Wallace/Mel Gibson scream…it is unavoidable. Having said that the overall, hands down, no doubt about it BEST perk of working from home is freedom. If the kids have a sick day or a snow day or a field trip then I can handle it. There is no need to call in sick, to fall behind at work, because I can handle it and still get things done at “the office”. This is easier for sure when the kids are a little older since younger children are 100% relying on you for EVERYTHING. Also, the overall increase of family time you get, even if not always quality family time, is hard to beat.
If your work is online based you are also able to travel, visit family and friends, or just move about as needed. As long as you have an internet connection you can get your work done. That is an amazing feeling.
Rocking the Sweats
I love the work at home dress code if I am being honest. You wear what you want, look how you wanna look, there is nothing better than that! Unless you have a video conference call or something it is anything goes. Or you do you can always pull a Bethany Walsh and just claim your camera isn’t working and talk with a black screen to avoid it :). She is probably going to be mad about that one :).
How did I go from wanting to don power suits to rocking Puma every day? Age and wisdom that is how!
Something else that kind of goes along with this is not having a commute – that is awesome!
Handling Household Issues
The third pro on my list is being able to handle household issues. This is a double edge sword really, which I will discuss later, but overall it makes taking care of stuff easier. No more leaving work early or running home at lunch time to let a repair or cable man in. Furniture delivery you say? No problem! This comes in handy more than you may think.
The Cons Of Working From Home
Now to the dark side, because there is one. I know people who don’t work from home think it must be amazing, and it is much of the time, but there are negatives.
Distractions Here, Distractions There, Distractions Everywhere
The number one item on my list is the distractions. When you go to work there are distractions for sure but you also have times where work is the focus. Have you ever tried to write an article with a 3 year old constantly bugging you? It is the WORST!
But the distractions don’t end with children. The household issues mentioned above get in the way. Working while repair men are pounding on your roof etc. is not the greatest. Not to mention walking by a dirty bathroom and felling like you should take a break to clean that since you know, you are at home and all.
And even though it is a blessing to be able to take care of those sick days, and field trips etc. the truth of it is most things fall on you. If you are able to do it without missing work then you are the spouse that needs to step up. The significant other will have some resentment issues for sure, it is unavoidable. Often they are less likely to step in when something is needed because they think you should be able to handle it. That is a tough place to get through early on and it takes time to find a happy medium.
The Feeling Of Failure On Both Ends
I have found it hard to balance both aspects of working from home and dealing with the home. Since I am home should I do a better job with the household chores? If I work all day and those dishes don’t get done did I actually fail somehow? If you are at your office all day then you don’t have that opportunity so there are no regrets. But if you work just as hard at home should you have still found a way to get it done? It works both ways, if you take care of something at home did you come up short at the office too? After a year and a half of doing this I still find myself struggling with this. I have learned to accept it more but it is a challenge.
Finding Work Life Balance Is More Difficult Than Expected
Work life balance should be number one on the Pros list right? That is what I thought originally too. And don’t get me wrong my balance is a ton better than it would be at my old job. Having said that finding the balance is still tough, tougher than I thought it would be.
If your “office” is right down the hall and something comes up why wouldn’t you cover it? Learning how to say no or that I am done for the day is hard. Because it isn’t really that big of a deal. But those minutes you steal away here or there add up. Especially when it is the evening and your spouse is finally home. Learning how to clock out is probably the toughest adjustment I have had to make. Even though you are around family constantly you may not be as present as you would be with less opportunity. I think feeling like you see them all the time plays into it for sure. But quality is still quality and it is important to make sure you give them the quality time they need.
Conclusion
So I have rambled a lot longer than I intended too. Hopefully you found it of interest. I am curious to hear from those that work from home, do you agree with these points? Do you have different pros and cons? I am even more interested to hear from the significant others of the people who work from home. Does this change your thinking at all? What kind of issues do you run into with having a spouse working from home etc?
Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card
Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card is the old king of travel rewards cards. Right now
bonus_miles_full
Learn more about this card and its features!
Opinions, reviews, analyses & recommendations are the author’s alone, and have not been reviewed, endorsed or approved by any of these entities.
Been WFH for 10+ years as a marketing contractor. I go to Clients 1 or 2x a month to “bond”. I highly recommend using video eg FaceTime to eMeet with people regularly. eChat as well so that you can get answers and sometimes shoot the sh7t. Best part for me of WFH is the flexibility and seeing my son when he gets home from school. Plus being home with zero commute means I can get lots of home chores done easily. My wife must think we have a toilet paper fairy — house is always stocked with basics and some food. Thank you Mark
Toilet paper fairy – love it Paul! Thanks for sharing
He who has the gold has the power. As long as you are happy & bring home enough $ to meet family/couple goals & is equitable, go easy on yourself. Pretty sure your wife views it that way, too!
Thanks Pam 🙂
Con: The boss may think you are not really working. I was the boss and I generally distrusted one of my people who wanted to work from home a little too often. We called it WFH with air quotes as we said the words.
🙂 I could see that
I have been a remote employee for 4 years. It was fun at first.. Facebook posts of where I got to visit, but has gone to me absolutely hating it. My bosses have little respect for my team because “out of sight, out of mind”. Money is good, but I’m so burned out, I would welcome going into an office.
Working on my exit plan as we speak. Granted, every employer isn’t like mine, but all the things I thought I’d love about being “free” have actually made me feel imprisoned.
Work life balance is horrible, for sure. And the pressure of feeling like I need to do more (or be connected to email 24/7 because I’m not “in an office”) is unreal.
I think if it is attached to an office environment it would be worse for sure. Constantly feeling like you need to prove yourself since people in office probably think you are slacking etc. I can see where you are coming from for sure.
I think there’s at least one more con, bc I too work from home, and I really struggle with the mental boundary of being done for the day. And having clients who expect things 7 days a week doesn’t help. I’ve literally told like 10 clients in emails “..unfortunately, I am unable to work 7 days a week..” So I feel more stress bc I don’t have the boundary of no physical access to the office. Then I end up working a second shift late in the evening which messes with my sleep. So it steals time from family members, but it also means I absorb more stress and get less sleep. But my Amazon packages never get stolen.
Think you should add a Con for being less connected to coworkers. If there is an office and you are one of the few people working from home you risk being passed over for promotions due to lack of visibility, you’ll have less awareness of company politics, and may suffer from feelings of being “disconnected” in general.
At the worst times, working from home can feel like “house arrest”. Feelings of guilt from leaving home during the day to do errands may keep you home-bound.
Great points Ed. I don’t have that issue with our work set up since we are all working from home but it would be an issue for sure if most people are in the office. Out of site, out of mind happens for sure!
Amen Mark. There is a great cartoon by The Oatmeal on this. I think there is even a poster he made out of it.
My newest rule to help define work versus family time is not checking email after I am done for the day. Any email. I focus on being with my family as best I can. My husband also handles the getting our son ready for bed routine as “their” time since I cover mornings and getting him to daycare. It gives them some one-on-one time and gives me a break from feeling pulled in 80 directions. Which is how I feel most days when I walk past laundry, a dirty floor, dishes, etc.
However, I am not sure I can imagine going back to an office! My work trips provide me the opportunity to dress corporate and be professional, just enough to relish getting back to shorts and flip flops at home.
My wife does the bed routine for the same reason :). That is a good idea on the emails. I love that last line too lol
I do find this article interesting. Thank you for sharing. I know that routinely working from home will not make my home a sweet home.
Glad you enjoyed!