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 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.