Working from home

I got an interesting anonymous comment about working from home yesterday. The point was made that working from home will make your office think they can do without you. So I thought I’d elaborate on my situation.

It's a good point. However, in my case it’s a little different. My office knows they can do without me. Why? Because I don't do anything related to the business in this office. I work for projects outside of this office. No one else on these projects is at this office nor are any of the people in charge of these projects. No one really need me to be there. A year ago when I started this position, it was going to come with a temporary relocation. However, budget wise for the company and personally for me, it worked out better than I have my base out of my home city.

So you see. Basically my office is just a place where I have a cubicle with a phone, power outlet and Internet for my laptop. I’m not even on the same network as the rest of the office and have to log onto another network.

That being said. I try not to work from home too much. It’s easy to get distracted and lose that home/work boundary. Also, I am already very disconnected from the people I work with because we all work remotely. I don’t want to isolate myself further by not even being around the people in this office.

Oh and my office can do without me in the office. But I bring in good money for them because they are the ones who bill my hours.