Work at Home: The Good and the Bad (and the Ugly, of course)

Let’s start with the ugly.  Mirrors.  Mirrors are not always your friend when you work at home.  There is something satisfying about doing the hair, the makeup, the clothes and going out the door feeling all put together.  I’ve managed it twice in my life, and it was great.

If you passed the Pro/Con exercise in the last blog, it’s time to consider the advantages and disadvantages of working from home.  The advantages are easy, so let’s get a running start with those:

Advantages of working at home:

It’s easier to integrate work life with home life.  You can work late so you don’t miss the pageant the next day.  If Babycakes gets the sniffles you don’t have to call off.
It saves money.  My Tom and I are getting by on one car these days, and it’s saving us a ton in insurance, car payments, wear and tear on the car and gas.  If something comes up where we have to have another car, we can rent one for much less than a payment on having one all the time.  I also don’t have the expense of eating out or maintaining a large work wardrobe.
There are fewer distractions (if you’re doing it right).   At work, you’ve got the rehash of Walking Dead on your left, a not-so-private private conversation on the right, and the maliciously appealing candy dish straight ahead.   At home, you have control of your environment.  If you don’t have control of your environment, I strongly suggest you get control of it during your work time.  Hire a sitter who keeps the little guys at her house, or work in a coffee shop.
You save time.  Many workers spend an hour or two just navigating to and from, coping with the stress of weather and traffic.  Imagine what you could do with that time!  You could learn to speak Mandarin.  You could hand knit adorable sweaters for all the dogs in your extended family.  You could actually fold and put away laundry instead of assembling size 4T outfits directly from the overflowing basket of cleans.  It’s the stuff of dreams . . .

Disadvantages of working at home:

You may have relatives.  When I was writing my first book, I designated 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. for writing.  “Call me before or after then,” I told everyone.  “Or I will ignore your call.”  Unfortunately, if you ignore the call, some people will show up to check on you.  Every.  Single.  Day.
The house will talk to you.  Other people won’t hear it, so don’t mention it or they’ll worry.  Your house will whisper things like, “My grass is so long we’re going to get a letter from the city.”  “Dishes dishes dishes need washed.”  “You’d be so much more productive if all these toys were put away.  Sorted by color and size.  But they could use a scrubbing first.”
You’re out of the loop.  An awful lot of business decisions happen informally, not in meetings but in short exchanges while waiting for the elevator.  If you’re at home, you’re not in a position to influence those decisions or even realize they are happening.
You’re isolated.  On the Homebody Scale I score around a 4,345,555,111,086.   And a half.  But I admit there are days when I’m out and see the easy camaraderie of co-workers and miss it — that feeling of being on a team.   I sometimes think the perfect situation for me would be go into an office two days a week and stay home the rest.  As long as I could pick the days.  And change my mind at the last minute if I see a snowflake or my cat looks lonely.

He’s feline so sad that he climbed into the fireplace. This is a cat-astrophe.