Working From Home Sucks

Originally posted on Substack July 13, 2023

After quitting the job I was commuting to back in early 2000’s, I began working from home full-time. I loved spending more time with our young kids, it allowed me to spend more time in my community and less time in a car commuting.

Back when I made this shift, it involved significant personal and professional risk. At that point in my career, I had developed enough of a professional network and competency to risk walking away from a secure, full-time job and wandering into the unknown.

It was a huge decision I didn’t take lightly. My family and I discussed it for months before I acted. The truth is, I had no idea what I was getting myself into, in hindsight.

Ok, let’s cut to the chase. Shifting from commuting to an office five days a week to working from home full-time is a monstrous change.

At first, I loved working from home. Instead of spending my days avoiding that person in the office who would reenact the latest Simpson’s episode to me, I saw my young children more.

Working from home, however, introduces an entirely new set of tasks on top of your regular work deliverables. You're adding a whole new layer of jobs to what you're already doing. Understanding how to avoid dirty dishes, what a break or ‘water cooler’ looks and feels like, how to not feel guilty about recharging during the day, how to really gauge your productivity. You need to figure all this out and you’re mostly alone in doing that.

My kids were young enough, I’m not sure they understood that parents left the house for work. I recall watching one of my kids talking with a friend who was complaining how their dad was gone all day at work. I could see the wheels turning in my kids brain. Of course I assumed they were appreciating the sacrifices we’d made to be home with them more. My son looked at his friend and said…

“Your parents leave your house to go to work?”

Ok, so maybe the kids would prefer we left the house more? Hey, this whole ‘hybrid’ deal wasn’t even a thing back then!

If you’re new to working from home, it’ll take you a few years to get over the initial rush of freedom which comes with it. If you’re early in your working career, working from home can be a big professional risk. The personal freedoms are great. Being more present in your community is great. Not having to spend hours in a car is awesome.

On the other side, the loneliness sucks. The potential for added strain on your family is real. The lack of professional community and comradery is hard. The career impact is almost exclusively negative, even more so if you aren’t working for yourself. The easiest person to blame is the one NOT in the meeting.

For me, after 3+ successful years of working from home full-time, I was done with it. I had to get out. Yes, the freedom was cool but there’s a dark side to it. I made my next shift and swore to myself that I would never work from home full-time ever again.

I completely shutdown my home office and……..well that’s another story….