The Effects of Working at Home
As access to the internet increases, it is becoming more and more common for people to work from home rather than commute to an office. This has a variety of pros and cons, such as employees having fewer distractions, having more-balanced lives and being more productive in general. If you are thinking of working from home or having one of your employees work from home you should educate yourself as to a few of the key effects of this employment style.
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Isolation
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Since your job takes up such a large portion of your day, it is easy to fall into a habit of developing social connections through it as well, with most of your friends also being workmates. This is fine, but if you work at home you may end up feeling isolated. This isn't an inevitable effect of working at home, but it is something you need to be aware of, and ensure that you find social interaction elsewhere.
Invisibility
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Supervisors sometimes assign value based on what -- or who -- they can see. If you are working from home, your supervisor will seldom, if ever, see you. This means that your work may also be invisible. So, people who work from home need to make a concerted effort to have their work recognized, either by having regular meetings to show what they've accomplished or by going into the office on a semi-regular basis to keep themselves from being both out of sight and out of mind.
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Productivity
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Offices can be distracting, with a number of like-minded people around for you to talk to, gossip with and otherwise do unproductive things with. People who work from home are often more productive than people who work in offices because they don't have people coming to their desks, asking them out to lunch, and generally being distracting. It is also easier to put in overtime when you work from home -- a quick hour after dinner is not a big deal when it doesn't involve an additional hour of commuting.
Cost Cutting
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Renting office space is expensive. If you have some people work from home you can reduce the amount of office space you have to rent, which saves money. This, combined with the fact that telecommuters tend to be more productive, means that staffing some jobs out to workers at home enables employers to do the coveted "more with less."
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