Home Office // Working From Home
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As Dexterama and D@nish have said: discipline is the key. Treat your "home office" as an office: start at the right time, finish at the right time (hah - it's 05:50 and I'm sitting in mine already!) and it can work really well. Advantages: 1) No commute. This can save you hours per day, and considerable cost and stress. 2) No distractions. The guy in the next cube singing along to his headphones? Gone. The sales dweeb spying round to see what he will be selling in six months? History. Even phone calls are reduced, and emails work instead - but emails aren't as long and rambling as most phone calls. 3) Don't have to interact with the Office Idiot so much, and a lot easier to ignore him / her when you do. 4) Pets / children. 5) If you wake at 05:00 and can't get back to sleep, you can do some work in that "glory time" when nobody will call, email, or otherwise hassle you... :laugh: Disadvantages: 1) It can get lonely. Human interaction helps, sometimes. 2) Difficult to "bounce" things off peers. 3) Pets / children. I prefer it, but you do have to be focussed. If you are the type to get distracted easily, it's a bad idea.
Bad command or file name. Bad, bad command! Sit! Stay! Staaaay...
OriginalGriff has it bang-on for the advantages/disadvantages. And as others have said, routine and discipline are key. I will add that having a clear divide between work and home is also important. Previously your walk/bike/drive to work provided that separation, but when only a few steps separates your work and home then you need to establish other barriers. The family should be able to respect the fact that you're working if you can also respect the fact that this is their home.
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As Dexterama and D@nish have said: discipline is the key. Treat your "home office" as an office: start at the right time, finish at the right time (hah - it's 05:50 and I'm sitting in mine already!) and it can work really well. Advantages: 1) No commute. This can save you hours per day, and considerable cost and stress. 2) No distractions. The guy in the next cube singing along to his headphones? Gone. The sales dweeb spying round to see what he will be selling in six months? History. Even phone calls are reduced, and emails work instead - but emails aren't as long and rambling as most phone calls. 3) Don't have to interact with the Office Idiot so much, and a lot easier to ignore him / her when you do. 4) Pets / children. 5) If you wake at 05:00 and can't get back to sleep, you can do some work in that "glory time" when nobody will call, email, or otherwise hassle you... :laugh: Disadvantages: 1) It can get lonely. Human interaction helps, sometimes. 2) Difficult to "bounce" things off peers. 3) Pets / children. I prefer it, but you do have to be focussed. If you are the type to get distracted easily, it's a bad idea.
Bad command or file name. Bad, bad command! Sit! Stay! Staaaay...
OriginalGriff wrote:
- No commute. This can save you hours per day, and considerable cost and stress.
...not to mention you can factor mileage/wear and tear on your car into that cost. I drive a 2006 Dodge Charger, and it's still under 74,000 kilometers, but that's only because I was still commuting for the first two years I've owned the car. I've been working from home 4 days a week since. And while a Charger isn't what you'd buy to save gas, a gas tank lasts me a month.
OriginalGriff wrote:
Even phone calls are reduced
Everybody I know (outside of work) has been told that if they wouldn't call me at the office during work hours, then they shouldn't call me at home either during said work hours, just because I happen to be at home. Things are a lot quieter around here than in any office environment I've ever worked in.
OriginalGriff wrote:
- Difficult to "bounce" things off peers.
That's what Skype is for. All of my coworkers are on my Skype list. Everybody's mentioned that you have to be disciplined and have to establish a routine--I'm already a creature of habit, so this has never been a problem for me. One additional point--when I'm in the zone, I don't have to stop just because it's getting late or I need to beat rush hour traffic. Every week my employer gets a few more hours out of me that he wouldn't be getting otherwise.
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I never get any work done when I work from home. Too many distractions.
Thirded. Working from home saves me an hour of driving. Being much easier to distract myself and goof off, wastes an hour. Net result 8 hours of work at home get done about the same time that I'd return home after doing 8 hours in the office.
Did you ever see history portrayed as an old man with a wise brow and pulseless heart, waging all things in the balance of reason? Is not rather the genius of history like an eternal, imploring maiden, full of fire, with a burning heart and flaming soul, humanly warm and humanly beautiful? --Zachris Topelius Training a telescope on one’s own belly button will only reveal lint. You like that? You go right on staring at it. I prefer looking at galaxies. -- Sarah Hoyt
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As Dexterama and D@nish have said: discipline is the key. Treat your "home office" as an office: start at the right time, finish at the right time (hah - it's 05:50 and I'm sitting in mine already!) and it can work really well. Advantages: 1) No commute. This can save you hours per day, and considerable cost and stress. 2) No distractions. The guy in the next cube singing along to his headphones? Gone. The sales dweeb spying round to see what he will be selling in six months? History. Even phone calls are reduced, and emails work instead - but emails aren't as long and rambling as most phone calls. 3) Don't have to interact with the Office Idiot so much, and a lot easier to ignore him / her when you do. 4) Pets / children. 5) If you wake at 05:00 and can't get back to sleep, you can do some work in that "glory time" when nobody will call, email, or otherwise hassle you... :laugh: Disadvantages: 1) It can get lonely. Human interaction helps, sometimes. 2) Difficult to "bounce" things off peers. 3) Pets / children. I prefer it, but you do have to be focussed. If you are the type to get distracted easily, it's a bad idea.
Bad command or file name. Bad, bad command! Sit! Stay! Staaaay...
I agree wholeheartedly with OriginalGriff, right down to the fact that there are more advantages than disadvantages. I've been working from home since 2007. I have an office with a door I can close, and that has more to do with psychological posturing than privacy:
if (door\_closed) do\_work();I do get lonely at times; I miss the water cooler banter. But most of all I miss being able to brainstorm ideas at a whiteboard. Not being able to do that limits me to relying solely on my own inspiration. I admit that two heads are better than one at times. My step-daughter's Guinea Pig often has good ideas. But sadly, they all involve celery. :)
Cheers, Mike Fidler "I intend to live forever - so far, so good." Steven Wright "I almost had a psychic girlfriend but she left me before we met." Also Steven Wright
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I agree wholeheartedly with OriginalGriff, right down to the fact that there are more advantages than disadvantages. I've been working from home since 2007. I have an office with a door I can close, and that has more to do with psychological posturing than privacy:
if (door\_closed) do\_work();I do get lonely at times; I miss the water cooler banter. But most of all I miss being able to brainstorm ideas at a whiteboard. Not being able to do that limits me to relying solely on my own inspiration. I admit that two heads are better than one at times. My step-daughter's Guinea Pig often has good ideas. But sadly, they all involve celery. :)
Cheers, Mike Fidler "I intend to live forever - so far, so good." Steven Wright "I almost had a psychic girlfriend but she left me before we met." Also Steven Wright
...oh yeah... One advantage I forgot to mention. When I transition from writing to debugging, I get the fire up Led Zeppelin and Godsmack as loud as I like. "What is and what should never be" works on a couple of levels!! :)
Cheers, Mike Fidler "I intend to live forever - so far, so good." Steven Wright "I almost had a psychic girlfriend but she left me before we met." Also Steven Wright
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I've been working from home for 5 1/2 years straight now - not by choice, but by acquisitions and office closings. My suggestions? Set a schedule: Start at the same time every day, break the same time for coffee/lunch, etc. and make a normal routine out of your day. I start about an hour before my main group does for the day, and leave about the same time they do, taking a longer, at home lunch break with dogs and exercise. Routine, my friend, you need a routine. And goals - if you meet your markers or make your goals, you can know you are performing even if a bit isolated. And the phone is your friend - if you're alone at home, call and ask the question, not only for human contact, but for instant answers. Good luck!
I agree I have been working out of my home office since 2001. I have a set start time and breaks. You have to be dedicated to do this and not let the outside distractions upset your routine of work. Not only do you save time in commuting but you are saving money in gas and where a tear on your vehicle. Good luck.
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I agree with most things that have been advised apart from routine. I don't actually have a strong routine, but I do have an ethic to get things done (ie getting paid). Flexibility of working from home (and admittedly for myself) works for me. Sometimes, I'm up at 6 and straight to the desk. Other times I might run some errands first or just cut myself some slack and start later, because I can. But ultimately this flexibility still needs to work within the framework of a work plan. I have estimates and time goals for milestones in the job and I'm good and not letting myself slip behind them because of this flexibility. In other words it must be done today but there are 24 hours in a day and I can choose which ones I work. My 2c
The only thing unpredictable about me is just how predictable I'm going to be.
Seconded/Thirded/etc (SimonRigby, OriginalGriff, and others). One thing that people don't warn you about, though, is that you are ALWAYS AT WORK! If you are the disciplined type who keeps a solid schedule (and makes sure that your clients follow it), then you just set working hours and follow them. OTOH, I'm the kind who gets into a problem and does a lot of mental design and review (typically) before I start coding. So if I come across a particularly "interesting" (meaning "new", "nasty", "complex", or "WTF"), then I will keep hacking at it until there is at least a starting point. This leaks over to my customers--being a bit of a pleaser, I cracked open the door to after-hours sessions (install, troubleshooting, etc). This ended up with multiple nights where I was on the phone at 2 AM trying to puzzle out something. I was getting paid (hooray!), but in the end the guy was taking advantage, because he knew I was always "at work". Not really good or bad, but you have to figure out what kind of person you are, what kind of person your client is, and then figure out the approach that keeps you sane and keeps your customers happy.
vuolsi così colà dove si puote ciò che si vuole, e più non dimandare --The answer to Minos and any question of "Why are we doing it this way?"
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I never get any work done when I work from home. Too many distractions.
PIEBALDconsult wrote:
never get any work done ... Too many distractions.
Thank you for writing that. That is my #1 problem. Number one. Numero Uno. The big bad wolf. It's great to sleep until 7 and get right to work, without the morning biological transformation. By theory, I should be done by 3 in the afternoon. Real life, 11 pm hits and I'm still working.
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That's interesting - I get more work done at home because there are fewer distractions. Which is why a lot of my work gets done at home outside of office hours.
“That which can be asserted without evidence, can be dismissed without evidence.”
― Christopher Hitchens
I seriously doubt that either of you could ever even think about hosting this, but oh would I ever love to... - camp out at your place for 24 hours - then camp out over at Piebald's place for 24 hours - analyze the similarities with my place (and others who are commenting here) - contrast the differences with my (and others) work at home environments - See what the factors are that make it good and bad After all that, HEY !!! :omg: :wtf: :cool: :-D Let's start a website with a phone app !!!
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I've been working from home for 5 1/2 years straight now - not by choice, but by acquisitions and office closings. My suggestions? Set a schedule: Start at the same time every day, break the same time for coffee/lunch, etc. and make a normal routine out of your day. I start about an hour before my main group does for the day, and leave about the same time they do, taking a longer, at home lunch break with dogs and exercise. Routine, my friend, you need a routine. And goals - if you meet your markers or make your goals, you can know you are performing even if a bit isolated. And the phone is your friend - if you're alone at home, call and ask the question, not only for human contact, but for instant answers. Good luck!
Good stuff. May I copy that and use it ?
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After two weeks, I am barely beginning to comprehend what "working from home" means. Previously, that was an annoyance we accepted as part of living in snow land; i.e., we would work from home for a day or two until the roads would allow us to get back to the building. I welcome advice from those who have been doing it longer than I have.
Although all comfy, warm, and snugly, I find working from home much harder work. At least when I was a contractor and billing for time. When working at the location (by their request), I billed form my time at the location. When home, stopping form anything but reasonable and brief intervals was not billed. Ultimately, I found a six-hour day at home more difficult than nine on the road. So - for now, I save work-from-home for very nasty weather. Good fortune has given me an option of two work sites between which I alternate - one quite local. Face time is also important. If the transport is down or something to that effect, I can simply go to the local site. Main warning, however, is that it's easy to put on weight when the kitchen's at hand.
"The difference between genius and stupidity is that genius has its limits." - Albert Einstein
"As far as we know, our computer has never had an undetected error." - Weisert
"If you are searching for perfection in others, then you seek disappointment. If you are seek perfection in yourself, then you will find failure." - Balboos HaGadol Mar 2010
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I agree I have been working out of my home office since 2001. I have a set start time and breaks. You have to be dedicated to do this and not let the outside distractions upset your routine of work. Not only do you save time in commuting but you are saving money in gas and where a tear on your vehicle. Good luck.
Member 10169531 wrote:
you are saving money in gas and where a tear on your vehicle.
Stupid me, never crossed my mind, but you are **so** right about that. That's a pay raise right there. Duh
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;) Smirk ;) Agreed. Really, this thread is helping me way more than it is distracting me
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I seriously doubt that either of you could ever even think about hosting this, but oh would I ever love to... - camp out at your place for 24 hours - then camp out over at Piebald's place for 24 hours - analyze the similarities with my place (and others who are commenting here) - contrast the differences with my (and others) work at home environments - See what the factors are that make it good and bad After all that, HEY !!! :omg: :wtf: :cool: :-D Let's start a website with a phone app !!!
I keep getting invited to meetings and have made it my duty to educate people in why I'm not needed in meetings as much as they would like me in meetings. The principle reason is that I can come to a decision in 5 minutes when it takes 6 people 1 hour to not decide on something. Meetings are a huge waste of money most of the time.. I actually consider that I should be paid for the work I do not for the opinions and group think I engage in or try to avoid.
“That which can be asserted without evidence, can be dismissed without evidence.”
― Christopher Hitchens
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...oh yeah... One advantage I forgot to mention. When I transition from writing to debugging, I get the fire up Led Zeppelin and Godsmack as loud as I like. "What is and what should never be" works on a couple of levels!! :)
Cheers, Mike Fidler "I intend to live forever - so far, so good." Steven Wright "I almost had a psychic girlfriend but she left me before we met." Also Steven Wright
Bah, humbug ! Either Beethoven's nine symphonies, his five piano concertos, or the six Bach Brandenburg concertos. Those are the sequences of music to debug by. :laugh: :cool: ;P
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After two weeks, I am barely beginning to comprehend what "working from home" means. Previously, that was an annoyance we accepted as part of living in snow land; i.e., we would work from home for a day or two until the roads would allow us to get back to the building. I welcome advice from those who have been doing it longer than I have.
When I began working at home (to care for an infant) I discovered that I became twice as productive (measured in lines of code) as any of my colleagues. (To be fair, a newborn sleeps 20 hours a day. The baby was not in fact much of a distraction). Here are some suggestions. 1. The commute is not working time. Stop beating yourself up if you are only *as* productive at home as you are at work because you use your commute time for sleeping/spouse/kids. 2. Your family has to "get it" that you are not available when working at home just like you would not be available when you were at work. You have to train your cute four-year-old that you are busy at work, and you can't read to him or play in the mud with him. Same thing with your spouse's request that you go to the grocery store or whatever. If you can't do this, or your family cannot be trained, then you can't work at home. 3. Email is not your friend. Neither is the internet. As distracting as these things are at work, they are ten times worse at home. You must resolutely close down your mailer so you don't get interrupted. Launch the mailer a couple of times a day if needed to see if you get anything important, but pick a time-of-day and even more important a duration for reading all those blog extracts, thought-provoking long articles, etc. Turn off notifications on your phone, too. You must ritually burn yourself with a lighter for even THINKING about Netflix when you are working at home. 4. Track your time. When did you sit down? When did you get up? Did you watch any Game of Thrones? Make sure it totals 8 hours or more. If you can't get in 8 hours, don't tell yourself you are more productive at home so it's ok. The deal is you spend 8 hours a day at work, so you spend 8 hours a day working at home. If you are more productive at home, your boss will be happy that you choose to work at home. However, you don't have to spend the same hours. You can work 7-3, or 8-noon and 8-midnight, or 10-3 and 8-11PM. The flexibility to schedule your 8 hours is actually one of the secrets to being a productive worker and also productive as a family member. A second secret is working your commute time so that you get in 10 hours of work instead of 8 hours of work and an hour of commuting each way. This makes you automatically 2 hours more productive when you work at home. 5. Take breaks. Get up at least once an hour, go to the bathroom. Go to the kitchen if you're hungry and nibble something crunchy. Take the 5 minutes. It's ok. You do it at work too. You just
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Seconded/Thirded/etc (SimonRigby, OriginalGriff, and others). One thing that people don't warn you about, though, is that you are ALWAYS AT WORK! If you are the disciplined type who keeps a solid schedule (and makes sure that your clients follow it), then you just set working hours and follow them. OTOH, I'm the kind who gets into a problem and does a lot of mental design and review (typically) before I start coding. So if I come across a particularly "interesting" (meaning "new", "nasty", "complex", or "WTF"), then I will keep hacking at it until there is at least a starting point. This leaks over to my customers--being a bit of a pleaser, I cracked open the door to after-hours sessions (install, troubleshooting, etc). This ended up with multiple nights where I was on the phone at 2 AM trying to puzzle out something. I was getting paid (hooray!), but in the end the guy was taking advantage, because he knew I was always "at work". Not really good or bad, but you have to figure out what kind of person you are, what kind of person your client is, and then figure out the approach that keeps you sane and keeps your customers happy.
vuolsi così colà dove si puote ciò che si vuole, e più non dimandare --The answer to Minos and any question of "Why are we doing it this way?"
David Days wrote:
...people don't warn ... that you are ALWAYS AT WORK!
That is my new problem, honestly. Bonus points for identifying one of the major pillars of health destruction.
David Days wrote:
This leaks over to my customers--being a bit of a pleaser, I cracked open the door to after-hours sessions ... ended up ... on the phone at 2 AM ... the guy was taking advantage, because he knew I was always "at work".
I just requested two days off; Saturday and Sunday; and they honored the request. Good sign, in my eyes, and it makes me want to give them even more. Still; you guys are right. I absolutely positively gotta stop after 8 hours. Okay, 9. That's realistic. (Although, some guy on a website calling himself something like, "the financial samurai" says that the number, 40 hours, is an anti-success plot to poison the minds of Western-culture folks)
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I work from home occasionally. I find the following things key to making this successful: Have a work space separate from the traffic areas in the house, preferably a separate room with a door you can close. Don't use the work space for non-work activities if you can avoid it. On your computer, segregate the work stuff from the home/personal stuff in whatever way makes sense to you. Put work in a separate folder structure, partition, or even its own drive. When Daddy's working, Daddy's working. If the house or your little sister isn't on fire, it can wait until you come out for coffee or a pee break. If you ever go in to work on the weekends, take your kid(s) with you if you can. I think doing this made it easier to work at home when my daughter was little. Be scrupulously honest with yourself and your boss about how much and when you work. If telecommuting is an option with your employer, that's the only way to keep the privilege.
Software Zen:
delete this;Gary R. Wheeler wrote:
Don't use the work space for non-work activities if you can avoid it.
I have already emptied out the room which will be the office. I created a floorplan for it. (Cool freeware: Sweet Home 3D[^] Any tax attorneys reading ? Can I now take the dimensions of that room; divide it, and subtract that portion of my rent from my taxes ?
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Although all comfy, warm, and snugly, I find working from home much harder work. At least when I was a contractor and billing for time. When working at the location (by their request), I billed form my time at the location. When home, stopping form anything but reasonable and brief intervals was not billed. Ultimately, I found a six-hour day at home more difficult than nine on the road. So - for now, I save work-from-home for very nasty weather. Good fortune has given me an option of two work sites between which I alternate - one quite local. Face time is also important. If the transport is down or something to that effect, I can simply go to the local site. Main warning, however, is that it's easy to put on weight when the kitchen's at hand.
"The difference between genius and stupidity is that genius has its limits." - Albert Einstein
"As far as we know, our computer has never had an undetected error." - Weisert
"If you are searching for perfection in others, then you seek disappointment. If you are seek perfection in yourself, then you will find failure." - Balboos HaGadol Mar 2010
W∴ Balboos wrote:
Main warning, however, is that it's easy to put on weight when the kitchen's at hand.
Bingo. Elsewhere, I mentioned that this is a health hazard. You nailed it.
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Gary R. Wheeler wrote:
Don't use the work space for non-work activities if you can avoid it.
I have already emptied out the room which will be the office. I created a floorplan for it. (Cool freeware: Sweet Home 3D[^] Any tax attorneys reading ? Can I now take the dimensions of that room; divide it, and subtract that portion of my rent from my taxes ?
C-P-User-3 wrote:
Can I now take the dimensions of that room; divide it, and subtract that portion of my rent from my taxes
You really have to work at it to claim a home office as a deduction. I've done after-hours consulting for a long time, and could never get away with claiming my home office since it was part of the traffic pattern in the house, and the room had other uses. You generally can't claim any kind of space at home if you are telecommuting to your normal job. Your comment about a tax attorney is more of a good idea and less of a joke than you might think.
Software Zen:
delete this;
