As October approaches, I realized that I was closing out my fifth month of working from home. For the most part, it’s been a very enjoyable experience. I wondered for awhile if I could hack the solitude or if I’d get cabin fever and do laps around the block in an Ann Taylor suit, begging the neighborhood stay-at-home-moms to PLEASE TALK TO ME. Alas, that has not been the case, for I have recognized that I am more of an introvert than an extrovert.I prefer to commune only with those closest to me and relish in the fact that I can think about something in my home office without listening to the nitwit next to me snap his gum or talk to her gynecologist about her sexual problems. Well, I do have to listen to Cookie bark, but I’ve grown more tolerant of that. Despite the stress of the my current job, my overall stress level has plummeted from Terror Alert Level Red to a more soothing…mauve…yes, mauve is good. The result? I’m a lot more fun to be around when my face isn’t all screwed up in a cranky frown and my shoulders aren’t hiked clear up to my earlobes.

I’ve drafted up yet another T-chart, this time of Work From Home hits and misses. Of course, this isn’t all-inclusive but I think I’ve captured the highlights.

Hits:

My work schedule is completely flexible, as long as I get my work done sometime between 7 a.m. and midnight, allowing more time to run errands, go to the doctor, drop a load of laundry in, relandscape the front yard, etc.

I get to be a stay-at-home-doggie-mom to the furmonsters. Since Cookie’s getting older, this is a plus, even if she does ignore me all day.

I can do my job from anywhere…literally. If we move to Seattle, all I have to do is take my laptop with me and voila! - I’ve relocated.

No real sick days to have to take off since I can work with a cold and not irritate otherwise healthy co-workers. No more “mental health days.”

Mondays aren’t so bad anymore.

I have the best boss. I’d worked with him in the past and we “get” each other and he trusts me, which makes any job that much more enjoyable.

I have my home office organized and decorated in a way that is pleasing to me, not to the Corporate Facilities department.

It’s actually less expensive to have me here. Commute costs pretty much disappear (gas alone was $130 a month), and all those other ancillary costs such as lunches out, dry cleaning, etc. also go down. The flip side though, costs for office supplies, extra phone line & increased overall utility costs from having someone home all day. All in all, I think it’s a wash so we’ll call it a Hit.

Misses:

Managing virtual work teams is tough. Not everyone who works from home has the right work ethic and they usually require more supervision. That’s extremely tough to do via email, instant messaging or telephone.

No department birthday parties. Wait, that’s a good thing.

Because my office is in my home, on occasion it’s difficult to “leave work for the day.” I suppose I could get in my car each day at 4:30 p.m. and drive around the block to signal the end of the day, but that’s not very practical.

I miss not physically being with a team to collaborate together or bounce ideas around. We can go days without talking to each other.

It also helps that, to replace the time I used to spent ranting and raving and generally being pissed off about my job, I started this blog to fill in the gaps and provide me with a little one-sided social interaction.

Enough of that. We now return you to your regularly scheduled snark.