You feel your face light up when your boss tells you that they are moving to remote work. You’ll have more time to spend with your kids and spouse. You’ll be able to get your laundry and other household chores are done, too.
This is a trap that many people fall into. Working from home is still a career. You can’t skip out on calling someone in to watch the kids while you spend your day in your office.
If you do, you’ll burn yourself out. This is one of the many cons of working from home. Check out this guide to learn why you may want to rethink your position.
There’s No Community
When you’re working from home, it’s you and your computer. You don’t have any immediate co-workers unless you count your furry friends. There are occasions when you might enter a Zoom meeting with your co-workers, but it’s not the same as chatting by the water fountain during your break.
It does decrease some of the distractions that come from working in an office setting, but humans are social creatures. The isolation can get to you after a while.
You’ve Got to Set Up a Home Office
If you want to deduct your remote working expenses from your taxes, you need your own personal office space. You can’t set up your desk in the living room and expect it to count. Finding a room can be impossible if you’re already full up.
When you do find a space to set up your office, you have to spend money on furniture, and in some cases, office equipment. Your boss might be willing to give you a computer and some software, but if you need a printer, that’s going to come out of your own pocket.
You can write the money you spend off on your taxes, but it’s going to be a while before you see that cash in your bank account. Getting the setup together can be impossible if you live paycheck to paycheck.
It’s Not Easy to Concentrate
One of the biggest remote work disadvantages is distractions. Since you don’t leave the house, everyone thinks that you can stop what you’re doing at the drop of a hat to take the garbage out or walk your pet.
Some people think that you have all the time in the world to burn during the day, so they call you. They fail to realize that your job is still a job. If you get distracted, you have to make that time up somewhere.
If it’s not a phone call, it’s the dryer going off, your neighbors talking too loudly, or your dog barking. It can be way too many stimuli, which leads to simple work mistakes.
It’s Hard to Stay Motivated
“I’ll start working on this project again after a quick nap,” you lied to yourself. Staying motivated and on task is a huge con of remote work.
One of the reasons to go to an office is that pep talk that you get from John in accounting. If you don’t have someone there pumping you up, it’s easy to deflate and become disinterested in work.
You Can Burn Yourself Out
In some cases, there’s nobody there telling you when to clock out when you work from home. You set your own schedule, which makes it easy to overwork yourself. This is especially true if you’ve always been an overachiever.
If you don’t give yourself a little room to breathe, you’ll burn out and lose motivation faster than anything. You need to come up with a set schedule and give yourself some time during the day where you don’t even think about your laptop.
You Can’t Get Away from Needing Childcare
Many parents fall into the trap of thinking that they can take care of their children and work from home at the same time. After the fourth or fifth mom/dad, you’ll realize that it’s impossible.
Children can be demanding. You can tell them not to bother you when your office door is closed until you’re blue in the face. It doesn’t mean that they’re going to listen.
The only way to get some time to work is to hire someone to take care of your children while you’re in the office. If you don’t, you’ll never get anything done.
The Hours Are Too Flexible
There’s such a thing as having hours that are too flexible. Yeah, you can take a three-hour break to take a nap, go to the grocery store, and play with the dog, but you’re going to have to make up those hours later.
That means that you’re going to be in the office a little bit longer than you initially anticipated. This can lead to our old friend burnout that we mentioned above.
You Don’t Move Around as Much
Even though many have a sedentary job working in an office, they still get thousands of steps in every day. Think about it. You run all over the house in the morning getting ready, then you go out to your car, drive to work, walk to the office, head to the water fountain every once in a while, walk to the place across the street for lunch, and more.
When you work from home, the most steps you get in is walking your dog during your lunch break or taking a small trip to the coffee maker in the kitchen. As you can imagine, this isn’t good for your health in the slightest.
It’s for this reason and more why even bosses are against the idea of employees working from home. You can visit beoffices.com to learn more about that.
Cons of Working from Home That Nobody Thinks About
Working remotely sounds great until you think about all the cons of working from home. People don’t realize all the disadvantages until it’s too late.
Don’t let yourself fall into the trap of burnout and isolation. Head out to a coffee shop to get some human interaction at least once a week and give yourself a set schedule. This might be enough to keep you sane.
