The Pros and Cons of Working from Home

With the start of the COVID Pandemic, many people were forced to shift from working in an office space to working from home. Despite the end of the pandemic many people still do, or they have a hybrid schedule where they spend some days in the office and some at home. In this day and age of computers and technology working from home is easy. However, it can also be very difficult. Today we're going to go a little in depth into some of the pros and cons to help you decide which one is best for you.

Cons

Let's start with the cons for this, because there are many pros to working from home that no one really thinks deep about why it's not a good thing.

One negative thing is that depending on what you are doing it can be very difficult to be able to find work from home jobs. Although now many call centers are allowing people to enter into their job remotely, it's not easy to actually get the job. I, personally, am in a group on Facebook that is ran by a woman who finds legitimate work from home jobs so that others don't struggle to weed out if it's really remote work or not as some companies don't actually make it clear if remote work is allowed with the job you are applying for. Many of the in the group have even stated that they had applied for the same job three or four times before they got it. No one knows why that happens, it just does.

To follow up, but also included, in that negative is if you wish to do secretarial type work. There once was a site that everyone would talk about being able to use to get Freelance work through. I was excited about doing that myself, and jumped in. However, coming with everyone wanting to do that came an uptick in scams artists doing their work. I had actually sent off my information to one before I realized it was a scam. True Freelance work will never ask you to pay to receive the work that you are asked to do, and unfortunately many of the jobs on that site do just that. Some people still have success on it, but many no longer do and give up quickly because of it.

Starting your own business is hard no matter what or where you are, but generally it always starts from home. Even starting a bakery, a coffee shop, or a store frount for things that you make; it all starts from home because you have to get licenses and depending on what you're doing certain certifications. You have to have all of that before you can even consider leasing or buying an actual place to sell your stuff. Even those that do MLM jobs have a lot to take on! Sometimes your startup costs are more than what you can make in you first couple months. I started one as a second generation, as my mother did it when I was younger, and right out the gate I paid almost $600. By the time I quit, I hadn't even made half of that back. With MLMs you generally have some type of starter kit you have to buy; certain ones will require you to take credit cards and may even have a specific program that can cost to even get you going (mine was $40 for a year). Depending on the MLM, you may be required either by the company or your upline to buy product to have on hand; that is where it can get costly because there is generally a minimum you have to buy in a specific time frame in order to receive the Consultant Discount. Between the two that I went through, one was $400 in product every 3 months, even though that went down to $200; and the other one was a dollar every 3 months, but that one didn't have a startup kit. I was actually required to build that myself if I wanted one.

Another one is that if you do manage to secure working from home for a call center, some will require you to be able to have a door that can shut, a completely separate workspace. Let's face it, not everyone can have a special office space in their household. That makes it a bit difficult; especially if you the speculations say that you can't have it in your own bedroom. Don't get me wrong, I fully understand why, having worked in a call center before! You have access to people's private information. That is something that should definitely be kept under lock and key; but not everyone can, and I personally feel that the overseers have to understand that. Honestly, having two kids, a work computer would be safer in my room than anywhere else as my children don't enter my bedroom unless it's an emergency. So sometimes it can be difficult with certain requirements.

The last con about working from home is the lack of social interaction. Correction: lack of adult social interaction. Considering now days most people that wish to work from home are those who are mothers, the only ones we interact with would be customers and our kids. Sometimes once you get comfortable at home (because anxiety isn't as uncommon as it once was) you find yourself wanting to go out less and less. This can actually also cause problems if you do decide to work for a MLM because as a consultant you are required to find your own customers and build your own schedule.

If any of you do work for a MLM, please do not think I am bashing that choice of work! I struggled with finding customers because of the people I know and the income most of them have, and I also struggled with my own confidence; I didn't have the greatest support system either as I was constantly told that I was a failure. Many people are very successful with MLMs! But the best consultants who works with MLMs, also acknowledge that it is not a line of work for everybody.

Pros

I actually mentioned one of the pros above, as it also doubles as a negative. Many people who choose to work from home are Stay at Home Mothers. In the current economic climate, it is very rare that families are able to live and survive as a single income household. However, day care can be expensive and not everyone has family around to watch the kids. Therefore, working from home can be a big bonus especially when you have kids who are at an age where they are fully self-sufficient. My children are going into third and fifth grade come the end of summer, they are self-sufficient enough that I can work from home with no problem. Well, mostly no problem. They are kids, and as all parents know kids will fight.

Another pro is that generally you can make your own schedule for the most part. Obviously, this depends on the job that you are doing, as some places will require you to clock in and out at certain times like a normal job. Being able to make your own schedule is a great positive because then if you have a doctor's appointment or something important come up, you're not technically missing work. With that pro, comes the fact that then you can feel like you can have a normal and social life. It's easier to call your friends up and schedule a night out because you may not be as stressed out from a day at work and don't want to see anyone. It frees you up to be able to do things that you may not have been able to make time for before.

As I mentioned, anxiety is actually becoming a much more common thing these days; I would be hard pressed to find someone who doesn't have some type of it. That includes social anxiety. People who have social anxiety have it in two ways: general social interactions or being social in general. These are different. General social interactions can be considered working in customer service; you are interaction with the general public all the time. Sometimes you can freeze up when someone asks you a question and suddenly not know the answer. Being social in general is like going out with friends or to a family function. You could thrive at work, interacting with complete strangers with no problem; but it changes when it comes to interacting with people that you know and talk to often. If you have anxiety of general social interactions, you may be better off working from home where you can interact with people over the computer or phone more often than not.

There are many pros and cons to working from home, these are just a few. I know I went a bit heavy on the cons list today but part of that is because when you mention working from home to people you generally only list the pros, and everyone accepts it as a good idea. Not everyone is up for working strictly from home, and it's good to be able to see why that may not be the best idea. Here, you can stop and think about why it might not be the best, but also be reminded that it can still be a good idea.

Until next time friends, stay safe and stay hydrated!