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Top Five Reasons To Work At Home

May 10th, 2007 · 47 Comments

I have decided to enter ProBlogger’s Top 5 — Group Writing Project.

The project fits nicely with a topic that I’ve been mulling over recently. That topic concerns the advantages of my work-at-home lifestyle.

Although there are drawbacks to working at home (especially when you are self-employed like I am), most of the time I truly feel that I am living my dream.

Here are the top advantages to working at home (as I see it):

1. Scheduling Flexibility.

With my work-at-home lifestyle I have scheduling flexibility that simply can’t be matched in any traditional 9 to 5 environment. If I want to chaperone my child’s field trip during the day and work in the evening, I do so. If I want to sleep until 10:00 a.m. and start my workday at 11:00 a.m., I do so. If I can’t sleep at 4:00 a.m. and I want to get up and work on my latest project, I can do it. I’ve used this flexibility to be more involved in my children’s school lives, to help care for my father when he had Alzheimer’s disease, and even to avoid the busy after work rush at local shops.

2. You Can Say No.

When I worked for a single employer my projects were pretty much determined by whoever happened to be my manager. Even if I thought the project didn’t make good business sense, I still had to give it my best shot or lose my employment. As a self-employed individual, clients contact me and ask me if I am available to work on their project. If a project comes along that makes no business sense (such as writing 1000 word SEO articles for $1.00 a piece), I can say no. Even if I say no to a project, at the end of the day I still have my writing business.

3. No Commute.

When I was working in the corporate world it didn’t seem to matter where I was employed. With a few exceptions, my employers always seemed to be located about one hour and 15 minutes away. That’s two and a half hours of driving every day. When you add it up over the course of a week the commute comes to 12 1/2 hours. If you add it up over the course of a month, that commute actually comes to fifty hours. Wow, that’s like putting in an extra workweek every single month! No wonder I was so tired.

4. No Dress Code.

Although I usually do dress for work (old habits die hard I guess), I don’t have to dress up since my office is behind my kitchen. Not needed to dress up comes in really handy if I’m behind on doing on the laundry.

5. Pets Are Allowed.

I can’t think of a better coworker and officemate than my 16-pound terrier mix. She doesn’t gossip and she’s not competing with me for the good projects. Her office attendance is perfect too, she never misses a day. She’s willing to listen to all of my work ideas without getting bored or criticizing. Besides, since she’s somewhat territorial I feel a bit safer with her around.

There you have it — the five reasons why I won’t trade my home office for a cubicle.

Contents (c) Copyright 2007, Laura Spencer. All rights reserved. 

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