Mon 26 Jan 2009
I’ve been working from home for three years. I started in 2005, when I left a cube-farm commuter job and joined a small company based about an hour’s drive from my house. The plan was to commute in as needed, perhaps once a week, but work from home most of the time.
I had no idea, absolutely no friggin’ clue, how much it was gonna suck. My typical day went like this:
- get up
- check company IRC, say good morning, make sure nothing’s on fire yet
- lunch, maybe some scrabble or a TV show
- meeting about something. with phone muted, can watch youtube videos
- work some more, but with more interruptions
- dinner, hopefully in proximity to another human
- hack on the side project du jour
- go to sleep
This post is half of a pair of posts on working from home. I’m giving you the bad news first. Here’s the most important thing you should know:
It’s not just a matter of feeling lonely: all kinds of emotions depend on regular, face-to-face human interaction, and you run a serious risk of becoming unproductive, uninspired, and even depressed without it.
Let me reiterate: feeling lonely at work isn’t the only–or even the primary–way that working from home screws you. Well before your soul starts to scream with loneliness — which might never happen if you have family or friends you see regularly — you will suffer from being alone.
The first thing to go is probably motivation. For this you can blame a massive cut in feedback. In an office you get feedback constantly. At the coffee pot in the morning, eye contact shows interest in your latest tasks, or nods express sympathy about difficult colleagues and bosses. When you have a question about something, your coworker’s eyes and facial expressions will tell you, consciously or subconsciously, if you’re sounding smart or stupid. Chances are, you depend on this feedback more than you realize. You need it both for work-specific communication, which is easy to see, and for maintaining your self-image, esteem, and motivation–which is harder to see because the mechanisms are subconscious.
You don’t get rich feedback when communicating over a phone, email, or text chat. No facial expressions; no idea whether a persons eyes are wandering or locked on; maybe some hint of tone of voice. All this feedback is distilled and distilled away when you’re not there to pick it up in person, and this will affect you quickly and constantly if you work remotely.
You might say, ah, the hell with it, I’ll learn to live without that feedback. After all, doesn’t Paul Graham say that people with “unlimited self-generated morale” are almost guaranteed to succeed? Don’t you want to be like that?
Chances are, you could be more determined. But there are very few people — perhaps mostly sociopaths and the autistic — who can pursue a goal indefinitely without feedback. Be aware of the feedback you need, and work on making it possible. And remember that when you’re considering working from home, you’re going to tear away a lot of that feedback.
Coming soon: Why Working from Home is Wonderful.
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January 26th, 2009 at 10:27 am
Good stuff.
January 26th, 2009 at 10:30 am
If you do business as you suggest than you will fail. If you get up and have a defined goal(s) to your day you will be very effective.
Schedule appointments and meet people at their offices or for lunch/dinner. Buy a web cam and have conference calls.
January 26th, 2009 at 10:46 am
I agree 100% on the above. having worked from home for the past 1 1/2 years, i became horribly frustrated and demoralized.
however, the impact of WFH is pretty different of different people. one of my friends, who’s been doing it for the last 5 years now, has thrived in the WFH scenario. He absolutely loves it and wouldnt want it any other way
January 26th, 2009 at 10:49 am
I’ve been doing software development from home for 2.5 years now. The lack of interaction with co-workers can be a real drag sometimes. My wife and young children are also at home so I don’t miss out on total human interaction during the days – that would be miserable. Like you said though, there is something about seeing and actually speaking with your co-workers.
One thing that I think is really important is the setting where you do your work. I don’t think it has to be perfect, but I worked out of my basement for six months at one point, and that was by far the worst block of working from home time I have had. It was dingy, dimly lit and downright depressing.
Another thing to do is to get involved with other organizations outside of work. I try and make it to local tech meetups and am involved in my church. Those sort of things help me to remember that life exists outside the walls of my house.
Good post – looking forward to the next one!
January 26th, 2009 at 11:07 am
How is this different from coming into a cubefarm an not talking to anyone around you all day?
I sit in a large office building – I don’t work closely with anyone who actually sits near me. All of my conversations are on the phone or in other nearby office towers.
Personally I think it depends on the person and the job. Extraverts get their energy from other people so – they either need to be connected to others through electronic tools or phyiscally.
January 26th, 2009 at 11:09 am
Nice post and well worded.
I’ve been working in a similar situation as you for the last 6 months and it’s a real drag.
As Christan pointed out, having a family at home helps allot, but for single people like me it sucks bad.
I have to make sure I eat out in the evenings so I get at least some human contact on a daily basis, otherwise I slump into a funk.
I’ve made good friends at my local bar in Cambridge (Christopher’s) and hang out there often to break up the monotony.
I’d love to see other coders there so I can talk shop over dinner
January 26th, 2009 at 11:23 am
I’ve been working from home for almost 2 years now, and I wouldn’t trade it for anything. But I think the point about having people around to talk to is so true, as I’m able to get out of the house in the afternoon to pick up my oldest kid from school, and then talk to her while I’m working.
January 26th, 2009 at 11:42 am
One thing I also found out that sucks about working from home (did it for about a year and a half): Besides being less productive at work, I was less productive at… well, everything, really.
Working from home made me not have a place where I would go just to relax. Since I was less productive during the day, my nights were not really relaxing, but were mainly composed of TRYING to relax while stressing out about all the stuff I had to do during the day.
Still, not having to commute and being able to work whenever I wanted was something I really liked.
January 26th, 2009 at 11:46 am
I know the feeling of loneliness working at home. I did two years of high school from home and that was misery. Non-school work from home is a tad better as I get to interact with others (virtually) almost constantly. I also have a wife backing me so that helps quite a bit on the motivation front.
January 26th, 2009 at 12:04 pm
What you are describing here is a classic sign of depression from lack of human contact. Going to an office and seeing people face-to-face is a lot of social interaction and you lose it when you work from home.
There are a lot of ways to get more feedback from your team when you work remotely. They will make you better at your job, but they won’t solve the problem of social isolation.
When I first started working remotely I had a lot of same problems. The work was going well, but I felt disconnected from my team and everyone else. I tried to keep up with friends, but it was tough since we couldn’t get together at a fixed time. What helped me was Go.
There is a club where people play Go a short distance from my home. It gave me a place to go twice a week to get out and interact with people. It helped my work performance and it made me happier.
Everyone who works from home should have a regularly scheduled activity outside of their house where they can meet people face-to-face and interact.
January 26th, 2009 at 12:35 pm
I started working from home a few weeks ago after starting my own consulting business. The ironic part is I’m hardly ever home as I spent most of the day out and about talking to people and doing personal business.
Mark
January 26th, 2009 at 12:44 pm
I work from home for nearly 2 months now. It’s not a lot of time, but I love it, and I don’t get distracted at all at work. It’s like the opposite picture from what you paint over on your article.
I think being distracted is more of an issue of how your team is managed and what motivates your team than of how many eyeballs you have looking at your monitor or what do the expressions on your colleagues face really say.
Then again, I respect your opinion. You’ve worked from home for longer than I have, and also working from home has never been a solution for everyone.
But it works very well for me.
January 26th, 2009 at 1:14 pm
I’m curious, have you ever tried co-working (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coworking)? I haven’t but when I telecommute one day a week, I usually do it from a local coffee shop where I’m bound to have an interesting conversation or two. You’ll get stir-crazy if you’re shut in the house all day working — mix it up.
January 26th, 2009 at 1:26 pm
I work from home, and I go into the client’s office way more than I thought I would. it’s just good to see other people. plus my neighbors have these noisy kids.
it fucks with your sleep schedule. that’s the major problem I encounter. I love it, though. I like working from cafes a lot better than working from home, and it’s the same thing as far as your job’s concerned.
January 26th, 2009 at 2:33 pm
@casey: Yes, I’m a part-time tenant at Betahouse, the local coworking joint in Cambridge, MA. I really like the folks there and go there once or twice a week — it’s become an important place for “mixing it up”.
Just to clarify, my point here isn’t that working from home is a net loss. There are lots of reasons it sucks, but there are enough great things about it that I do it anyway! In the upcoming part 2, I’ll be looking at the brighter side.
January 26th, 2009 at 2:37 pm
I very much agree with this from my personal experience. I worked from home for 3 years and I really feel it killed my motivation.
The worst problem though was, after a while, I got used to it… not achieving as much, not learning as much. Going back to work in an office environment with people I respect around me was a breath of fresh air. I had forgotten what I was missing and I truly consider I wasted valueable time and career progression working at home.
January 26th, 2009 at 3:11 pm
Totally agree with you. When my last company shut its doors, I started doing consulting and was working from home….at least that was the plan. I didn’t get a damn thing accomplished except the dishes. I decided to find office space, and landed here at betahouse in cambridge. Night and day difference.
January 26th, 2009 at 3:29 pm
I totally disagree.
I worked from home for years, and it was great because 1) It allowed me to be a moonlight musician and teach private music lessons during after-school hours, 2) I traded commuting for time to hang with my wife and kids, 3) I got a LOT more done because I completely dodged all the gossip and water-cooler talk, I was NEVER distracted by human interaction on the job. Note that this point is finely balanced with points 1 and 2, where I got my real human interaction from instead.
Now I am in a new job where I spend up to 2 hours commuting every day, music gigs are more stressful because I’m less relaxed, my kids can be more grouchy because they don’t get to see me as often, and the human interaction factor on my job is nothing particularly fulfilling.
It certainly depends on your perspective eh? My family and music relationships are much more fulfilling than any on-the-job friendship I’ve developed, so for me a work-from-home is obviously the best.
I’d say in the end, each person has to make their own call. My fear is an article of this sort can dissuade employers from allowing remote workers, if they read the article only and not the comments. Make sure to write the “Why Working from Home is Wonderful” article at least!
January 26th, 2009 at 4:11 pm
I’m eagerly awaiting the second installment.
I feel I need to go up the mountain of sacred solitude to do certain types of work and thinking. But then I need to go back down to the village a.k.a. the coworking space for everything else: camaraderie, news, networking, humor, and lots of great tips and advice.
January 26th, 2009 at 4:38 pm
I like your points about human interactions. I definitely enjoy being in an open work area where my coworkers and I can look up from our screens and joke about things. It’s really funny how we’ll IM each other even when we’re in the same room because we all have our headphones on. I think another big part of it depends on the individual’s personality. I like the interactions, but I agree with @Darren that there should be a time for uninterrupted work, and a separate time for social interactions.
Look forward to the next post!
January 26th, 2009 at 4:38 pm
I think one’s success depends on three things: 1) how committed you are to your job; 2) how much interaction you require; and 3) how self-disciplined you are. In my last job, I TC’d two to three days per week and LOVED it. I was conscientious about getting things done because I appreciated having the privilege of working at home and I didn’t want to lose it. I’m also extremely disciplined. And, finally, I’m not the type person who needs a lot of social chit-chat. At home I could really focus and I was always two-to-three times more productive there than at the office.
January 26th, 2009 at 4:48 pm
I disagree:
-commute is 7-10 SECONDS, gas is $0.00, also reduction in new & nice clothes
-kids + wife around the corner, see them every hour + lunch
-money spent by company on office/cubicle instead goes into my pocket/house
-completely flexible work hours (if you have wife and/or kids this is even bigger plus)
-own corporation so can juggle money around to maximize my real total worth (talk to an accountant)
-better visibility, will see my layoff coming much sooner and/or can make adjustments as needed
-less of the revenue from my work goes towards overhead (HR, building/lease, management, …)
Now, one difference is I am self-employed (software and patent licensing from home) so some of the above are a direct result of that.
January 26th, 2009 at 5:06 pm
I’d sugest you to start taking other commitments outside your job routine.
Learn a new skill, a language, practice some sport or whatever thing you might enjoy.
For me, it all changed once realized that life happens outside work to.
January 26th, 2009 at 5:10 pm
[...] Working from Home: Why It Sucks – [...]
January 26th, 2009 at 6:06 pm
I have been working from home for over two years, and I love it more than any other job I have ever had. I haven’t experienced the negatives you mention in this article, but like some of these other commenters, I have my wife and pets here at home with me for the human interaction aspect.
I’m in touch with my coworkers all day long, and I haven’t had a problem with working on projects with them.
January 26th, 2009 at 6:39 pm
Whether you enjoy a working in solitude is probably closely related to introvert/extrovert, all other things being equal. Would be interesting to see a myers-briggs type vs. like to work at home breakdown.
January 26th, 2009 at 9:22 pm
Show some initiative, rather then complain, go out and find the human interaction and feedback you require.
I worked 12 months from home and then 1-2 days from home afterwards for the next 2 years, never had any issues with productivity plus I gained back all the time lost in commuting.
BTW, I find it amusing that you throw an insult at the end. i.e. if you don’t agree with your premise (that WFH sux) you must be a sociopath or autistic. That little sentence says more about you then you realise.
January 26th, 2009 at 9:45 pm
The perfect scenario is living 10 minutes away (walking) from the office, in a more or less urban setting. Saves time and keeps the spaces separate…
January 26th, 2009 at 10:29 pm
[...] Hoje, lendo algumas notícias enquanto voltava do almoço (sim, eu normalmente leio notícias do Hacker News quando estou voltando para casa do almoço) eu me deparei com um artigo alarmante (para mim): “Working from Home -Why it sucks.“ [...]
January 27th, 2009 at 4:32 am
It’s not good if one’s social circles are all aligned mostly with co-workers. Then you won’t feel lonely when you don’t see them when working at home because you have your friends, family, and spare time regardless of work.
In my experience, working from home has a tremendous productivity boost due to lack of interruptions. It suits for work that revolves around getting things done, and people of similar traits. If “work” is being there and doing something for X hours a day, then probably nobody can do that alone without going insane.
You must remember that you can’t be productive every single hour, day, or week. However, in the office it’s easier to fool yourself for having worked eventhough you haven’t. You can chat with your coworkers a lot and it’s generally still accepted behaviour. At home you have to accept that, today, you’re not going to get anything done and have faith in that the flow will come back in a day or two. Or late in the evening. Programming is much like doing art, there has to be the inspiration and you can’t force it.
January 27th, 2009 at 5:17 am
I’ve found that getting out of the home office can actually help a lot – either to a university library near your house or a Starbucks right around the corner: never underestimate the power of a change of scenery.
January 27th, 2009 at 11:25 am
I have been working from home for 2.5 years myself and for two different jobs… one where I was working for a big company and telecommuting, and the next as an independent and solo software developer. Both were hard for different reasons.
Telecommuting leaves you on the outside looking in of practically every function of a company. If you are performing an isolated task then you might be ok, but anything that requires collaboration will be difficult. Now, this refers to telecommuting where there’s a “mothership” that contains everyone you work with and you’re the exception in working from home.
In setups where everyone works from home, it’s a different story and much more tolerable, I’d think. Being the exception as a telecommuter leaves you in a constant uphill battle to prove that you’re being productive. If you aren’t really proactive about communication, folks will assume you’re just hanging out. From the original post here, sounds like that can often be true.
Now working totally alone from home… that’s a whole nother bag. Probably the hardest thing I’ve ever done. Luckily I had an investor to give me some external motivation, so that wasn’t really an issue. But all of the intangibles that are mentioned in the original post were very real for me. However, I think one can learn to work alone from home.
What it takes is building up outside social contact, not expecting to work 9-5 continuously, and generally being easier on oneself knowing that we don’t always feel productive. Capturing bursts of productivity is what is important.
Also, in working totally alone, one must impose a management structure. You can’t work all the time… there needs to be time set aside for planning. It can often feel like a waste, just sitting around thinking about what to do. But I wasted hours forcing myself to get things done when instead I should have gotten out of the house for some perspective.
In the end, I hired someone to work with me for half the week, every other day. This has been great. I get the feedback and benefits of working with someone half the time, and the other half I can crank. I believe co-working could be the answer for those that aren’t ready to make a hire.
But to those that think working from home is “the dream”, you are really mistaken. It’s just another beast, and it needs to be tamed just the same.
January 27th, 2009 at 11:28 am
No self-discipline will replace a need for live collaboration, a sense of vibrant connection with another person, who is actively shouldering your efforts to move forward, to explore and to understand the task at hand and your unique experience. Humans are social animals and the need for social connection, especially around important experiences is encoded in our DNA.
I worked with people, who for various reasons lost an opportunity to work as a teem, all suffered marked decline in motivation, self-esteem and ability to be innovative.
January 27th, 2009 at 12:24 pm
Interesting post, I never thought about working from home like that. Working from home has always been my backup in case I lose or quit my job. It’s always worked for the month or so I’ve ever been unemployed but I can definitely see the disadvantages to doing it long term.
January 27th, 2009 at 12:46 pm
Working from home sucks and going into an office sucks! Working from home is great and working from an office is great!
All those statements are false.
The thing is that some people like – even love – working from home and others like the office environment. It’s not about home vs office – it’s about individuals and their preferences.
January 27th, 2009 at 1:24 pm
I’ve worked from home from time to time over several years. I don’t have any of the problems you describe. I have never lost my drive or motivation.
I set my goals and go to the ‘office’ just as if I were really going to an office. I actually start work first thing, take a break after an hour and a half then get back to it.
Working from home does not suit all personalities. You seem to need more human interaction than I do. I don’t need all that eye contact. I have never felt lonely working from home. If anything the quiet has let me concentrate better.
I’ve always worked where there were remote team members in other countries so going to an office did not necessarily put me face to face with the people I needed to interact with anyway.
The one thing about any remote situation is that good communication equipment is necessary. If you cannot hear the other side well, then you will have a problem.
January 27th, 2009 at 1:27 pm
THANK YOU, at last, finally somebody said it. I couldn’t quite put my finger on what it was that made me feel “Rested” and “free” for the first two days, but then transform into “miserable” and “depressed”
Thank you.
January 27th, 2009 at 3:43 pm
I work at home 2-3 days per week. My team is completely distributed (worldwide). I only have one team mate at the site where I still have a cube. Many of the people on my aisle work roughly the same schedule which means it’s a ghost town when I do come in. We now make a concerted effort to arrange lunches for the circle of people who used to work together on teams but now are in the same position I’m in. That helps a bit. Even if I wanted to come in five days a week it would be difficult because we all spend a lot of time on the phone with Europe/Asia which means 6am and 10pm calls. I’m not enjoying it much. Yeah, I go work out at lunch or try to meet someone and we all chat on IM. But it sucks.
January 27th, 2009 at 5:30 pm
I work from home, and I’m definitely getting worse at staying ‘up’ and motivated. So I’ve recently taken to working from the cafe of the local arts venue. The Wi-Fi is free, the coffee is cheap, and there is a creative air about the place. Although I’m not interacting with the people there (apart from ordering yet another coffee), even observing their interactions has a stimulating effect. Hope that doesn’t sound too perverse.
January 27th, 2009 at 8:54 pm
Deep in the psychological level you seem to say this:
“WFH is currently not for me!”
So go and get a regular 9-5 job OR
Move on to your family’s house OR
Get married as soon as possible!
Havin a girl/boy friend or havin any kind of pet just won’t work it out, you should really be with your family members or if you can’t then you’d better have a wife/husband
Only then can you find the human interactivity that’s necessary to feed your desire to work and live!
That’s all.
January 27th, 2009 at 9:16 pm
I’ve been working from home for 15 years. It’s great.
It’s obviously not for you. Don’t condemn it for everyone else.
January 27th, 2009 at 10:20 pm
Good post.
I get what you’re saying here. And this resonates VERY much with my feelings on the subject.
Cool to see that you’re including coworking in the ‘mix’ hear to relieve some of the ’suck’ out of working @ home.
Overall though — it’s kinda funny.
We all want freedom, we all want flexibility, we all want to be left alone to do our ‘thing’ — but we still *crave* structure and accountability — AND social interaction (with real humans as opposed to just digital representations).
January 27th, 2009 at 10:53 pm
This matches my own experience of working from home quite closely. I had the misfortune of moving to a new town where I had no social network at the same time as I started telecommuting, so some weeks I would have no face-to-face interactions except with my wife, my dog, and the checkout people at the supermarket.
It did play havoc with my emotional state and it wasn’t a good thing. Also, one’s ability to learn on the job is diminished when working from home.
After one year of telecommuting I decided to stick it and get a new office job, and it was a big improvement.
Working from home has tremendous upsides (look forward to hearing your thoughts on them) but for me, the downsides outweighed them.
January 28th, 2009 at 12:17 am
I lasted about 18 months in a home office. The flexibility and ability to work in your PJ’s are great, but a lack of human contact was a hugemongous issue – so unless you can get by without face-to-face with fellow human beings, I don’t recommended havinga home office for a lengthy period of time.
I’m now in an office space with a larger company and haven’t looked back since.
January 28th, 2009 at 12:46 pm
I’m in the “working from home is the greatest thing ever” group, but I’m not a sociopath or an autistic as far as I know.
I also cowork. I was at Betahouse in Cambridge for a while, but wasn’t going in enough to justify the expense. They’re a great group–I do miss it.
I started coworking at friends’ houses under the auspices of the Nomadic Telecommuting Herd (http://herd.jottit.com/). That’s worked really well.
Anyhow, I think your premise is wrong. It should probably be more like: “Working from home is different than working in an office and at a minimum requires a different mindset and set of habits to make it work.”
January 28th, 2009 at 12:58 pm
Sounds like basically you have not much real work to do.
This is the first time I visit your blog so I have no idea what you actually do (for a living).I’m guessing programming. If so, then you seem to be one of the very few “programmers” who have little work to do.
My daily commute is 4 hours door-to-door everyday. (soon to be 5). Company used to allow one day per week WFH, but they took it away.
Fvcking bastards !
January 28th, 2009 at 1:01 pm
yeah I would happily take a pay cut to get just one-day-per-week-WFH. And with economy like this I’m “hunkering down” until the shit-storm is past.
Don’t take a good thing for granted, you’re so fortunate.
Enjoy while you have it.
January 28th, 2009 at 1:17 pm
It totally depends on the person and probably the job. I have worked for myself five of the last twelve years, and worked from home eight of the last twelve years. I couldn’t go back to a typical office.
The things you mention are true, having interaction with coworkers is nice, but if you have a lot of friends outside of work, you can meet up for lunch, or take a half day and go snowboarding etc.
I can’t deal with phony office workers and the political BS that comes with them.
I get much more done without worthless meetings and people slurping up my energy.
my .02
January 28th, 2009 at 1:48 pm
Dude! Join a gym or something. I wish I could work from home and not see the people here at work every day.
I would spend a lot less in gas and hours of my life lost to traffic.
January 28th, 2009 at 2:44 pm
I’ve worked from home for about six years now and I have to say that I struggle daily with the pros and cons. It takes more discipline than you would think and fortunately, technology enables more and more real-time feedback and communication with peers, but it fails in the more casual comraderie ways.
January 28th, 2009 at 2:50 pm
Working from home is kinda crap, because of the reasons mentioned:
no feedback.
but further, you become lazy very fast. You are now able to play more games, not be accountable for a lot of how you spent your time bcause you can just make it up
if the group you work in works from home (as was my case) you will notice that people start talking in conferences more about their personal home life (”Yea i woke up today, played with the kids…the kid got sick so i had to do so and so..”).
The good part about working from home is sleeping in…thats about it really.
at work, you meet people, develop a social life. Work isnt really about work, about 20% of what you focus on at work accounts for 100% of your deliverables anyway.
So for the most part, you are interacting, surfing, and developing your social stability while at ‘work’.
Tke that away and you jsut have your deliverables. The rest is your misery with yourself.
No lunch breaks, coffee breaks with co-workers.no checking out girls, no small talk about tv shows, no small talk about business ventures, and idea’s…no talk about some ski trip which can develop your social life some more.
I dont think its worth it.
The opposite is commuting long hours.
the only solution i see is wake up realllyyyy early like at 5, be at work for 7 while avoiding traffic, and be outta there by 3 that way u have the rest of the day and still acheived the social feedback that you needed.
January 28th, 2009 at 5:06 pm
I tried telecommuting full time a few years back; I’d moved out of town, but kept my job. After a few months, I found it very lonely. After a year, I moved back and started going into the office a few days a week.
For the last four or five years I’ve been telecommuting 2-3 days a week, and it’s been great. I get time to do concentrated work, and I get face time with cow-orkers. I highly recommend it.
January 28th, 2009 at 5:16 pm
I don’t agree with you. It’s really amazing if I could work at home. You just have to learn how to manage your time and sky is the limit.
January 28th, 2009 at 6:49 pm
Likewise; worked from home for a year, hated it by the end, now happily commute to an office each day.
There are lots of people in the comments above who think working from home would be awesome if only they could, but few people who’ve actually done it and agree that it was awesome.
- cjb
January 28th, 2009 at 7:34 pm
I’m my own boss, have a software company that mainly services outside clients, usually never meeting the client throughout the whole thing,
Then again, I also have 2 weekly, scheduled social outings with people, am married (to a 9-5 office worker), and love hanging out with the dog all day while working.
At the same time, the lack of feedback while working alone can be killer sometimes. Even when the customer is very interested in a project, sometimes they don’t have the ability to give feedback (due to lack of expertise) on a product until its deployed. That can really hurt when trying to get things done as you have no idea if what you’re doing is useful sometimes.
And there is not necessarily someone to talk to about it who has the same set of domain specific knowledge you do (as you do something slightly different from anyone else). I’ve found groups like PyAtl worked out nicely to meet people who work with similar tools, but again, they have different skillsets than I do, so aren’t helpful professionally as much as more socially and educationally.
I’ve thought about co-working before (not so much lonely, as just wanting to goof off in a social way occasionally, internet goofing off feels hollow, so I don’t do it much), but haven’t ever taken the time to investigate the options in Atlanta.
One thing I will say: It is SOOOO easy to get lost in a problem in the good way at home. I’ve not noticed it was 6pm one day until the wife walked in. I hadn’t even noticed lunchtime pass….
January 28th, 2009 at 7:35 pm
…*not necessarily* professionally helpful. Sometimes they’re VERY helpful professionally.
January 28th, 2009 at 9:34 pm
[...] Jan. 29th geeksinboston.com02:32 h Working from Home: Why It Sucks 0 [...]
January 29th, 2009 at 12:10 am
I’m with you. I became depressed and generally unproductive. Worked in coffee shops with wi-fi just to be around people, but you can’t exactly invite your friends for a chat while you’re working… nobody to talk shop with.
Maybe it would work for more introverted people. Not for me.
January 29th, 2009 at 10:44 am
Apparently, this post crated somewhat unusually active response. What does it tell me? Relationships rule! Yes we can settle for alternatives and substitutes , a dog will do nicely, an “after hours” friend- even better. But why not look for the real thing. One would not suggest to get a dog,if your marriage does not give you what you want, or to have more happy hours per week. You will be going to marriage counseling, getting a divorce,getting “some action on the side”, possibly feeling that you are failing in one of the major aspects of your life. One’s relationship and involvement with all aspects of the “working self” should not be neglected or outsourced.
January 30th, 2009 at 6:53 am
I think a significant minority among home workers are those graduate students working on their dissertations. You just have to shut yourself in for as long as you can and get reading and writing done. While there is nothing in this process that can trip you up but yourself (provided you don’t have to do some job on the side that takes up a lot of your time), there is no reason whatsoever why you should not be the most efficient home-worker of all. No one will distract you as long as they have the sense that you are actually doing work, you don’t have to see anyone, you don’t have to wait for anything. Yet, it is really depressing and takes a toll on your mind and your body. So, that was a really nice article.
February 1st, 2009 at 9:02 pm
It’s ok to have a comment.
February 3rd, 2009 at 2:20 am
[...] Geeks in Boston » Working from Home: Why It Sucks [...]
February 3rd, 2009 at 5:17 pm
A great post, but I don’t agree with you. Worked from home for about 2 years, and I can say only the best things about it. Working from home rocks!
Mick
February 4th, 2009 at 7:11 pm
[...] week I wrote about the perils of working from home. I’ve been working from home for over three years; I wasn’t trying to seal a verdict on [...]
February 7th, 2009 at 12:46 am
[...] Not all sunshine and lollypops http://geeksinboston.com/2009/01/26/working-from-home-why-it-sucks/ [...]
February 9th, 2009 at 1:21 am
[...] Working from Home: Why It Sucks “In an office you get feedback constantly. At the coffee pot in the morning, eye contact shows interest in your latest tasks, or nods express sympathy about difficult colleagues and bosses. When you have a question about something, your coworker’s eyes and facial expressions will tell you, consciously or subconsciously, if you’re sounding smart or stupid. Chances are, you depend on this feedback more than you realize.” Tags: telecommuting, home, work, culture, freelancing, feedback [...]
February 10th, 2009 at 11:23 am
aspergers ftw!
March 17th, 2009 at 2:39 pm
I’m one of those people who gets mean when they can’t have alone time. As someone who mostly works from home though, I find myself craving personal contact with coworkers more than I ever did when I was in the office. I actually have an office and a desk to go to, but I have no coworkers in my office. In fact, I don’t have any in my state. This is what makes things difficult. If I have coworkers to meet up with in the office once or twice a week, I would be golden. All would be well with the world. I make good money and I’m in a position to move up in my job, but at this point, I’d rather take a big pay cut and work in an office with a real team. You have to have a very spcific type of personality to pull off WFH, and I don’t think I have it.
May 6th, 2009 at 6:44 pm
I am so glad I found this blog. I thought I was the only one who suffered from this. I started working at home almost two years ago, and I seem to have become almost completely unproductive. When I had an office with employees and customers around, I was highly productive. Now I seem to have lost all motivation to do anything work-related. I’m constantly looking for reasons to leave the home to get around other people. I even started going to a casino to play blackjack for a while just to get around people and not feel like a hermit.
I feel like someone who is trying to play tennis or baseball by themself. You hit the ball and no one hits it back to you. You stand there for a while trying to get motivated, and then you just give up… because the only thing you have to look forward to is more of being alone and working without a team. What is there to look forward to or work towards?
Let’s face it, artists and athletes don’t work hard to compete with themselves. They do it to be acknowledged by their peers and their fans. If their end reward was just to feel good about themselves, most of them would lost motivation and give up… just like I did a long time ago. I am the artist type, and I thrive on a team. The opposite is true when I work alone.
It gets depressing being in this house alone. I feel disconnected from society and reality. I’m not the type who likes to go fishing alone, nor am I the type who would thrive alone on a deserted island. I am an extrovert, and I admit it – I need people. I need feedback, I need approval, and I need a team to work on. That obviously does not ring true for everyone, but I believe it does for most people.
At least now I know what my problem is. Thank you for the blog, and thanks to everyone who commented.
May 7th, 2009 at 10:51 am
[...] Shimon Rura: Working from Home: Why It Sucks [...]
May 13th, 2009 at 8:37 am
[...] Rura: Working from Home: Why It Sucks In an office you get feedback constantly. At the coffee pot in the morning, eye contact shows [...]
June 3rd, 2009 at 1:10 pm
Worked at an Office as an Analyst for 1 year. I then decided that I wanted to have my own business. So I learned how to develop websites, quit, and started working as a freelance. Today I have a few clients and work is coming in at a steady pace.
However, I suffer from lack of motivation. I enjoy competition. It makes me be better at what I do. I’m constantly wondering off doing anything but work, and I have not been able to meet deadlines.
I’m constantly thinking about going back to having an office job vs. being freelance and having that freedom. That freedom does come at a cost, and I have to agree with other people it solely depends on the individual. Hopefully I will figure something out soon. Great article.
July 24th, 2009 at 8:17 am
[...] Shimon Rura: Working from Home: Why It Sucks [...]
September 8th, 2009 at 12:05 am
I’m one of those people who gets mean when they can’t have alone time. As someone who mostly works from home though, I find myself craving personal contact with coworkers more than I ever did when I was in the office. I actually have an office and a desk to go to, but I have no coworkers in my office. In fact, I don’t have any in my state. This is what makes things difficult. If I have coworkers to meet up with in the office once or twice a week, I would be golden. All would be well with the world. I make good money and I’m in a position to move up in my job, but at this point, I’d rather take a big pay cut and work in an office with a real team. You have to have a very spcific type of personality to pull off WFH, and I don’t think I have it….
September 8th, 2009 at 12:05 am
[...] Shimon Rura: Working from Home: Why It Sucks [...]…
October 8th, 2009 at 3:07 am
[...] healthy for personal reasons, it’s good for business, too. Check out this observation from Shimon Rura: In an office you get feedback constantly. At the coffee pot in the morning, eye contact shows [...]