Is it worth it to work from home? Well that really depends on you. Before you take the leap you need to be aware of the downsides of working from home so that you can prepare. Beware so you can prepare… I like that. But don’t worry, with each downside, I’ll give you a solution so you can handle this new lifestyle with ease.
I’ve been working from home for about 4 years now and I still love it. There are however, days when I feel like going into the office just so I can have human interaction.
I mean just think about that for a second, you go into the office and say hey to Michael and Dwight then sit at your desk all day pretending to work. Those were the days. Most of you reading this are probably considering a home working position because your employer offers it, or you are actively looking for remote jobs so you can experience more of that sweet personal freedom. No doubt you will gain some freedom, but that freedom comes at a price.
Downside 1 – Social Interaction
I know what you’re thinking… “Joe, I’m no extrovert. I can be home alone for weeks and love it.”
You say that, but have you ever been forced to work by yourself for 8 hrs a day 5 days a week? No?
Me neither.
However, If your time isn’t broken up with some social interaction you will feel like a complete and total hermit. This can cause all kinds of negative effects on your wellbeing. Even the most introverted people I know quickly became stir crazy during the pandemic of 2020. Even if you don’t actively talk to people when you’re at a gathering, you still passively benefit from the energy of others.
Solution: Coffee Shops
To combat this, you will need to regularly visit the coffee shops in your area. If you plan on working from home in a remote town of Colorado, you may actually have a hard time. Some remote areas don’t always have younger people around. That is worth considering.
If you planned to move to a new area just for working from home, make sure it has people in your age range. This is definitely going to vary person by person, but I would just say it’s better to live somewhere neutral where you at least have the option to hang out with other people than to be somewhere isolated where it’s not an option.
Can’t you just get social interaction on zoom? Despite what your new LinkedIn connection may say about “e-meeting” you. It’s not the same. It’s not the same…
So take advantage of your local coffee shops and heck, even try out some of those shared office spaces if you need to. I’ve always wanted to try one of those, but they seem to be a little pricey since I already have a home office.
Downside 2: Productivity
Let me preface this by saying most of the remote workers I interact with do a great job. However, we all know there are people who just prefer to push pencils. Even if they were being productive you would never know because you can’t look over their shoulder to see what kind of work they are producing.
There is a word that can describe working from home with remote teammates. Friction.
I think we all remember the initial difficulties of being forced to work from home for a couple of months, but we are past that now. The novelty has worn off and it’s time to actually get things done. If you are the kind of person at work who likes to actually do stuff at work (However rare they may be), you’re going to clash with people who want to do the bare minimum. This is a challenge even when you’re in an actual office, but it’s even more difficult when you can’t see what your teammate is doing.
This is compounded by the issue of your own productivity. You have no accountability unless there is some annoying manager who constantly checks on your progress. Yea… If I could get you to come into work Saturday that would be great. If you are starting your own business, you really have to put in the work or you’ll starve. If you work for someone, it can be a little bit easier to slack off at home.
Solution: Better Tools
Initially, this was the image everyone had of “remote work.”
But of course if you’ve ever been on a zoom call you know how unproductive they are when you have more than 3 or 4 people in the meeting. To be fair though, it’s not like ‘real’ company wide meetings are any more productive.
If you were used to non-remote work environment then the idea of putting people in the same “room” online seems like a good idea. What better way to do that than to use video. However in practice we all realized that zoom meetings are just not the all in one solution everyone hoped for them to be initially. There are just way better options for remote teams.
For example, if you use Slack as your virtual office, it actually has individual “offices” for each worker. You can swing by someone’s room and ask them a quick question, you can see if they’re available or not, etc. You can also setup meeting rooms for specific topics. It’s just a way more useful tool than Zoom. Don’t get me wrong though, I still zoom about 3 or 4 times a week, and whenever a new client wants to meet, the assumption is always that it’s a zoom meeting. So I think it is a useful tool for most people. Yet, I leave slack open 24/7 on my second monitor
Don’t even get me started on those “project management tools” that make you feel productive by giving you fun little boxes to check off instead of working. Just kidding, however keep in mind that if you use a project management solution, it can sometimes be faster to just communicate directly with your teammates rather than planning everything out. This can vary according to the project.
Downside 3: Getting out of Shape
It is pretty easy to forget about your health when working from home because you won’t have a commute. This can go either way though. Some people might use the extra time at home to do some exercises. I personally had issues with this the first few years of working from home. One of the biggest problems I had was losing my posture. I actually found that I was initially the most productive will laying on the couch with my laptop. As you can imagine this was probably the worst posture ever.
For you it will probably be different. You’ll have to keep track of your posture, weight gain and over all physical shape. I’m definitely no expert on health, but make sure you exercise more than you normally would because you’ll get in less walking than you would in an office environment. This can have huge impacts on your overall happiness, not just your physical health.
Solution: Standing Desk and Exercise
I have seen huge improvements since using my standing desk, but it has really taken me 3 years to perfect my setup. My standing desk can switch between standing and sitting and that was a game changer. If you make the mistake of getting a standing only desk like I did, you’ll find that you just can’t stand it for long. haha. . .
Realistically after years of practice, I can stand about half the day. I definitely don’t force myself to stand the entire day. I also have a really nice stool that I can switch postures with and sit on if I need to. I do sometimes wish I had a back to my chair in the office, but I also have a couch I can sit on if I need to. I would definitely recommend some kind of tall standing desk stool unless you already have an office chair that you like. You can always use it in sitting mode.
I’m not going to say too much about exercise other than the fact that I really like riding my bike around the city that I live in. I live in a relatively bike-unfriendly area so every time I get on the road with my bike I say: “Well, I hope I don’t die” as cars drive by. I still really enjoy it though.
Conclusion
Is it worth it to work from home? Yes it certainly is. These aforementioned downsides are all pretty easy to manage and I’m sure you’ll work it out with your employer, wife, or kids. Remember, don’t look only at what you don’t have or wish you had. Make what you have work for you! If you can’t quite afford a standing desk, just stack some books (a lot of books) on your dining room table for a while.