WFH

[Finsimbo]

Currently am being entertained by the idea of a position that would be 100% WFH with a US based company but employees all over the world online 24/7

Now this is very tempting considering I do the daily commute from across London going right through the city during rush hour and this really does my head in so the prospect of a WFH position is very tempting.

But as I have have done quite a bit of WFH, not 100% but a lot in my years, I do quite enjoy going into the office and meeting ppl just for the interaction and seeing ppl.

The job would be more money in salary and also more in terms of travel costs and daily costs of working in the city. I would not be totally remote from other team members as we would communicate daily through skype video chat and other means....

I can see many benefits of it but also many downsides.

Just want opinions on ppl who currently do it and what the pro's and con's are.

[Zimmerman]

I tend to do 2 days at home.

I’ll be honest, it’s not for me. It has its perks for sure, but I just don’t like the isolation of it. But as I have about 3hrs a day of commuting (and 6am wake ups) the 2 days at home help balance that out.

Also if I’ve been to London, then wfh the following day is a blessing too.

But I guess there things you can do (depending on your location) like going to Internet cafes or other ‘specialist’ type locations. I’m sure they must be plentiful in London.

The thought of doing it permanently might bother me, but I think the additional money would offset that worry pretty quickly. Id just make myself go in to a shared space a couple of times a week (possibly).

[unc.si.]

I'm either WFH or overseas, ie if I'm not abroad I can work from home all the time if I want to.

I never do though. There are a couple of offices in the UK that I can commute to and I rarely do more than 2 or 3 days WFH in a week. A couple of days is great - get loads of work done. More than that and I just miss the human contact of people at work. Video conferences from my office at home are great, but its not the same as meeting face to face. Its nice to have the flexibility to WFH but I couldn't do it if there wasnt a real office with real people that I can go to when I need / want to

[Striker]

Surely it's a question where one can't really contribute that much to other peoples' decisions as it relates to one's personal characteristics. I once spent several years working from home in UK where typically I spent 4-8 weeks overseas usually in Africa. During that period I was interacting daily with scores of people ranging from government Ministers, PSs, middle level bureaucrats, local government, community representatives, to impoverished peasants, and fellow multi-discipline professionals 24/7.

This was then followed typically by 3 months at home analysing the data, devising appropriate strategies etc and writing various reports. During this time during the working day I had virtually no contact with human beings, except for the odd phone conversation. If I started at 7 am, I was exhausted by around 1 pm having thought and written non stop. With no travelling time, I was free to do what I wanted for more than half the day. By contrast while overseas I "worked" typically for 12 hrs per day but with much of the tine taken up by meetings it was far less productive per hour worked and far less tiring,

It was good to have contrasting periods with respect to human contact, but when working day after day by myself, I certainly never missed having contact with fellow workers. So I'd never hesitate to work from home. But it's a personality thing, it certainly wouldn't have suited some other family members. It certainly doesn't require you to be a miserable bloke who prefers his own company as you have so much more time for socialising outside work.

[murf]

I could rarely get much work done at home. Always had better things to do or the wife asking me to do stuff. Needed to be in an office to get into the right mentality and even then had too many distractions (hence my huge post count in years gone by) and needed a deadline to focus me. Luckily I could be very efficient when needed to make up for it, so working from home I could get my head down mid afternoon and polish off enough work to look like I'd been busy.

Not for me...

[bspittles]

I've never worked from home for more than a day, but I have been part of a team that was spread across Europe. Skype video and IM worked really well.

However, I was still in an office with other people, just they weren't doing the same job as me.