Hacker News Reader

Comment by jrumbut | Hacker News Reader

Yeah, I'm two weeks into this and badly miss my office.

Edit: no children either, just easier to work with people in the same building sometimes.

Yep, me too. Early 30s and childless. I've never liked working from home, and now I'm forced to do it. It sucks. I like having someone looking over my shoulder (look what I'm spending time on right now!). I like having a bus to catch at 3:00 so my day ends right there. I like having a commute that separates work from home. I like having people to talk to and make jokes with. I like having separate work and home computers. For me, the benefits of WFH are...? I honestly can't think of any.

>Early 30s and childless. I've never liked working from home

I'll chime in here.. perhaps you don't like working from because you are childless? In my opinion it's the the opposite of what people are thinking... I think you would find that the people who like working from home are ones with kids (let's say >5 where they can at least take care of themselves long enough without worry of instant death.. infants/toddlers are obviously an exception here, unless you have a stay-at-home spouse and a separate part of the home).

The reason is that when you have kids you have a day-to-day schedule with them that is vital for the family's sanity. Your kids also will start to have schedules like school & activities. Also, you simply want to see and spend time with your kids. Being gone/unavailable from the moment you wake up until 6pm might not be an issue for people when they are a little younger without kids, because they still have the whole night to do whatever. I was like that in my 20s. I worked until 6/7pm and I didn't mind at all. I had plenty of energy afterwards to unwind without basically a care in the world.

In my late 30s with young kids, I am supremely lucky to work from home (I have done this full time for like 7 years so this is nothing new to me). I get to spend a LOT more time with my kids, take care of the house (billions of more things to do with kids around), and all that jazz without worrying about being fixed into a schedule where I would never see them.

I guess I could go on and on.. but that's my view on all of this.

Not sure if this counts but I like working from home because I have a dog that I feel guilty leaving for 11 hours out of the day every weekday - especially if it's going to be a particularly rainy or hot day and he has to stay outdoors. He's pretty easy going so I don't have to play with him all the time but just give him company.

Also after getting into full time work I realise I have no time for anything, my schedule after I get home is pretty much cook dinner, dog responsibilities, and 1 hour of spare time before I have to sleep (otherwise I'm yawning throughout the next day). I've just made an extra 3 hours free in my day because I'm not commuting to work.

It definitely takes more discipline to work from home because I get easily distracted. And I think I wouldn't mind it being on an on/off schedule as opposed to 100% WFH. I usually like being alone but I can see it starting to creep up on me. Our team recently did a virtual lunch and it worked better than I expected!

I like having a separate work space, a separate work computer, and half an hour's bike ride between work and home. But you can still do those things while working from home, and you end up living cheaper with a more customizable workplace (I can play whatever radio I want, I can set the temperature how I like it...), and no-one looking over your shoulder (I really can't understand seeing that as a positive). If you try to just work in the space where you were living without adapting it at all then yeah it's not gonna go well. But there can be upsides once you've taken the time and effort to adapt.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com