[Infographic] Work from Home – Pros and Cons

Should you work from home?  Is it really a delirious breeze of freedom, high productivity, and staying in your pajamas all day?  Or can it be lonely, full of distractions and, frankly, anything but glamorous?

If there is one thing that the plethora of working from home success stories and tales of epic fails tells us, it is that a “one size fits all” approach does not apply when it comes to working from home.

The Pros and Cons

What are the benefits of working from home?

There are a few and they seem a real delight….

Cut Out the Excess Chit-Chat. No more endless drivel about the soccer match last night before you can get any sense out of your colleagues, or hours being distracted about whether Meghan Markle really will get her Prince Charming.

Kill Useless Meetings. Say goodbye to “we’d better look busy; let’s schedule a meeting!” and “they wouldn’t have invited me if they didn’t think I needed to be there” and “I could have said this in about five sentences, why have we been here an hour?” and…

Make Facetime Count. Because if you are going to trek all the way into the office, you want to have an agenda, and know everyone you need to speak to is going to be there, and they’re all as briefed and as pumped up as you are.

More Freedom to Fit Your Life In. Yes, you shall go to the ball… or your local gym at lunchtime, or that yoga class at 5pm, or that early-morning jog, or that after-work date for which you just need an extra hour in the hair salon before arriving…

Reduce Your Commute Time. And those extra pounds of carbon footprint.

Wear What Works for You. Yes, you really can hold meetings in your PJs (although you probably shouldn’t).

You Decide Your Own Productive Hours. Work when you are at your best, rather than between the 9 to 5.

What are the downsides of working from home?

And now the “not that great ” side of working from that c you wond make you wonder that the office it’s not so bad after all…

Less Inspiration. We are collaborative and innovative when we’re together. Don’t we have the best ideas when we bounce them off each other?

Fewer Contacts. How can we be as successful when we connect with fewer people?

Fewer Boundaries. There is a real danger that work hours bleed into non-work hour, like that you are in the middle of something “really important” when your kids arrive home. Or you can find a myriad of reasons not to get started before lunchtime. And why is it that your kids only need to speak with you when you are on the phone with your VIP client?

You Need a Phenomenal Amount of Self-Discipline. Are you really going to be sitting at your laptop at 8am when it is so easy to hit the snooze button and none of your work colleagues will be any the wiser?

Overwork is Too Easy. The problem with living where you work is that it can be difficult to switch off. It might sound improbable, but imagine it is 11 pm and you’ve just realized you’ve forgotten something really important due tomorrow – can you really go to bed when you have to walk right past your office on the way?

Isolation and Poorer Teamwork. It can get lonely with only the postman for company. Even just making it down to the local Starbucks for a coffee can seem like an achievement. And what of your colleagues? What’s going to inspire them to go the extra mile for you when they can’t even remember what you look like?

Is working from home right for you?

There are as many different answers to whether working from home is right for you as there are people in the world.

It depends not only on the work you do, and the culture of your organization, but also on the type of person you are, and what your life is like right now.

For some, working from home is the holy grail of productivity. For others, it can feel like a life sentence. Perhaps a happy medium is required: the option to work from home when you need to, combined with the ability to “hot desk” when you need to come into the office, see a friendly face, attend a meeting, or draw a bit of inspiration.