Some exciting things are happening in my professional life! I can't share a lot right now, but I should be making a huge announcement in the next week or so. If things go as planned, I should be spending a lot more time working from home. And while that can be a blessing, a few years ago I worked exclusively from home, with my office and boss being about 1200 miles away. While I certainly enjoyed the autonomy that such an arrangement brings, I did have a few issues with it.
First of all, I found myself longing for human contact after a few months. I did have a lot of phone contact, as well as client appointments, but most days were spent sitting at my desk, with only my radio for company. Believe it or not, it was lonely. The second issue was that even though I had a legitimate job, earning legitimate income--folks always thought that I had an hour to chitchat on the phone with them or that they could just drop by and I wouldn't be "busy." They didn't seem to realize that even though I was at home, I still had things that needed to get done and I wasn't just shooting the breeze.
Recent studies suggest that employees working from home actually get MORE done than those in the office, contrary to popular belief. I tend to agree--when you go to work, you have set hours and most of your work is done in those hours. When you work from home, you tend to start earlier and work later, as well as many weekend hours.
What do you think? Do you work from home? How productive are you? Do you know someone who works from home? Do you take advantage of their situation, by asking them to pick up your kids from daycare or go check on your sick pet?
Your comments--priceless!!
Well, we know I work from home and it is the bestest! LOL
I will agree I get more work done. Just recently I started focusing on finishing my day at the scheduled time, if I do work late it’s because of something I put off doing, not allowing other people to distract me. I rarely start earlier. The only person that calls me when she wants is mom. She's always done that, LOL. We have a system that lets me know how important her call is.
Socialization has not been problem for me, in fact I cringe when I have to go in for extra meetings that only last for a hour. I take walks various times of the day so I get to see people. I had gotten away from that and this has attributed too lots of weight gain so I'm back out there walking and going to the gym in my building (it's free ha-ha). I could go on & go listing all the positives about working from home. I pray everything works in your favor! I know the Good Lord answered my prayers; it has been nothing but a blessing.
I used to work exclusively from home and know exactly what you are talking about. Friends and family assumed that because I was home, I was free to come and go, chat as I pleased.
PS, Can't wait to hear your news. Good luck.