Category: Jobs and Employment
I realize there is already a recent thread on working from home, but that thread mostly discusses tips for finding accessible work-from-home jobs and I want to move in a different direction with this topic.
For those of you that work from home full-time, how do you handle the routine? I'm negotiating a fulltime position with a local agency where all of our employees, including the owner, work remotely. While I genuinely like the company and the work, I'm surprised that the remote work makes me really uncomfortable and squeamish. I've been interning here for two months. The freedom and flexibility is great, but, like everything else in life, I'm noticing several drawbacks and I'm forced to pause.
First, there's the isolation. I'm the type of person that likes to be around other people who are also working. To fill this void, I've been forced to turn to TV, podcasts, and online radio to get me through the day and keep me company. But let's be honest: I'm 22. I like people. I'm at an age where the thought of staying at home all day every day, surprisingly, just doesn't set well with me. But beyond the isolation of remote work, I'm finding the lack of boundary between home and work to be distracting. While I don't have trouble staying on task, I feel like my work life is spilling into my home life because everything I do is on the computer. I miss the separation of going into an office and then coming home and knowing I'm more or less off duty. Call it a psychological barrier if you want, but after a while it starts to trickle down through the rest of your life. Finally, there's the reality that face-to-face communication is just better for interactive teamwork. Perhaps remote work flows better for those of you on independent tasks, but my small team in the public relations field compensates with email, instant messaging, phone calls and Google Chat and over time it just feels like I'm missing a critical piece of communication by not working next to my colleagues. More importantly, email doesn't always cut it when you have questions or need clarifications on assignments. There have been numerous times where I've felt like a quick run down the hall to clarify something that wasn't explained clearly would have been preferential to emailing back and forth for half an hour because something wasn't explained properly. And I don't even need to mention that some of these online, interactive tools are accessible to me and some of them are not.
The flexibility can be incredible when you work remotely, and the lack of transportation-related concerns can be liberating as well. For a lot of people on this site, it seems clear that your dream job is a work at home job. And I completely respect that. But for those of you who actually work at home all day, have you experienced any of the above challenges? If so, how do you handle them? What should I do? Perhaps I'm over reacting, but I really do miss getting up and going to work and am honestly really scared to lock in full time as a remote worker straight out of college. I'm crazy, right?
Any thoughts are welcome.
I've dealt with all of these issues at one time or another, and that from only a few months working intermittently from home. Now I've got a job in the public, and it's even more liberating, even if I do sometimes grumble. I know many people prefer it, but I myself am not one of them. I was afraid I'd have to settle for a work-at-home job. I'm not trying to put anyone doing this sort of work down mind you. If I had one piece of advice - and I'm hardly qualified I guess - I'd say try to create an environment in your house which you use only for work. Or at least don't do your work anywhere else in the house. For instance, my wife and I have a spare bedroom. Sometimes I'll move my laptop in there (it's currently in my living room) and work away. I find it helps a lot. I also don't live alone though, so perhaps that's why. The lack of human contact is another concern entirely. Hopefully someone else can answer that one.:)
I worked from home over 12 years as a medical transcriptionist. Technology put me out of work but I absolutely loved working at home. Saved money on clothes, transportation, etc. Each day, I had a routine where I took a break and did something out of the house, either shopping, going to lunch with a friend, going to the bank, etc. When a huge question came up, phone conferencing came into play. Got a good friend out of the deal who worked at home too and lived 45 minutes from here. Go for it; I definitely think it is worth the effort. Just keep a schedule and routine for yourself.
as someone who works from home, and, like you, loves having face to face contact with people, I didn't think I'd enjoy it as much as I do. if I had a choice between being in an office, and working from my apartment, I'd say they both have their perks. while office time allows the void to be filled of seeing people, I've learned the trick is to set time aside to do something away from home, even if it's something simple like going to the bank, out to eat, or taking a walk. you probably wouldn't think that sort of thing would make such a difference, but it really does.
hope that helps. if you have any more questions, please don't hesitate to ask.
This is also a good idea for those who are not working... as I am at this moment (hopefully temporarily). Whether you work at home or not, I think it's so important to get out of the house, do something away from the building, as well as having a set-aside work area.