Have you noticed over the last few years (and especially since the “shut down” of our society) that we have more and more people working from home?
It is about time to have a comprehensive look at the real work from home pros and cons and see what is behind the popular job trend.
It doesn’t matter whether you are considering starting your own online business or transitioning from an office setting to home based job for your current employer.
Some people love the thought of working from home (remotely) and others hate the idea.
Either way, love it or hate it, let’s look at the Pros and Cons of working from home.
Pros
1. No Commute
- No traffic jams, crowded buses or trains. This use to be my daily stress time.
2. Save Time
- No need to spend a lot of time to get ready in the morning.
- No commuting – Think about this…
- The average commute time in the USA is almost 30 minutes one way
- Lets do some quick number crunching... (2 x 30 mins = 60 minutes per day x 250 work days per year = 250 hours per year)
- That’s over 10 days per year of your life spent driving to and from work! “Ugh!!!”
3. Save Money
- You save money on gas, maintenance on your vehicle, lunch, train or bus fares and clothes (and dry cleaning)!
4. Comfortability
- If you want to, you can actually wear your pajamas to work!!!
5. Flexible Working Hours
- You can set your own hours (especially if you do freelance work)
- It doesn’t matter if you are a “Night Owl” or an “Early Bird”! You can work when you are most productive.
- This all leads to more freedom!
6. More Time with Family and Friends
- You’re not spending all that time commuting… Why not spend more time with your family and friends.
- You might actually get to attend your kids school events or even meet up with friends who work a non-normal work schedule (i.e. shift work)
7. Create Your Own Working Environment
- You get to create a working environment that best suits you.
- BONUS > If you don’t want to work from home you don’t have to. Maybe go to the park, coffee shop, or a coworking space near you (you get to choose).
8. Reduced Stressed
- No waisted time stressing out commuting.
- No loud, noisy and stressful work environment (phones ringing, people talking, keyboards hammering and no boss standing over you) = Saving your nerves!!!
9. Autonomy
- You are not bound by the big company routines and structure that may not fit your style
- You have more responsibility for your performance. This can be a great feeling that can boost your confidence a lot.
10. Food Preparation
- You get to prepare your own food. This means you can eat fresh and healthy foods (if that’s what you are into).
- A study conducted by CoSo Cloud confirmed that 42% of all questioned remote workers eat healthier when working from home.
11. Time for Workouts
- Since you don’t have the commute anymore, why not spend some of that free time to work out more and get in better shape.
- Maybe it’s something as simple as taking the dog for a walk, maybe some yoga or go for a run.
12. Work/Life Balance
- With more time available from eliminating the long commute you can actually spend more time doing things you like (spend time with family and friends, enjoy your long forgotten hobbies, maybe even start a side gig)
13. Health Increases
- Less stress from not having the daily commute (you may even sleep better)
- The better Work / Life balance helps make a happier and more satisfied person (I’m pretty sure that’s a good thing…)
14. Tax Advantages
- Since you work from home you may be able to write off a portion of your house and other expenses
Bonus – 15. Location, Location, Location
- You can live anywhere you want (as long as there is an internet connection.
Ok… Let’s look at the other side of the coin…
Not everything in the “work from home” front is rainbows, butterflies and unicorns - there may be a few unicorn farts (cons)
Cons
1. No Human Interaction
- You may have more calls and online zoom meetings, but you will have the potential to spend a lot more time alone. The lack of social interactions can be really hard for some people.
2. Hard to Switch Off
- You are literally living and working in the same place. So it can be hard to turn off your internal switch to stop working.
- You could literally could end up working from early morning until late at night
- This all could lead to “burn out” (it’s really important to set up a dedicated home office and establish sound work routines)
3. Many Distractions
- Things can get in your way of being productive (laundry, grocery shopping, running errands, watching TV or maybe cleaning the house).
- There are potential distractions everywhere. So this is why it is really important to have discipline and stay focused on your work.
4. Lack of Productivity
- All those distractions we just talked about can reduce our productivity.
- Maybe you’re just feeling a lack of motivation due to missing the daily in person interaction with other people at work.
5. Unhealthy Lifestyle
- On the one hand, working from home does wonders for your health and can increase it a lot, but it can also have a detrimental effect on our health. (whether it’s back pain, sleepless nights, working long hours, never leaving the house, or reaching “burn out”)
6. Collaboration Suffers
- We are already with the life of emails, video call and text messages. Sometimes it’s just so much easier to communicate in person with a person sitting right next to you.
- When working from home you might miss important things that are talked about in the office (“cooler talk” can potentially provide insights that you won’t get at home).
- Limited communication options can make collaboration much harder. (ultimately affecting productivity) .
7. Bad Reputation (Here is the most annoying one…)
- People just don’t value it (working from home) as much as an in-office job.
- Family and friends may ask you things like:
“So, when are you finally going to get a REAL job again?”
or
“Could you do [insert any random 3-hour long task] today? You’re home anyway and have the time?”
Is Working from Home a Good Thing?
As you can see, there are plenty of pros and cons of working from home.
It is up to you to decide which ones are more important to you and have a bigger impact on your well-being and happiness.
If you want to go for remote work, you should have most of the following characteristics (or better yet, all of them):
Another thought on this topic: The good thing with remote work is, you can easily start it part-time.
Give it a try and work a bit during the weekends or after your normal work to see if it is something that you could do full-time.
There is nothing to lose, and only experience to gain.
If you want to learn how you can make money online and work from home too, check out this to see if you are the “Work from home” kind of person.
I look forward to hearing about your future successes.
- Duane Eberhard
