The perks and perils of working from home, according to people who actually do it
Marcin Krzyżanowski/Flickr
The debate over whether companies should allow their employees to work from home tends to be fairly polarizing.
Some executives say encouraging remote work is necessary to keep the best talent around, while others argue that only slackers want to work from home ... and who needs them?
Business cases can be made on both sides of the issue about how working remotely affects employee retention and engagement and the bottom line.
But what do the people who actually do the working from home think?
To find out, we asked Business Insider employees and readers with remote work experience their thoughts on the whole practice. Here's what they had to say:
Responses have been edited for clarity.
'There's this thing beyond work called 'life,' and you have to live it'
I spent about two years as a freelance journalist, and I worked from home for most of that time.
I loved the ability to talk to very important sources in my underwear. Jokes aside (maybe): Working from home eliminated my commute, plus the time and frustration it involved. For many people who work from home, "no commute" means priceless sanity and more than an hour back in our pockets. We can spend that time and energy toward family, fun, or more hustling in our line of work.
But you have to get out our you'll go insane. Find a nearby office space if you can. If that's too expensive, find a coffee shop and make a point to go there at least a couple of days a week. Find local meetups that are relevant to your industry so you can find "coworkers" to talk shop with in person. Exercise outside.
I did that, plus I adopted a dog. She reminded me — perhaps too consistently with her licks and jumping in my lap — that there's this thing beyond work called "life," and you have to live it. She got me off my butt three times a day for walks, which also helped connect me to my neighborhood, its people, its pains, and its promise. Adopt a dog if you go this route. It can be more work, but thousands of dogs are euthanized every day in the US. They need us — and work-from-homers need them.
—Dave Mosher, Business Insider science and technology correspondent
'I miss coworker camaraderie'
Working from home has allowed me to direct my time to suit my family's needs. And I can exercise when I feel like it.
But I miss coworker camaraderie.
'In an office setting there are a lot of little time-sucks'
After living in Manhattan for about nine years, I had just moved to Austin when I started working at Business Insider in 2010. I had just had my first daughter and wasn't anxious to move back to NYC, and they were OK with me working from home, so I stayed here. I have been working from home for about five years now.
While I know this sort of situation doesn't work for everybody, for me, I absolutely feel more productive working from home. The big things are that I no longer have a commute to worry about and my office and computer are always close by.
But there are also little things I have noticed going from a cubicle to home. There are fewer distractions (most of the time). In an office setting there are a lot of little "time-sucks," such as just organizing your desk in the morning, or getting coffee and chatting with somebody along the way, or somebody asking you to go get lunch. Those little distractions add up in an office, and I rarely have stuff like that at home.
There has also, for me at least, always been more pressure to be productive when working at home. Let's face it: In an office there is an art to looking busy. You can't do that from home. You can't pretend. You have to produce or people will notice; and in fact people are probably watching closer because this type of situation is not for everybody, and some may take advantage of it.
Personally, there are also big pluses. I get to spend more time with my kids, and I feel like it is easier to detach and take quick breaks during the day. If I need a quick break, I can go work in the garden for 15 minutes or take the dog for a quick walk. You can take breaks at an office also, but there is something comforting about doing it with personal things at home that really help you relax for a little bit.
But while there are fewer distractions, when there are distractions they can be bigger. Both of my kids are in school, so I am usually home alone when working. But occasionally one is sick or there is a school holiday that may not be a work holiday. For people who work in offices it is definitely an inconvenience, but they just cut the cord and take the day off. For me, I always feel a pressure to keep working on those days because I am still close to my office and there is nothing wrong with me personally. But at the same time it can be hard to work and have one or two kids running around with constant needs.
It is also hard for me to turn work off sometimes because my office and computer are always so close. There is a sense of always being on call, which is, of course, part of the job. But even beyond the big stuff, work is sometimes just a constant presence because it is always right there.
One of the biggest challenges for me early on was the lack of social interaction with other people. I definitely missed that at first. I feel like the team messaging app Slack has helped with that a lot, and I try to video chat with the other members of the team on a regular basis. So that no longer feels like a downside, but is definitely something I would think a lot of people need to adjust to early on.
It is also a lot harder now to get my 10,000 steps in every day. I think my FitBit just laughs at me.
At the end of the day I think successfully working from home just comes down to whether or not you love your job. If you love it, it works, because you'll never have a problem getting motivated to do the work. If you don't love it, it won't work.
—Cork Gaines, Business Insider's sports editor
See the rest of the story at Business Insider