Working from Home: Why It Sucks

#1

Post by shimon » Mon, Jan 26, 2009, 2:17 PM UTC

Working from Home: Why It Sucks
geeksinboston.com

Re: Working from Home: Why It Sucks

#2

Post by jawngee » Mon, Jan 26, 2009, 2:43 PM UTC

The other problem with working at home is that you are always at work. It's easy to keep it separated at first, but after a year, it becomes an indistinct blur.

I don't know how many times I had people over, only to be thinking in the back of my mind that I should be working.

Re: Working from Home: Why It Sucks

#3

Post by bdfh42 » Mon, Jan 26, 2009, 2:49 PM UTC

Not my experience - I love working from home. Going to work is just a matter of crossing the yard to get to my office. Almost no meetings, no office politics - bliss.

My only real complaint is that no-one ever reads past the first paragraph of any email. Sometimes emails have to be longer than that, so every now and again, I have to hop on a plane and go and explain to someone what all those second paragraphs said.

Re: Working from Home: Why It Sucks

#4

Post by gravitycop » Mon, Jan 26, 2009, 2:49 PM UTC

You don’t get rich feedback when communicating over a phone, email, or text chat.

Then don't use those. Use immersive telepresence, instead. http://www.hp.com/halo/introducing.html

Re: Working from Home: Why It Sucks

#5

Post by metatronscube » Mon, Jan 26, 2009, 2:51 PM UTC

I would LOVE to work from home, I could do so much more with my day If I was working from home (more productive stuff) and leave my work knowing I was actually able to get something finished for a change even lunch with my dog is a better prospect that lunch with some of the people I work with at the moment.

Not to mention that my home office is better equipped, quieter and I cant tell you how much better I would feel without someone watching over my shoulder all the time or my boss practising his micro management techniques on me.

I would even take a slight cut in pay for the privilege of working at home.

Re: Working from Home: Why It Sucks

#6

Post by brk » Mon, Jan 26, 2009, 2:53 PM UTC

gravitycop wrote: post #4

You don’t get rich feedback when communicating over a phone, email, or text chat. Then don't use those. Use immersive telepresence, instead. http://www.hp.com/halo/introducing.html

Nice suggestion, but hardly practical.

Re: Working from Home: Why It Sucks

#7

Post by dowski » Mon, Jan 26, 2009, 2:54 PM UTC

jawngee wrote: post #2

The other problem with working at home is that you are always at work. It's easy to keep it separated at first, but after a year, it becomes an indistinct blur. I don't know how many times I had people over, only to be thinking in the back of my mind that I should be working.

I had this problem too. On the advice of a fiend I started shutting down the work computer before dinner. That puts up a barrier to "just checking in" when you should instead be devoting some time to yourself, your family or friends.

If you don't have a separate computer for work then maybe a separate login would help in a similar fashion. Since the physical (distance) separation isn't there you have to find a way to create something similar.

Re: Working from Home: Why It Sucks

#8

Post by gravitycop » Mon, Jan 26, 2009, 2:55 PM UTC

brk wrote: post #6

gravitycop wrote: post #4

You don’t get rich feedback when communicating over a phone, email, or text chat. Then don't use those. Use immersive telepresence, instead. http://www.hp.com/halo/introducing.html

Nice suggestion, but hardly practical.

Will the practicality likely increase over time?

Re: Working from Home: Why It Sucks

#9

Post by bmj » Mon, Jan 26, 2009, 2:59 PM UTC

dowski wrote: post #7

jawngee wrote: post #2

The other problem with working at home is that you are always at work. It's easy to keep it separated at first, but after a year, it becomes an indistinct blur. I don't know how many times I had people over, only to be thinking in the back of my mind that I should be working.

I had this problem too. On the advice of a fiend I started shutting down the work computer before dinner. That puts up a barrier to "just checking in" when you should instead be devoting some time to yourself, your family or friends. If you don't have a separate computer for work then maybe a separate login would help in a similar fashion. Since the physical (distance) separation isn't there you have to find a way to…

I've had this issue in the past, but with my current employer, I have less of an issue.

I'm on the east coast. Most of my direct co-workers are on the west coast. I typically work from 06:00 to 09:00, then perhaps do other stuff for a few hours, then work again for a few hours in the afternoon. Then, depending on work load, I may get back at it for a few hours once my kids are asleep, which still allows me to interact with people on the west coast.

Re: Working from Home: Why It Sucks

#10

Post by PStamatiou » Mon, Jan 26, 2009, 3:03 PM UTC

That article essentially says it sucks to work from home because you don't get out and get social interaction. Um, does it assume people work from 8am to midnight or something.

I work from home. I get lunch with friends. I get dinner with colleagues. I go outside. I'd trade a 6 figure salary for just barely scraping by/starting-up and working from home any day .