Working from Home: Comfort and Convenience Are So Important!

The winds are blowing outside my window and the rain is pounding my roof. With below freezing temperatures, who wants to get out of a cozy warm bed, don a heavy winter coat and boots and drive an hour in the car on slushy roads to work?

Working from home is far more convenient than working 9 to 5 for someone else and I highly recommend it. You can call yourself a free lancer, a self employed person or a satellite employee. It doesn’t matter what name you assume. If you can work out of your home, do it!

I’ve been working out of a room in my house for close to 10 years and I know pretty much the ins and outs of this type of workplace. Let’s face it. The ultimate goal of any type of employment is to make money. But wouldn’t it be great to actually enjoy the hours spent in this effort while still bringing in the bucks?

In the not too distant past, work-at-home jobs were done only by woman. Moms who wanted to stay home to be closer to their children would take on an easy assignment that could be done in their free time. Gradually, these tasks became more serious responsibilities and eventually they turned into permanent jobs for bona fide companies. Mothers could work from the comfort of their homes without even having to change out of their pajamas! And with the money they saved on transportation, babysitters and new clothes they could buy that new dish washer they needed.

Of course, husbands didn’t catch onto this work-at-home concept too quickly. For these machos, not grabbing that briefcase to catch the train into the city was far too drastic a change. No, let the women stay home, cook, clean, do the laundry, take care of the children AND if they wanted to spend a few hours “working” that was just fine. So out the door the men went waving goodbye to wife and child as they caught their lift to the railway station.

Never one to let a good thing go by unnoticed, however, some male folk did eventually catch onto the concept of working out of the house. With technology providing the wherewithal to conduct business from any location, men began spending one day, then two days working “out of the office.” Of course, recent slowdowns in the economy have forced many companies to request that their workers stay home and “not come in” and this has included many of the male gender. Some companies have had to cut down on expenses and have opened “satellite” offices in their employee’s homes and conduct business virtually. So it seems that, through no choice of their own, men have joined to ranks of those who have taken to working from home.

I have found many advantages to working from home. All you have to do is roll out of bed and voila you are at work. If eating breakfast is important to you, go ahead and indulge. You can still get to work by 9:00. Don’t want to give up that jog or exercise routine before work. No need. There’s plenty of time to break that sweat, take a hot shower and still slip into your office “on time.” No time cards to punch.

More important than the ease of satisfying your appetite by visiting the refrigerator at any time, is the fact that there is no one standing over you, watching what you are doing, listening to your phone conversations and taking notice each time you go to the bathroom. What a relaxed, laid back atmosphere. Now of course I know there are deadlines to reach. But how great is it to be able to stay up till the wee hours of the morning finishing a report and then rolling into a soft bed for a few hours of kip? No worrying about going home in the dark and cold or running into some oddball roaming the streets at an ungodly hour.

As technology has progressed so has one’s ability to stay in touch. So working from home still entails constant communication with the boss, with co-workers and anyone else involved in your line of employment. But isn’t it better to stay in contact via email, voice messaging or even Skype? Not to mention the fact that if you are working for a company in a different country with hours that are ahead or behind you, you can speak to them at a fixed hour from the comfort of your leather computer chair even in the middle of the night?

In all fairness, I must also enumerate the drawbacks of working from home. Unless you are a doctor, dentist or other therapist and have your clinic in your home, a work- from-home person doesn’t get to see many people. Most men will admit that part of the reason they “go to work” is to be with the other guys (or gals). Social interaction is a big piece of a man’s day and this interpersonal contact isn’t often easy to abandon. Women have an easier time giving the water cooler conversation a miss. We just talk on the phone.

As I mentioned above, women caught onto the convenience of staying home to work long before men did and we have practically made an art of it. Intertwining the shopping, cooking, housework and child care in the framework of a working day is actually quite ingenious and somehow or other, we have been quite successful at it. It may, however, sometimes interfere with our work. A sick child will put a halt to our work hours. (But then again, it would even if we worked out of the house. It’s the mother that usually takes the child to the doctor and then stays home with her.) Any odd chores or fix-it jobs are left to the woman of the house. After all, we are at home, right?

Working at home often involves doing your own bookkeeping and expense accounts. This isn’t something we all love to do. Organization is essential here or we can end up paying too much in taxes. Also, keep in mind that vacations and holidays are often not treated in the same manner if you work from home. You might not get that Christmas bonus!

I really do believe, though, that for men, the biggest disadvantage of working at home is–his just being there. There is no way to really hide in your own home. The wife and children know you are there and will make demands on your time. Learning to say, “No, I am working right now” is an art that needs to be developed and isn’t all that straightforward. And what about all that noise coming from upstairs? Yes, children can interrupt your concentration and break into your sanity just when total clarity is called for. Strict discipline is called for at all times or there will be many missed opportunities.

Whatever the minor drawbacks of working from home, it’s far better than any alternative. All you need to begin is a spare corner that can be designated as an office, a computer and a bit of space to spread out your papers. And don’t forget those ear plugs!

Author’s bio:

Rachel Walker is a FastUpFront Blog contributor and business author. Fastupfront offers loans for businesses and advances based on business cash flow.  Click here to apply for a business loan via FastUpFront.com