Can You Really Work From Home
When working from home was first mooted by people as an alternative to an office based career, peoples spirits rose. It seemed a fantastic solution for a lot of people, both in terms of pluses and minuses.
It meant an end to the dreaded commute, the fear of being late, of continually being clock watched by an over vigilant boss etc etc. It tapped into all the the things people don't like about having to work for some one else and promised a new freedom.
People thought it sounded great and it does!
It also means that people had to really take responsibility for their lives in a way that perhaps they didn't have to before, and that in itself threw out obvious challenges.Having to manage kids and siblings and partners and neighbors as well as friends who pop round is actually much more of a real challenge when you're managing your own time, rather than not minding distractions when its someone elses time, i.e. your employer.
Then there's the question of what work can you do at home.
For many people, home working means doing the work they would do in the office at home, maybe one or two days a week, often known as teleworking, and this is an ideal solution for many people as it allows them a degree of flexibility combined with the sense of belonging to a group of people or a team they work with. It gives them often the best of both worlds.
The other main category of people tends to be people who see technology particularly as a freedom to allow them to work for themselves and have a kind of independence that was almost impossible pre-internet.
Technology often allows them to live where they want, rather than be bound by commuting distances, to do the sort of work they want and to do it when they want.
At least that's the 'dream' and it to some extent is real and can happen, but there are a couple of points that are worth bearing in mind.
Firstly its worth bearing in mind that its a really good idea to separate out work and home life, if you can, in terms of physical space and emotional space.To an extent it depends on the type of work, but a sense of separation gives a degree of clarity that is really important.
Secondly try to do what you enjoy.
Working from home doing anything is invariably more isolated than working with other people, but if it gives you a sense of real fulfillment, you probably wont miss your previous life much, if at all.
Good luck
It meant an end to the dreaded commute, the fear of being late, of continually being clock watched by an over vigilant boss etc etc. It tapped into all the the things people don't like about having to work for some one else and promised a new freedom.
People thought it sounded great and it does!
It also means that people had to really take responsibility for their lives in a way that perhaps they didn't have to before, and that in itself threw out obvious challenges.Having to manage kids and siblings and partners and neighbors as well as friends who pop round is actually much more of a real challenge when you're managing your own time, rather than not minding distractions when its someone elses time, i.e. your employer.
Then there's the question of what work can you do at home.
For many people, home working means doing the work they would do in the office at home, maybe one or two days a week, often known as teleworking, and this is an ideal solution for many people as it allows them a degree of flexibility combined with the sense of belonging to a group of people or a team they work with. It gives them often the best of both worlds.
The other main category of people tends to be people who see technology particularly as a freedom to allow them to work for themselves and have a kind of independence that was almost impossible pre-internet.
Technology often allows them to live where they want, rather than be bound by commuting distances, to do the sort of work they want and to do it when they want.
At least that's the 'dream' and it to some extent is real and can happen, but there are a couple of points that are worth bearing in mind.
Firstly its worth bearing in mind that its a really good idea to separate out work and home life, if you can, in terms of physical space and emotional space.To an extent it depends on the type of work, but a sense of separation gives a degree of clarity that is really important.
Secondly try to do what you enjoy.
Working from home doing anything is invariably more isolated than working with other people, but if it gives you a sense of real fulfillment, you probably wont miss your previous life much, if at all.
Good luck
