working from Home
 

I am just wondering what everyone would do if they were offered the same job they are doing now but working form home instead of the office, it would be the same pay same hours etc but the only difference would be instead of working in the office you could work at home.

the reason I ask is a friend of mine was offered their job to work at home but they declined as they said they would miss the camaradarie of working with other people

I think i would be comfortable working alone at home

I'm self-employed and work from home; I can't imagine going back to an office job. It's not for everyone, though, especially people who are extroverts and/or not highly self-disciplined.

I'm with senior management in a small consulting company, and I work from my home 65-75% of the time. I do miss an office environment, but traveling once or twice a month to client sites and keeping my hand in on the technical side really helps.

I do find myself working weird hours, but the upside is that I don't feel particularly bad about taking a half-day here and there to have some fun (or run some errands).

I once had a job that allowed me to work from home except for when I needed to meet with business contacts. It worked very well for me. I am sure that I was far more productive working from home than I could have been in an office where people pop in on you or you hear others' noise. I also found myself working during some evenings and weekends since it was convenient to simply go into my home office and take care of some tasks here and there.

My agency wants us to work from home to save overhead. Personally, I don't think I could stand walking from my bedroom to my home office (the bedroom next door) for the next 20 years. I'd find it more like solitary confinement.

As I told my boss - home is where I drink beer and watch TV.

been working from home since 1999 (my first 'real job, not counting the internships during university)

so I pretty much only knew 'work from home' until 2 years ago........on the edge of going crazy and alcoholic....:D.........found a 2nd job doing yet another consultancy job.....now I get out of the house 3 times per week

When I'm not on the road, I work from home. I really enjoy it but think it could get hard if I didn't travel at least some of the time.

It does take discipline. I found that I absolutely cannot work in PJ's (although shorts and t-shirt are fine) and I must shower before starting work. When I first started from home, I shut my office door so I wouldn't be tempted to wander around the house.

I find I sometimes work later than I did at the office since I don't have to worry about traffic, or getting home to make dinner, etc.

I also think you really need a room dedicated to be an office. I could never do this if my desk were in the living room or my bedroom. I live alone, so other people aren't the issue, it's more of a separation of work/personal life thing for me.

Totally agree on all counts. I used to only have a home office; earlier this year I decided to rent a office loft that's about 1.5 miles away -- the change of scenery and a dedicated office environment makes me much more productive.

Now, I do a mix of WFH and going to the office. One thing I truly dislike about being self-employed is the absence of colleagues/intriguing co-workers.

My company was formerly a GE sub and GE is pretty enlightened about it. Some people have worked from home for years in high-level positions. The first year I joined them I worked from home and then relocated after my son finished high school the following year. I have to admit that I ended up getting brought into more projects when I started working in the head office 5 days a week.

We were purchased a couple of years ago by a European company that's not enamored of WFH although they've let most of the existing arrangements continue. My boss is in London and I generally work from home one day a week just to save the gas and commute and for the novelty of working in shorts and a T-shirt. We have plenty of ways to reach each other, including Instant Messaging.

There do seem to be people who have barking dogs or the occasional screaming child in the background during conference calls. WFH should not be a way to save on childcare expenses.

True, but I don't mind the dogs sleeping in my lap or at my feet.

As several have pointed out, it does take discipline--making yourself get the work done instead of getting distracted with other things. And traveling quite a bit does break up any monotony or isolation.

Also, as others have pointed out, sometimes you actually put in more hours, because it's convenient to try to finish up that project after dinner, etc.

But there's something to be said for not having to fight traffic every morning and evening and having that independence. It works well for me.

I have been working from home for about 9 years now. I work from home three weeks a month and travel cross-country to work in the office one week a month. For the most part I love the quiet at home and the freedom (and the dogs at my feet). I am on the phone a lot with clients and the office so I feel I get adequate socialization. When I am in the office I find that I am more easily distracted. I am definitely more productive from my home office. Except when neighbors/friends stop by to visit because they know I'm at home and forget that I'm working!

I work from home, for myself, and would rather have an office elsewhere, but then I would have to pay for it!

The problem with being at home is that it's too easy to get distracted, and too difficult to draw a dividing line between now I am working and now I am home sections of my day.

funny that....a good friend and former classmate of mine also works (and telecommutes) for former GE company (silicones division)

Here is a slightly different perspective:

I worked from home almost exclusively from 1997-2005, with frequent (several times a month) trips to offices out of state, as well as to make presentations domestically and abroad, and also to implement some of our educational activities around the world. This worked perfectly for me, as it blended the freedom to work when and how I wanted most of the time, with the ability to interact with colleagues virtually and in person and also to travel.

Then I took the leap and opened my own company (well, with an investor/business partner) and realized that it had to be office-based. The domestic talent pool for me is in the NY/NJ/CT/PA region, so I opted to open the office in NYC - Midtown Manhattan (the greatest place in the world). So, along with the HR folks in my holding company I had to set WFH policy, and here it is:

- Business Development folks are completely WFH, and can come into the office when and if they need to. They will be provided "touchdown space" in any available area

- Project Implementation, Editorial, Clinical and Operational staff MUST work primarily from the office, because in their daily activities suffer when they cannot collaborate face to face. I know that many of you will say that conference calls, videoconference and audioconferencing, IMing and email can be a good substitute, but I have see firsthand that being in the same room vs on the same bandwidth makes a difference in some scenarios.

- I do let people work from home, upon request, frequently, but we insure that there are no deadlines or important meetings that will be missed if they stay at home.

This has worked well, and we have even had one Operations person try out WFH one day a week, which is typically Weds, but is flexible if there is a need to be in on that day.

So, in thinking this over, I think that there are some jobs that can be WFH and others probably require office time.

Oh yeah, I WFH from time to time as well - by design - so as not to micromanage the company and to allow others to take ownership of their departments...

"Humans are social by nature". While having worked at home for a couple of years (and still do occasionally), I do not fool myself in fighting this edict.