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Comment by tastybites | Hacker News Reader

A private office is very different than working from home, I'm not sure why that's the same option.

I was surprised by that one, too, even though it actually does apply to me: I work at home about 75% of the time and am in a private office the other 25%. I completely agree that they are apples and oranges.

I've never worked in a private office, so it was hard for me to judge; I thought those two options were quite close.

Could you please list some differences between a home and a private office?

Private offices still have the potential for in-person interruptions. Working from home usually requires electronic communication to get ahold of somebody, which is much easier to defer if you're in the middle of working.

Phone call?

It's not a real substitute to face-to-face discussion, but still is an option to reach someone in urgent cases.

It's a matter of isolation. Working from home takes away the ability for you to walk over to someone's desk/office and have a quick chat or go over a problem that may be difficult to cover via email or IM. And no matter how accessible you try to make yourself, when you're working from home, the distance barrier means that your coworkers won't consider you as someone to contact easily. It also means people are more likely to forget to pass on information because when they don't see you, they don't think about you as much.

I'm wondering whether you mean a work area where each employee has his own office, or an office for an independent programmer without coworkers. The latter might be similar to home working, though without the casualness (coding while undressed) or ability to attend to home/family tasks at the same time.

a work area where each employee has his own office

Your own room in a company building.

You've just marked yourself as somebody who is very likely still in college and/or under the age of 25 and/or does not have spouse and kids and dog and cat, etc. :)

The latter.

Now I remember I once discussed this with a friend of mine who is married and has a kid; he told that it's much easier to concentrate in the office.

So, yes, my bad, the first line should've been split in two.

I submit that properly trained, "spouse and kids and dog and cat" aren't disruptive. I have all of those but a dog and work at home for hours at a time without interruption.

At home my wife or kids can bother me every 5 minutes. Literally. Every. Five. Minutes.

Indeed it is. At home I don't have my office neighbor yelling questions through the wall at me.

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