Virtual Workplace: Are you cut out for a cyber office?

I believe that every working woman has a secret dream of working from home that goes something like this:

“Our laptop rests on one of those shelf thingies (that’s the technical term by the way) that goes across our bubble bath. We down bon bons by the boxload as a male secretary with an ostrich feather fan stirs the air about us. Our former boss calls us on our princess phone begging us to come back to work in his sweatshop cubicle with promises of sharpened pencils and a brand new IBM Selectric typewriter. We laugh cruelly and resume eating our bon bons...”

OK… maybe that isn’t EVERY WOMAN’s dream, but it was mine and for a year I lived it-minus the bubble baths, bon bons, and male secretary. I’ve tried to get my husband to fan me with ostrich feathers, but he just won’t cooperate.

I thought I would share with you the numerous lessons I learned from my home office experience. If you think you would like to work from home (whether as your own boss or as a telecommuter), you need to review the pros and cons and search your heart honestly to decide if you are really cut out for it. It’s probably not quite as glamorous as you might think, but the intangible rewards can be plentiful.

Pros

The pros of working from home can potentially outweigh any negatives, but it does take a special personality to accept the challenge.

Independence – No one is looking over your shoulder. Although you may need to provide regular reports to supervisors and co-workers, you are really free to decide which projects you want to work on at any given time.

Flexibility – If you want to work from midnight to 9 a.m. in theory you could do this. If you decide to take a long lunch or have a morning doctor’s appointment, your schedule can accommodate this. Granted, some companies require set hours, but overall you can adjust your start or end time to work around your personal body clock.

Concentration – No one will be stopping by your desk to chit chat and distract you from your work. You can get much more accomplished by having solid blocks of uninterrupted time.

Freedom – You can arrange your workplace exactly the way you like it. If you want to attend a conference call wearing your pink bunny slippers and rollers in your hair no one has to know. Caution though – the UPS guy tends to give you a rather odd look when he shows up at 2:30 and you are still in them.

Close – 30 second commute!!! It’s quite a pleasure to watch the morning news and listen to the travel times for the major expressways, knowing that you don’t have to battle the elements or the road rage.

Family – You get the opportunity to spend more time with your family. You can watch your children growing up firsthand instead of hearing about their milestones from the daycare provider.

Cons

Most of the cons can be summed up under one heading: the need for self-discipline.

Independence – Can you really work without someone looking over your shoulder? It can be pretty unnerving being THE ONE responsible for getting everything done. Independence also means no corporate infrastructure for support – you are your own office supply person, mail room, computer technical support, accounts payable/receivable, mentor, etc.

Flexibility – It is really easy to slip into careless patterns. Oh, I’ll start working after Jerry Springer… after General Hospital… after I throw another load of laundry into the washer… You need to force yourself to keep regular hours.

Concentration – Loneliness and boredom can be equally as distracting as coworkers sometimes. We all need mental breaks from our work in order to be productive. Unfortunately if you are working from home you may have no one to turn to for breaking up your day. There is no water cooler available for socializing with coworkers. On the other hand family members and neighbors may believe that working from home means they can stop by to talk any time.

Too Much Freedom – As any parent of a teenager can tell you, too much freedom is not necessarily a good thing. It is easy to start overlooking the personal hygiene when there is no one else to impress with you during the day (who needs makeup if there is no one there to see it anyway?).

Close – Sometimes you don’t leave your home for the entire week. While this can be great for your automotive gas bill, you may realize that you actually see LESS of the outside world than you did when you were commuting. Did you notice the leaves changing? The flowers budding? Did you ever actually STEP OUTSIDE to see them?

Family – Many women believe they will be able to juggle working from home with a new baby. This is rarely realistic or fair to either the job or the baby. While there are a few determined souls who come up with enough hours in the day to make it work, most of us are simply human and something’s got to give. More often than not, it’s everything! Rather than being a jack of all roles, we are master of none.