anyone work from home?

[robphelan]

What are the up/down sides you're experiencing?

I'm considering a development position where I'd work from home 80% of the time & perhaps travel ~20%.

My situation:
12 yrs as senior developer with a Fortune 50 company
Good pay, good benefits, 4 wks vacation
Never promoted/no promotion in site - I came in with a 'senior' title
Fairly stable - I can see having a job for 10 more years if i'm willing to keep swallowing my pride
A lot of politics are going on around me - I'm ignorant of politics which is probably why i've never been promoted.


New company is small - will be about 10 employees, about 5 yrs old.
Good pay, comparative benefits, will negotiate at least 3 wks vacation
Work from home - save gas/wear/tear on truck
They really care about the employees
Cofounders are old friends of mine who I hold in very high regard

The only bad thing is that there are only 3 companies in town who use the software I develop in. If something goes awry when I leave for this consulting company, I'll have very limited options unless I want to move the family.

We haven't talked salary - that would be the biggest sticking point. I couldn't leave without > 8% increase. I don't think it would be worth it to leave for less.

 

[Zeze]

Am I the only one who LIKES going to work?

I feel like a bum even if I work at home. I like going to meetings, socializing with coworkers, company lunches, happy hour with friends, etc.

I bet I'm the only one, seeing as this is antisocial ATOT.

 

[TwiceOver]

Am I the only one who LIKES going to work?

I feel like a bum even if I work at home. I like going to meetings, socializing with coworkers, company lunches, happy hour with friends, etc.

I bet I'm the only one, seeing as this is antisocial ATOT.

I wouldn't say I like going to work, but I don't think I could work from home. It takes a lot of focus.

 

[robphelan]

yep.. i do like coming to work somewhat & do like many of the people i work with. however, i need to prepare myself for never moving up

 

[nickbits]

I work from home. Probably go into the office 5 times a year.
Pros:
Get more work done
No driving to work
Can wake up later

Cons:
Isolated

Overall working from home is 100x better than going into work.

 

[Sea Moose]

When i work at home, paper work etc I use a designated work space free from distraction.
You need to have social outlet. Or you WILL go insane.

Also you are going from a big company to a small one. You may actually have to do some work

 

[Scotteq]

I wouldn't say I like going to work, but I don't think I could work from home. It takes a lot of focus.

It does take focus.

I did for a while, and what I found worked for me was to create an actual Office space where my gaming stuff was NOT located (as opposed to merely "where my computer is"); and hold myself to a regular schedule: Awake, shower, and (strangely enough) I *had* to dress for work to get myself into the proper mindset.

It wasn't ideal for me, but at the time I also travelled a lot (30+ weeks out of 52), and it didn't make much sense to have a dedicated space at the company either.

 

[bobdole369]

I did for a short time during a transition period at work.

It sucked. I found it hard to not constantly screw around watching TV and carrying on and whatnot.

 

[Malak]

I live at my work, so it is similar. I drive to work then drive home 7 days later so I save on gas. Food and gas while working is covered by company.

 

[bargetrav]

I work from home and the amount saved on gas, not buying food, taking random trips to get out of the office is enormous. I'd probably say it saved ~500.00 a month on average between gas and food.

So, 6K a year NET, meaning you bring home 6K more, and save lots of your own time = exactly 100X better than going into the office.

 

[robphelan]

yes, coming from a big company to small one....

those are lots of good points.

I'd HAVE to re-arrange my home office to get all the clutter out of the way and be able to concentrate on real work. I'm not a huge gamer, so that won't tempt me too much.

I think i'd go through an adjustment period of getting the extra online freedom out of my system.

In addition to about 2k/yr in gas savings, i'd say about $40 going out to eat + $20 in various vending machines per week = $5120/year

 

[trmiv]

I'm a "hoteler" so I share a cube with someone else, and we are each at work 50% and at home 50%. I don't mind being at work, it's just the driving in and driving home I hate (45 min commute). I save about $250-$300/m when I work from home on gas and lunch. Also, I get a $45/m internet reimbursement for working from home. But during the winter and summer it does cost me a bit more to cool/heat the house to comfortable temperatures during the day while I'm working. Usually I have the thermostat lower or raise the temp to save money.

 

[Lamont Burns]

More than 3 days at home and I start to get the "fever." I enjoy some level of social interaction face to face during my day.

The isolation can get to you. I work from home 1-2 days tops, but I'm sure this stuff varies by individual.

 

[robphelan]

trmiv - that's a good point about the heating/cooling. but, my wife is currently at home now - for about 1.5 yrs more until all the kids are in school. so, the AC and heat are always on anyway.

she is uncharacteristically optimistic about this job. she does understand that I'm really not to be disturbed by her of the kid while i'm in the office.

also, working from home would give us the ability to move closer to her folks - the economy is a bit depressed there & we could probably buy a pretty nice house.

 

[Aharami]

i work from home two, sometimes three times a week. three times is already pushing it too much as I start craving the social interaction. But I do like the lack of commute and extra sleep time on my WFH days

But, beware. working from home too much can make you into a hermit if you let it. You have to make more of an effort to go out and socialize.

 

[Crusty]

My new job has me working from home and I wouldn't change a thing. It's nice being able to get up at 8:30 and start working at 9:00 w/o having to spend the time getting 'ready' for work. I can just get up, eat some breakfast, have some coffee/espresso, and start working.

All coding here is done pair programming style so I'm always in contact with my co-workers and direct boss so there is still plenty of social interactions for me.

 

[alfa147x]

I work from home a day and half a week on average. Some weeks more some weeks less

 

[robphelan]

The commute used to be HORRIBLE - traffic jam from door to door and would take at the bare minimum 45 mins to get to work or home. It always put me in a bad mood.

The good news is that they just doubled the size of the main road out of our subdivision and it takes less than 30 mins to get to work now - even during rush hour. this was a major, major problem for me.

If they hadn't done that road work, i probably wouldn't have thought twice about taking the job.

I won't get much extra sleep since I take my daughter to school in the mornings. I definitely would get up and shower - i just don't get anything done on the weekends if i don't shower first thing

 

[Anomaly1964]

I work from home. Probably go into the office 5 times a year.
Pros:
Get more work done
No driving to work
Can wake up later

Cons:
Isolated

Overall working from home is 100x better than going into work.

+1...I get "cabin fever" sometime but no traffic, no office drama, work in shorts and t-shirt!

 

[blackdogdeek]

i work from home a few times a month.

cons:

- when the kids are home they can be really loud; even with the door closed
- if they know i'm home they come in to the room before my wife can get them back out
- even though my wife knows i'm supposed to be working she'll ask if i can just listen for the kids and make sure they are ok or other stuff
- it's harder to maintain good eating habits
- no socialization; but since i work from home so seldomly this isn't a big deal
- the tv is right next to me and can be a distraction

pros:

- wake up later
- no constant barrage of calls or visits from people asking me to fix things
- casual clothes
- get "home" sooner; more time with the kids
- there is the opportunity to take care of errands during lunch or breaks
- save bus tickets/commute expenses
- the tv is right next to me

 

[BTA]

I work from home and wouldn't trade it for anything. I can't stand the people in my office around me (cube farm after-all)...it's noisy and they're all morons who do nothing but bullshit all day. There's also really no reason for me to be in the office as everything I work on is remotely around the country. Add that to my 1 hour each way commute and working from home is way better.

I still have to go into the office once a week, and I suppose it's okay being one day. I have one buddy there that I don't mind seeing. Problem is since I share a "hotel" cube, I don't really have everything I need to work efficiently in the office, because it's all at home now. I usually end up getting nothing done on my in office days.

The money savings is huge as well, about the only thing is like others have said, you are pretty isolated, which I really don't mind, since I don't socialize with anyone at my office anyway. Which is strange because all of my past jobs I've been friends with coworkers.

Work@home is my choice!

 

[robphelan]

i guess a pro would be that I get to convince my wife i have to buy a new 30" LCD to go along with my 24"

 

[robphelan]

i think i could feel isolated... but there's always IM.. also, I would make it a point to go out to lunch with a few former coworkers a couple of times per month.

 

[Wyndru]

I used to work from home, I loved it, and miss it now that I'm back in an office.

Sitting around in sweats all day, being able to get small "around the house" chores done while working was the best. I never felt isolated though...a lot of it was phone based, and I was involved in voice and web conferencing, it was great while it lasted.

 

[Tweak155]

After working from home the last 3 years, I think the best balance would be going in the office 2-3 days a week. Working from home 5 days a week has its major downsides.

That being said, we're human. We will eventually want something we don't have. And since we work a majority of our lives, it is an excellent chance we'll want something different as far as work schedule a few times throughout our lifespan.