10 Reasons Why Working from Home Rocks

November 1 will mark four years that I have been working in my current job, and four years that I have been working from home.  Working from home rocks.  Let me tell you why.

1. No Drop-bys.  In my last job I used to have a line outside my cube on a pretty routine basis.  See, I was the only one who knew how to do my job back then.  When my co-workers wanted me to complete a task for them, they would literally queue up outside of my cube.  I used to joke about putting up one of those take-a-number things that you see at the deli counter in the supermarket.  Or at least charging admission.

Sure, my email inbox is more full now, and my IM dings a lot. But I can answer those at my own pace.  I sure do get a lot more done without having people randomly drop by to chat and ask me to do stuff.  Their requests, over IM, are a lot more focused.

2. No gossip.  I am a wicked gossip fiend.  Working from home has taken me out of the gossip loop.  I used to feel like nobody tells me anything anymore.  But 90% of it is stuff I don’t want to know anyway.  Negative gossip makes me form an unflattering opinion about others.  Because I work from home I still think the best of everyone I work with, and I like each and every one of them.

3. Healthy breakfasts.  I have more time to prepare a healthy breakfast.  Right now I am rocking an egg with handfuls of chopped spinach, chopped broccoli and shredded carrot on a corn tortilla with a piece of fruit. 

Before working from home my breakfast looked like this:

Coffee Milk Ice Cream

Now it looks like this:

Healthy Breakfast

4. I can blast my music and cuss as loud as I want.

5. Lunch time workouts are a lot easier to keep up with, because I have access to a shower right here in my home.  In the last four years I have run two half marathons and a full marathon.  And my butt has never looked better in jeans.

6. Speaking of jeans, people ask me all the time “Wow, so do you just work in your pajamas?”  I usually shoot back, “No, do you?”  I never wear PJs or sweats to work.  I dress for work just like I would if I worked in an office.  But I never worked in a place where I couldn’t wear jeans.  I once turned down a job offer because I would have had to wear suits every day.  I put on makeup every single morning.  I put on lipstick before every single client call—even though they don’t see me.  Because it’s what I would do if I worked in an office.

7. I have saved a fortune on shoes.  Though my dog has developed a taste for expensive LL Bean slippers.  He didn’t bother chewing my $3 Walmart clearance rack slippers.  But the LL Bean ones?  He’s all up in those.

8. Speaking of dogs.  I am with them all day.  My co-workers can see them in my webcam dozing on the futon behind me.  The question whether Nemo is actually alive, as that dog sleeps 23 hours per day.

Dogs

9. Yes, I do run the laundry while I am working.  I can throw a load in, and crank on my work until it’s done.  Before you say that my employer doesn’t pay me to do the wash, let me ask you, does yours pay you for BSing with your co-workers at the water cooler?  I guarantee that putting a load of laundry on takes a lot less time than gossiping.  And gossip sinks ships.  (see #2)

10. No commute.  I have saved, I am sure, hundreds if not thousands of dollars on gas and car maintenance that are common expenses for commuters. Though on occasion I will work from my husband’s office when I feel like wearing shoes and seeing other people.

So, long story short, I LOVE working from home.  I do not foresee myself working in an office ever again if I can help it. 

 

BJ Knapp is the author of Beside the Music, available for purchase here. Please sign up for the Backstage with BJ Knapp mailing list to get updates on events, signings, dog pictures and so much more.

added on 10.26.15

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