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People who work from home are more satisfied with their jobs

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Re: People who work from home are more satisfied with their jobs

#21

Post by Duff »

gexla wrote: post #15
Duff wrote: post #14

Note what it actually said: "Spending less than 50 percent of the week in the collocated office affords more flexibility and aids in the balance of work and personal roles, which teleworkers find satisfying." Less than 50%. When I was a more of a contributor versus my current manager role, coming into work 2 days a week and getting my stuff done at home would have rocked. There are also many things that weren't said.…

Right, there are lots of factors. I prefer working from the office, but I imagine I would have a different opinion if working from the office requires a long commute or scraping ice off my windshield in the morning. I also work for myself, so it's MY office. ;) I also somewhat enjoy the feeling of being among the hustle of downtown. There is energy there. So many people doing their thing to carve out their slice of t…

Another factor I forgot about is career goals. If you love programming and that's your chosen profession that you intend to practice, it's great.

If you career goal is to move up through the organization though, missing the chance encounters with people in the hallway or not being seen is a liability that may negatively affect you. I've noticed in my career that being in the right place at the right time means something.

Re: People who work from home are more satisfied with their jobs

#22

Post by jonnathanson »

Duff wrote: post #14

Note what it actually said: "Spending less than 50 percent of the week in the collocated office affords more flexibility and aids in the balance of work and personal roles, which teleworkers find satisfying." Less than 50%. When I was a more of a contributor versus my current manager role, coming into work 2 days a week and getting my stuff done at home would have rocked. There are also many things that weren't said.…

"In other roles, I've been in 4x4 high-wall cubes in windowless pens with 40 people where the brightest colors in the room were the red nubs on IBM thinkpads. That was a miserable working environment."

I work in one of those environments right now, and let me tell you, I am honestly 500% more productive on those occasional days where I work from home. Not just happier, but leaps and bounds more productive.

It's not just the change in surroundings, but also the change in attitudes. People seem to be less susceptible to the subtle inanities of "office mode" when out of the office. For instance: when I'm working from home, I can be efficient. I don't need to fritter away 4 or 5 hours straight in strings of pointless meetings. (That's not a critique of group collaboration, per se, but a critique of meetings-for-the-sake-of-meetings, which are quite common in corporate America and probably account for 75% of the weight of my meetings in any given week).

Re: People who work from home are more satisfied with their jobs

#23

Post by thirdstation »

Duff wrote: post #21
gexla wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Right, there are lots of factors. I prefer working from the office, but I imagine I would have a different opinion if working from the office requires a long commute or scraping ice off my windshield in the morning. I also work for myself, so it's MY office. ;) I also somewhat enjoy the feeling of being among the hustle of downtown. There is energy there. So many people doing their thing to carve out their slice of t…

Another factor I forgot about is career goals. If you love programming and that's your chosen profession that you intend to practice, it's great. If you career goal is to move up through the organization though, missing the chance encounters with people in the hallway or not being seen is a liability that may negatively affect you. I've noticed in my career that being in the right place at the right time means someth…

The "out of sight, out of mind" treatment is hard to get away from if you work in a office where telecommuting isn't the predominant mode.

You have to work harder during your in-office time to create facetime opportunities. That may mean doing the rounds, spending time in common areas, talking to someone face-to-face instead of emailing and, unfortunately, going to meetings.

Making your schedule of in-office/at-home days public knowledge helps colleagues from scheduling important events on your at-home days (but not all the time).

It's also vitally important to follow-up on your phone and email conversations. It's too easy for people to ignore your VM's and emails so, you have to make them accountable digitally as well as in-person.

It's more work to make sure you're not forgotten but, for me, giving up the commute is worth it.

Re: People who work from home are more satisfied with their jobs

#24

Post by Roboprog »

Duff wrote: post #14

Note what it actually said: "Spending less than 50 percent of the week in the collocated office affords more flexibility and aids in the balance of work and personal roles, which teleworkers find satisfying." Less than 50%. When I was a more of a contributor versus my current manager role, coming into work 2 days a week and getting my stuff done at home would have rocked. There are also many things that weren't said.…

I find that working from home 2 days a week is a very good change of pace. I get to avoid the commute, and I can just hop on conference calls with people back east or overseas right away in the morning (I live in California, and work with people all over the US, as well as in Europe and Asia). I still get to meet people in the local office, have lunch, and so on a few days a week, though, as well as get away from the house.

I did end up putting together a large "standing desk" area in the garage, though, in our detached garage. The house was just a bit too crowded. Putting together the space in the garage, complete with air conditioner, was a good thing.

Re: People who work from home are more satisfied with their jobs

#25

Post by marquis »

gexla wrote: post #9

I have gone full circle. At first I loved the idea of working from the house. Years later, I love the office. The best mix is a combination of freedom of being able to pick your hours and working from home but still having that work place to go to.

Completely agree. Right now I'm sitting in the garden under a tree. When it gets too hot (mid-afternoon) I'm going down to the office, where I've also scheduled all my conference calls for this afternoon so I can focus on working the rest of the week. The flexibility to do both is extraordinary for my well-being, as there are days I simply don't feel like working alone.

Re: People who work from home are more satisfied with their jobs

#26

Post by nosequel »

kid_sputnik wrote: post #8
davidw wrote: post #3

I'm going a bit bonkers working from home, to tell the truth. The biggest problem is the fuzzy line between work and home.

this was exactly my experience as well. another big factor was the im/email only communication 99% of the time started making my coworkers feel like anonymous web people. kind of surreal. I lasted about a year and a half before I ended up going back to an office gig.

You've heard of skype, yes?

Re: People who work from home are more satisfied with their jobs

#27

Post by marquis »

ams6110 wrote: post #19
CodeMage wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'll add my own bit of anecdata. I love my family fiercely, but trying to work while they're around is very distracting for me (often this is through no fault of theirs at all) and is likely to have an adverse impact on my productivity. That doesn't mean I never choose to work from home based on family-related reasons. It just means that, everything else being equal, I wouldn't choose to work from home in order to be…

I'm not following the logic on the hot water issue. What does heating it with gas have to do with it?

Many countries don't have gas piped in, so a pipe is connected to a tank of gas sitting outside and often only used for cooking.

Re: People who work from home are more satisfied with their jobs

#28

Post by mgkimsal »

I think personal autonomy is underrated in most facets of life - we're just seeing the effects of it in this article on this particular study.

I really really really disliked growing up in my family. It's not that I hated them, but I hated having to be around them all the time. Forced vacations on someone else's schedule, forced meal times, etc. I just really hated it. That was taken (even by my family) as rejecting them, which wasn't the case, but hard to articulate when you're 9.

I really enjoy having time with my brothers now (and my parents) but it's because it's on my time and my schedule.

I am pretty sensitive to sound, and having to sit around people who chew with their mouth open is torture. Same thing with gum chewing. I left a job once partially because I was forced to sit in the same room with someone who'd taken up gum chewing. Growing up with the family, meal times were really bad. Now, as an adult, I can politely leave the room for a few minutes if I need to (to destress) but as a kid, I couldn't.

Being able to control where you work is great, but just reaffirms that as humans, we are happier when we are in control all aspects of our own lives.

Re: People who work from home are more satisfied with their jobs

#29

Post by chopsueyar »

ams6110 wrote: post #19
CodeMage wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'll add my own bit of anecdata. I love my family fiercely, but trying to work while they're around is very distracting for me (often this is through no fault of theirs at all) and is likely to have an adverse impact on my productivity. That doesn't mean I never choose to work from home based on family-related reasons. It just means that, everything else being equal, I wouldn't choose to work from home in order to be…

I'm not following the logic on the hot water issue. What does heating it with gas have to do with it?

It is probably difficult or non-sensical to run a gas line or store natural gas on-site at an office building simply to heat the water for washing hands. I assume the same office building does not have hot showers or baths, either.

My questions, though, does his home hot water heater use gas or electricity to heat the water?

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