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Whoever told you that working from home was a great option for women either wasn’t a woman or had no idea what a hard day’s work looks like. Between seasoning your casserole and contributing to a conference call with meaningful ideas, the words “working” and “multitasking” take on a whole new meaning.
On the other hand, not wasting any time commuting to and from work is a luxury very few people in the western hemisphere can afford. Also, the amount of money you can save on not getting Starbucks every day or buying lunch at your local Italian joint can end up being a hefty sum put towards more purposeful expenses.
You might want to invest in a membership at a dating for seniors website for your widowed father-in-law in the hopes of finding him a suitable moviegoer so you don’t have to take him to the cinema on the weekends. Or you could treat your sister to a few driving lessons she desperately needs. The choice is yours, just try not to spend your lunch break browsing the web and searching for ideas on how to spend your newly saved money, your eyes would most appreciate it.
You’ll Love The Flexibility
In theory, working from home means you’re the master of your time. However, if you’re not that skilled at time management, this could turn into a nightmare because you could find yourself working or folding laundry at 2 am. On the other hand, if you organize your priorities right, you’ll quickly realize you could be doing yoga on a Monday at 9 am or you could finally take that month long trip to Thailand and take your work with you so you make money while you travel.
But You’ll Hate The Availability
One of the biggest pitfalls of working from home is that everybody thinks you’re available 24/7. This goes both for your clients and your family members who think you can do all your work, do the dishes, make a restaurant-quality meal and preferably go grocery shopping in 8 hours! As much as we all wish it were possible, the reality is that if you’re not careful your work day could go on forever, literally.
Your PJs Become Your Business Attire
Dressing casually when you live your life like everybody else means being able to get away with flat shoes or even jeans on Friday. When you work from home, dressing casually means living in your PJs, and the reason for this twofold. First of all, when you get up in the morning there are at least 7 urgent emails that by the time you get through you’re already late on submitting your first task for the day, and you simply put off getting dressed until you’re done, which ends up being around 7 pm. Second of all, you stop buying clothes you don’t have a chance to wear and sooner or later find yourself with a rather respectable collection of PJs.
The Verdict
Working from home is not for everybody because it takes a great deal of discipline to be able to focus. On the other hand, it’s perfect for any kind of social anxiety because you rarely have to face the outside world. So, should you do it? Well, don’t knock it until you’ve tried it. Give it a chance for at least 6 months to get a complete picture of what your life would look like if you didn’t have to leave the house to go to work every day.