I recently celebrated my 25th year of working from home. The first ten were pre-Internet for me. I started out in Paris from where I directed projects around Europe, Japan, and Hong Kong, so there was a lot of travel involved. Since returning to America in 1991, I have continued to travel on a regular basis, so some of the “working from home” gets subtracted.
All the same, there’s a lot to celebrate when compared to a daily commute of one hour each way and the mixed blessing of seeing the same crew day after day.
I can be at my desk 60 seconds after waking and often am.
I can largely choose what hours I work.
I do not have to put up with co-workers slouching into my office to bitch about the boss or tell me about how they are paneling the basement or how about that Vikes game.
I have a kitchen fifty feet away.
The “men’s room” is fifteen feet away.
I have a window looking out on my Japanese garden.
No one listens in on my telephone conversations except my dog.
I am not called in to pointless meetings merely because of my proximity to the conference room.
I estimate that I have worked about 9 hours per day, 48 weeks per year = 240 days per year. That is exactly 6,000 work days. I estimate one in four was travel, leaving 4,500 days.
What I have saved:
Presuming two hours’ commute time and one hour of bullshit conversations per day:
4,500 days * 3 saved hours = 13,500 hours ~ 562 days to live the rest of my life.
Presuming an average of $8 per day of gas (not to mention all the car mileage), a direct savings of $36,000. Probably have saved on parking as well.
I cannot accurately gauge what I’ve saved on business clothing (suits, ties, shoes) but if we consider 1 $500 suit per year, that would make another $12,500. (I have yet to invest in a bathrobe with my company’s logo.)
There have been some additional costs such as having my own phone line for the fourteen years I’ve been an independent (~ $12K), as well as printers and office supplies (~$10K). Any other down side? Nope.
Better productivity, tangible savings of nearly $30,000, and a sense of liberty no office could ever provide.
Best. Career. Decision. Ever.
I started my at-home career in 1989 when the Loma Prieta earthquake destroyed the road I used to commute. It has continued on two continents and three time-zones. Until time sinks like Facebook and blogging showed up, I was amazingly efficient. Now I find myself commenting on my friends blogs and not getting nearly as much done as before :)
ReplyDeleteSeriously, if only the tax codes, business incentives, and contracting policies of big vendors were more in line with working from home, life would be really sweet.