working from home?

In light of this recent trending debate, how many of you work from home once in a while and have pretty flexible work schedule? I’ve read arguments going both ways, but to me the “results only environment” is only positive. When we have to close a deal nobody cares if it’s the weekend, your birthday or how many hours you’ve slept in the past three nights - conversely, when there’s jack $hit to do at the office, I don’t see the importance in “facetime” and having to clock 9 to 5 at your desk.

Of course I’d imagine its different if your hours are generally tied to the market and you need extensive tech support beyond just a laptop…

I think the issue is “out of sight; out of mind,” people forget you if you aren’t in front of them. Then when it’s axeing time, they figure you’re not around, so you must not be doing anything. Or they undervalue your contribuition.

I agree that in a perfect world, it’s results that matter only, but the world isn’t perfect.

That said, I like having the opportunity to work from home when needed. I know a number of people who have setups where they can work from home one or two days a week, and that’s a big help. Obviously, home days can be cancelled if there is an immediate reason, but it adds some flexibility.

I guess that’s another dimension you bring up that I tend to overlook - the size of your organization. If it’s easy for you and your work contribution to get lost in the crowd, then you need more facetime to remind the Man you exist…

My office is pretty flexible most of the time and extremely flexible under certain circumstances. I’ve actually been able to work remotely for a month at a time on several occasions. 95% of my client interaction is phone or email though, so they don’t care where I am. There is certainly a bit lost with not being able to actually sit down with staff or peers to discuss something, but the benefit of keeping me productive and happy more than offsets that.

My job doesn’t allow for work from home flexibility and to be honest I’m fine with that. Our work is really collaborative and somewhat technical and it would be difficult if any of us worked remotely. We also have relatively frequent in person client interaction, sometimes at the last minute.

Personally I don’t like working from home for more than a day or two so the ability to do that isn’t a draw for me. I did that occasionally in my last job and I go stir crazy if I’m home that much. I live alone so work makes up most of my social interaction. Plus I live only 5 miles from my office and have an easy commute so working from home wouldn’t be that much of a gain in time.

In most jobs, productivity is subjective. If you’re in sales or something that only considers the final numbers, then maybe it’s ok. But let’s say you’re in accounting or something where your boss just rates you on a 1 to 10 scale. It’s very possible that your rating is determined mostly by face time, not the actual work.

I work from home at least once or twice a week. It has not affected my performance rating as yet, but I work on a global team with people located in the US, Europe and Asia. I mean, I only see my European or Asian peers once or twice a year anyway, but I talk to them almost every day.

I think there’s a difference between working from home a day or two a week and working from home most of the time.

I am actually in a phase where I work from home most of the time, and although I love the commute, I actually want to go into an office more often. It can be a bit isolating and you wonder if you are really moving the projects forward effectively when it’s just you, a computer screen, and a phone. This is because we were taken over by a firm out west, where all the offices are, and we closed the NY office to save money. There is talk about reopening a NY location, and I can’t wait until that happens.

I envy anyone who works from home. Due to hurricane Sandy I had the opportunity to work from home for about a month. During this period I could avoid the zombie office PC talk, be direct and work more efficiently. I found myself working later and over the weekend where as I tend to leave my work at the office now that I am back working on site.

I live near Riverside Park. What’s great about working at home is the ability to throw on some running shorts and do my run up to the GW bridge and back (about 5-6 miles), then shower and be back to work in a decent amount of time.

In my previous job, I used to work from home 2-3 times a month. It was more productive and I liked it.

Here, no work from home :(. My boss likes to keep me in his sight. Sigh!

oooooo

I’m judged by three or four events in a year, none of them related to the amount of time I spend in front of my desk. I have to travel a lot and my boss is in another country, so people who work for me often don’t see me and for them it is normal.

My two kids scream like if they were six, so even though I have enough flexibility to work from home when needed, rarely do it except maybe when weather is impossible. However sometimes I use my time to do other stuff in the morning. The other day for instance I went to my daughter’s kindergarten for a morning activity with the parents and it was fun. Very doable teacher, BTW. I think her boyfriend has to bang her badly every night to relieve the constant stress to be around annoying kids year-round.

You crack me up IEV.

BTW, I never saw ballet girl again (though I showed up same time/same place hoping). It was one of those moments that will take long long time to forget. However, these opportunities seem to be happening with greater frequency as I age. Go figure.

Am I the only one who wants IEV to set up a flickr album so we can see the case by case, blow by blow documentation?

EDIT: of the “prospects”, not the actual blow by blow.

I agree with IEV’s take on working from home. I have a toddler, another on the way, three cats who can’t sit anywhere other than on my keyboard or workpapers, a Wii, a PlayStation 2, a Playstation 3, a 55" TV with 255 channels and a Blu-Ray player, yards to mow, dishes to wash, floors to vacuum, and a wife that likes to talk and wants me to listen.

I can’t work from home. I’d rather just get up and drive to the office. (In fact, I don’t even study at home. I’ll either study at work or at a library.)

When I work from home I’ll often bring my typewriter to Starbucks equivalent and flirt with the tatooed barista. I get free lattes, extra foam.

This is the trend I see - those more established (dare I say BSDs) who have the option to work from home dont because they have an established family and results in to much distractions. Alternatively, those up-and-coming slaves who wouldn’t mind skipping the commute and working from home are not provided such luxuries.

If she’s a regular I think you’ll see her again. A good play could be to find out her schedule with a good excuse, but it depends on your preference. Maybe that’s too much. But yeah, in general it’s good to see we are not dead for the girls. I also flirt here and there sometimes, just to see if I still have game.

Re: the flickr album, yeah, I had a good excuse to take pics of the teacher. Next time I’m going to bring my SRL camera to get quality shots of her. Preferably during the summer … mmmmm.

She may have been there just for an audition. I was hoping it might be for a class…