You wake up in your footie pj’s and you don’t have to exchange them for the good ol’ business casual. You can shuffle across the hardwood floors in your hot pink argyle socks, who cares that you’ve paired them with mint colored shorts? Don’t lie you even have Risky Business moments when your spouse is at work. Every day you save the planet by sparing the world from yet another commuter. Yep, these are the joys of working from home. You are a motivated self-starter; you have to be to get everything done to be able to pay the bills.
Yet, there are always pit falls, you leave the house less than your peers. If you want an extra job outside of the house you’re always questioned about your ability to integrate back into society; as if staying in your house means that you have checked out of civilization and signed up for the hermit club. Ok, ok so you socialize and you know it, your income relies on it. But the rest of the world doesn’t believe it. There’s another problem; you live where you work and you work where you live, you have to either learn to turn off the job or you’ll find yourself working 24 hours a day. You know what it takes to balance life and work.
I’ve been working at home for 4 years now, all that time in a small 700 sq ft house. There are comforts here, there are draw backs here, and some days I flee the space. My Netflix, Pandora, Spotify, and Openlibrary keep me company when social interactions are lacking. I can work on the floor, I can work in the hall, and when I’m sick – I can work from bed. My fridge is full-sized and holds a variety of choices for my lunch. My coffee pot is my friend, and when it stops being faithful I can end its contract. Most of all, my dog has constant company (because it is all about him), although I think he ignores me from 9-5. I’ve read about shared spaces, but I need solid internet and a customizable desk/chair setup. I need a powerful desktop because a laptop doesn’t always work for video. I’d be adding an extra expenditure for the space in addition to the commute and thus I’d contribute to the planet’s destruction. Now this isn’t to say that I’d avoid the commute if an office job found me. I mean, the stability of the 9-5 or comfortable warmth of lovely, lovely argyle socks… what’s a girl supposed to do?