Working at Home: 12 Advantages, Disadvantages and Solutions
I work from home, so does my niece who lives with me. I also know of a couple of people, including neighbors who also work at home.This wasn’t the case before for many of us, but working at home as a trend has been rising fast even before the pandemic which accelerated and even somewhat institutionalized working at home.
I can see for myself, niece, relatives and neighbors the benefits of working at home: the time and money saved from not having to travel to work, the proximity of your loved ones while you work and so on.
But there are also disadvantages to working at home: being detached to your coworkers especially to your company team & bosses, and the dissolution of your work-life separation.
Here are a few advantages and disadvantages to working at home and some solutions to remove the disadvantages.
Note: These information were derived from my own experience working at home and from other people I know who also work at home.
12 advantages, disadvantages and solutions from working at home:
Advantages:1. Better work-life and even school balance
2. Minimal commute stress
3. Location independent jobs
4. Less work discrimination
5. Saving money
6. Positive impact on environment
7. Personalized and accessible home office
8. Increased productivity
9. Happier and healthier life
Disadvantages and Solutions:
10. Difficulty in separating work from life
11. Disconnection from coworkers
12. Tendency to be distracted
Final Words
The Details:
Advantages:
1. Better work-life and even school balance
Many remote jobs also come with flexible schedules, like being able to dictate when you start and end your workday, or when to have lunch or breaks as long as you get your job done on schedule.
Being in control of your own schedule enables you to schedule your work day around your home life.
From having breakfast with your family, dropping off your kids at school, doing errands, and/or attending to home contractors for emergencies and more, you can schedule them around your work schedule.
As a result, both your work and home life improves dramatically. This is unlike working in a company where whenever you have to attend to home issues your work life suffers.
For example my niece rarely goes personally to her company and school. She mostly stays at home despite the hectic schedule of a job, schooling and home life. She goes to school via the internet in the morning, has freetime in the noon and afternoon, then work at night.
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2. Minimal commute stress
The average work commute in the US for example is more than one hour a day. If you’re working 5 days a week, it adds up to more than 10 hours which is more than a full day of working!
But the big waste in time is not only the disadvantage of traveling to work on a daily basis, research has shown that your health suffers too. Research shows that commuting 10 miles to work each day is associated with high cholesterol, elevated blood sugar and depression.
When your daily work travel only composts of walking one minute at most to your home office, you get more time for sleep, a workout and a relaxed breakfast.
You don’t also have to experience the disadvantages of commuting/traveling: pollution from other cars, unruly passengers and bad weather.
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3. Location independent jobs
A large number of people working at home are digital content professionals or creators who mainly use their computers to work.
Thanks to the internet, job opportunities for digital content professionals or creators have not only exponentially increased, but has become global and inclusive.
A digital content professional or creator might be from the US but have clients in Europe or Asia and vice versa. There is almost no limit to the reach of the internet as more and more people globally are now having internet access.
The digital nomadic life has also become popular. Digital nomads are digital content professionals and creators who travel the world while doing their job at the same time.
This kind of lifestyle is entirely possible today. All that these digital nomads need are a laptop and an internet connection. They usually have clients from all over the world.
The days of uprooting your family for a job has been reduced by jobs that enable a person to work anywhere like military spouses.
Also, remote work is a good way to avoid high-rent and high-mortgage areas which are usually located in the metropolitan areas. If you live in a rural area, you could get an online job for a company located in a metropolitan area.
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4. Less work discrimination
Remote work has also reduced work discrimination. Since the internet has a global reach and is affordable to almost all people, it has enabled people from various socioeconomic, geographic and cultural backgrounds to have jobs they were previously excluded to before:
4.1 Disabled people who are confined to their wheelchairs can work on online jobs for employers who are even thousands of miles from their location without having to travel.
4.2 A person who doesn’t own a car can now have a job in companies that used to be only accessible by cars.
4.3 People who are discriminated because of their appearance don’t have to travel to places and companies where they would probably be discriminated upon.
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5. Saving money
Of course, by not having to spend money on driving or commuting to work, a person working at home saves a lot of money.
A person who works at home isn’t also tempted by establishments which usually surrounds companies like restaurants, bars, shops, entertainment venues and so on.
One also doesn’t need to dress up in work clothes if they’re working at home. This eliminates expensive costs associated with wardrobe and personal care products.
But it’s not only the work at home employees who are saving a lot of money by working at home, typical employers are saving money from work at home arrangement:
For example, it is estimated that US employers saw a savings of over USD 30 billion per day by allowing their employees to work at home during the pandemic.
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6. Positive impact on environment
By working at home, employees also have a direct positive impact on the environment. By not using their cars to travel to work, they reduce greenhouse gas emissions that harm the environment.
For example, in the US, almost four million workers worked at home at least half the time during the pandemic, this is equivalent to taking more than 600,000 cars off the road for an entire year.
7.8 billion vehicle miles are not used each year for those who work at least part-time from home. This is equivalent to 3 million tons of greenhouse gases (GHG) and an oil savings reaching $980 million.
In fact, it has been reported that during the pandemic, space satellites where able to send pictures of cities absent of blanketing smog. Normally, space satellite pictures show cities clouded with smog on normal days.
Imagine if this where a recurring occurrence: the absence of smog in our cities. This would not only clean our air but also improve people’s health.
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7. Personalized and accessible home office
By working at home, you can personalize the appearance of your work office. Unlike a real office space or cubicle in your company, you can redecorate your work office to suit your taste.
Lighting to bright or dark? No problem, you can change it to your heart’s desire. Want to design you home office like a man cave? There’s no one stopping you from doing so.
Are you a disabled person and want your home office wheelchair accessible? No problem, you won’t have complaining coworkers who would stop you.
There are even many people who’s home office is in their bedroom so they can easily relax anytime they want by being able to lay on their bed within seconds.
Also, a home office would relieve you from the noise of a busy work environment like a trading office or a shop floor.
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8. Increased productivity
When you are working at home, your boss and/or coworkers might detract you less because they are somewhere else.
A home office also gives you the ability to physically shut off everyone if you choose to do so. As a result, you can concentrate on your work tasks more.
Since you travel very little, you can spend more time on your work and home life, making you more productive at both of them.
Also, you don’t have to pretend working a full eight hours as many employees do when they work in a company setting.
When you work at home, you can work as fast and as efficient as you can to finish your work tasks, so you can concentrate on other things much earlier.
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9. Happier and healthier life
Since you are more productive working at home and have more time to do what you like besides your work tasks, you tend to be more happier as compared to when you were working in a company setting.
You are also happier working at home because you are in close proximity with your loved ones of which you can interact with while you work.
If you are a loner by nature, the seclusion of working at home will benefit your mental state as compared to forcing yourself to interact with coworkers in a company setting.
You also get a chance to cook for yourself which could lead to a healthier life. The act of cooking alone can relieve you of stress brought about by work tasks.
If you are disabled, like confined to a wheelchair, you would have less stress going about your daily activities when you work at home. Most company settings are not really designed to accommodate disabled people.
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Disadvantages and Solutions:
10. Difficulty in separating work from life
Though working at home has more benefits as compared to working at a company setting, there are still disadvantages to it, as all things in life.
For example, it can be difficult to separate work from life. Since your work tasks are directly in your home, you might be tempted to continually work beyond your work task quota.
The reverse is also the same. You might spend more on your home or personal life than you do with your work tasks because you are continually distracted by your loved ones and home entertainment possessions.
Solutions:
Pattern your work at home schedule similar to the way you schedule your work when you are in a company setting.
This means having specific start times and end times for work at home, including specific days for working, like Monday to Friday or even up to Saturday. This also includes setting regular daily schedule for lunch and breaktimes.
This specifically means concentrating on doing your work tasks when it’s your schedule to do work tasks, and immediately ending doing your work tasks when its your schedule for your own freetime.
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11. Disconnection from coworkers
While you are able to concentrate more on your work tasks because you’re not distracted by you coworkers because they’re somewhere else working, you can never underestimate the importance of face-to-face meetups with your coworkers.
This is very important for extroverts who are living alone by themselves. Being away from your coworkers when you’re working alone at your home can be very detrimental to your mental health.
Also your coworkers who are working in a company setting can develop a strong bond with each other due to their proximity with each other.
Your boss who works at a company setting may become aloof with you because they bond more with your other coworkers who are working in a company setting together with them.
As a result, your chances for promotion and/or career development may stagnate. Companies do not only hand out promotions and/or career development based on work merits, but also thru other factors like good personality and social skills.
When you are working at home, there is a low chance of you demonstrating your good personality and social skills. There is a good chance that you would be hampered in the career ladder if you purely work at home.
Solutions:
Set a regular schedule where you sometimes physically meet with your coworkers. This could be via a work setting or a social setting. Meet in a place that would be convenient for you and your coworkers.
Cultivate an active social media presence which involves your coworkers. This could be via posting in Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Meetup and so on, encouraging your coworkers to connect with you.
Be sure to do this on a regular basis without sacrificing your work and personal life schedule. This could mean devoting a few minutes or even an hour posting to your social media accounts every beginning or end of your day.
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12. Tendency to be distracted
As has been said, it can be very difficult to separate your work life and your personal life when you work at home.
This is because the close proximity of your loved ones and your home entertainment possessions can distract you from concentrating on your work tasks.
But even if you don’t have loved ones or home entertainment possessions, you can still get distracted from doing your work tasks.
This is because there are no bosses or coworkers who can basically discipline or urge you to do your work tasks. You can basically sleep the entire day and do no work tasks at all.
What usually happens if you are not disciplined on work is that you slack off during the beginning and work like crazy when your work deadline is about to expire.
As a result, you produce a hurried and inferior work. This not only affects your standing as an employee, but also hurts the company you work for.
Solutions:
Create a space in your home where you can virtually shut out all possible visual and audio distractions.
For example, you could dedicate a room in your home to be your home office. If the view from your room’s windows distracts you, then put covers on them like curtains.
If you are distracted by noises outside your room or personal space, put soundproofing on the walls or wear a white noise headphone.
Lastly, make a schedule where you turn off or ignore notifications from your smartphone or laptop like social media messages and emails.
The idea is to not completely ignore all visual and audio distractions because they can be important and even an emergency, but to ensure that they don’t take over your work and personal life schedule.
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Final Words
Working at home is generally good for most employees especially if you are a digital content professional or creator.
Not only do you save a lot of money by driving or commuting less and not spending on office work associated costs like work wardrobes and office lunches, but you also become less stressed and happier in general.
But unless your entire company has a completely remote at home arrangement, your coworkers who work on an office setting has the advantage in terms of promotions and work development.
That is why you should not completely abandon face-to-face coworker interactions. This is especially important if your coworkers happens to be your bosses.
Lastly, it might be very difficult for you to concentrate when you work at home. This is because you are sure to be distracted by your loved ones and entertainment possessions that are in close proximity to you.
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