WFH - advantages and disadvantages?

[fidot]

Very similar situation here. There's not many of us around although there are a few... may I ask what area you work in and how you go about getting work as a "professional WFH-er"?

I work in Drupal consultancy, which is a relatively niche market. These last 4.5 years have arisen through personal networking, although I have also previously had 4 gigs via of agencies where I have WFH too (3 fully and one about 75%).

Even in the case of the gigs through agencies, the clients weren't necessarily expecting me to go in to their office. Whether that's to do with my CV or how I come across at interviews/sales pitches or just luck, I really don't know. There are only two occasions where I've explicitly done something to get more WFH:-
1. I offered a rate differential and that resulted in WFH about 75% of the time
2. A couple of weeks into a 3-monther in London, I broke my ankle playing football, so finished the contract WFH. At renewal time, even though my leg was fine by then, I said "I'm happy to renew but only if I can WFH. I've proved for the last 2 months that I hardly need to be in at all" and they went for that.

How about yourself?

[psychocandy]

WFH it seems is much rarer in a support environment. Sometimes though there is no good reason why there can't be some WFH. Its just a lot of client prefer you to be visible.

Personally, ideal role for me would be 60/40 or something. After having to do the same long trek 5 days a week even one day a week WFH would be like a holiday!

[BrilloPad]

In Wales if you WFH you are not allowed to smoke! Really!

[MrMarkyMark]

In Wales if you WFH you are not allowed to smoke! Really!

You are, bongs for Welsh boyos only

[d000hg]

I work in Drupal consultancy, which is a relatively niche market. These last 4.5 years have arisen through personal networking, although I have also previously had 4 gigs via of agencies where I have WFH too (3 fully and one about 75%).

Even in the case of the gigs through agencies, the clients weren't necessarily expecting me to go in to their office. Whether that's to do with my CV or how I come across at interviews/sales pitches or just luck, I really don't know. There are only two occasions where I've explicitly done something to get more WFH:-
1. I offered a rate differential and that resulted in WFH about 75% of the time
2. A couple of weeks into a 3-monther in London, I broke my ankle playing football, so finished the contract WFH. At renewal time, even though my leg was fine by then, I said "I'm happy to renew but only if I can WFH. I've proved for the last 2 months that I hardly need to be in at all" and they went for that.

How about yourself?

Moving to WFH is much more common so I was interested if you found it hard saying to agents "sorry but I work from home barring special circumstances".

I got into contracting doing freelance work as a side-line, slightly akin to RentACoder but finding people directly on technical forums and the like - so working remotely was the absolute norm as they were typically abroad. I also found a couple of small companies explicitly looking for remote workers over the years, and right now I'm with a client I know well and when they contacted me for this stint I said "sorry but I don't want to commute" (I actually had no car at the time) and we were able to work it out.

[Chuck]

Previous client, I WFH three weeks out of four.

Currently, I do at least one day per week.

Pros
No commute
Decent breakfast and lunch
Dogs
Ability to get deliveries

Cons
Can be easy to get distracted
Tend to work later than on client site
Feeling guilty when you aren't at your desk, even at lunch time

Overall, it's brilliant and should be the norm, especially for those stuck at a keyboard all day.

Set ground rules. As has already been said, you need an office or space that is absolutely off-limits to others while you're there. No, you can't help carry the shopping. No, you can't put up the shelves. No, you can't just have a quick look at this. You are at work and everyone in the house needs to understand. Ideally, there should be nobody else there (except dogs ).

[wantacontract]

first of all, is this really a serious question...come on OP.....

WFH is great!

I've been very fortunate in my contracting career to have WFH 50%.

I love it....save a ton of money on expenses and allows me to opt for a lower rate and see my family....

[stryker007]

I work in software development with zero reason to work in the office, I'd give my left nut to WFH

[No2politics]

I even entertained the god botherers for a while, arguing Darwin on the door step.

qh

Ha! Did this too during a 12 month gig which was 8 days in every 10 WFH. Cabin fever set in by the end but boy was it a culture shock going back to a commute 5 days a week.

I think I have the optimum situation now. 3 days at home 2 days on site with freedom to flex.

[FarmerPalmer]

My current contract is fully WFH. In 3 months I think I've been on-site for 3 visits and a total of 4 hours.
Its a client I have done business with before, and they didn't even interview me when the agent told them I was available, we negotiated a rate and I started.
I have a room set up as a dedicated office / lab (embedded software so soldering irons, oscilloscopes, multimeters, logic analysers etc).
My wife doesn't work, and knows not to talk to me when I'm in the office. If I go into the kitchen then it's ok.
I forget to stop and end up over-runing every day, but it does mean half day on Friday.
When I'm not working I want to get out of the house because I feel like I'm still at work.
I do miss the office banter.

Not sure I could do it all the time, I do miss the interaction with other people (i.e. other than my wife).