underwaterrhymes I liked your post because of the daycare comment. I agree 100%. My MIL was driving me nuts for a minute with the constant "but why is he in daycare?" crap.
She came to visit and saw him in action and I haven't heard that question for a while lol.
Yeah my husband used to work from home only a few times a week back when DS and DD were little. I had to have chidlcare because A. they couldn't be there when he was working and B. his days changed all the time. My mom used to watch them a few days a week and if it landed on a day when my husband was working from home she would give us such shit about her watching the kids. "why can't he watch them he's home " etc. She didn't get that he was WORKING, on conference calls, etc. it got so bad we put them in daycare all five days because she was such a pain in the ass about it.
Pros: Flexibility, no commute costs, very little in terms of work-clothes costs, and I'm able to do pick-up/drop-off for my kids, stay home with my dogs rather than have them be alone all day, and essentially balance out my DH's insane hours at his office by being able to take care of business-hour errands, service appointments, etc.
I write for a trade magazine. I spend most of my day on the phone or answering email, writing, and/or conducting phone or webcam interviews. Worked for them FT in an office for three years when they were in print, they shut down and re-opened online only. About half the staff works remotely. It's only in the past couple of years that they actually opened up an office again (in Austin, I'm in Denver). But now there are a handful of FTers there, and we have people scattered around the world. We do weekly Skype video calls and I always have a Skype chat window up to talk with people. We joke around, post emojis, etc. and so there is some camaraderie, but it's different than a regular office for sure. Very rarely I have lunch with the other editor who's in the Denver area, or meet up with people at trade shows when we're all going to the same place.
Cons: I have to be really disciplined. Part of that is the PT nature, but it's very hard to unplug. Flexibility is a double-edged sword -- yeah, I was able to handle my kids being off school last week for testing/modified contact days without taking any time off, but mostly that meant I had to shift my time rather than work less. When my house is a mess, I wish I could just go to an office. I do think that it limits my ability to advance at my company or be in on brainstorming sessions, but that's probably more the PT nature because my editor is also remote and is doing just fine as far as advancing. I'm okay with that for now, as a trade-off. I can't think of the last time I took a sick day -- I can't contaminate anyone and I don't have to leave the house, so I can usually do *some* work. And I can always run upstairs to answer a few emails ... and then boom, an hour is gone from my night.
I'm in sales. This is my 3rd sales job, all working from home with client visits a few times a month (I make the schedule).
What kind of sales if you don't mind my asking. I work as an inside sales rep and I would love to be remote
I work in the travel industry. As far as I know, all outside sales reps in my industry are home based so try airlines, cruise lines, tour operators. Actually, where are you based? PM me. My company is hiring for Eastern and Central USA.
I love this thread. I'll be working exclusively from home starting in July of this year. People are shocked that I have a signed, legal agreement in place that spells out my working hours, that I MUST have daycare for my kid(s) and that I must have a designated office space (no working from the dining room table on a daily basis).
I'm a total introvert, so working from home sounds like heaven to me. We'll see how it plays out and I'm bookmarking this post for 6 months from now if I'm feeling too cut off and need to figure out coping ideas.
I love this thread. I'll be working exclusively from home starting in July of this year. People are shocked that I have a signed, legal agreement in place that spells out my working hours, that I MUST have daycare for my kid(s) and that I must have a designated office space (no working from the dining room table on a daily basis).
I'm a total introvert, so working from home sounds like heaven to me. We'll see how it plays out and I'm bookmarking this post for 6 months from now if I'm feeling too cut off and need to figure out coping ideas.
I am pretty introverted as well. My weekends are always jam packed though, and I can never find the time to you know, wash clothes or make real food for dinner. I think I would probably really love it, we will see. I also cannot imagine working at home while my child was there. I would get absolutely nothing done and she would be hating life. School is five minutes up the road from us too
Also, I highly recommend a dedicated office space. Don't do this from your couch or dining room table.
Indeed. I have my very own office already all set up with dual monitors and everything. I also have a laptop and a patio which I loved working at last Summer here and there.
Oh, and my parents totally assume I have way more flexibility than I do, too. They come for visits and although they've gotten better about checking flight arrival/departure times with me before they book, I think they do have a habit of assuming I can just make things work. Or take time off. But I feel like it's actually harder to take time off with the WFH PT situation because there are some things that I just simply have to do every day (check emails, respond, do an interview or two) or that I can't put off because I'm often at the mercy of other people's schedules and at any given time am juggling half a dozen projects.
Plus, I do contract work. I'm paid on a per-project basis rather than salary, so taking time off and not getting as much work done directly impacts how much I bill each week. I know they probably get bored during the 3-4 hours that I can't go do fun things with them in the mornings, but even though it's a part-time job, it's still a JOB. That I have to do every day, lol.
And ditto everyone else on the childcare thing. I have a PT nanny during the summers and we put DD2 into full-day preschool at three because I can't get all my work done in the 2.5 hours that half-day preschool covers. She'll be in full-day kindergarten this fall for the same reason.
I agree with the separate office space. I've really loved living somewhere where my office is on a different level of the house than my bedroom and the comfy sofa/tv - it really helps split the personal & professional and keeps me focused, plus I can leave my work stuff in the office and not have to see it when I'm "off".
Also, get a routine going, and if you can, make sure you "leave" for the day. One of the things I had the hardest time with at first was turning it off, so I was always stressing about the next day the night before. Once I stopped checking emails and got a routine down, I was able to separate things better. If there's an emergency, people will call me, otherwise I am offline until the next work day.
I don't have a seperate office but I have a dedicated area in my living room with my desk, computer, dual monitors, printer and my little shelf. I don't generate much paper since we went green/paperless.
I worked from home for years. I was in sales so I traveled within my territory and for sales meetings and conferences, etc.
I think we're all aware of the pros. The biggest negative for me is that I was always at work. I couldn't escape phone calls and emails no matter what time of day or night. I felt as if my space was invaded almost. I also had a high pressure job so that contributed to it. Just something to think about. In reality, I think WFH works for most people, but for some of us it can really suck.
I've been working at home full time since 2006 and part time for about 8 years prior. I'm a Director of Sales for a large software company. My entire them (direct reports) as well as all of my peers and some of my marketing support team also work out of their homes. Our corporate culture helps this work--we have access to great tools, people tend to be very flexible with their schedules and we're all working to common goals. I don't feel at all disconnected to what's happening at the company and can't imagine working this way if we didn't have the tools available.
Post by FrozenSunshine on May 4, 2015 17:49:56 GMT -5
I have been WFH full time for 2 1/2 years. I kept the job I had and turned it into a remote position when we moved for H's job.
I'm writing this this from Buffalo Wild Wings right now. I was inside all winter due to the terrible Midwest weather and refuse to hibernate any longer.
I have weekly sync calls with my boss to make sure we're moving forward how we should. I also have a very visible position (Marketing) so it's pretty easy to see when I'm slacking.
The WFH comments piss me off, thankfully my parents have gotten use to it, since my brother and I work for the same company.
Yes - you NEED an office and you NEED to shower and brush your teeth and generally get ready for your day in the same way. I've been working at home for 8 years now, and those are keys. In my last role I never saw colleagues, and that was very isolating. Now I have the best of both worlds where I travel quite a bit with colleagues and work from home or from a small local office as needed the rest of the time.
I think an important distinction for me is that most of my team is also remote. So we all relate to the challenges (and advantages). It seems like it would be really tough to be on a team where most people were in an office and you weren't--that's when you get things like the team forgetting to tell you stuff, open the conference line, etc.
For those asking, I work for a major insurance company.
The pros: the flexibility, being able to sleep until 8 or 9, being home to get my son off the bus. The cons: Honestly, there aren't any for me. I am a huge introvert and not having to talk to anyone at work is a huge perk for me. If you enjoy this type of interaction, I can see that being a con.
I've been working from home for the past 8 years and I completely love it. I've joked before that I would quit if they made me come into the office. It really makes life so much easier for me.
I've worked from home full time for the last 3 years. When I started working from home I was one of the first in my division. Now, our group has expanded from 2 members to 15 and all but 2 of us work from home. I really enjoy it. I have 2 small children that I take to daycare about 10 minutes from my house. My husband travels extensively for work so I pretty much plan on being a single parent during the week. Being at home all day helps A TON. I can schedule service appointments during the day, toss in a load of laundry, easily grocery shop/run quick errands on my lunch hour. There are two downsides...one is that I do find it very hard to disconnect from my job since I really COULD enter in an order at 6am when some of my crazy reps email me. Sometimes I do work off hours because of this, although, I'm aware that isn't strictly a work-from-home issue. The other downside is that I think my career growth has been slower since I'm not in front of management ever. Let me know if you have specific questions.
Totally agree with all of this except the career advancement part, which I'm sure differs from company to company. After working remote for 2.5 years, I received my biggest promotion ever. And, to re-emphasize, your work and personal lives get pretty entwined with few boundaries. It works for us because I have two young kids and a husband who is very career oriented and I have a global job that requires crazy hours, so I grab time during the day to get stuff done. I really admire families with 2 full time, in office careers!
I do not WFH but wanted to read this thread because it does intrigue me and I think I would love it. I was interested to see the responses.
Though I have 0 WFH experience, I do agree with those who say it probably comes down to your personality. I personally think I'd be just fine not seeing people every single day or interacting with them. Though it isn't WFH, when I am off work in the summer, I pretty much am in that situation. I may go out and run an errand or two, but I am mainly at home, doing things around the house (that would be replaced with work if I WFH) and not interacting with anyone. I know it isn't the same, but I feel like I get a tiny tiny glimpse of it then. But I know a lot of people who would absolutely hate that environment.
I wish I could WFH so I could be with my dog all day every day! I hate having to leave her for 8 hours.
I like it a lot and wish I could do it forever, honestly.
There are downsides...I feel kind of tethered to home a bit. When I work from an office I feel like it's more acceptable to leave during my lunch hour and run errands, get takeout, etc. That's my own hang up, though. I don't want them to think I'm just lounging all day so I like to be accessible. If I need to use my lunch hour for something I try to let them know ahead of time that I'll be unavailable from xx–xx.
Same goes for logging off at the end of the day. Most of my coworkers work in an office, but they stay pretty late. So sometimes I feel like I can't log off until they leave, which can be problematic when I have shot to do. I try to manage that as best I can, though.
I like not commuting, I like sleeping in, I like taking naps on my lunch when possible...I like not having people breathing over my shoulder and interrupting me constantly. I like having my own work space without people talking behind me, etc. I like having my dogs at home with me. It's awesome, really. Like I said, I only wish I could do it forever!
I feel the same way as the bolded.. I am only part time now (2 days pw) but I feel guilty if I leave my desk to go get some lunch or go for a walk, which are things I should do to get me out of the house and off my butt. I think it was easier when I worked full time though because I just had more time to get everything done.
I've been in my job almost 7 years now, PT for the last 2.5 and I feel like it's mostly all positive now that I've been doing it for so long. I have a better idea of what to expect now perhaps, but it might just be that it's PT lol
GL OP! I think the only way to really know whether you'll like it is to give it a try