Working at Home

Working at home seems like a dream come true to some people—and it is. You don’t have to commute anywhere, dress up, and often you’re working on your own time, so there’s no big consequence if you decide to sleep in once in a while. The schedule isn’t as rigid—by setting your own hours, you can work as much as you want, whenever you want, and you can integrate more break times into your routine. You don’t have to clock in hours or show up on time. You’re also more removed from the rat race and you don’t have to deal with unreasonable bosses, catty coworkers and the stress that comes with long hours and overtime.

However, a dream isn’t always how it seems, and there’s such thing as too much of a good thing. You might find yourself wanting to wake up because working at home can be awesome, but it also means having to take on more personal responsibility. Complacency is a huge problem when it comes to working at home. Sleep in too frequently and you’ll find that you’re not getting as much done as you used to. The same thing will happen if you take too many breaks or decide to award yourself an extended vacation. In addition, having less direct contact with employers can make it difficult to communicate, and working alone can get kind of lonely and unstimulating if you prefer a social environment.   

Of course, sometimes we don’t choose to work at home voluntarily. You might be confined at home due to a temporary disability or you might be unable to find a steady 8-5 job, an increasingly prevalent predicament in this economy. Having some source of income is better than earning nothing at all, so working at home becomes a viable option. But if you do have more freedom of choice, the choice can also be limited depending on what your career interest is. A job like online marketing can easily be done from home, whereas working as a pilot would require to you to leave the house and get into the cockpit of a plane. So working at home would be an option in the field of internet labor but not necessarily in the field of aviation.

If you’re considering whether to work at home, think about the pros and cons, your work ethic and the career path you want to take. And if you do decide that working at home is your cup of tea, prepare to practice more discipline and to make others envious of your flexible schedule.