The Benefits and Drawbacks of Working at Home
Carolyn J.
Rose
A good friend
is in line for a job with a company she worked for previously. Then, she had to
commute across the Columbia River to Portland, Oregon. Now, she’ll be able to
work from home in Vancouver, WA.
If you live
near a MAJOR metropolitan area, I can almost hear you saying, “What’s the big
deal? Commuting is far worse here in New York/Los Angeles/Chicago/etc.” But if
you live in the Portland area, I can almost hear your empathetic sigh of
relief. Commuting in and out of Portland sucks. Trying to time your trip to hit
a window of opportunity that isn’t between the hours of 11 PM and 4 AM is like
playing Russian roulette with five bullets instead of one.
Did I mention
that it sucks?
Oh, right, I
did. Let’s get to the topic of this blog.
Working at
home means no one in the next cubicle snapping gum, clipping toenails, tapping
a pencil, squeaking a chair, or talking in an outdoor voice about in-laws, in-grown
toenails, or insanity issues. It means you can play music, make mouth sounds,
and swear all you want. On the downside, working without eavesdropping and/or
annoying your co-workers can be soooo boring.
Working at
home means no dress code. It means you can work in your pajamas, wear T-shirts
with offensive slogans, and even skip the deodorant and put off showering until
a time to be named later. Get too far into these habits though, and you run the
risk of forgetting what you’re wearing, going out to run errands, and finding
yourself accused of being racist or sexist, an exhibitionist or totally insensitive.
Plus, personal hygiene can slip to the point where friends wear hazmat suits
when they visit—if they visit.
Working at
home means no one from the cleaning staff moves things around or vacuums up
that loose change you’ve been meaning to crawl under the desk and retrieve. On
the negative side, the cleaning staff is you. That means there’s no one to
blame for the dust bunnies in the corners, the spider webs festooning the
ceiling, and those pungent odors emanating from the kitchen and bathroom.
Working at
home means less supervision and micro-managing; it means no one looking over
your shoulder. Unfortunately, there’s also no one right there to offer advice. On
the other hand, there’s no one to see you playing Farmville or Angry Birds.
Working from
home, unless you have an extended family, means no on-site pool of people to go
to lunch with. It means calling around and finding a lunch buddy, or snacking
from breakfast until dinner instead of taking a genuine lunch break. But that’s
not really a downside until you’re working in your pajamas not because you want
to but because nothing else fits.
Working at
home means no fire drills in the dead of winter. Unless you forget about that bacon
frying on the stove and the curtains catch fire. But, then that wouldn’t be a
drill, would it?
Got some
thoughts about the joys of working from home? Leave a comment. Just don’t let
the boss catch you doing it.
