Today was a win-win.
As I woke up to rain beating on our roof, I took comfort knowing I didn’t need to bundle up and get on the road for a 30-mile commute to the office.
Instead, I enjoyed my breakfast, threw on some sweats and drove my sons to school. By 7:30 a.m., I fired up my work laptop and began tapping away.
Now I don’t work from home every day – usually just once a week – but that one day at home saves my sanity and boosts my productivity.
At home, there are no distractions, as long as I’m disciplined enough to ignore the laundry and household chores. No one drops by unannounced, nobody asks if I have “just one minute,” and the credenza treats and vending machine aren’t calling my name.
Yes, I take calls at home and participate in meetings via phone, but once I hang up, it’s back to work. Back to the zone.
Today I powered through about 40 emails, provided comments on a website redesign, drafted a strategy document and wrote a story to launch a new process for our department. I finished the week feeling accomplished, caught up and relaxed.
Could I work from home 100 percent of the time? Sounds tempting, but no.
In reality, I would miss some of the very things I noted above. I enjoy chatting with my work peers about the weekend and politics and trends. I like the connection of those “drop-in” meetings. And I do love office treats – I swear I have no willpower when it comes to scones and bagels and cookies.
I’m thankful my employer and boss are so supportive of this work arrangement. Not everyone in our company is comfortable with people working away from the office. I’ve certainly received comments like “I would feel guilty working from home,” or “Is tomorrow your day off?”
Actually people, I’m not off. I’m working. And I’m probably getting more work done from home than you are in the office. So as I see it, I shouldn’t feel guilty.
My company now has a more rested, productive and loyal employee. Win.
And I just saved myself a 60-mile drive today and entered the weekend with a smile. Win.
Happy Friday to me!
YES!! Working from home can be SO productive! My first job out of college was for one of the Big 3 automotive companies, where I worked out of a regional office. So many people were traveling, that office time wasn’t what was important – getting the work DONE and done well WAS the important thing. I wrote about the concept of Results Only Work Environment in this post – http://gomamao.com/2012/08/29/slowing-down-my-climb/
and I hope more flexible work environments will be more commonplace very soon. So glad you have this benefit today!
Working from home is always more productive than all the distractions at the office. I hope there will be more and more environments to support remote working.
I feel the same. I got to work from home 1-2 days a week when I was still employed. The kids were of course, still at the daycare on those days – could have never done it if they were home! I was uber productive! But yes, there is something to the collaboration that happens in the work environment and it’s always nice to be in the office. I also worked in homeland security, so we had a lot of OJT, seminars, conferences, planning, and requirements that we needed to do together. But I did love those days at home!