Working from Home or Solitary Confinement?
This is the question that popped into my head today. I have been working from home since November. I counted the months. I thought it was so long, it feels like at least a year. It’s only been 4 months.
I’ve learned a bit about myself: I like to work around real people. People I can see. I’ve become so comfortable in the online world that it’s messing up my real world perspective. I will respond to an IM or Skype, and email most of the time, but in real life I withdraw a lot more easily. You have to draw me out. I stand back more. Take today, I haven’t seen another human face so far. Good thing I have a meeting in an hour.
I know everyone claims being a consultant and working from home is the bomb. I’m just not seeing it. Payday changes all of the time. My business partner isn’t ready to quit his full-time job yet. We’re in the process of legally acquiring our new web site.
I’m ready to get out of my home. Maybe people who love working from home have other people around. Like Justin.tv who always has people in his house. How do you get work done if you’re talking all day? And how do you handle not talking at all? In case you can’t see, the jail in the picture, is virtual. It’s completely made up by computer.
If you work from home and your clients are mostly virtual, tell me, how do you do it?
12 Responses to “Working from Home or Solitary Confinement?”
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April 3rd, 2007 at 2:50 pm
Lots of lunch appointments. I actually look forward to company meetings as well.
April 3rd, 2007 at 4:10 pm
Janet, you’re learning what ‘co-working’ is all about! Working at home in a bubble is definately a good way to go stir crazy. The whole idea of being virtual is just that – not a HOME office, but a virtual office. Get out of the house and be around people! I’ve been working on a blog post about this, it’s in my drafts and I just haven’t gotten back to it. There is certain hardware you need and software that you should have and then you can literally work from wherever you want. I’ve worked for several hours at a time out of Barnes and Noble, Borders, multiple malls, Gandalfos and lots of other restaurants. Assuming you have a laptop, get an EVDO card, get a skype in and out account, get everything you need to work onto your laptop and then GET OUT OF THE HOUSE! In addition to all those places, I also have ‘office space’ at 2 different businesses – one in East Bay in Provo and one in Salt Lake in Cottonwood. And Chris is right – set up lots of lunch meetings! Never Eat Alone is a critical concept for virtual officing in my opinion. Look for my blog post soon (you’ve just reminded me to do it) about how I gear up for this. It’s all about ‘the bag’!
April 3rd, 2007 at 5:35 pm
I try and schedule about 2 lunches a week. And go out and take walks – ah, fresh air! I also office next to a window to get natural sunlight. I chat alot, comment on blogs alot, and do a lot of “communicating” with others.
How many lunches have you been to in the last 30 days (not personal, but networking)?
Jason Alba
CEO – JibberJobber.com
April 3rd, 2007 at 6:07 pm
Twitter has helped me a lot. Email with my non-Twitter friends. Walks outside. I also take my laptop to various coffee shops nearby so that I can be around people.
Mostly, I just work alone and look out the window.
In San Francisco they have a co-working space called The Hat Factory. I kind of wish something like that existed here.
April 4th, 2007 at 4:49 am
I definitely need to have a daily change of scenery. Usually I just work at a cafe around town somewhere. Being the geek that I am, I’ve located all of the cafes within a 7 mile radius of where I live here in Salt Lake. I’ll ride my bike to one of these cafes just about each day. Which one I ride to depends on how much energy I have … or how much work I have to finish.
Like Phil says, an EVDO card really helps – because sometimes the best cafe / work location might not have a reliable internet connection.
… of course, if you want try this, you’ll first have to fix YOUR bikes flat tire ^_^
April 4th, 2007 at 6:58 am
Interesting topic. I worked a consultant and worked from home for 6 months in a row and goes without saying, it was a cut off from the real world.
But yeh, the paychecks made up for it.
April 4th, 2007 at 9:06 am
I once had a work-at-home job where most of employees at the company worked from home. What helped was that we were all on IM and constantly talked with one another, even if we didn’t see each other face to face. The company also held weekly meetings for the purpose of having everyone interact in person. For the times when I was working on my own, I would spend about half the time home alone (especially when I had to really work without distractions) and half the time in a public place like a coffee shop.
There are some social drawbacks to working from home, but I prefer it to commuting 2 hours a day.
April 5th, 2007 at 7:28 am
I just saw a blog post elsewhere that referenced an article at http://tinyurl.com/244e7l called “Who Needs an Office”. When I saw it I was reminded of your post here.
April 5th, 2007 at 9:38 am
These are amazing comments, thank you.
Phil801 met with me yesterday to get me set up with mobile wireless. I also got a peak at what kind of hardware he carries around everywhere to accommodate his mobile office. He truly brings an office with him wherever he goes!
I would like more networking lunches or walks, however, when you’re billing hours it’s tough to justify too much time off…I don’t have the rhythm down.
‘m going to be an internet coach with a local company in a few weeks. I welcome the chance to get out of the house and into the real world, with coworkers.
Janet
p.s. to Paul – no complaints, it’s just that working with you during business hours isn’t the solution for now…
April 5th, 2007 at 9:45 am
a further comment…
If I had a home set up for an office, with a garden in back rather than a condo I’ve outgrown, that would help.
I hate to take on too many fixed costs. You never know when the client’s check will hit your bank account. Especially after this year! But it’s also what has spurned me to start writing ebooks and create information products.
Janet
April 7th, 2007 at 1:49 pm
this is a great topic–hence why i wrote a book on it (http://www.creativelyselfemployed.com)
i get lonely too, and i’ve learned to counter it. i enjoy spending time with the cat and make time to convene with others!
April 9th, 2007 at 2:46 pm
You know, this is a super interesting topic that has such a tremendous amount of variables involving our personalities, background, home-life, regional location, technical capabilities , knowledge and financial positions.
Yet, there is not doubt that either by well or mis-directed means so many of us our finding ourselves trying the tele-commuter method.
I’ve worked from home over 6 years. 5 of them as a corporate employee Affiliate Program Manager. And now this past year working as my own business. I do miss the meetings and people that were at the office each day. I hope and intend to develop more public meetings in my local sphere. It’s very easy to remember how distracting and expensive and oppressive it felt to drag my butt to work each day. That’s more motivating than becoming rich. And I think this is something that is creeping into our everyday sociology in small and multiple ways.
I could go on and on about this subject. It’s a “constant configuration process”; Isn’t it?
Cheers for now. Great blog.