I have seen a job I like, a little less money but it would be much more interesting than my current one, but it's working from home, does anyone else work from home, I have never done this before, do you miss the interaction etc?

Sometimes, it's a bit of a double edged sword, I can usually crack on and get certain types of work done quickly without the usual office distractions. If my wife is in she sometimes forgets I'm working and just sits and chats.

If you have a room you can make a home office & shut the door I think it would work all the time. If not and it's a laptop at the dining table then probably not.

I did for 18 months, at first the flexibility was great, but soon the isolation and lack of networking opportunities meant I got sick of it and got an office based job.

I've been doing it for over 10 years. Wouldn't want to go back to going to an office every day. Mostly don't miss the interaction but then I'm a bit of an antisocial bu**er.

Will only work if you can set yourself up a decent desk in a dedicated office area where you can shut the door and get your head properly into work mode without being disturbed

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KGg1567fzTY 😛

I do part of my job working from home – it's good an convenient but has it's downsides as mentioned above. Definitely best to have a dedicated work room/area to keep things separate. Wouldn't like to do a job that was entirely working from home personally.

I work from home a lot at the moment. Good for flexibility around other stuff, and where I live I can pop out for some nice food/coffee or whatever when I fancy a break. Biggest down side for me is not switching off so easily as when physically leaving the office.

I work from home almost all the time.

Disadvantages – isolation, interaction with colleagues, lack of structured day (need great self-discipline), lack or networking opportunities, too many distractions (see advantages)

Advantages – no commuting, pop out to shops / lunch / coffee at will, surfing the internet, sneaky bike rides in the afternoon, don't need to dress smartly, get up late, minimal involvement with office politics.

I work from home. The first thing people always ask you is whether you have trouble actually working and just sit round watching day-time telly instead. In my experience, that's not a an issue as long as you're responsible and self disciplined.

I do sometimes miss the social interaction you get in a work environment, then again I don't miss office politics and bickering and the constant distractions when you're trying to get your head down and get something done. I sometimes think that a couple of days a week in the office and the rest of the tine at home. I have a few mates who work in a similar way, so we kind of look after each other. Tend to gibber at anyone unlucky enough to be the first person I talk to at the end of a quiet day though, sorry people, you know who you are.

Second the advice about having a distinct work space and not letting it spill over into the rest of your life, though sometimes it's nice to sit in the kitchen answering e-mails etc on the laptop and it's nice having more control over your time than you would in a formal work environment.

Works for some people, not for others. Depends a little on how you're wired I guess.

Ah yes, the sneaky bike rides, forgot to mention those 🙂

It's great for a cheeky afternoon ride!

Do miss the office interaction, and it's harder to concentrate when there are plenty of distractions.
There again, you can lock yourself away, put the radio on and get on with it!

Think it really depends on you and the work your doing – if it's interesting and you enjoy it, it's easy. If it's boring, or you don't especially enjoy it, then its harder and you often find yourself doing work outside of office hours!

Would it involve being at home all day every day, as that would send me crazy!

There would be occasional meetings and trips to the other end of the country, but mainly at home alone. Lots of interaction over the phone though.

I quite like being able to structure my own day and if works quite and the weathers good then I can pop out for a quick blast on the bike/take my lunch whenever and not worry about being al muddy/sweaty if my lunch happens to be a ride. Also I can work outside on wifi when the weathers good rather than being stuck inside.

Where I work now the subject is boring and I only really get on with a few of my colleagues, some of which are likely to be leaving anyway.

I'm just not sure if I will miss the social interaction, I guess I would have to arrange to regularly meet people for lunch etc.

Looks like you've given it some thought and come to a reasonable conclusion. It is important to make an effort to get out of the house sometimes. I can recall one occasion when it occurred to me that I hadn't been out of the house for 4 days.

I do occasionally – 1 or 2 days a month usually.

In some ways it's great – ability to just crack on with stuff without being distracted by colleagues around you, plan/structure your own day etc but in some ways it's bad. You need to be very self disciplined to make it work and ideally you need a proper office space at home.

My commute (on the bike) is an hour each way and that's great for being able to unwind, you don't get that working from home.
When I was redundant at the start of this year I forced myself to "commute" to "work" (ie looking for a job!) and I'd be out on the bike at 8am for an hour, come home and then start with the job hunting. I'd have to do something in the afternoon to meet people though, even if it was just going to the shops or to a mates, the lack of social interaction was doing my head in after a while.

also don't underestimate the savings, not just commuting, but if you ever go anywhere – its expenses/chargeable from when you leave your door

Been doing it now fro over 4 years & wouldn't go back if given the choice.

I use a converted shed as office which works for me as I leave home every day to go the work. End of the day, switch of light lock door & leave work.

Have a lunchtime ride most days which includes post office run, just happens to be via a wood or hill?

Also gives me more flexibility with kids as well, frequently do school pickup run weather permitting on bikes.
Yeah, you do miss the "office banter" & "office politics" but you also miss the moaning & crawling so they cancel out.

Yes, but at the moment I find it very isolating as there's no interaction.
That's the reason for being on here.

Looking for a job with some field work as well as home-based.

Work from home almost all the time here. Fine so long as you remeber to leave the house at least once a day (e.g. ride/swim/run at lunchtime).

Agree that it's important to have a dedicated area, and no, I don't find it hard to buckle down and work. Generally the opposite.

When I do commute, I really struggle with the idea that I'm wasting time in the car.

Paul

You'll be fine when you get over the **** stage.

I do (as does my gf), but not full-time. My job involves most time spent at customers, but when I'm not doing that I'm either in the office (I can choose from two – 55 or 70 miles away, and about 2 hours door-to-door) or working from home. Given that me not driving in saves the company £25 or so in paying me mileage, unless I really need to meet someone in person people are happy enough with me being at home.

Most of colleagues are the same (some I'll see a few times a year), so it's not like going from sharing an office 9-5 every day to complete isolation at home. We have corporate IM that we chat over and speak pretty frequently anyway.

It does need a bit of discipline – our spare room has a nice big desk for each of us and little in the way of other distractions. I need to get up and preferably go for a run or something before showering, dressing and having breakfast before sitting down at 9. Way too easy to crawl out of bed just before 9, check in, then do the rest later in the morning – but when I do I get hardly anything done before lunch.

Need to have a properly separated lunch-hour and preferably get outside for a bit. Then definitely have a set end-time where you switch off and do something else.

Been doing it for 10 years for a big multi-national and wouldn't go back to office-world given the choice. It allows me to fit work around family stuff, I've never had a self-discipline problem except when there's a lull in work, but thatt's very rare indeed. I've actually blocked some hours out of my diary every week for biking. To me the biggest advantage is breaking the link between where you live and where you work – so you don't have to live where the jobs are…..

I did at one point go 3 YEARS between seeing a single colleague or customer though, which was a bit mental.

Working from home has many advantages. Some of our work is from here.