People who work from home are more satisfied with their jobs • Hacker News Board

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

#31

Post by sixtofour » Thu, Jul 21, 2011, 2:45 PM UTC

vaksel wrote: post #13

serichsen wrote: post #2

I think that this study fails to address that they may confuse cause and effect. What is the reason for a telecommuting arrangement? Why doesn't that person just move closer to the job location? The answer is often that he has family ties. I would suspect that telecommuters are significantly more likely to have families, and that may have a pronounced effect on their views of their work life.

I think the biggest roadblock to moving closer to work, is that a lot of people are home owners. And selling a house is a pain in the ass and is a huge commitment. Which would be fine if there was job security, but in this day and age, you won't be working for a single company your whole life

Even renting, moving for work is ridiculous. If you work in The Metro Area (whichever one that is) jobs can be all over the place. Wherever you move, most of the jobs are not there. Not to mention the expense of moving; I wonder how long it takes to recover the cost of a move?

Add a family and kids and now you're uprooting everyone in your house from their schools and relationships and jobs.

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

#32

Post by thirdstation » Thu, Jul 21, 2011, 2:47 PM UTC

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.

"The biggest problem is the fuzzy line between work and home."

This is something you learn to manage. The fuzzy line is there whether or not you work from home. If you are a programmer or other IT type you probably already have the ability to do _some_ work from home and possibly have to be on-call sometimes (or all the time -- which I've done before).

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

#33

Post by rada » Thu, Jul 21, 2011, 2:49 PM UTC

mgkimsal wrote: post #28

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…

As someone also rather sensitive to sound, I highly recommend Bose noise canceling headphones. It is the perfect socially frictionless solution to loud office environments.

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

#34

Post by danohuiginn » Thu, Jul 21, 2011, 2:58 PM UTC

rglover wrote: post #17

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.

I like this idea. There should be some sort of "base" that you go to, though, it shouldn't be a requirement that you be there all the time. I feel like humans respond better to changing environments and being able to jump between the home, office, or wherever influences a much better mood and willingness to be productive.

Certainly. I find my concentration collapses after 6-7 hours in one place. Shifting location gives me a fresh wind.

That is, I can productively work 14+ hour days, but only if I can flip between 2-3 locations. And even when I'm working shorter hours, I really benefit from being able to get up and walk away whenever my thinking is stuck in a rut

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

#35

Post by CodeMage » Thu, Jul 21, 2011, 3:09 PM UTC

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's just my theory, but after 12 years here I haven't found anything to replace it.

You see, the vast majority of homes use tankless gas water heaters. I'm not sure why, maybe it's the most efficient or most economic solution when your primary source of heating is gas.

Whatever the reason for, it's the reality and one consequence is that nobody likes to keep it turned on for longer than it's absolutely necessary, both for safety reasons and to avoid racking up the gas bill. So everyone is simply used to washing their hands with cold water at home. Since that's what they're used to at home, they don't expect anything different anywhere else.

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

#36

Post by luke_osu » Thu, Jul 21, 2011, 3:13 PM UTC

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.

I agree with this. This is especially true if you have small children. Working at home is great since you can help your wife now and then, but you can't do it 5 days a week. You need to get out of the house, even for just a little bit.

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

#37

Post by StacyC » Thu, Jul 21, 2011, 3:47 PM UTC

luke_osu wrote: post #36

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.

I agree with this. This is especially true if you have small children. Working at home is great since you can help your wife now and then, but you can't do it 5 days a week. You need to get out of the house, even for just a little bit.

+1. I work from home but need to go into the office once in a while. Variety being the spice, and all that.

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

#38

Post by StacyC » Thu, Jul 21, 2011, 3:49 PM UTC

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…

Well said.

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

#39

Post by agj » Thu, Jul 21, 2011, 4:03 PM UTC

thirdstation wrote: post #32

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.

"The biggest problem is the fuzzy line between work and home." This is something you learn to manage. The fuzzy line is there whether or not you work from home. If you are a programmer or other IT type you probably already have the ability to do _some_ work from home and possibly have to be on-call sometimes (or all the time -- which I've done before).

There are ways you can manage this line while working from home, but having worked on-call, in both remote and non-remote settings, separating yourself is far more difficult when working from home.

Even when working on call, or doing some work from home, you can still maintain the mindset, "This is my home. I'm at home now. Work can't touch me here." I have tried to maintain that separation while working mostly from home -- by even physically removing myself from my office outside work hours -- but, over a long period of time, I can't help but feel my personal life is my work. I can never fully separate myself from where I normally work.

However, it's not fair to say that everyone will have the same experience, there are a lot of factors: work load, expected duties, office communication, and even your office layout -- I was worn down the most when I didn't have a dedicated office. Personally, I can't wait to get back to an office setting.

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

#40

Post by reustle » Thu, Jul 21, 2011, 4:08 PM UTC

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.

This is why I love co-working spaces.