Working from home or working from the office?

That depends on your job. I find working from home more productive for me. My corporate job tended to attract people to my desk so working from home I enjoyed fewer interruptions.

Now that I freelance, I love working from home. Once you set a schedule, it's a productive way to work. But you must set and keep a schedule, otherwise, you'll never get work done.

I always go out and network at least once a week, as you need to meet clients and associates face to face regularly.

Hello Robert. I have been working from home for more than 20 years. As a professional consultant and coach in international business development, I have the privilege to travel outside of the country from time to time which helps me create value with my consulting and coaching activities. It makes my day to day obligations different and I feel less isolated from the real world. It is also important to maintain virtual contact with colleagues and customers on a relular basis with videoconference applications. Above all, I do believe you need a quantitative objective in order to keep yourself motivated. I had a professional experience in the past few years where there was no target to aim with the Group I was collaborating for and found myself alone with no support from the upper management to achieve my duties. I was not able to make it!

Working from an office is totally different. You need to be on time (unless you have flexible hours), dressed accordingly, spend time in the traffic, find a parking space and then, need to please you colleagues whatever is expected from you. With all the tools we have under our hands, on our computer or smartphone, I don't think we need an office anymore with the work which is getting more and more dematerialized. If you need to meet with someone, I will recommend you to invite your guess in a space you rent for the occasion. There are a lot of such premises available for short term rental.

If you need more advice, place get in touch.

Working from home is a feasible option if one has immense discipline and an understanding family. Trust me, nothing gets done on the work front if you let the daily things of home distract you. I'd prefer office anytime as it sets the right tone and ambience to be productive. If you are in an individual consulting role, the recommendation is to rent a small office or co-working space near the home (to avoid commute time).

I frequently work at home if I don't have any in-person appointments (maybe just phone) and mostly computer work, etc. However, I have two chihuahuas who have my nerves shot because it can be super quiet and they'll bark all of a sudden and scare me to death!

That said, I do make it happen, working from home, but if I really want to have uninterrupted focus on something with a major deadline or important project, I have to head to the office.

As a side note, even if you work from home, DRESS for the day. Don't work in your PJ's. Dress as if you're going to see clients or customers, even if you'll only be doing phone calls, for example. Dressing for the job, keeps you focused and driven while working at home. I ALWAYS dress for the job, no matter what :)

Michelle Arbeau
#1 Celebrity Numerologist in the World, 2-Time Bestselling Author, Motivational Speaker
Featured Columnist & Face/Brand of LotteryUSA.com
http://www.MichelleArbeau.com

In our industry and Company (Agicent App company), we've a work for home option for employees (ideally for unavoidable situations) and I figured out, it only works when there is a small chunk of work that can be done in isolation (like testing, documentation, solving one off complex problem etc) but for any other regular tasks it is much productive to come to office and work in close coordination with the team (in our case the team is app developer, designer, tester, supervisor etc).

Working from remotely and working from home in isolation are two different things, and both may work just fine for jobs like writing, designing, small coding tasks and not for team works.

In a different scenario, I personally found myself more productive during wee hours and that is when I write proposals, talk to clients (when I'm in India, talking to customer sitting in the US), write app dev specs and these are again mostly isolated tasks, for all other works (project management, hiring, accounts, general management, team meetings, design instructions, getting things done etc) I still prefer being in office.

I'd love to hear experience from other industries/ companies.

On very few occasions do I need a professional office space & my local virtual offices will rent me one for $10/hour. Being self employed, if I book a job, I can rearrange my schedule to do office type work the following day. And because there is a lot of downtime when I am on the job, I can quickly respond to important calls or emails with a, "I'm booked today, what is the best time to reach you tomorrow?" I love working from home. Most of my morning emails can be prioritized over coffee. I keep an ongoing list of what needs to be done, prioritize & add to it every morning. The best part is I can make a lot of networking events & schedule one to ones & lunches to continue to build my referral base.

It's all depends.

Some people Love to go to the office and some love freedom and work from home. Both have their own Pros and Cons.

If you go to the office, you have to work from 9-5 what you boss or manager has assigned to you. if you complete you task then either you are not going to tell your manager and relax rest of the time or tell your manager and start working on different project.

At the same time if you are working from home, You have a lot of freedom and you can work according to you (having burger, pizza, coke whatever you want, even without suit and bath). if you have completed your task you can go for a movie, do your own personal work, etc. and and at the end of the day send project completion report to your boss. that's it.

It's just said but it all depend on you which environment suits you.

It depends on the nature of the work we do. If the job is web based job, with minimum client interaction, then working form home can be an excellent choice. The major requirements of working from home are-

A dedicated office space within the house
Internet and phone connection
Self Discipline
Full time help

If job requires meeting lots of people personally, then working from home is not advisable as sometime it becomes uncomfortable for others.

I think it depends on several factors:

1. The work ethics and work habits of the person
This varies from one person to the next. (some people thrive in an environment of having others around for help in generating ideas, motivation by seeing others working hard, dressing in professional attire versus sitting at home in your sweatpants, etc.)
2. The nature of the work. Some work may require more concentration than others and the slightest distraction could affect the output of the work.
3. The set up of the home office environment and the presence of outside distractions (home life situation…kids, no kids, pets, other house mates).
Working in the office may be more productive. It is certainly cheaper for individuals without the overhead cost of keeping warm at home and unwanted distraction from friends and family. It is only productive if it is convenient for individuals in special circumstances.
- JSON formatter -

Working in the office may be more productive if one is not able to keep the home distractions to a minimal.