work: at home vs. at an office

[shecky]

this is mostly directed at freelancers/consultants/independent contractors/1-person businesses.

i am wondering what the MR collective thinks about working out of a home office or studio vs. getting space in an office, either as part of a suite/studio with other people or even just a solo room in a larger space. do you find you get bored or isolated at home? no contact with others? do you find the expense of an outside office to not be worth it? the commute to the office or studio feel like a waste of time?

while i do teach, when i am not teaching i work out of a home studio and i am starting to think about getting some shared space with a few other designers; just wondering what everyone's experiences are.

 

[Blue Velvet]

I have a love/hate relationship with working at home... usually, I work in an office but can work from home if I need to, which I sometimes do on large projects.

At home, I've little distraction, except from MR and can listen to music as loud as I like. I can also nap and have access to all my work emails. At work, the interaction makes life interesting but also challenging... I do my best thinking at home or on the tube to work as the office is too full of interruptions, phone calls and the like.

If I changed my job and shared a space with other designers, I would personally find it more comfortable with 1-3 other people, tops.

 

[imac/cheese]

I personally would have a hard time working at home. There are too many distractions with family and such, but even if I were single I think it would be hard to motivate myself to work when there are so many other things I would rather do. At the office, it is easier to get myself working.

 

[iKwick7]

I used to work at home- for about a month or so while my office was switching offices. It was great and I miss it- I could do things that needed to be done around the house or errands or such, if I needed to, and I found myself working later than I would on a normal work day. Louder music, better lunches, no one to annoy me- I definitely got more work done.

 

[applehero]

I've been working from home now for ~3 1/2 years. I like it, but sometimes it's hard to stay focused when things are slow. I go into the office for a few days every other month or so. It's nice to see everyone and actually get some face time, but I prefer working from home as I can get things done more efficiently, and when things are slow, I can get things done around the house to keep the wife happy!

 

[ricgnzlzcr]

Working from home is nice but it can have its downfalls. It's easy to want to stay in bed longer than I should a lot and there's also the issue of not being able to get away from your work because it's always with you. Overall I like what I'm doing though so it's ok.

 

[djbahdow01]

Ive worked from home as well as worked in an office. Lately I have been more in the office but both has its advantages. Since I am working in a corporate enviroment I have a lot of short order photography jobs. Something quick and easy. And a lot of the time IMPORTANT, get it done quick. If I was at home it would be very time consuming as I would either need to head to the office or have them overnite it to me to shoot the next day. Also on the design side IT has a very strict access policy so if we do work from home we need to take the files we need to work on. No access from the outside, which I don't blame them but some times I feel they do things backwards. But oh well.

I love working from home, as I seem to be more focused and no matter what I always seem to work longer like another poster has said.

Then again I work at the office, then do some other freelance work when I get home so I have the best of both worlds.