I searched and didn't see anything about this topic.

On my next project I could potentially work out of my condo. Has anyone had a work setup like this, and if so, did you like it? I tend to think I could go crazy being in my condo everyday, however it would be nice to be much more flexible with my day and getting other things done.

Anyone that's done it before, please let me know about your experiences and the pros/cons/would you do it again/etc.

4/6/2010 3:56:57 PM

I worked from home for 3 weeks last month while my wife was healing after getting run over by a car. Parts of it were really nice and I hope to do it again at some point.

I spend alot of time on the phone for my job, so it was easy to fold laundry and do other easy chores while I was talking. I never got so much household stuff done during the day as then. I didn't mind staying at the house at all. Make sure and set your office up away from distractions like the TV or video games.

4/6/2010 4:03:15 PM

Yeah I do it a few times a month.

I have to get dressed to be productive tho...not a suit and tie like if I went it, but at least some pants and a polo

I tried the old tshirt and drawers approach and it didn't work for me

4/6/2010 4:08:09 PM

Another hold-up is that I don't have a landline, so it would be using something like Skype or picking up digital phone through TWC. Do you guys just use your cell phone and not worry about the minutes, or have a landline?

4/6/2010 4:20:26 PM

I use my work-issued cell phone

Never give clients your personal phone number

WORLDS WILL COLLIDE

4/6/2010 4:23:26 PM

^same. I have a work issued cell with unlimited data+ minutes. I would never give a client my house phone.

You could set up a google voice account to give to clients that would then forward to your home phone.

4/6/2010 4:25:33 PM

Yeah, Slave, probably would be awkward naked while talking to clients on the phone.....

4/6/2010 5:06:24 PM

Yeah, I usually do it a few times a month. Even more during the winter when the roads are too hazardous to go to work.
I like it. It's easy enough to just set up my work laptop up in my office, hook it up to my personal computer's monitor, and just VPN into my work's network. Only thing is I need to call into my office every hour or so to check voicemail, problems if I need to use network intensive programs (modeling software grabbing huge models off of the site LAN), and there are hangups sometimes if someone wants me to be physically in the office to do something, obviously.
I find that I'm usually able to get a lot done at home.

If you're planning to do this, you might be able to write off some of your internet usage on your taxes, as a business need.

4/6/2010 5:23:26 PM

Also, when you need a break, you can watch shows that you never get to see

Like Price is Right, Jerry Springer, and Charmed

4/6/2010 5:29:00 PM

If you are sincerely planning on WAH for an extended period of time, get an isolated environment away from the rest of the house. You do NOT want work / home life interfering with each other, and psychologically being unable to separate the two ... that is the largest concern moreso than anything else.

Otherwise, I do WAH ~once a week with the current job I have. I've done periods of 2-3 weeks pure WAH. *67 on my cell phone for any calls. And, I stay busy enough in a given workday the time flies by and you don't realize it. One benefit I do like is if I need a 5-10 mental breather, I can get some house chores done and revisit my work refreshed. At the end of the day, house chores are done and I can relax.

4/6/2010 9:30:51 PM

I'm normally in an office but there have been occasions where I've worked remotely for 8-10 weeks. It was blissful misery, but I got a few solid takeaways.

-Have a physical separation of your work space and your lounging space, avoid working in the loving room/bedroom if @ all possible. This will do wonders for your productivity as well as your ability to step away from it all and wind down.
-Treat it like work and not like bullshitting around the house, work set hours, avoid distractions like tv and time killers on the web. Otherwise you'll notice that your 8 hour work day becomes a 10/12 hour work day.
-Periodically get out of the home office to work remotely, a coffee house, a library, whatever. This only becomes an issue if you're working remotely for long periods of time. I know by my 8th week it wasn't uncommon for me to work outside of my home office 2x-3x a week, cabin fever is a killer.

4/6/2010 10:02:14 PM

meh, some responses here http://thewolfweb.com/message_topic.aspx?topic=590722&page=1#13837391

my input

Quote :

"i work from home a lot and i find the best way for me to concentrate is to sit down at a desk and work off a to do list. usually i'll have the news on while i do it and i work in a separate room in the house. in the past when i've tried working from home on the couch or dining room table i'd be staring out the window or getting into stupid tv shows. it helps me to go into a room shut the door and focus in also i like to go to coffee shops and work because i find i can concentrate better with other things going on around me"

Quote :

"oh yeah the #1 benefit of working from home is being able to take care of other shit laundry, errands, post office, library, mall -- anything that i avoid because it's normally too busy, i can take care of on off hours and when the work day is over i can really do whatever i want & usually end up going to bed so much earlier"

4/6/2010 10:12:52 PM

i work from home about one day a week. I enjoy it and its easy for me to focus on what needs to be done...the best part is being able to work outside on the deck with my dog next to me.

dont really have much to contribute except make sure you can focus and stay motivated when working at home...it is real easy to push things off until youre working well into the night...basically if you learned time management and motivation working through college you will be fine working at home

[Edited on April 6, 2010 at 10:17 PM. Reason : a]

4/6/2010 10:15:47 PM

Depends on your company's culture man. I could work from home every day of the week if I wanted to, but if you want to advance, it's better for your colleagues and management to see you physically in the office.

Same thing applies to flextime.

4/6/2010 10:32:26 PM

I'm a Consultant and the client I'll be working with has a history/common practice of people working remotely from a central location on large projections (mergers/acquisitions/normal business). I'm not concerned about advancement through this project and I don't necessarily think it would buy me visibility in the office, as my manager and other peers would also be working remotely.

I've been given the option of having a location, however I think it would make life a lot easier to work from home and be able to take care of other items. I don't start the project until 4/19 so I'm going to think through the plusses/minuses a little more.

Thanks for all the input!

4/6/2010 10:53:22 PM

I work out of the house. It is tough to balance work and play at home. I travel 80 percent of the time, so sometimes while at home, I work on around the house projects/yardwork/etc. I feel like that since I am gone so much that I earn these precious hours with my road time. I have a few errands that I have to run when I'm home that I can't do while on the road - haircuts, groceries, etc.

IE - if I was working in my hometown, I'd have time to mow and weed the yard after work - but if I'm 2000 miles away, that's pretty tough.

I end up working more from 11am through 8pm since the west coast staff tends to communicate more after noon. The minute I try to work a normal schedule, something comes up.

4/6/2010 10:57:22 PM

Whether I am ok with working from home depends on what my job function is. If I need to help more people in the office, being away doesn't help that much. I can be more productive doing what I need to do, but at the same time I get distracted too much at home. Part of that could be I don't really have a good work desk/environment for me to stay while I'm working.

If I am doing more of what I do now (checking email, helping people over the phone or via email/IM anyway), its fine being home. I just gotta deal with the distractions better

4/6/2010 11:09:05 PM