Pros and Cons of Working From Home
Lets get this straight: I LOVE working from home. I love my clients. I love the freedom that working from home and owning my own business gives me. It’s something that I’ve always wanted to be able to do so the fact that I’m actually out here doing work in my living room is LIT (actualy, I typed this in my bed, but that’s even litter!.. I just advise against it lol)!
However, there were some things about working from home that I never really considered or thought about. I always thought that working from home would be a breeze and it would be like not working at all because I don’t even have to change my clothes to get things done. Once I got into it, there were some things that I realized about working from home that I could honestly do without.
People tell me all the time how they wish they could work from home and while I love it, I also believe STRONGLY that it is not for everyone even if it does sound nice. So, I decided to give some insight and share some pros and cons to working from home that maybe some of them you’ve thought of… and then maybe some of them you haven’t.
Pros and Cons of Working From Home
Pro: You make your own schedule. The thing that everyone loves about working from home is the flexibility of being able to work when you want. That’s actually only true depending on what your job is. Not EVERYONE who works from home chooses their hours…. but I do so that’s a pro for me. I can up and leave for a week out of town and it doesn’t make a difference because there is nowhere that I HAVE to be at any specific time during the day.
Con: Isolation. One thing I’m not crazy about when it comes to working from is that I spend a significant amount of time in dead silence. My love works also so he’s gone during the day and so when I’m at home working, I end up just sitting all by myself. Honestly, I love being alone. I like not having people around talking to me and distracting me while I’m working. I am a pretty introverted extrovert (only other introverted extroverts will understand). However, sometimes I do want SOMEONE around to talk to other than myself.
Pro: I can travel or go on vacation anytime I want. Because I can take my work anywhere I go, I can decide to leave anytime I want. I don’t have to ask for permission or “leave” in order to go out of town or have an unplanned getaway with my love. That flexibility is like the BEST!
Con: It can be hard to stay disciplined. This is one of those things I didn’t expect to be so frustrating. I realized that with so much freedom and flexibility, I have to force myself to actually put in the hours and do what I need to do for my work. Even as I wrote this blog post, I had to force myself to get off YouTube to begin writing. It’s great to have freedom, but with great freedom comes great responsibility and that responsibility can be tough.
Pro: Zero Commute. I HATE driving. Anyone who knows me knows that I cannot stand to actually drive. I do not like traffic. I do not like honking horns and breaks and all things automobile related. In fact, I was known for allowing whoever was in my car with me to drive instead of me because I hate it that much. So needless to say, I LOVE not having to get up every day and drive someplace in order to get to work. This is probably my favorite thing about working from home if I’m being honest.
Con: I am a workaholic. I have an issue when it comes to finding balance sometimes. I have those days where I have trouble forcing myself to work and concentrate, but then I also have days more often where I end up spending 16 hours working and not sleeping because I’m thinking about working. There have been nights my love has had to force me to lay down and actually just go to sleep. Without someone to tell me when to “clock out” I will get too involved and end up working until my brain crashes. It’s not very healthy, huh.
Pro: Less/No work drama. Another thing I love about working home is the fact that working by myself means there is ZERO gossip and complaining about other employees. When I worked in daycare, I used to HATE hearing other teachers complain about their coworkers or talk about other people’s business. It’s distracting and it’s annoying because I don’t care if Brenda rolled her eyes at Jenny. Working from home, if something upsets me, I can vent about it to my love later that night and then THATS IT. It’s down and over with and never becomes drama or some awkward situation where me and some other employee doesn’t like each other… because there IS no other work employee.
Con: No standard ‘benefits’. When you’re working for yourself there’s a lot of luxuries you took for granted that become apparent. For example, there’s no medical insurance, dental insurance, and taxes are not taken out for you. I hate taxes. I HATE taxes. Medical insurance? It’s EXPENSIVE. There’s no Christmas bonus unless my clients are being sweet, which is adorable, but doesn’t happen often. I don’t get to have a work office party…. and yes I consider the office parties a benefit. It’s free food and refreshments.
Pro: More time to spend with loved ones. A lot of my work can be automated or I can put in extra night hours to free up my mornings. In other words, I have a lot more time to do things that matter to me like spend time wit my loved ones. My love definitely appreciates that fact as well. We always have time to go on dates. If we want, we can have breakfast together. We can do a random afternoon picnic. It’s the bees knees.