The "Work From Home" Generation
For decades in American households the most dreaded morning sound
was that of an alarm clock. Sometime between 6 and 7am a beep or radio music
signaled that it was time to get up and head to work. But in the early 21st century
two things have begun to change. First, the alarm clock is going off a little bit later. And second,
instead of putting on suits and driving to work, people are heading to the basement in their pajamas
and turning on their personal computers. These are the early days of the new Work From Home generation.
With the invention of modern laptops, ubiqity of broadband Internet access, and advances in communication software, there is no longer a need to be in the office. At least not everyday. Thousands of companies are rolling out work from home policies and hundreds of thousands of people are starting to take advantage of them. What are the pros and cons of working from home? In this post we take a close look, as well as discuss what lies ahead for this new, rapidly growing generation.
The Good Things About Working from Home
1. No commute
If you live in the suburbs and work in the city, it is likely that it takes you 30 minutes or more each day to get to and from work.
In the particularly busy metropolitan areas like New York, Washington, DC, and Atlanta, you are lucky if your commute is under an hour each way. Commuting takes time and energy (spending time in traffic is particularly draining). It is routine and boring and rarely productive or relaxing. Having no commute simply means more time to do things
that you could not do otherwise.
For most people the ability to spend more time with their spouses and children is invaluable. Even a simple thing like having lunch and dinner together is big and game changing. In addition to spending time with your family, working from home makes it easier to exercise. It is a no-brainer to trade off the hour that you spend squeezed on the bus for an hour lifting weights or running on the treadmill.
2. Flexibility
Working from home likely implies flexible hours. Unless you have specific meetings
scheduled you can take off a few times during the day as long as you get things done.
Taking kids to an activity, getting shopping or errands out of the way, and enjoying a run outside or
in the gym are the things that can be incorporated into the work-from-home schedule.
For a lot of people, combining exercise and work is a challenge because their bodies do not
respond well to a morning exercise regimen and they get home too late to go to the gym in the evening.
Having flexible hours is a huge benefit for these people because they can exercise during the time
of the day which suits them best.
3. Saving money and the environment
In addition to being able to spend more time with the family, having
no commute has another big benefit - financial savings. With the cost of gasoline going through the roof,
not having to drive is important for everyone. And we are talking big savings. If a tank of gas costs you
$50 and lasts a week, cutting that in half gets you a cool $100 a month. The work-from-home folks also
save money on food. Even in the cheapest corporate cafeterias lunch is generally going to cost around $7. At home,
if you are stingy, you can spend $2 on a tasty lunch. This is easily another
$100 per month is savings.
Working from home also has a global environmental benefit. By commuting less we save energy and reduce pollution. This is one of those rare moments when humans are in harmony with the planet - what is good for us, is good for the environment as well.
4. Increased productivity
Perhaps one of the most suprising benefits of working from home is that it can actually increase productivity.
Assuming that your home office environment is conducive to work and you are able to focus, more work is going to get done. If you can't focus on work with home distractions (kids, lure of TV, etc.), you may want to rethink working at home in the first place.
A typical office environment is noisy, people are talking, phones are ringing, co-workers are coming by to chat, and there are always crowds near the coffee and soda machines. At home, these distractions are not going to be present. In addition, when working from home you will be focused more on your work instead of office politics. Playing politics and kissing up to the boss is not easily done over the phone, so people will get more work done instead.
The Bad Things About Working from Home
1. Brainstorming is difficult
Probably the biggest challenge in working from home is communication.
When humans communicate a lot of information is conveyed via body language and that is
lost when communicating via phone or Skype. This is particularly challenging for creative types
and during brainstorming sessions.
Regular, more dry things like status updates and simple informational conversations are not a problem, but the activities that require passion and a blackboard are still better done in person.
2. You never leave work
Another danger of working from home is never leaving work. Since work is always right there, some people
will be tempted to check email and work whenever they have a chance. And it is not because these people are workaholics,
but rather, it is because there is always stuff to do.
For many, this is not going to be an issue, but for some people it will become one. This may offset the benefit of spending time with your family, as they will only see you next to your computer.
3. Entropy is after you
No matter how much of a misanthrope you are there is such a thing as entropy
and it will catch up with you sooner or later. The dynamics of an office work environment stimulate us
in ways that are not going to be present when working from home.
Each interaction brings in human subtleties and brings an opportunity for creative thought and innovation. When working at home these stimuli will not be there and everyone is going to get bored, sooner or later. The antidote is to get out of the house - work from a local coffee shop that has wifi, and once in a while go to the office and talk to your co-workers in person.
What's Next?
There are certainly challenges to working from home, but the benefits out-weigh them for many people. More companies and people are beginning to discover that working from home does more good than bad, as it introduces flexibility into people's schedule without impacting their productivity. The bottom line is that things get done and people are happier.
In terms of innovation and the technologies that are likely to evolve to help support work from home environments, there are several areas. We have previously written about basic software for virtual teams, as well as how to assemble an online office. But there is still certainly a lot of room for better tools for the at home workforce. From better brainstorming tools to video conferencing there are opportunities to innovate to make virtual collaboration smooth and painless.
And now, as always, we'd love to hear your input. Are you working from home now? If not, would you like to? What do you think are the pros and cons of working from home?
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I think you're missing the biggest drawback to telecommuting - If you don't need to be in the office, maybe it's cheaper for your company to outsource or contract your work. More and more jobs that you don't think of as typically outsourced, like ad design, are becoming so. Ad production is being shipped overseas to India and other technology-savvy countries for pennies on the dollar. With the time difference, ads are turned around within 24 hours.
I know I would love to telecommute, but I also know that could be the impetus for my company to realize that someone in a cubicle in a developing country could be doing for job for a fraction of the cost.
Yup, I work from home every single day now. The pros: no commute, no cubicles, being productive. The cons: I work a lot, even on Sundays sometimes.
Would I trade it for a day gig? Nope. What would I want to see in 2008 for myself to improve productivity even more? Probably an actual room that I call an "office". The distractions of working in my living room are many.
Also one of the more annoying things (as most home workers have found out) - is people calling you in the middle of the day and going "What are you doing?" and you say "I'm working." and their answer is "Yeah, right!" and than start to babble on about something you could care less about, or something they could talk to you about later!
Rex
I work from home exclusively, and another huge advantage is that working from home means I can work from ANYWHERE. Just finishing a 2 month visit to Arizona where I can get out of the cold and house-sit with an uninterrupted work schedule. It's been like a free vacation.
As for this: "This is one of those rare moments when humans are in harmony with the planet - what is good for us, is good for the environment as well." I don't think those moments are rare at all-- I'd rather not spend time on the road, most companies that cut energy usage do it to save money, well-insulated homes are both more comfortable and cheaper to operate. In fact I'd say what's truly rare is the case where something really bad for the environment is good for us. I specifically don't drive, use LED lighting, low-flow shower heads, etc. because it is in my own self-interest, not because I've bought into ever-changing theories on environment. It's not a theory that it saves me money.
I agree with those "Good Things", nowadays more and more people are embracing this kind of work simply because of its flexibility... the cons? well I guess it's just a matter of having a good goal and a very good routine :)
nhick
http://www.itrush.com
I wouldn't say it increases productivity. At home its cosy, its familiar, its distracting. You are allowed to call your buddies, surf, masturbate, shower for a break, drink a cup of coffee. You are free to do anything; and most of the time, work isn't one of your priorities
I agreed that it save your time and allwo you to enjoy time with your family.
For me, the productivy level drop because my workspace is in my room. Very easy to get on my bed.
Another issue is I never stop working once I work from home. I always stick to my computer and work.
You guys and any recommendation to solve my problems?
@robojiannis - All of those things can be a distraction, yes, but only to someone without much of a work ethic or who doesn't really care about their job. As long as you know what you need to get done, and you do it, you can balance having fun and working hard.
There a quite a few people who can't focus on work at home. They mostly just rent a small apartment around the block or work at a nearby coffee shop (which offers wi-fi).
I recommend checking out various freelancer blogs about this topic, since most freelancers work from home, they've similar problems.
I have worked from home for over a year now and have come to enjoy it. It has not been easy every step of the way, but here are a few tips that I adhere to:
I cannot overstate it enough that working from home takes discipline. But I agree that it is far more flexible than working everyday in an office.
Vince
Illumini, LLC
I work out of an office most of the time, but I do regularly work from home (average of 1 day per week). It can be a challenge. But I do find that I get more done in 1/2 day working from home than I do in an entire day in the office. One thing I have learned is that I have to have a dedicated space - trying to work from the kitchen table or living room couch just doesn't cut it (too many distractions).
I used to work from home five days a week, and then two days at home and three days in the office. Personally, the latter was ideal because I was able to eat my cake and have it too. At the very least, I'd love to work from home on Fridays to avoid the madness of pre-weekend commute. Then again, I ride by bike to work so traffic isn't that much of a problem.
Working from home definitely increases productivity…no doubt about it. I have a couple friends that work for Best Buy’s corporate headquarters and they work under the ROWE system – Results-Only Work Environment. They can work from wherever they want without asking permission, and they do great work. That’s huge – at some places I used to work, you had to ask permission to work from home for a couple hours and got the third degree for asking. I’ve been following the creators of ROWE, Cali Ressler and Jody Thompson, so I can hopefully get some info on how to bring ROWE into my own workplace! They have a great site and blog – www.caliandjody.com/blog.
Re: Entropy
You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means.
working from home is definitely not a kind "no professional life" thing. its has been a full time profession for countless professionals and no doubtly, much more profitable too for tht individual coz of low outgoing cashflow or business expenditure.
good post and will defintiely help many new comers.
#1/Holly definitely makes an interesting point re: if you're not in the office, you become a much more likely target for outsourcing. Granted, it depends on your field. But it's definitely something to think about.
When we were simply repositioning departments around various floors in our building during our most recent office move I was grateful that our department got to stay on the main floor. Departments on other floors are veritable outcasts as far as our company leaders are concerned - it would be exponentially worse for telecommuters.
IMO an ideal mix would be splitting time between work and telecommuting (and that seems to be where more and more businesses are pushing.)
I worked from home for a year for a startup -- overall it was pretty nice but you outlined the downsides quite well.
I think being a freelancer works better doing the "work from home" thing. Not only can you work from home, but you can move anywhere! (so long as you still get enough clients in the states)
I'm calling this "reverse offshoring" -- Europe here I come in
Alex,
Your point #4 about the good things indicates that you must not have children.
Echoes the key points of an article I wrote a while back about why the 9-5 office worker will eventually cease to exist.
Why the 9-5 Office Worker Will Become a Thing of the Past
@17 I have 3 little kids and a live-in nanny :)
So far the working from home is going pretty well. The routine/productivity aspects are not a problem. The you-never-leave-your-job factor is an issue, but then with my job it was an issue before.
@13
Entropy is the amount of disorder in the system. I used it in this post to indicate that your brain would transition from order to disorder if you spend too much time alone.
In other words, people in the closed room locked up for a while go nuts.
"When humans communicate a lot of information is conveyed via body language and that is lost when communicating via phone or Skype."
I've found this to be a huge problem, not just with telecommuters but also at companies where the cube-n-computer environment discourages face-to-face conversation. It's not just brainstorming and creativity that suffers, but communication in general suffers. It's just too easy to misinterpret a colleague's meaning or intention when you're missing out on more than half of what they're actually saying.
At most every company I've worked at, I've had a reputation for being a "nice guy" who is "easy to work with". I honestly don't think that I'm any nicer than anyone else, but I was one of the few who actually got out from behind the desk to have face-to-face conversations with my coworkers. That made it a lot easier for me to get my projects completed quickly and with a minimum of complications. And the extra exercise didn't do me any harm, either!
I have been working from home for over a year now, running my own business. For me, the advantages far outweigh the disadvantages - I get to spend time with my family and see my young boy grown up and my hours are flexible.
Working from cafes etc enables me to have interaction with other people when needed, here's an example of my portable office, including the tools I use to do this.
The outsourcing threat is dependent on the industry and size of your company. Smaller shops typically don't have the "guts" to outsource, because you can easily get burned with no one to lay the blame on. An outsourcing screwup is a great way to lose your clients and go out of business. It's such a buzzy market right now that there are significantly more crooks than honest people in the outsourcing biz.
The other thing to consider is your personal skillset. Are you easily replaceable ? Do you count beans all day long ? Or are you a hotshot designer/developer/writer or other creative type ? You can outsource creation, but creativity is a different beast. Don't expect India to be on the forefront of modern web design - they only know the things that are popular. Likewise if you're working for a startup, or a company that releases unique products, chances are they won't want to risk their exclusive portfolio with someone earning a tenth of your salary. In western culture, less money equates to less trust.
That said, there can be good points to outsourcing. Why not try it yourself ? Outsource some of your work and see how it goes, though I'd suggest doing it yourself in parallel the first few times - just to be safe. That's how some people have made their 4-hour work week, by outsourcing their own job and cashing the difference. Think of it as a tiny staffing agency whose sole client is you :)
I telecommute and I wanted to comment on the brainstorming point. I find I get much better brainstorming because I have a whole new network of people to talk too. Most of these people - who I also now consider friends - at professional conferences. We do not waste each other's time, even if we just want to talk, because we all love what we do and it is what we talk about anyway. (Oh my God, I am a complete geek.)
Articles like this make my eyes roll.
The next time you're in your beloved coffee shop, ask your barista how many days per week he/she can work from home.
Then after that, ask the same question of the people who made your car, built your house, cut your hair, did your nails, flipped your burger or took your order at Olive Garden.
Or how about doctors, judges, policemen, teachers, professors, atheletes, actors, politicians, bus drivers, crane operators, welders, plumbers, electricians, airline pilots, baggage handlers, taxi cab drivers or photographers?
Apparently, none of them are part of your "new, rapidly growing generation". Perhaps someone should tell them.
@Brent Elkins:
Telecommuting obviously only works for information careers, but if someone's greatest achievement or aspiration is to be a barista, I don't think they're going to be complaining about telecommuters. Actually I don't think they understand what they're complaining about in the first place.
Telecommuting works, because it works for everyone. Being another sheep stuck in traffic never helped anyone, except maybe the depressed traffic cop whose broken enterprise needs yet more money to perpetuate its grief upon the world. Me, I'd rather not have to deal with all the drones every morning and night, and I'm sure they'd be happier too if there were less cars in-between them and home.
It doesn't take much brains to see the value in telecommuting, but it takes even less to be jealous of it.
That's exactly my point, it does NOT work for everyone, and articles like this - while well-meaning I'm sure - come off as being myopic and self-congratulating on having chosen a career that allows one to work in their pajamas. Even if 100% of the information workforce worked from home, that represents a tiny percentage of the total workforce, and all the technology in the world isn't going to change that.
And while we're at it, the author proports to know that productivity increases when working from home. On what exactly is that statement based? I'd say the posters here are at best 50/50 on that point. I say this not out of cynisicm, but merely because I'd like to know if there is authoritative information pointing one way or the other about this notion.
I work from home and love it. One other benefit about working from home is the cost saving of the need for as much "work" clothes, which goes hand in hand with dry cleaners.
@Brent
I think you are a bit off. Of course there are people who can't work from home but 2 things:
1) My wife works for a major pharmaceutical company and works 2 days a week from home. She is not in IT
2) We are talking about office jobs here, clearly a person in Starbucks needs to be there.
Working from home can suck--it's a leading cause of isolation. :-)
I think the future is in local "co-working" setups.
--Phil.
The point about being vulnerable to outsourcing is a concern, but it also has another side to it. If you start working from home for one company, then you can do it for others at the same time. So work becomes a series of overlapping microjobs rather than a single employer/employee relationship.
Seems to be the flavour of the month.. I'm down with working from home!
Work From Home.I think that it is more depressive.
There are definitely pros and cons.
I have been working from home for a while. I don't earn enough to live off it yet, unfortunately, so I have a part-time job.
I'm sure that one day I will not need to do this. But when I reach that stage I think I'll still do some work in an office or other workplace.
It's good to have a "real" job somewhere else simply because it creates some variety. It's healthy to get out of the house for extended periods.
Then there are the social aspects of a workplace. You can go crazy if you spend too much time alone.
@Brent Elkins:
I hear you buddy. Not all office workers can work from home. I would be interesting to know if Steve Jobs or Steve Balmer work from home? Over the last 5 years my employers ( a 45,000 person pharma ) outsourced networking, application development, database engineering, systems engineering, help desk, human resources, and the operations center. The only people left are those who have "face to face" interactions with the business. That's one of the reasons I am still employed. Someone has to build the relationships.
What's an office? :.)
I've worked from home for a couple of years now. The good points are all valid, but I really do missing the interactions with other people.
If you have a family, or a close group of friends you see very often, or even share your home, then its better as there's still people around, but if you're single, and friends are not around I find I can go a week easy without actually talking face to face with anyone.
Luckily, the company I work for has an office not far from me (its not the one I'm part of) and they let me hot desk. So when I feel like I need some company I just pop in there and work for the day amongst everyone else. Quickly recharges those "social" batteries.
Working from home has been fun now since one year, definately there are pros and cons over this issue as discussed above, but i would like to tell that with a good online operating systems which will let you collaborate seamlessly & effortlessly with your Workmates will definately solve the problem of communicating to a level. There are various online operating systems which prove to be productive like eDeskOnline,Thinkfree, etc.,
Fun post.
I have owned a business and worked from home for about four years now. The spouse worked with me for two of those years. We learned that he cannot tolerate working and having two toddlers running amok at the same time.
So he got a full time job. He wants the office, the cubicle, the water cooler. I like working for an hour, going and playing with the rugrats for an hour, working for an hour, cooking/serving/cleaning, playing for an hour (lather, rinse, repeat).
I don't want to get inside help because a)I'm thrifty b)I want my kids to be around me and see what I do. The ability to work, play, and relax in the same environment is something that I want them to see as "par for the course" - it's my job to teach them work/life balance (insofar as it can be taught).
May as well start from birth if I want them to view it as normal. Then, later, they can decide if they want to work for someone, own a business, or fly to the moon in rocket ships powered by cold fusion. Whatever :-)
That assumes that "office politics" isn't what your work consists of.
Not only does the article assume that you're an office drone in some sort of knowledge worker capacity, it also doesn't account for people who have to manage other people or teams.
Very little of my job has been about sitting on the computer and typing/researching stuff -- that I could do at home, yes. But getting people to do what you want, to prioritize and allocate resources for your projects, to assign the choicest/high-profile work to you and your team, to think about giving you raises/promotions... that requires some finesse and some "office politics". You and your work are never "top of mind" when people can't remember what you look like.
@Melanie:
I moved to another city and began working from home for my employer last summer. I worried about the same issues you raise, since I lead a small development team.
To my surprise, the exact opposite has been true for me. By managing the project well even while working remotely, I've gained enough trust and confidence from my bosses that they now want to open a new office in my city and hire more employees here for me to manage.
I may just be in the right place at the right time, and I agree the office politics are still more easily played in person. I had the advantage of having an existing track record working there in person -- I can guess that a new employee who has always worked from home would be at a major disadvantage.
I'd also echo most of the other comments regarding the lack of social contact... this is the biggest downside for me as well, to the point that I'm ready to go back to working with other people.
One other point is that I find it much harder to work on any kind of personal projects involving a computer when I'm through with work. When I'm done for the day it's very difficult to get excited about staying in my office at the same desk for another 3-4 hours.
The comments about getting out of the house to work are good ones, but my job is much easier with 2 monitors and a desktop. People who write/research for a living seem like they would have a much better chance of pulling this off.
Working at home is great for people who have jobs and those jobs have given them the option to work from home.
Many of us who are home disabled, can't find valid work at home jobs without having to pay someone to give you a listing.
It can be quite frustrating.
I think the ideal setup would be to work from home a few days a week, and commute into the office a few days a week. I'm considering asking to work from home tuesday/thursday and come into the office monday/wednesday/friday. I think it's important to have that balance. Previous posters are right, that in most corporate environments, you need some face-to-face interaction. Isolating yourself can not only affect you socially, but can also make you a target if there are cut-backs or layoffs.
I wish my workplace would adopt a work from home policy.
I work for a fairly progressive software company in Chicago that doesn't have a formal work at home policy and I think most staffers are afraid to bring it up. I asked my boss about it at some point and she just said, "Well, most people just come in to the office." and left it at that. Since I'm new I haven't pushed it yet, but I blows my mind when companies don't just make work at home an option by design. I've worked at home full time at past jobs and I was just as productive and my quality of life was greatly enhanced.
This is really interesting:
http://www.spymac.com/details/?2337331
The "ubiqity of broadband Internet access" is still not a realized proposition in many large rural areas of your country.
Interesting post! I agree with most of this post. It is my experience that working home every now and then, really increases productivity. I seem to look at my email less (I simply open it less...). Furthermore I take a stack of stuff to do with me. Usually stuff to read and write. Almost always I get through the whole stack. I would (for some reason...) never be able to do this at work. So, I agrees with comment 45: working home say one day a week would be ideal.
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