But, working from home is not all a bed of roses. There are some definite drawbacks, so today I thought I'd post a few of them.
Now, I could have made this list up entirely by myself, but I decided to ask some others in the work-at-home community for their feedback instead.
Since I know that a lot of participants in the new Social Media craze, Twitter, work from home, I decided to pose the question on Twitter. (Thanks to all my fellow Twitterers for their participation...)
I quickly got some responses. Here's some of what the Twitterers said about work from home drawbacks (I've used the Twitter names here, but I encourage you to follow the links to their blogs and get to know them better):
- GeekGal of Geek Habitat mentioned that working at home can be noisy. She specifically mentioned toddler noise. It's true, if you have children at home, then there will be noise. She also mentioned that you get less breaks when you work from home - a fact that I think is true because the line between work and home tends to blur.
- Divapalooza of Domestic Divapalooza brought up a drawback that I've dealt with a few times myself: interruptions. If I had a dime for every time the doorbell rang...
- DebNg of Freelance Writing Jobs described how other's demands on your time can be a distraction because "they think that you can drop what you're doing." I know that I've had people ask me to run errands during the day.
- evansmom of the VTOR blog listed her own downside to working at home: "fully stocked kitchen, eyes drawn to Xmas tree needles under TV cabinet instead of paid work ... cat demanding food..." I can relate to that. No matter how much I get done, there's always more to do.
- slpowell of Lost in the Words mentioned the lack of adult socialization as one of the drawbacks to working from home (and I know that she's not the only one that feels that way. Loneliness is often an issue that WAHMs face.)
- blemmet of Writing From The Trenches agreed that home workers often have trouble getting others to respect their time. Then blemmet started to list all of the people in her life who expect her to do errands for them during the day. (What WAHM hasn't got a call from a friend or relative asking for a favor?)
- jenweissman of The Mote, The Who and The Goose dislikes the constant reminder of undone housework (dishes and laundry). Who doesn't have at least some undone household chores (I say as the stack of unfolded laundry beckons to me)?
- SHurleyHall of Get Paid to Write Online described the lack of respect people have for those who work at home. She also dislikes phone interruptions. (Why won't those telemarketers leave us alone?)
What about you? What do you think is the biggest drawback to working from home?
Leave a comment and let us know.
Image Source: www.sxc.hu
Thanks for including my comment, Laura. Working at home isn't all sweetness and light. It's a refreshing change to look at the drawbacks as well.
Posted by: Sharon Hurley Hall - Get Paid To Write Online | April 9, 2008 2:50 PM | Permalink to Comment