Working from Home

cosmicenema

The internet at work thread got me to thinking about a current issue I have at work. Due to a pending re-org, I may be moving to a group that is not centrally located which means I’d be the only person in the group working from my city. Because of this, I have a few options as to where I work. I can choose to work anywhere in the city (my company has quite a few buildings here) or I can work from home.

I already have the option to work from home when I need to which is grand but, at first I wasn’t sure if I wanted to work from home. So here are the options and what I think about them:

• Work Downtown: Currently I work in a rent-a-cube-farm suburban building next to a mall. It pretty much stinks. I’ve always wanted to work downtown and this would have the added bonus of getting to take the bus to work instead of drive. I could be a true urbanite.
• Work Uptown: We have a really nice new building in the rich part of town where my wife works that has a lot of amenities such as a gym, restaurants, drug store, etc. I’d get to car pool with the wife so this also eliminates a lot of driving for me.
• Work Remote: This has the perks of working in pajamas, setting my own schedule, eating good fresh food and all kinds of other things but isn’t a traditional role. I wouldn’t work with anyone, ever.

The entire situation has gotten me thinking a lot about work-life balance and, while at first I was thinking that working from home would make me feel a little guilty or lonely, the more I think about it the more I think it’d be really great. I keep thinking of all the chores I can do while running a call, the good food, the hours saved commuting or making lunch each day. I could work out in the mornings without getting up as early. I would also end up working longer hours than I do now but it seems like the life-quality of these hours would be higher. I don’t want to become one of those people that works all day and into the night, but I think I could keep that from happening.

So does anyone here work from home? What do you think about it? I know other countries really have a different outlook on telecommuting then America but we really seem to be moving more that direction.

HungryJoe

My wife telecommutes two days a week and likes it a lot. She says she's much more productive when she's telecommuting.

cosmicenema

I think I'm more productive as well. I have this problem where people walk up to me and ask me questions all freakin' day long and interrupt my work. When I telecommute, they have to email me or schedule something so it's much less invasive.

Omnutia

Someone explain to me what the difference is between up and downtown.

Rym

Someone explain to me what the difference is between up and downtown.
Uptown is generally north or further from the city center.  Downtown is generally south or nearer the city center.

cosmicenema

Downtown vs. Uptown

Basically downtown is your typical sky-walk, traffic jammed downtown. Uptown is a somewhat ritzy suburbia-like, more residential part of town away from the central commercial district. Everything within five miles is less than five years old and the suburb has laws that say strange things like "all buildings must have 24% of street facing walls covered in stone or brick".

HMTKSteve

Telecommuting is teh awesome if you can make it work for you. You have to establish a routine to follow so you don't end up goofing all day long. You also have to watch out for friends and relations who think you can run errands for them all day because you are "working from home" as if that means goofing off.