If your company doesn’t offer telecommuting jobs but you still want to work from home, you can read my recent post called: 12 Best Work From Home Jobs That Pay in 2020.
However, you must know that working from a home office offers a few cons, not only the pros.
Flexibility.
When you are working on your own, in the comfort of your own room you can set-up your own working schedule (most of the time). This is amazing because everyone functions in their own manner. Some of us are early birds and would prefer to start working at 6 in the morning and some are night owls who prefer to sleep in until noon.
According to ooomf blog:
Forcing someone to work early (or late) doesn’t necessarily lead to better results.A night owl can be just as productive (if not more) than an early riser, they’re simply more productive at a different time.
No Commuting.
Commuting was a big problem for me and it still is for many. You get up early, get in your car and spend 1 hour in the traffic jams – unpaid for your time, of course. The same story repeats itself after work. When I worked at an office in Montreal I wasted an average of 12.5 hours per week. That’s 50 hours a month!
Working 12 months a year means I would lose 600 hours of my life commuting. I did try to take public transportation but getting to work took just as long as being stuck in a traffic jam.
When you work from home you do not need to waste all of that time. You could start your work later and finish earlier or you could throw in the extra 2 hours into your working day… or you can browse Youtube, it’s still more fun than commuting.
Money Savings.
Let’s bring up the commuting issue once again. Let’s be very conservative and say you are getting a minimum wage salary which is about $10 per hour (average between USA and Canada). The 600 unpaid hours that you lose while commuting to and from work – that’s $6,000 per year. Add fuel costs, insurance, car repair or a bus fare if you use public transit – that’s at least $7,000 per year that could be saved if you work from home.
Normally I would try to prepare my lunch at home however since I wasn’t a morning person I would usually run late and either not make my lunch or forget it in the fridge. This means I would buy lunch at work, nothing fancy but it would cost at least $10. Don’t forget the cream-cheese bagel and a coffee on the way to work for another 4$. Just the food easily adds up to $3,000 per year. This expense is highly reduced when you don’t need to “go to work”. Make your own coffee, make your own lunch and save lots of money along the way.
Another neglected expense; dry cleaning. If you work in an office you most likely need to wear a suit and dry clean it. If you only spend $20-$30/week on dry cleaning, it adds up to over $1,000 per year.
Just the expenses described above add up to well over $10,000 per year. Do yourself a favor: Start working from home and invest that money.
No Boss.
When you work from home it means you are your own boss or it means that your boss (in the office) doesn’t see you. Many people hate the feeling of someone constantly watching over their shoulder and become a lot less productive.
Working away from your boss could be a great motivator.
Distractions.
Home office offers a great deal of distractions; the fridge is always calling your name, the laundry needs to be done, the dog wants to go for a walk and one of my personal main distractions – friends and family. It will take a long time for your friends and family to actually understand that you are WORKING while in your house. Many will believe that you “’aren’t doing anything at all” so they will come over, call you all the time and sometimes even ask you to run some errands for them, since you are “home and not at work”.
Isolation.
An office usually offers the social aspect that your home simply can’t offer, unless you start talking to your pets or to your computer screen. I do that all the time 🙂 . However working alone will motivate you to attribute more value to your evenings and week-ends. Since you are all alone during your working hours you would be very excited to see your friends in your spare time.
If you are your own boss you can also join local meet-ups where you can meet some very interesting people, network with professional from your field and make good friends. I know that I made quite a few friends this way. Some of my friends actually attended same online forums as I did and eventually we started meeting up for a drink or a coffee and brainstorming some business ideas.
No Escape.
When you are having a bad day at the office – you know you will leave at 5 p.m. and it will be over. You cannot escape your home… you live there. However, since no one is controlling your every step you can simply take a long walk around the block and I promise it will make things better. Exercise and fresh air is never a bad idea.
No Boss.
Yes, I put the No Boss in both; pros and cons. One of the biggest disadvantages of working from home – you need to be very self-disciplined. Since there is no one to force you to do things – you might start slacking off. Working on your own takes a great deal of motivation and planning. Make a schedule for yourself and respect it. You have no boss – take full advantage of it and turn it into a positive thing.
I love working from home and I would suggest it to every single person I know, however there are a few key things you need to remember:
Looking for a legitimate work-from-home opportunity? Check out this list of 12 Work-At-Hobe jobs that you can do it 2020.
Do you have any other pros and cons you would like to share? Please comment below.
– Alex
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My experience from working at home Vs Office is,
Office:
Bosses suck the creativity right out of you, by doing so this leaves the employee feeling worthless in resulting of working harder at the same pay in a connection of “ I need to prove myself”, this contradicting condescending attitude happens way to often in the work place. Resulting in employee depression or absenteeism.
Bosses will harass you to give them, everything you know, contacts, network- If you know how to do it you are expected to do it, even if it isn’t on your job description, If not you will be a target. Hypocritical behavior is an added flaw in the workplace, some advice, don’t ever talk about your personal life as it will be used against you. If you buy something don’t tell anyone- If you do buy a nice car, motorcycle, Expensive jacket whatever, do not leave them in plain sight as jealousy from bosses will rise quickly, this will result into a competition of who has the best of the best between the boss and the rest of the employees leaving you in confusion. As a creative individual unfortunately I learned the hard way- once I put all the pieces together. . it was a game of condescending behavior and jealousy and I wasn’t even playing. Then I asked myself, do I really want to waste my creativity and knowledge with narrow-minded animals? Who have no appreciation of what I have to offer or better yet my values as a person, This gave me a whole new perspective. Stay in that atmosphere and you will get sick.
Home:
Enjoying “ My” Time, working freely. The beauty of this is.. you love what you do, you will profit. Not everything is about money.. but if you enjoy what you do and have a passion for it then profit will lean towards you in amazing ways, building you a reputation as an independent worker keeping you on focus because you will not be in conflicts with unnecessary thoughts in the back of your mind that would have been created in the workplace(office or whatnot)
Work reflects on how you feel about it. If you are getting attacked everyday surrounded by people that have a very condescending approach to you, then will you do a good job, even thou you love what you do. . how motivation will you be to go to work every day being surrounded by that.. the only thing that will give you positive energy is your motivation that you created towards the job that you love.. there are always two sides. My two cents. From my experience