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OriginalGriff has it bang-on for the advantages/disadvantages.
And as others have said, routine and discipline are key. I will add that having a clear divide between work and home is also important. Previously your walk/bike/drive to work provided that separation, but when only a few steps separates your work and home then you need to establish other barriers. The family should be able to respect the fact that you're working if you can also respect the fact that this is their home.
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OriginalGriff wrote: 1) No commute. This can save you hours per day, and considerable cost and stress.
...not to mention you can factor mileage/wear and tear on your car into that cost. I drive a 2006 Dodge Charger, and it's still under 74,000 kilometers, but that's only because I was still commuting for the first two years I've owned the car. I've been working from home 4 days a week since.
And while a Charger isn't what you'd buy to save gas, a gas tank lasts me a month.
OriginalGriff wrote: Even phone calls are reduced
Everybody I know (outside of work) has been told that if they wouldn't call me at the office during work hours, then they shouldn't call me at home either during said work hours, just because I happen to be at home.
Things are a lot quieter around here than in any office environment I've ever worked in.
OriginalGriff wrote: 2) Difficult to "bounce" things off peers.
That's what Skype is for. All of my coworkers are on my Skype list.
Everybody's mentioned that you have to be disciplined and have to establish a routine--I'm already a creature of habit, so this has never been a problem for me.
One additional point--when I'm in the zone, I don't have to stop just because it's getting late or I need to beat rush hour traffic. Every week my employer gets a few more hours out of me that he wouldn't be getting otherwise.
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I agree wholeheartedly with OriginalGriff, right down to the fact that there are more advantages than disadvantages.
I've been working from home since 2007. I have an office with a door I can close, and that has more to do with psychological posturing than privacy:
if (door_closed)
do_work();
I do get lonely at times; I miss the water cooler banter. But most of all I miss being able to brainstorm ideas at a whiteboard. Not being able to do that limits me to relying solely on my own inspiration. I admit that two heads are better than one at times.
My step-daughter's Guinea Pig often has good ideas. But sadly, they all involve celery. 
Cheers,
Mike Fidler
"I intend to live forever - so far, so good." Steven Wright
"I almost had a psychic girlfriend but she left me before we met." Also Steven Wright
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...oh yeah...
One advantage I forgot to mention.
When I transition from writing to debugging, I get the fire up Led Zeppelin and Godsmack as loud as I like.
"What is and what should never be" works on a couple of levels!!
Cheers,
Mike Fidler
"I intend to live forever - so far, so good." Steven Wright
"I almost had a psychic girlfriend but she left me before we met." Also Steven Wright
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Bah, humbug !
Either Beethoven's nine symphonies, his five piano concertos, or the six Bach Brandenburg concertos.
Those are the sequences of music to debug by.
  
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I agree with most things that have been advised apart from routine. I don't actually have a strong routine, but I do have an ethic to get things done (ie getting paid). Flexibility of working from home (and admittedly for myself) works for me. Sometimes, I'm up at 6 and straight to the desk. Other times I might run some errands first or just cut myself some slack and start later, because I can. But ultimately this flexibility still needs to work within the framework of a work plan. I have estimates and time goals for milestones in the job and I'm good and not letting myself slip behind them because of this flexibility. In other words it must be done today but there are 24 hours in a day and I can choose which ones I work.
My 2c
The only thing unpredictable about me is just how predictable I'm going to be.
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Seconded/Thirded/etc (SimonRigby, OriginalGriff, and others).
One thing that people don't warn you about, though, is that you are ALWAYS AT WORK! If you are the disciplined type who keeps a solid schedule (and makes sure that your clients follow it), then you just set working hours and follow them.
OTOH, I'm the kind who gets into a problem and does a lot of mental design and review (typically) before I start coding. So if I come across a particularly "interesting" (meaning "new", "nasty", "complex", or "WTF"), then I will keep hacking at it until there is at least a starting point.
This leaks over to my customers--being a bit of a pleaser, I cracked open the door to after-hours sessions (install, troubleshooting, etc). This ended up with multiple nights where I was on the phone at 2 AM trying to puzzle out something. I was getting paid (hooray!), but in the end the guy was taking advantage, because he knew I was always "at work".
Not really good or bad, but you have to figure out what kind of person you are, what kind of person your client is, and then figure out the approach that keeps you sane and keeps your customers happy.
vuolsi così colà dove si puote
ciò che si vuole, e più non dimandare
--The answer to Minos and any question of "Why are we doing it this way?"
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David Days wrote: ...people don't warn ... that you are ALWAYS AT WORK!
That is my new problem, honestly.
Bonus points for identifying one of the major pillars of health destruction.
David Days wrote: This leaks over to my customers--being a bit of a pleaser, I cracked open the door to after-hours sessions ... ended up ... on the phone at 2 AM ... the guy was taking advantage, because he knew I was always "at work".
I just requested two days off; Saturday and Sunday; and they honored the request.
Good sign, in my eyes, and it makes me want to give them even more.
Still; you guys are right. I absolutely positively gotta stop after 8 hours. Okay, 9. That's realistic.
(Although, some guy on a website calling himself something like, "the financial samurai" says that the number, 40 hours, is an anti-success plot to poison the minds of Western-culture folks)
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I used to do it a day or two a week when I really needed to concentrate and not get distracted, or when there were accidents on the motorway making it not worth the drive. I used to get more done, for a starter my internet was much faster than the office internet at connecting to the central data centre, but I found myself craving face to face human interaction rather than phone conferences.
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As others have said, you need a space that's free from unnecessary distractions and to work out a routine that works for you.
I've been working away from a traditional office for 6 years now, and quite frankly I'm dreading the day when I have to start commuting again (I'm sure that will happen one day...).
I typically work four days a week from my home office, and one from our office in town. The freedom is great, but you do need to be disciplined and self-motivated.
Anna ( @annajayne)
Tech Blog | Visual Lint
"Why would anyone prefer to wield a weapon that takes both hands at once, when they could use a lighter (and obviously superior) weapon that allows you to wield multiple ones at a time, and thus supports multi-paradigm carnage?"
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I work from home occasionally. I find the following things key to making this successful:
Have a work space separate from the traffic areas in the house, preferably a separate room with a door you can close. Don't use the work space for non-work activities if you can avoid it.
On your computer, segregate the work stuff from the home/personal stuff in whatever way makes sense to you. Put work in a separate folder structure, partition, or even its own drive.
When Daddy's working, Daddy's working. If the house or your little sister isn't on fire, it can wait until you come out for coffee or a pee break. If you ever go in to work on the weekends, take your kid(s) with you if you can. I think doing this made it easier to work at home when my daughter was little.
Be scrupulously honest with yourself and your boss about how much and when you work. If telecommuting is an option with your employer, that's the only way to keep the privilege.
Software Zen: delete this;
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Gary R. Wheeler wrote: Don't use the work space for non-work activities if you can avoid it.
I have already emptied out the room which will be the office.
I created a floorplan for it. (Cool freeware: Sweet Home 3D[^]
Any tax attorneys reading ? Can I now take the dimensions of that room; divide it, and subtract that portion of my rent from my taxes ?
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C-P-User-3 wrote: Can I now take the dimensions of that room; divide it, and subtract that portion of my rent from my taxes
You really have to work at it to claim a home office as a deduction. I've done after-hours consulting for a long time, and could never get away with claiming my home office since it was part of the traffic pattern in the house, and the room had other uses. You generally can't claim any kind of space at home if you are telecommuting to your normal job.
Your comment about a tax attorney is more of a good idea and less of a joke than you might think.
Software Zen: delete this;
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Although all comfy, warm, and snugly, I find working from home much harder work. At least when I was a contractor and billing for time.
When working at the location (by their request), I billed form my time at the location. When home, stopping form anything but reasonable and brief intervals was not billed. Ultimately, I found a six-hour day at home more difficult than nine on the road.
So - for now, I save work-from-home for very nasty weather. Good fortune has given me an option of two work sites between which I alternate - one quite local. Face time is also important. If the transport is down or something to that effect, I can simply go to the local site.
Main warning, however, is that it's easy to put on weight when the kitchen's at hand.
| "The difference between genius and stupidity is that genius has its limits." - Albert Einstein | | "As far as we know, our computer has never had an undetected error." - Weisert | | "If you are searching for perfection in others, then you seek disappointment. If you are seek perfection in yourself, then you will find failure." - Balboos HaGadol Mar 2010 |
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W∴ Balboos wrote: Main warning, however, is that it's easy to put on weight when the kitchen's at hand.
Bingo.
Elsewhere, I mentioned that this is a health hazard.
You nailed it.
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Here are some suggestions.
- The commute is not working time. Stop beating yourself up if you are only as productive at home as you are at work because you use your commute time for sleeping/spouse/kids.
- Your family has to "get it" that you are not available when working at home just like you would not be available when you were at work. You have to train your cute four-year-old that you are busy at work, and you can't read to him or play in the mud with him. Same thing with your spouse's request that you go to the grocery store or whatever. If you can't do this, or your family cannot be trained, then you can't work at home.
- Email is not your friend. Neither is the internet. As distracting as these things are at work, they are ten times worse at home. You must resolutely close down your mailer so you don't get interrupted. Launch the mailer a couple of times a day if needed to see if you get anything important, but pick a time-of-day and even more important a duration for reading all those blog extracts, thought-provoking long articles, etc. Turn off notifications on your phone, too. You must ritually burn yourself with a lighter for even THINKING about Netflix when you are working at home.
- Track your time. When did you sit down? When did you get up? Did you watch any Game of Thrones? Make sure it totals 8 hours or more. If you can't get in 8 hours, don't tell yourself you are more productive at home so it's ok. The deal is you spend 8 hours a day at work, so you spend 8 hours a day working at home. If you are more productive at home, your boss will be happy that you choose to work at home. However, you don't have to spend the same hours. You can work 7-3, or 8-noon and 8-midnight, or 10-3 and 8-11PM. The flexibility to schedule your 8 hours is actually one of the secrets to being a productive worker and also productive as a family member. A second secret is working your commute time so that you get in 10 hours of work instead of 8 hours of work and an hour of commuting each way. This makes you automatically 2 hours more productive when you work at home.
- Take breaks. Get up at least once an hour, go to the bathroom. Go to the kitchen if you're hungry and nibble something crunchy. Take the 5 minutes. It's ok. You do it at work too. You just don't notice. You get up and go over to Bob's cubicle to shoot the sh*t/talk about refactoring. You go to a 10AM standup, get coffee or nuts from the break room, etc.
- Music. The joy of music without headphones. The joy of thrash rock or Country or Broadway show tunes your colleagues would tease you about. The joy of streaming music without the corporate IT guy shouting down your neck about wasting bandwidth. But you need non-distracting music, or even ambient sound. Youtube has these 8-hour tracks of birds chirping and rain falling that will keep your ears from ringing in the silence without distracting you. There's a company called focus@will (focusatwill.com) that will stream you classical music or rain sounds (it costs bucks-a-month though).
- Comfy chair, check. Comfy temperature in the home office, check. Get comfortable. Being uncomfortable is a distraction.
- Oh, comfortable may mean dressed up in your work clothes to remind you you're at work. Jammies remind you that you're sleepy, so don't let this be a distraction. Office in your bedroom reminds you you're sleepy, so this is also not necessarily a good choice.
Without the distraction of meetings, yakking about the Seahawks, email, etc., you will automatically be significantly more productive.
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On Friday Dave Grohl fell off the stage during the second song and broke his leg, got his leg bandaged and returns to the stage singing sitting on a chair, while a doctor fixates his leg, on stage!
He doesn't leave for the hospital until the concert is over.
I wonder what he was on?
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Sounds like his manager is used to managing developers. 
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Same thought crossed my mind,
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Jörgen Andersson wrote: I wonder what he was on?
Fire? Rock? Many rockers have accidents on stage and keep performing unless it is totally debilitating (as Kirk Hammet when a misfired firework hit him squarely on the hands).
If you're really into the rock you can suffer a lot more damage before having to stop, I've been to concerts where the mosh pit was barely legal  and my girlfriend is at least 10 times more resilient than me on that regard 
Geek code v 3.12 {
GCS d--- s-/++ a- C++++ U+++ P- L- E-- W++ N++ o+ K- w+++ O? M-- V? PS+ PE- Y+ PGP t++ 5? X R++ tv-- b+ DI+++ D++ G e++>+++ h--- r++>+++ y+++*
Weapons extension: ma- k++ F+2 X
}
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Jörgen Andersson wrote: while a doctor fixates his leg
For a doctor, he sounds rather useless.
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Maybe it's my translation. Perhaps 'splint' is a better translation?
I don't think doctors that just happens to be there, also just happens to have an x-ray machine and plaster in the back pocket.
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Jörgen Andersson wrote: Maybe it's my translation. Perhaps 'splint' is a better translation?
I knew exactly what you were trying to say. The doctor fixed his leg--being fixated with something means you're just looking at it (and not doing much about it).
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To me fixed always meant that it got fixed as in repaired.
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That's right, but "fixed" != "fixated". That's all I was trying to point out (and yanking your chain the process).
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