The Challenges of a Home Office

Early in my professional life I had a job that was 36 miles from home. Every day I was guaranteed a commute of no less than one hour each direction. Lord help me if it was raining or if for some other reason I pissed off the traffic gods because that commute could hit two hours. 

After a while the commute began to wear me down and I began to dream of being allowed to work from home. I had this fantasy in which I gained a full hour of sleep each morning and another hour of free time on the flip side. In my mind it seemed like a great idea for the company because they would gain an employee who was happier and more productive.

Apparently the company didn’t share the same dream or at least believe that it was a good idea because they turned me down. Eventually I broke down and moved closer to the office, but I never did give up on the dream.

More than a decade later my wish came true and I got the opportunity to work from home on a regular basis. After three years I can say that I love it, but it is not without its challenges. So let me share a few thoughts about it with you.

A home office provides flexibility that you don’t have at the office. There is no dress code to adhere to. You won’t find me in a suit and tie unless I have to meet with clients or go into the office. If I want to take a long lunch or grab a short nap during the day it is easily done. I have almost complete control of my hours. Start late, finish early, whatever. It is my choice, most of the time.

The reason I say most of the time is that the rules change during the summer and winter breaks. During those moments where the kids are out of school I find that it is a much bigger challenge to get things done during business hours. Even though the kids know I am working they have a proclivity to come find me and ask me to play with or feed them.

I can’t completely fault them as they are still young, but it is not always easy. There have been moments where I have been forced to make business calls in the bathroom or the car. One time I climbed a tree and spoke to a client from there.

It is not like I don’t think that most of my clients would be understanding about this, they would. But that doesn’t mean that I want to take advantage of their understanding. I prefer to save it for when it is really needed.

For example during the school year the kids upon occasion get sick and end up staying home with me. Those are days that I really struggle to balance things. As a father I want to take care of them but I still have to work. I can’t just ignore the work. So sometimes I end up using the television as a pseudo-baby sitter. I hate doing it , but somehow I still have to get things done.

Inevitably I find that I feel guilty so I start taking more breaks so that I can spend time with them. It is not such a terrible thing spending time with them, certainly far more fun than work, but we have to pay the bills somehow.

One of the other challenges of a home office is trying not to get sucked into doing work around the clock. It is really easy to fall into the trap of trying to get ahead by putting in an extra 20 minutes here and there.

Given the choice I wouldn’t go back, but don’t let the grass is always greener mentality fool you into thinking that it is never hard because you can still have a bad day at the home office too.