Home truths

When I tell people I work from home, the most common response, is “oh, I could never do that”, to which I think, is probably not really true. You really could, it’s not that hard. I do it every day.

Actually, pretty much everyone who works at Distributed, works from home. Often in places much more glamorous than the North of England, but that’s not the point.

The second question I get asked is usually, “omg, do you like it?” and the answer is, yes I really do. I’m not sure if people are jealous or just dismiss working from home as some kind of gypsy behaviour (no offence to gypsies) — but really, it’s the future.

When business’ start to realise, and some already have, that you can get the same or more value from an employee when they work from home, this will become the norm. Saving on office space which in London and in the UK in general is expensive, I reference some articles below where you can see for yourselves.

Many traditional companies fear that letting their employees work from home would cause their productivity levels to drop. However, this fear is unfounded, according to Vodaphone who undertook a study recently. They found that:

3 in 4 employees say that flexible working boosts their job satisfaction

54% of employees surveyed said that flexible working makes them more productive

So that’s pretty good. From my own experience, it is true, I put in a lot more hours than I would if I was commuting to the office everyday. Working from home, means you save all that commuting time and effort, and since you might as well, you just end up starting earlier and working later.

I’ve realised actually that my focus and attention is at it’s best, around 6–9pm. And many days, this is when I get my best work done. And since I worked til 9pm the previous night, I don’t feel bad if I start a little later the next day, or go to the gym at 10, or pop down to the shops to get some dinner for that night. This all results in less stress, less stress results in happier and more productive people.

I’ve even started going to the gym, something which I swore I would never do. The fact I don’t have to deal with going before work, taking a change of clothes, showering etc, or going after work when you’re already exhausted. I’m healthier because I work from home.

I eat better. I don’t have the temptation to go our and buy lunch somewhere.

I save money. No commuting costs, no expensive lunches/breakfast/coffee.

No road rage. I used to get this, it was bad. Now I don’t. Happy days.

So all these things add up, to making the home office a pretty sexy way to work. However, there are some bad things.

1. Now I’m expected to do more chores around the house so the house is always much cleaner
2. You miss out on the office banter/friendships. Okay, nothing good about that. But it does force you to be more social in other ways.
3. People think you’re weird because you talk to your cat a lot.

And that’s really all the bad things I can think of. So to recap:

1. Employers save money and gain productivity.
2. Employees save money and gain productivity.

It’s a no brainer people.