For what it’s worth, it can be difficult to work from home, especially if you have kids. I don’t do it often, and will only do it if I have to. Sometimes, in order for me to leave work early enough and to get that family time in, I do decide to finish up projects from home after work that I didn’t have time for in the day. That said, with today’s cost of gas on the rise and other factors (less manpower, more work, limited budgets, etc.), it is becoming more attractive to work from home.
This brings me to my main concern. How much are we willing to sacrifice to get to work? The minimum wage barely covers the price of gas, let alone rent and food. Another question is how much are we willing to sacrifice at home? You already sacrifice time with the family when you are at work, but then you give up time with the family if you are bringing work home.
Working from home can be extremely advantageous for both the employer and employee. It reduces the cost of doing business on many levels. Some businesses do this already and have even gone so far as to purchase equipment for the employee to use at home for both work and personal use. This is a can of worms that I, as an IT professional, would not want to open.
It’s harder to control who sees the content on the screen, to manage what the asset is used for, to ensure that it stays operational, etc. Thus, there needs to be an agreement setup between employer and employee that clearly delineates responsibilities on both ends.
Yet, for all the bad, there is much more good to be had here. The way the economy is going, and with the IT industry making huge strides in “cloud computing” this year and in the coming years, working from home is starting to make more sense. Let’s tip the scale a bit, shall we?
If I sacrifice time with the family, while I’m at home, I can at least say that I’m there and perhaps get to see them more often, even if only for a few minutes during a normal work day. I can also save money on gas, maintenance cost on my car, time getting to work and back, etc. I’ll be more productive, as long as I can establish rules in the house. I also need to ensure security of information owned by the company, such that prying eyes are kept at bay. For this, establish rules with your company and abide by them religiously.
Yes, there are huge drawbacks involved with working from home. Probably the most important drawback and likely the one most apt to make you stay on your commute, is the need for face-to-face customer interaction and team collaboration. Consider setting up a video conferencing terminal (a simple system with a camera and microphone on either end, with some type of conferencing service or software in place). It’s not the best approach from a personal standpoint, but you may find that as time goes on, you’ll be ahead of what is fast becoming the new trend, both for home and work use. This trend is collaboration through web-based multimedia.
I don’t want to belabor this any further, but what I’m asking everyone to consider is taking a leap of faith. Perhaps the ones with the hardest challenge here are not the users, but the IT professionals like myself. In the great words of Nike (you know, that shoe manufacturer that overcharges for their products, based on brand name), “JUST DO IT!”
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