Working From Home Versus On Site

[donner]

Of my 50 year working career about half was home office / traveling. I was very productive working from home; no coworker interruptions with BS. If you don't have a good work ethic "fuggedaboutit". It can be a double-edged sword, huning/fishing/effing-off on really nice days; working on weekends when the weather's crappy outside. It's also a lot easier if you don't have young children at home who cannot understand that just because Daddy's home it's not play time.

For a long time i structured my work day to allow for bike rides in the morning, when it was cooler. It meant more late nights working. But riding at night wasn't an option so it really made it easier to do both.

It's also nice that i am working the moment my son is out the door to school at 7:10. I can work for an hour, go walk the dogs, work through lunch, knock off to get him from school at 2:20, etc.

But the days he is home are tougher. Especially when he convinces my wife that he is sick. Then misses having people to play with. He just sees my typing and asks why i can't play with him and i have to explain that this is me working and it's what i have to do during the day while he is at school.

It does allow the family more vacation flexibility, though. I put in some time last weekend while we were at orange beach and i'll put in some time next week when we go to new england. We also get to spend a couple of weeks at my in-laws in the blue ridge mountains in july because i can work from my laptop. But i still have to pull myself away from hiking and fishing and things to actually do the work. It's a balance

 

[beardking]

I have been "work from home" since 2013 when I moved back to OK from Dallas and started working as a consultant for my old firm. The first 6 months or so were really difficult because I had to get myself in the mindset that I actually DID have to work during the day, otherwise I'd be working through the night. There were multiple days in a row in those 6 months where I'd be lucky to get 3-4 hours sleep in a couple of days because I would screw off during the day and then have to catch up at night and then start the whole process over again the next day. Once I got into a decent pattern, things smoothed out and I made it work for me.

Before Da Rona, my old office was 100% against the idea of work from home (except for consultants like myself). They needed butts in seats and that was that. After Da Rona, they realized that our jobs really can be handled from the comfort and convenience of our homes. Within the last year, that company went through a bit of a relationship breakdown with the owners and the company was split up into 2 separate companies. I'm back working with one of the owners at one of the new companies (instead of consulting) and they are very liberal on their in office policy. So much so that I still live in OK even though the company is based in Dallas. On top of that, one of the 3 partners lives in Colorado and only comes into the office once every couple of months or so.

Personally, I hate the idea of ever having to go back to the old way of having to work in the office. By working from home I get back about 2+ hours of my life every day from not having to drive into the office and dealing with the stress of traffic. I am much more relaxed because I don't always feel like I have to be "ON" 8+ hours a day. I get my work done and meet all of my deadlines, but sometimes in the middle of the day when I've just downright had all of the "working" that I can handle for that day, I stop. It may be for a few minutes or it may be for the rest of the day. As long as I meet my deadlines, the bosses don't care.

A lot of companies brag about their "work/life balance", but I think that for some people the best way to achieve that balance is to be able to work from home. That being said, I actually do know some people that really do not like the whole work from home thing. My wife is one of them. She's had to work from home for a couple of weeks at a time when her office was shut down due to corona exposures and she hated it.

I will admit, though, that I think that working from home has kind of upped my ADHD, especially over the last couple of years. I think a lot of that has to do with my own (lack of) self discipline, but I'm pretty sure the lack of a structured day kind of contributes to it as well. I still am firmly in the camp of never working in an office building again if I can avoid it.

 

[Shadowrider]

I have been "work from home" since 2013 when I moved back to OK from Dallas and started working as a consultant for my old firm. The first 6 months or so were really difficult because I had to get myself in the mindset that I actually DID have to work during the day, otherwise I'd be working through the night. There were multiple days in a row in those 6 months where I'd be lucky to get 3-4 hours sleep in a couple of days because I would screw off during the day and then have to catch up at night and then start the whole process over again the next day. Once I got into a decent pattern, things smoothed out and I made it work for me.

Before Da Rona, my old office was 100% against the idea of work from home (except for consultants like myself). They needed butts in seats and that was that. After Da Rona, they realized that our jobs really can be handled from the comfort and convenience of our homes. Within the last year, that company went through a bit of a relationship breakdown with the owners and the company was split up into 2 separate companies. I'm back working with one of the owners at one of the new companies (instead of consulting) and they are very liberal on their in office policy. So much so that I still live in OK even though the company is based in Dallas. On top of that, one of the 3 partners lives in Colorado and only comes into the office once every couple of months or so.

Personally, I hate the idea of ever having to go back to the old way of having to work in the office. By working from home I get back about 2+ hours of my life every day from not having to drive into the office and dealing with the stress of traffic. I am much more relaxed because I don't always feel like I have to be "ON" 8+ hours a day. I get my work done and meet all of my deadlines, but sometimes in the middle of the day when I've just downright had all of the "working" that I can handle for that day, I stop. It may be for a few minutes or it may be for the rest of the day. As long as I meet my deadlines, the bosses don't care.

A lot of companies brag about their "work/life balance", but I think that for some people the best way to achieve that balance is to be able to work from home. That being said, I actually do know some people that really do not like the whole work from home thing. My wife is one of them. She's had to work from home for a couple of weeks at a time when her office was shut down due to corona exposures and she hated it.

I will admit, though, that I think that working from home has kind of upped my ADHD, especially over the last couple of years. I think a lot of that has to do with my own (lack of) self discipline, but I'm pretty sure the lack of a structured day kind of contributes to it as well. I still am firmly in the camp of never working in an office building again if I can avoid it.

+1000 to most all of this.

I'm an independent contractor. Brokers in my industry will sometimes try to micromanage by requiring us to log hours or call in daily, logging hours on site, record counts, etc., but it doesn't generally work out well for them. Because us guys and gals with years of experience just won't tolerate it. We are required to have a corporation or LLC, therefore we are in actuality self-employed. There are actually federal guidelines for the definition of contractor, but some brokers will move the ends of the earth to treat us like employees. We set our own hours and the broker only needs to concern himself with the work product we put in and the time to completion and NOT what hours of the day we are actually working it, which is really flexible these days since almost everything is provided to us digitally and/or is available online. The better brokers are on board with all of that and those are the ones us experienced guys stay with for years.

 

[conditionzero]

Let me tell you about "working from the range"

 

[Jason Freeland]

Worked at home since March of 2020 and love it. I can get just as much done at home as in the office and have the advantage of not requiring an on site office with associated expenses.

 

[BobbyV]

We had this discussion about a year ago or so and I was just curious what the general thought is now since some people are being required to go back to work at their place of business.
Are people more or less productive working from home? I realize some jobs can’t be performed remotely. I do often wonder how many post on OSA are being made by people “working” from home. I’m sure people at the worksite waste some time as well. Anyone here done both and what is your opinion?

Prior to COVID our agency had a telework policy that few took advantage of because a lot of our managers held the opinion that nothing would get done or they felt that in person work was better for the "team". Thankfully, that attitude changed for many of them and they realized that their productive employees were more productive working from home without the distractions of our less than helpful/productive staff (both supervisors employees).

We were all very well aware of who worked (regardless of location) and who didn't.

I changed jobs in late 2021 and it was a 100% remote job where I worked from home full-time. I'm so thankfully to have that option. I no longer waste an hour a day in traffic and I don't have to deal with interruptions from other staff members or an over bearing micromanager. My stress level has gone down tremendously. I end up working more than 8 hours a day and don't stress about needing get home, etc. I feel I'm definitely able to be more productive and get more work done. But I work in IT and it's more amenable to remote work than a customer service job where there is direct interaction with the public.

 

[BobbyV]

Yes, it does save gasoline and miles on my car, but I enjoy the drive in and drive home, it separates one's work and home life. My home has now become a prison, just walking by my study causes feelings of dread and the inability to escape work.

I used to like the ability to decompress on the way home, but realistically, the stress from the commute made decrompessing much harder. Now I don't even need to decompress.

I work from my home office that I spent a significant amount of time in anyway prior to working from home.

 

[BobbyV]

i'll also add that i'm not convinced that being 'in' the office immediately means better productivity.

I'm definitely not convinced that is the case . . . thankfully, my boss is a big proponent of using technology for everything possible.

 

[donner]

I'm definitely not convinced that is the case . . . thankfully, my boss is a big proponent of using technology for everything possible.

i'm sure there is a segment of the workforce who needs the oversight that being in house provides. I'm also convinced there is a segment of the workforce who thinks it needs to provide the oversight to justify their job with the company.

Both types are a drain on those of us who can manage our time on our own.

 

[Chief Sapulpa]

...My home has now become a prison, just walking by my study causes feelings of dread and the inability to escape work. I really enjoyed my home study as well before all of this...

Close the door to your study and hang a sign "gone fishin'" or whatever your hobby is. Put a lock on the door and give your spouse/partner/friend/kids the key.