Over the last couple of weeks, I was on errands on the roads of hot and steaming Bangalore. As someone who typically prefers staying home,for a change, I loved the excitement of meeting with my ex-colleagues, networking in person and the opportunity to soak up lots of one-on-one, face-to-face interaction. I thrive on these things! However after being a road warrior for many years I must confess it was quite nice to return back..
I can talk for hours about my horror stories from years of commuting but I won’t go into that here. There is only so much you can say about the hassle of missed flights, challenging traffic, smelly rental cars, getting lost on crowded roads, throwing up in strange places, missing family events, etc., etc. without getting boring. And we all know the challenges of traveling to a work location. But do we also know there can be downsides working from home too? These are lessons that I learnt when I used work from home few days of the week on and off quite a few years ago...
Top 10 Reasons: Why Working from Home Can (Sometimes) be Dangerous....
*1. You can visit the refrigerator whenever you want
*2. You develop a tendency to work around the clock
*3. You only go into the office when you have a PC issue
*4. Your parents think you sit around all day watching TV with your feet up
*5. You face horrific wardrobe erosion (and this problem is worsened by #1 on the list)
*6. You start to get rusty meeting with people either in person even if you’ve “met” them on a webcam
*7. You develop zero patience for traffic and/or commutes of any kind
*8. You consider a trip to your local coffee shop across the street to be a “big outing”
*9. Your family, friends and colleagues get jealous when you talk about it
*10.You have to work much harder to build, maintain and nurture your professional networking relationships
Don’t get me wrong, I just love and appreciate working from home.Having mom made hot food at the right time and many such benefits. But some of the issues above are real ones I’ve faced. As we hear more and more about the flexibility of working remotely – which is fabulous – I hope these gave you both food for thought and a bit of a chuckle. While I wouldn't have traded the arrangement I had at that stage of my life for anything I think it is fair to say there can be challenges in any work environment...
Now that I'm jobless :P I guess something was better than nothing...
