Working from home: the good and the bad

As many of you know, my job is a work-from-home position.  In my previous job, I was allowed to work from home twice a week, so got used to the home office environment.  My current job is work-from-home only - I don't have an office to go to, and the picture above is my little "office" during the week.  When we lived in Massachusetts, we had an actual home office, but since our space in NYC was reduced to about a third of our space in Mass, I get this little corner, and as you can see, we crammed as much stuff as possible in to it.

Some people really like working from home and some people don't, so having had a couple different work-at-home experiences, I thought I'd tell you what the good and bad things are, from my perspective.

Bad Things

• I can go days without interacting with anyone besides Marek and my dog.
• It's easy to go to stir crazy, working and living in the same place.
• My dog is the only "person" I can talk to all day, so sometimes I think I'm going crazy.
• I oftentimes have no idea what day it is.
• It's too easy to eat whatever I want all day long.

Good Things

• It's easy to get things done around the house.  This was especially true when we had laundry in the apartment.
• I get to spend the whole day with my dog, watching him do cute things (mostly sleeping - although today I took his bone away from him and chided him for being a fatty and a peanut butter addict, then I put the bone out of reach and watched while he looked at it longingly).
• I can get up at 8:59 for a 9:00 meeting.
• No commute, which equals more free time!
• I get to work in really comfortable clothes and don't have to maintain a separate work wardrobe.
• Sitting on the couch is really comfortable.
• I can listen to my music over the speakers or even have the TV on as background noise.
• Lots of different food options if I get a craving for something.
• Flexible working schedule (varies depending on your job/arrangement, but mine is very flexible).
• I can go on runs at lunchtime and not worry about being all sweaty at the office or taking a shower at work (both gross options).

Overall, I think the good things far outweigh the bad.  I will say working at home was a little easier when I actually knew (i.e., met in person) the people I was working with, because then I could at least associate names with faces.  I liked a mix the best - it was nice to be in the office occasionally, especially for the socialization aspect, but it was also really nice to work at home and avoid the commute and have some extra time!