Advantages of Working from Home
Working from home rather than in the office is something that doesn’t suit everyone. Some prefer the constant interaction and may find it hard to get their job done when they don’t have all their work resources at home. However, there are a number of reasons why working from home is easier than working in the office – and depending on your personality, it could just suit you down to the ground.
- More flexibility
You may be expected to be contactable at certain times of the day, but you will almost certainly have more flexibility in your routine if you work from home. You will be able to get up and start work early if you want to, or you can start later and finish later. Setting breaks is up to you, because there is no-one to notice if you are at your desk or not. If you want to use your lunch hour to prepare the evening meal, you can. You could even take an afternoon off and make up for it the next day.
- Plenty of communication options
Such is the power of the Internet and telecommunications industry that you can basically be anywhere and you are still able to contact the office, and vice versa. It may not be quite so pleasing when you find that your colleagues contact you outside of work hours, however, so you may need to set some boundaries. However, the fact is that there are plenty of ways to communicate when you need to and you don’t need to be in the office with all the other distractions.
- No long commute
Commuting to work, even short distances, can be a real chore, especially if it is necessary to rely on public transport or a drive to work with all the other commuters in your area. Working from home means that you can have an extra hour in bed in the morning and you will be at home when your children or partner comes home from work. Having a stressful commute to work can put you in a bad mood for the rest of the day, so it would seem sensible to avoid it if possible.
- Fewer distractions
If you find that working in the office is very distracting, either because people constantly want to talk to you or because of the background noise, then working at home can be ideal. You can set your own background noise if you want to – music that helps you concentrate or even the radio – but you are much less likely to be distracted by colleagues wanting to air the latest office gossip. If you have family members at home, you will, of course, need to come to a compromise with them so that they don’t disturb you.
- Less micromanagement
It isn’t necessarily just colleagues who bug you at work; if you have a boss who likes to micro-manage, it can be very distracting. If you work from home, however, you will be less likely to be distracted. Your boss may still want regular reports from you, but at least they won’t be looking over your shoulder every five minutes. You can always pre-empt any phone calls or interference by ensuring that you send the reports at least once a day so that they always know what you are up to.
- Less guilt about household management
It can be difficult to balance household management with a job. Once home from working at the office, having to clean the house and cook dinner can be a real chore, particularly if you have small children and they can’t really help you. If you work from home, you will want to avoid becoming side-tracked by housework, but you can at least use previous commuting time to get things done and you can use breaks to hang out the washing or run the vacuum cleaner around.
Of course, you will need to consider whether working from home really is for you – it doesn’t suit everyone. However, if it does suit you, there are certainly a lot of ways that it can make your life easier.
