| I've worked at home full time for the last 2.25 years or so, and it's been the most productive working experience of my 15 year career. I think there are some misconceptions and hidden benefits that I held before being in a long full-time WFH situation that I'm sure others hold also. I've been meaning to write up a longish post on my thoughts/experience, but here are some brief notes off the top of my head: 1. I think the tv/fridge/playstation distraction thing is a myth. I think maybe it's a problem when you WFH occasionally because you're not used to being productive at home and you can make it up tomorrow at the office. 2. WFH has the benefit of forcing you to be vastly evaluated on your work product. This is seven million kinds of awesome. I have lots to say about the benefits of this, but one thing is that it changes the way I make things. I think differently about how my colleagues (and not just developers) consume and interact with my work. I care about their FTUE when running my code or trying a new tool more than I used to. 3. Your commute is killing you. You probably don't think this is true. I didn't. I loved my train ride. Now I can't believe I gave that much of my life away. It really makes me sick. I'd trade 25% salary for no commute in a heartbeat now that I've tried both. Hell, probly 50%. 4. Everyone asks if you miss social interaction. I don't, because it's not missing. I interact more with my current team than any other team I've ever been on. We idle in chat all day, and I probably have an avg of 2-5 VOIP quick conversations or meetings daily. The interactions are more intentional, and valuable (socially and work-wise). 5. I'm a better writer now and my task management skills are much improved, for obvious reasons. More asynchronous work means less walk-by task management and more thoughtful emails/tickets, etc. 6. I don't burn out nearly as easily (in the short or long term). 12 hour days feel like 9 hour days used to. Five minutes petting my dog is vastly more psychologically relaxing than a walk to the water cooler or an office game of foosball. |
I agree with all that you have said, but I do see negatives more prominently, so I'll list those as a balance point. Keep in mind as you read these that I live more than a day away from where I work, so that adds an isolation factor that not all home-workers will suffer.
1. Probably the biggest thing I miss is the informal conversations. The hallway conversations. I've become very detached from what is going on in my department, and I no longer have the pulse of what is going on.
I used to occasionally stop by my manager's office and chat for a few minutes, just an informal query of how business is going, what I've been doing, toss out some wacky ideas for improving things, etc... A phone conversation is simply not the same.
2. I miss going somewhere else to work. I can occasionally rectify this by going to panera's or a coffee shop, but it's not practical to do if I'm going to be having meetings that day. And I do get random calls from coworkers and managers...
3. I have become a bit of a recluse. I have this as a natural tendency to begin with, but now that I work from home, I don't even have work to get me out of the house.