Terminalcoffee discussion

How many of you guys work at home? I did today--for the first time ever. It'll probably be 3 or 4 days a week. What do you find are the pros and cons?

I think I'm really going to like it. I have noted, though, that my work space at work is much more erogonical and just sort of all around better! My chair at work is really nice, it can be adjusted about 50 different ways, the chair I'm sitting in right now is an old dining room chair I bought at a yard sale for $2. The other thing is the screen--at work I have two 19-inch monitors and the mouse can do back and forth like it's one vast expanse of screendom. At home it's one 15 inch screen.
But it's nice, too. Peaceful--no gossip or tension from office politics, not driving to work and not having to work 8 hours in one session. Deciding when to work and when to stop--although we are supposed to have 1 or 2 sessions, no more, each day.

I'd love to hear about other people's experience of working at home

Much of our work is done on the internet (sales and research) so I can do much of it at home but have not actually stayed home and done it intentionally yet. I do suppose there are pro's and con's as you say.

I work at home at least one, and often two, days a week. I love the mix. If I only work at home I get bored, I guess, and feel out of the loop and don't have an opportunity to bounce off my colleagues and the students. But if I'm only in the office I'll get nothing done because people are bothering me every ten seconds. For example, today I was in the office from 7-11. About an hour of that was a meeting, an hour paperwork, and two hours of people coming into my office. Then I left, drove home, and worked at home.

I'm WAY more efficient while working at home, but you have to be kind of a self-starter. The hours when you're working don't matter as much as focusing on your own. I can often get something done in an hour that would take me three in the office if I kept getting interrupted. But I work on projects, etc. more and don't interact with others when I'm at home.

You're right, by the way, about the commute. If I work at home I save about eighty minutes in commuting.

I worked from home for about 10 years. Part of the time I was employed as a consultant by a firm in another city, for whom I would travel to my actual work at client sites. The rest of the time I ran my own businesses from a home office.

We invested some cash in getting good furniture and office equipment, which was a good idea, I believe.

My main problem with this was staying on task when competing attention-grabbers were all around me at home. I didn't always have the self-discipline necessary. There is always something that needs to be done around the house ....

At the end of that period, I was hired by my current employer who allowed me a trial period of working from home. I had to travel to the headquarters for at least a week every month, then travel around the western US the other weeks. It was a disaster, to say the least. I was disconnected at home, and didn't feel like I was a member of the team at HQ.

Since they agreed to move me, we chose to relocate to a cold climate from southern Utah so we could have more time together at home.

Working at home isn't for everyone.

I agree Larry--a new chair is a must!! As far as the monitor situation, we'll see. I think I am going to have a good mix, because I am going to work 1 or 2 days at work. No one else is here at home, after I take my daughter to school, so that helps. And I have to e-mail my boss every day with hours and productivity, so I won't have the chance to let things slide, which is always my natural tendency--especially when they are books and couches around! But...we'll see. It's totally optional. I'm pretty psyched about it.

Good luck with that. Sounds like you will do well. You can get a decent office chair for $150 or so.

Yeah, I'm going to do that for sure--maybe this weekend. I think I'm really going to like this.