First off, not everyone can work from home and it should be appreciated that a lot of people go to their place of work everyday.
In talking to a group whose spouses work from home several complained it was hard on their kids. One person even said they feel like a prisoner in their own house. Others agreed. They are constantly being told everyone needs to be quiet, obviously the new “home office” is living space that is now off limits. And their spouse actually works more now than when they commuted. Several say this.
Bottom line the kids can’t be kids because their house has become a workplace. And the stay at home parent is subjected to criticism throughout the day because they supposedly don’t respect their spouse’s work. The list of issues or stressors from working at home are quite long.
Anyone else with similar observations?
Work from home bonded my family like nothing else. It brings home that work is necessary to stay alive. However, those who use working away from home as a way to escape the demands of keeping up a household are going to suffer from not having their daily mini vacation from laundry and pet patrol. My opinion is, rethink your organization.
For the last 20 years I have been working from home, and when we had our kid, yes it was very hard in the beginning, but once you get into the groove and learn work disciple, it's very rewarding. I got to enjoy so many moments of our son, and spent so much time with him growing up - I could never have done that without working from home.
It wont work if you expect everyone to change their behaviour because you made your house into an office. You need a study - a place you do your work and have your meetings. You need a door on it so your kid doesn't accidentally run in and also their sounds dont disturb you. If your meetings are limited in time and not running all day, you can even expect your kids to keep quiet during that time. If your meetings run all day then you are doing something wrong.
Just sounds the working spouse has not made all the necessary changes to ensure the natural life of their family does not disturb their work.
Hinestly, they should put their brains to this, and turn a problem into a wonderful oppurtunity.
Work from home doesn't work for everyone but can be an improvement if it's managed correctly.
If you can have a relatively sound proofed office with an agreement that when you're home working you're not "home" then it's probably fine.
On a productivity level there are two major impacts that run mostly unconsidered.
One is that people tend to be less productive in their home environment, tending to be more distracted by their phone or the availability of the TV, video games, etc. and the fact that they can basically do anything without being reprimanded.
On the other side of it, productivity can go up or down simply because you are basically never really "off" work.
If you call in sick, you'll probably still have to do your job in the same degree as if you had just gone into work. This can increase productivity (e.g. being able to serve the company even when too sick to come in) or can reduce productivity because sometimes you take a sick day because you just need to handle something / need a day's break / etc.
I think there are a lot of jobs that can justify working from home and do so tremendously, and there are jobs that don't.
But part of working is the social interaction and there is much less of that working at home since most social interaction would be more of a distraction at your fingertips.
I feel like this can also impact your work relationships.
Basically: If you can have a quiet space and an understanding with your spouse, working from home shouldn't be an issue from a spousal point of view. But there are other problems that present themselves too.
I've converted half my garage into an office space.
It's important to separate work and home life so they don't intrude on one another.
Of course, working from home would allow people to spend more time with their kids that they would otherwise take up with travelling.
Like someone already said - not for everyone. I've been doing it for nearly 20 years now and it took a bit of getting used to, for both me and my wife.
Thats odd because everyone I know that worked from home loved it and did not want to go back to the office. So what if the kids have to be quieter or play in another room somewhere its about time people taught their kids to behave anyway. People I know that have noisy kids just use their headphones all day and listen to music while they are working. Noisy kid problem solved. Working from home is excellent and any company whose employees only work on computer or phone should be allowed to work from home. My company is huge and only a few people were able to work from home usually supervisors or what not. When they sent us home to work during the pandemic and decided to keep it that way it was absolutely wonderful. What a stress free environment.
My husband’s position has been made permanent work from home, and I will be looking for a work from home job during my maternity leave this fall/winter. We will both be home with our son and as both our positions don’t/wouldn’t require anything more than a quick morning meeting, we will have ample time with our boy and still get our work done. He can play and be crazy for most of the day as he grows and we won’t be impacted. We are one family where this is a benefit, not a pitfall.
I'm planning on working from home, either as a virtual assistant or some type of computer support tech. I wouldn't mind it much, I'm a homebody anyways and I don't have a husband or kids (just a dad and brother lol).
I'm sure there's pros and cons. Some people wouldn't enjoy working from home, and then there are others who would thrive, it just depends. You can also sound proof an office room and set boundaries with your family.
Personally, I think it would be a great improvement on keeping the family together, having a least one parent home when the kids come back from school, and also having two incomes to support the family.