working from home

I know there are several folks who post here who work from home. I've been doing it for about 2 months now and like it. I am still an employee, not a business owner, but I flexibility in when I put in my work hours. Today, I worked 6 hours, then went out on some errands ( Dr. appt, dinner, Christmas shopping, and the grocery store). On a normal day, I would just make up the couple hours later in the week, but while I was out, I got some new tasking that had to be done.

I figure I started working again this evening around 8 pm and now it is close to 2 am. I typically go to bed around 11 or so. Now I am tired and wondering if anyone else who works from home finds themselves working strange hours.

My wife works from home but she has firm hours. 830-530 she must be at her desk. They use a ton of IM and Skype to communicate. It sounds like she is in a regular office if you just walk by and listen without looking in. She works for a small software company. Most of their employees work from home and they have fired quite a few that couldn't handle it.

I only work from home on occasion, but we've had other employees who due to location work from home F/T. For us it's a pretty set schedule, though I do tend to work a few extra hours per week(that's strictly a personal choice as I've only been in this career 15-months). Being IT, there could be situations that require some off-hours work, but that's rare and generally discouraged.

I had a home sales office for 14 years - I am now back in a real office due to a job change.

Discipline is key.There were times a big quote came up and I would be in my office on a nice summer evening working and I can hear the neighbors laughing outside. But it all evens out when it's time for a "nooner" with the wife.

Datsun310Guy wrote: But it all evens out when it's time for a "nooner" with the wife.

Volunteers to pick up the slack now that Datsun310Guy is back in a real office?

I'm going on 12 years working exclusively from home - nearest company office is 1000 miles away. No set hours but supposed to devote "full time" to work (40+ hours/week).

The benefits include flexibility, no commute, fewer interruptions and $ saved on wardrobe, lunch, transportation, just to name a few.

Office attire is t-shirts and flip-flops most days. I never have to take time off to wait for the cable guy.

The primary downside is that you can NEVER LEAVE WORK when your office is across the hallway from your bedroom.

Spending 24/7 with Mrs. BDT took some getting used to as well.

I don't know if I would ever go back to a 9-5 office, but there are days that I wish I could. I can see the appeal of leaving "it" at the office and going home.

I work from home at least one day a week in the summer and allot more in the winter. Since I am the boss I make the rules about this kind of thing.

As a boss I see productivity of my emploies and I have noticed that some are more productivity working at home while others seem to take 2x as long to get a task done. This can be frustrating.

What I have seen is: It is key to have a dedicated work area and treat it as such. Another is to dress for work. I know this may sound weird but I find that if I dress for work it means I am at work. ANother thing is don't fall in to the "I will just take a break and be back in 10 min" This turns in to half an hour (or more) and yet your mind remembers it as a 10 min.

I insist that employees are reachable by phone and email when working at home and that it not be a house line. It has to be a phone that is dedicated to work. A cell phone is the way to go here. A primarily reason is if a client needs to get in touch with one of my employees I don't what them to be calling some ones home and getting a 8 year old answering the phone. This comes across as not very professional.

I think like with everything in life some people are cut out to work at home while others are not. The biggest problem is that many that think they are and are always working at home are usually not and or they are working and doing something else (watching a child, doing some sort of side work). Trust me eventually the boss will find out about it or at least suspect it and this does not reflect well on the employee. I understand that stuff happens and people need to be at home for things some times and while they are if they can get a couple hours in that is great but as the boss don't try and sell me on you worked 8 hours on something when you have done the same task in 4 at the office.

My last "gripe" about working at home is that people don't have the resources at there disposal to be productive. This includes access to drawings, the library or reference books. They end up calling or emailing and asking other employees asking for help. This distracts other employees that end up doing part of the work that the person that is at home is supposed to be doing. Thus a task that took 4 hours really cost me 6 man hours when you factor in the time of the people in the office that were distracted by the person out of the office. I have had to have "the talk" with several people over the years about this and once I explain this to them they seem to get it. Many just don't think about it. It is a form of target fixation. Because they only took 4 hours to do the job they feel productive but when I look at time sheets I can see who was doing what when and I can show them that the task really took 6 or even 8 man hours due to other people needing to assist the person that is at home and this assistance would not have been necessary had the person been at the office.

Ohya another problem I have with working at home is that when you need to review something with another person they are not there and lets face it trying to mutually review something on line is just not the same as sitting at a table and going over things (I don't care what the net meeting people try and sell you)

I like working at home. I save gas and ware on my car. Since I can be working immediately after I am done with my morning stuff I will actually work the time I would usually be in my car commuting and this can add 2-3 hours a day to my productivity. I usually spend my time in the car making phone calls but this is limited as you don't have the materials in front of you that are some times needed when calling a client or an employee.

I worked from home for 3 years. The biggest issue I had was turning it off. The work is always right there, begging you to do a little more, finish one more little thing, complete one more e-mail. I found myself working on things over weekends and into the evenings.

And then when it was slow, the opposite happened. Unlike an office, you don't have to appear busy and you can't fill time by cleaning out old files or helping a co-worker. If there was not much to do, I got real lazy real quick and started letting the few things I did have to do slip. I lacked the discipline necessary to work from home unless I was crazy busy.

I did it for a couple of years and I loved it. My productivity went up- because I was not distracted by other people's problems. I have a tendency to need EVERYTHING to be perfect all the time, so if someone else is screwing up, I have to run over there and fix it, and then scramble to get my stuff caught up. At home, I can focus on MY job and get it done all at once.