CNN.com - Workers dream of staying at home - Mar 23, 2004

Ah yes…working from home is a great thing. No long commutes, less worry about “bad hair days” and reduced dry cleaning costs. If the very thought of looking at that nitwit on your team makes your stomach turn, great news! - you don’t have to look at him. You can throw in a load of laundry at lunchtime or skip out in the afternoon for a movie, knowing you can finish up your work in the evening if need be.

However…with those pros come some interesting cons. Firstly, your time, oddly, does not become your own anymore. If you work with a completely “virtual team” as I do, you become accustomed to getting panicked emails at 10:30 at night with requests to have things done ASAP. The much-maligned commute, which for some people serves as a necessary “wind-down” period doesn’t exist. You can’t really forward your phone and power down your PC because those things are 10 feet away from you 24/7. It’s entirely too easy to just do “one little thing” or “send out an email.” If you work outside of your home, most of the time that sort of thing can wait until the next morning…or Monday. It can for me too, but again, it’s tough to break that habit.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m not complaining…not in the slightest. I love working out of my house and am extremely happy with the choice to do so. With all good though, there is generally one or two corresponding bad things. When I began this job, I put a sign up on my bulletin board that says, “Enjoy the freedom!” With the reality of working from home, comes the pressure to show everyone that you are indeed performing during normal working hours, and often after normal working hours. The ironic part of this is that, in your quest for your dream to work at home, you end up working more and sacrificing your family life. The people I work with put in more hours than they ever did in “traditional” work environments. Not really what you’d expect, is it?

Working at home is great, but is still a delicate work/life balancing act.