Top Five Reasons To Work At Home
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.Â
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About the Author: I am a successful freelance writer with 19 years of copy writing experience. I am available for web content writing, business writing, copy writing, editing, and technical writing. In addition, I have written an ebook, 
Mihaela Lica | May 10, 2007 | Reply
1000 word SEO articles for $1.00 a piece????? What?
No no! Don’t let me in the dark here. Give me some details!
Lillie Ammann | May 10, 2007 | Reply
Laura,
These are great reasons to work at home, and ones I share. #4 is a big one for me;-)
Yvonne Russell | May 11, 2007 | Reply
All great reasons Laura. I especially enjoyed reading #5 on Pets.
laura | May 11, 2007 | Reply
Mihaela, I was going from memory on the 1000 word SEO article for a $1.00. I saw something very much like that the other day, but I usually just glance at this type of opportunity and pass it by without bookmarking. There is a posting on the WAHMs Who Write forum (WAHM.com) for writers who will write for exposure and links (without pay). I am sorry that I can’t send you directly to the posting, but trust me that I see postings like this a lot.
Lillie, I think that we WAHMs save a lot of money in the wardrobe area. While I have some nice outfits, I’m not constantly paying the drycleaner because I don’t wear them every day. Plus, the outfits last a lot longer.
Yvonne. Thanks, do you have a pet? I think working with a pet is a definite stress reducer. I can understand why it’s not practical in a corporate environment, though.
Darlene | May 12, 2007 | Reply
good reasons. i work from home and am employed. it is great to work for a company and work from home also. at some point i will run my business and work for myself. but until then, i enjoy my home office and the check i get from my employer.
Darlene | May 12, 2007 | Reply
good reasons. i work from home and am employed. it is great to work for a company and work from home also. at some point i will run my business and work for myself. but until then, i enjoy my home office and the check i get from my employer. i trust that i did not duplicate my comments.
Mihaela Lica | May 13, 2007 | Reply
This is incredible! It is really an offense to the writers. As writing for links. A link doesn’t mean a lot if it is not a valuable link… God! I have to write an entry about this topic. Too bad you cannot send me to that posting, but I’ll do some research of my own and let you know what I come up with.
laura | May 14, 2007 | Reply
Hi Darlene!
Thanks for stopping by!
Mihaela,
I got all the links because I participated in the group writing project at ProBlogger. He listed and linked all of the entries, but apparently many of the entrants linked to his entire list, possibly without reading. (Personally, I wish that they’d read.)
I’ve done group writing projects like blog carnivals and memes before, but this is the largest response. I think it is because Problogger had over 800 entrants.
Laura
Cin77 | May 25, 2007 | Reply
I personally like #1. I can just take a nap whenever I want to and have a telecon while sitting at my kitchen table relaxing instead of in a room crammed with people.
I also liked #5 because I love cats. Although there is this one time that when I went to a job interview (it was many years ago at a dot-com) I notice some of employees had dogs following them around in the office and everyone just wore t-shirt and shorts. It was the most wierd coprate environment I’ve ever seen.
Karen | Jun 13, 2007 | Reply
Hi…… I have been browsing your site and I must say you have done a great
Maybe you can
job. I am going to bookmark you for sure. I have a blog
home business
opportunities. It covers mostly home based business opportunities related
stuff. If you get a chance please come buy an take a look
offer some helping tips for my site.
Laura | Jun 18, 2007 | Reply
Welcome Karen!
I’ll definitely check out your site.
Mary Emma Allen | Jul 4, 2007 | Reply
Great post, Laura. I only discovered it because I read your 6 month round-up. However, I’m going to link to it on my Home Biz Notes blog. I think my readers could benefit from your tips or reasons.
kalpesh | Aug 8, 2007 | Reply
writers must be respected, asking them to write for links is exploitation. A good writer’s work would get noticed somehow sooner or later.
Laura | Aug 8, 2007 | Reply
Umm! Hi Kalpesh!
Not quite sure what you’re talking about, but welcome to my blog.
tash | Nov 9, 2008 | Reply
Yes I am all for working at home, I just need to find the right oppotunity for me. I live in small town with not many jobs going, so I would love to start something from home, great blog you have
Susan | Feb 27, 2009 | Reply
You certainly hit my top reasons for working from home. They are also significant stress reducers. For me that is particularly true when it comes to no commute and no dress code. I have always found getting ready and out the door only to face bumper to bumper traffic incredibly stressful. Not too keen on snow covered roads either. I didn’t start enjoying winter until I started working at home. Now I pull up in front of the woodstove with my laptop and phone and I’m good to go. Doesn’t hurt that the dog is asleep at my feet either.