I’m a remote employee working from a home office for 9 years now with my current employer. In total I’ve worked remotely for a total of 12 years in my career. Honestly, it is perfect for me and I would be fairly averse to going back into an office 5 days a week.
I would agree with others, ideally if you have the space establish a dedicated work environment. I have a separate room in my home that is my office. It is equipped with a desk, printer, a dedicated phone line (and mobile), etc. Since my wife works outside of the home, I do not have issues with keeping family members out of my office during the work-day. When she does work from home, she typically sets-up in our family room for the day as opposed to sitting in my office.
Everyone talks about discipline when working from home and I agree it is important. But how do you manifest that? Having a defined work space and respecting that is one form of discipline. Dressing for work everyday in the morning is another form. Establishing boundaries for work/life balance is another form of work-at-home discipline. Not all may be important for you to apply to your work time. Personally, I never “dress for work” when working from home. I throw on a t-shirt and shorts (or jeans in winter) and get to work. I might take a shower between meetings in the afternoon or I might take one during the morning - depending upon my meeting schedule. I don’t feel I have to force myself to get dressed everyday - after all, I’m not going into an office. Where I have to be careful is work/life balance. I try to avoid work emails and my mobile phone from 6PM until my daughter goes to bed. After that, I may or may not go to my office for any urgent requests but do my best to not let my work invade the rest of my home.
The best thing about working from home, in my opinion, is the flexibility it provides me to manage my work life and my personal life. I put in 40+ hours a week but if mid-day on a Friday I have no meetings or other work to do, perhaps I’ll get outside for an hour and mow the lawn. Or between client calls and meetings I may start/finish a load of laundry. This eases managing all of those day-to-day personal life/housekeeping things that people who work in an office have to squeeze into their limited time after work and before bed.
The hardest part of working from home is a sense of disconnection, isolation, and effort building relationships with co-workers in office locations spread across the U.S. Fortunately part of my job involves business travel, including to our office locations on occasion, which helps to a small extent. However, you do have to actively engage co-workers to build those relationships I need to be successful and get things done. As Mrs. MeanJoe can tell you, if I don’t travel for 3-4 weeks then I do start to get cabin-fever and need to either get out on a business trip or find time to get away from the house for some time to disconnect a little bit.
Yes I have to make sure I optimize my tax strategy.
On a trivial note, my hay fever & allergies have flared up in recent years and I’m start allergy shots twice a week - another plus for the flexibility of working from home!
The only thing I will add here is to make the kitchen a no-go zone during work time. The fridge and pantry can be all-to accessible and unhealthy distractions.
I agree with everything said so far, especially about having a dedicated office space and hours (I did this for two years). I was fortunate that there was a real branch of my company in the city and I could go there once or twice a week but had that not existed, the coworking space was definitely something that interested me.
I can’t offer any advice since I don’t work from home, but that would be a dream come true for me. I love being home and would enjoy the flexibility (to some extent) it would provide.
I have been full time working from home since 2010, and I love it.
As everyone said, the dedicated workspace is the most important part. I went to IKEA and bought new office furniture in order to get fully in the mood.
I invested in a good speakerphone for use in my endless teleconferences. Headsets work, but they are annoying to wear all day when you are mostly just listening.
Land line, and FiOS here with 50 up and 50 down. FiOS has never let me lose a day of work. Even when hurricane Sandy came through my back yard the Internet was down for only 8 hours or so.
I get up to take the kids to school, and when they don’t have school I go to Dunkin’ Donuts, just to ensure I’m dressed decently and feeling like I’m going to work. Rolling out of bed and starting work isn’t the same. Pajamas and work isn’t for me.
If you do videoconferences, make sure the wall behind you looks professional. I put up a whiteboard which is often filled with work-related things, so when folks see me on the conference call they see a nice professional background.
Do what you can to filter out house noise–judicious use of the mute button on your speaker phone as well as a door you can close can help keep barking dogs and children’s voices from being heard. I can’t stress this one enough–whenever I hear dogs barking or other home sounds from other folks it sounds unprofessional.
I go out for a run over lunch when I can, often a five mile jog to the park and back. This is one thing I really like about working from home.
The occasional visit to the Mother Ship is critical to my sanity. These days with T&E being cut back I only get there once every month or two, but it is quite important to see my boss and colleagues face to face.
QFT. A friend and colleague of mine is a 100% telecommuter, but he does come into the office once or twice a month. During the summer he asked me if it was OK to show-up in shorts for one of his visits (he had seen some others doing so). I strongly urged him to wear pants, at least in accord with the casual dress code we have here, lest he not be taken seriously. Some people around here already think he’s semi-retired, so he needs to cultivate the idea he is a serious professional (and he is).
Another thing he used to do (but got talked out of), and this is a warning to people starting to telecommute - do not post food porn on facebook at lunch time, especially if it includes a beer. Also, don’t over-share your other activities that may edge-in on work time (such as attending a school function) - it will be perceived poorly if people see you are enjoying yourself too much while they are grinding away in the office.
I’m going to be mostly echoing what’s said above, but I’ll say it anyway. I work from home full time as a writer.
Dedicated work space if at all possible. I only have water there, so I take breaks and go to the house for cups of tea, meals and so on. I happen to have dolls facing me at my desk who represent the various personalities of my readers. I talk to them, but that won’t work for most people.
Dressing for work: I do. My office is a studio a few metres from the house, so I dress and go to work. Hair done and makeup, but that’s because I also almost always go out as well.
Walking after work was recommended above. Walking is part of my daily schedule, but it isn’t after work. It is midmorning. I walk, usually with my husband, and end up a few kilometres later at the shops to collect fresh bread for lunch and other shopping. I find that I think really well on the walk having triggered work thoughts with the session beforehand. I also find that the walk refreshes me plus I can chat over ideas with my husband.
I have scheduled one work session late at night because that suits me and it is never interrupted. That is when I get the serious writing done. If something non-work related comes up in the afternoon, then I can do it because I can just extend the night session as needed. Fine weather and I can spend a few hours in the garden. That is the bliss of working from home!
It isn’t even particularly professional when it’s office sounds: it makes that person appear unaware and inattentive, as well as making it hard for others to hear. Extra malus points if someone says “ok, please mute your microphones if you’re not the speaker… I can hear an echo… I think it’s Joe (second voice, IMs: yeah it’s Joe). Joe, can you please mute your microphone?.. Hello Joe?”
Similarly, on WebEx you can see the participants, and visually see an indicator that shows when their microphone is sending noise. So all can know that it’s Joe’s phone that is sending the noise, and if Joe isn’t alert, well, who knows what Joe is doing?
Where I have to be careful is work/life balance. I try to avoid work emails and my mobile phone from 6PM until my daughter goes to bed. After that, I may or may not go to my office for any urgent requests but do my best to not let my work invade the rest of my home.