Working From Home Isn’t For Everyone
Many people want to work from home these days, but it isn’t for everyone. Initially, working from home requires discipline to get work done without much supervision. Once you master the work side of work from home, you need to figure out how to balance the home side of the telecommuting lifestyle.
I started working from home back when I was a software trainer. There was no designated space for me to deliver webinars at work and having to shush coworkers to be quiet while I was training did not make me popular. Plus, I came close to missing early morning class start times when the polar vortex messed with public transportation. My boss was already a thousand miles away, so going virtual was no problem.
I kicked off my shoes, set up a home office, and joined the 5.2% of Americans who work from home.
The Best Part of Working From Home
On the positive side, I ate well, perhaps too well, because I had no commute to delay when I cooked dinner. I could go barefoot and had a private bathroom. Workmen could be scheduled during the week. In the summer, I could water the garden on hot days. FedEx could deliver packages when I was actually at home. I loved it.
Becoming a Real Homebody
At first, telecommuting seemed to give me back hours of every day, but very quickly I realized that without a definite cutoff to my schedule, I worked later and later. Many times, I would make dinner for me and my significant other then go back to my desk and work a couple more hours. What! Where’s the work/life balance in that? Weekends, holidays, evenings – I was always working.
Lunches with friends were not happening. For one, I lived far from where most of them worked. I felt guilty and a little paranoid about the instant message indicator alerting my boss if I was away from my desk for more than a few minutes. Logically, I knew I could take a lunch, but I still ate at my desk even though my dining room table was steps away.
After working from home for five years, I knew that telecommuting full time was a mixed blessing. 
Traveling for Work While Working From Home
At first, I relished traveling to clients because I could wear “real” clothes and have a conversation over lunch, but business travel had its downside. Jet lag never seemed to end. It was hard to have a social life, too. One month, I was slated to host my beloved book group when I got a last-minute request to fly to a client. Someone else agreed to host the group. Then the day before I was to fly out, the business trip was cancelled. I could have hosted the book group after all.
The Desk Potato
The need for more balance motivated me to switch to a different role in the company with less travel. This seemed great at first, but now I had even less structure to my day and work blurred even further into my daily life. 
My boyfriend called me The Shut In because days would go by when I didn’t leave the house in winter or the yard in summer. I’d get really chatty when he got came over because there was no one to make small talk with during the day. Worse, I gained weight from being glued to my desk.
Working From Home is Great for Some People
Maybe working from home is better for people with kids. It provides flexibility and the chance to just be there even if you aren’t interacting with your family. Full time working from home requires discipline, not just to get the work done, but to know when to let work go.
Waking Up to Reality
There was a morning shortly after I moved to my condo that I poured a bowl of cereal and went out to the balcony to eat my breakfast. Sitting in the late summer sun, I felt antsy and guilty about not being at my desk. That’s when I realized that downsizing from a house was not going to create the space in my life that I thought it would.
Having fewer chores was only part of the equation. If I couldn’t enjoy a bowl of cereal at home, I was not practicing good work/life balance.
It felt more like I was sleeping at the office than working from home. This was not the kind of energy I wanted to bring into my new home.
Take a Work Sabbatical
Not long after that, I quit my job and took a much needed “work sabbatical” while I evaluated what kind of life I really wanted. My friendships improved. I started writing for pleasure again and read more books. I took up swimming.
It took ages to figure out what I really wanted, which meant it took longer to find work. I took a contract job in the suburbs to test out the idea of driving to work. Too stressful.
What kind of people did I wanted to work with after being a hermit for so long? And what the heck did I want to DO? Switching career directions is tricky. I’m convinced that as soon as I define exactly what I want, it materializes, and that’s exactly what happened. 
My Conventional Jobs is a Dream Job
Turns out my dream job is very hands-on, very people oriented, and makes the most of my analytical thinking and writing skills. I’m super excited to commute about an hour each way. Yep, you read that right. It’s a long enough commute that I can get some serious reading done, which is a great way to transition into the evening.
And commuting has another advantage; I get more exercise. Walking to and from public transportation gets me outside. Apparently, the big obstacle to getting exercise (exercise snacks) when I worked from home started with the need to put on shoes. At lunchtime I take a walk because, well, I’m already wearing shoes. There’s also a gym at work that I’m planning to use a couple times a week.
Work Stays at the Office
The new job is not going to be work from home any time soon because I don’t have a work laptop. This means that when I leave work, I actually leave work. After I eat dinner in the evening, I am completely free.
It’s early into this new lifestyle, but so far so good. My days have structure now. Interestingly, my boss told me that one of my coworkers had a similar epiphany about working from home. Working from home is great for a couple years, but it’s too easy for work to take over your life when there are no clear divisions to your day. I think the ideal situation would be to work from home once a week, you know, to make a nice dinner or get the laundry done before the weekend. But I’d be very strict about turning off the computer at the end of the day.
Conclusion
Working from home can be a legitimate choice for many people. It’s important to watch for signs of imbalance. Ask yourself: 
- Are you working more hours now that you’re at home?
- Did you have more breaks in your day at the office than at home?
- Does your boss know your work schedule and respect it? Do you?
- Do you you find yourself leaving home a lot less?
- How often do you see friends now that you are home?
I paused SPIAZ until I was back in the office again because I didn’t feel that I could legitimately discuss work/life balance unless I wrestled with the same issues everyone else has. So now I’m really ready to explore how to live a rich life leading up to retirement and beyond.
If you work from home, is it hard for you to maintain balance? I’d like to know.
