As stated, no. If it’s only a few times a year then I like the change. My last job was an hour drive each way and working at home was like getting 2 hours of my life back. A known snow day meant I could just roll out of bed at 9 and start a conference call instead of getting up at 6 and slogging to work. I could do the prep work the night before and just dive in. I could work 8 straight with no lunch and the day was done.
If I had the same job again I would push for 1 day a week at home.
I actually do put i 14 hour days, but I send emails at 4 or 4:30, when I first log on.
I miss the socializing at work, and I miss wearing cute clothes. WFH is something you need to adjust to. I’ve been doing it for a few years now, and productivity isn’t a problem, but the isolation does get to me in the winter. I have SADD issues and have to work at staying engaged with people during the winter months. My head just kind of weirds me out after a while.
I can see the point re. the face to face when you actually have that option and so long as people know how to interrupt (stand nearby, hovering but not too badly, until the person you’re interrupting acknowledges you). Labwork from the house isn’t very doable (although my great-grandfather used to do just that).
But I’ve had several jobs where the people I needed to communicate with were, invariably, in another country. If I don’t have any reason to speak with the people in the office other than “to be sociable,” that’s one time when I’d rather be at home and listen to music without the headphones!
Currently, my client-provided desktop has 1/4 the RAM of my personal-company-owned laptop; it has a bigger screen but less resolution (which I don’t have permissions to change). I’m doing work in a HUGE process diagram, little pictures everywhere. If I use my laptop, I can see any view of the diagram complete, plus sidebars, and work all day without problems. If I use the desktop, I can’t see the sidebars and the diagram at the same time; the program collapses every hour more or less. I’d LOVE to be able to work on the laptop!
I don’t work from home, but I wish I did. 
Though its a dream that may never come true I’ve always wanted to be a syndicated cartoonist. After my surgery last year when I was out for a month from work, I would get up early in the morning and hammer out a few strips. I found that if I get working 1st thing in the AM I get a lot more done. If I actually got paid a decent amount for doing that it would be a dream. I think I could concievably get a months worth of strips done in a week, and then have plenty of time off.
I have a good compromise: I work from home 3 days a week. I don’t think I could do this in a more “active” phase of a project, as there’s too much need for the old “pop over to the next cubicle and hash stuff out” early on, but our project is in maintenance mode now.
The downside: it is hard to get to a stopping point and put limits on work. Most of the time it isn’t an issue (the project doesn’t demand a lot of hours), but in crunch mode, it’s too easy to take the tack that you’ll log on just to do something quick, and all of a sudden it’s 2 hours later and the kids are ready for bed and they haven’t been fed yet…
The plus side: I can sleep until nearly 8, grab some breakfast, and be working productively at 8:40. I save a fortune in gas (now I’m only getting two tanksful a month if we don’t do any longdistance driving). I have a lot more flexibility if I need to visit the dentist or something. I save wear and tear on my work clothes. I can get my kids working on their homework or a little housework.
I don’t miss lunches out, then again I’ve always tended to just eat at my desk when I’m in the office.
This thread is interesting to me, as I am about to start working some hours from home. I don’t think I would like to do it full-time either, but for now I am going to work 6-8 hours a week from home, with 3 days at the office. Right now I think ideally I would work about half and half, so we will see how this goes.
For me, it is nice to get out of the house. I go a little crazy when I am home all the time, like on maternity leave. But right now it makes sense to work some from home. I wanted to start an extra project that just didn’t fit in my regular hours and job duties, but not commute a whole extra day, with added daycare costs and all that. So working from home makes my take home pay a whole lot higher because I am not taking out for daycare and gas, which is nice.
This project is something I can break up into small chunks of time as I get a chance, so hopefully it will be easy to work 2-3 hours at a time.
I used to work from home a lot when I first moved to the City because a girder from the World Trade Center fell on our office. We had another office in Midtown but it wasn’t big enough to hold everyone.
People used to get a kick out of me showing up to the office around noon to hang out for lunch and then head back home to work.
Another vote for the OP. I have a motivation problem, I respond to external structure. I respond to socialization, competative challenge, and client needs. And, I need an audience.
I’ve been working from home for the last 6 months - with cats walking all over my stuff, kids home in the summer watching the tube and fighting and requiring attention. I don’t have a separate office room so I’m right in the middle of it all. Gaaaaaaaa!
<fly>Help…me!</fly>
I love working from home. I’m pretty much a hermit-type and self-starter anyway, so it suits my personality well. Like others have said, the only real drawback is that it’s sometimes hard to shut that office door and walk away.
I’m not a fan of working from home.
I’m the guy who comes in no matter what the weather, it works out well for me, and my team of colleagues.
I’ll do it if I have to, but as I now have a wife who’s at home taking care of the 3yo full time, she gets to be the one home dealing with contractors, and other small “at home” needs. She’s better at it anyway.
I could’ve written this. I too have never worked from home, but I’ve thought about it often (I currently have a 40 minute drive each way to work), and decided I’d be miserable. For one thing, I still think “clothes make the man”, so if I’m dressed like a slob, even if I’m working at my computer, I’ll act like a slob. My job is business casual, but I can be professional at work.
At home, there are too many distractions–if it’s a nice day, I’ll look out the window, and want to be outside. If it’s a crappy day, that’ll drain my energy and I won’t want to work. I may decide to do housework rather than work…sometimes even doing the dishes or cleaning a toilet is preferable. Maybe not often, but sometimes.
It’s the same reason I don’t have a home gym or any of the As Seen on TV home workout routines. I have to physically go to the gym in order to be productive.
I work from home two days a week. I am much, much more productive at home. I work more consistently, for longer hours, and get much more done. I can see why it’s not for everyone, but for me it’s fantastic. It’s probably the #1 reason I have chosen not to accept any of the competing job offers, and stay with this job and company I don’t really enjoy any more. Sounds counterintuitive, I know, but it makes sense in my head.
I don’t like working at all, I’m not one of those people that would win the lottery and keep working. I’d retire.
But since I do have to work, I’m more productive in an office than at home. Way too many distractions at home.