Working From Home vs Working In An Office — Which Do You Prefer?

By Dan Smith

Over the last few years, I’ve worked in a variety of different roles while being a freelance writer, from an MIS Officer through to a consultant for a technology company.

Up until 2011, all of my freelance writing work was carried out on an evening and weekend.

It started off as a way to fill some spare time I had, developed into a way for me to be able to work for myself and has now opened up a range of opportunities, both writing and non-writing related.

At the moment, I’m a freelance writer for half of the week and I’m in a salaried role for the other half.

For both, I’m predominantly home based. While there’s a lot of travel involved with the salaried role and I do have to travel occasionally for the freelance writing part of my work, I spend a lot of time working from home.

This started in the summer of 2011, working a day or two from home and in November 2011 it grew to being working from home for most of the week.

At first, I thought it was great and to a certain extent today, I still do think it’s great — the freedom is fantastic and I’m not restricted to working 9am to 5pm.

One of the major pitfalls I’ve discovered about working from home, however, is that it can be particularly lonely, something I’ve discussed previously.

While I thought I’d be able to get past this loneliness, it’s actually proving a lot more difficult than I first thought and before Christmas I started to make more of an effort to get out of my house, spending more time on-site and visiting clients.

This last week, however, I’ve started to wonder whether I’d be better suited to going back to an office based job — a writing / communications one — even for a day or two a week, simply for the social aspect.

What’s slightly confusing for me is that I love my own space. Sure, I love spending time with my Better Half and seeing friends, but I’m quite happy to be left by myself to do whatever I want.

When it comes to work, though — and I never thought I’d say this — I do miss the general day-to-day interaction with others.

My work doesn’t suffer in any respect by working from home and I don’t think it ever will, as I love the work, but it’s just that it can be slightly difficult, on occasion, to get motivated without anyone to bounce ideas off or to simply have a chat to.

For those of you who have worked both from home and in an office, which do you prefer?

And for those who’ve only worked in one or the other, have you considered working in the other? Do you think it would be more beneficial to you as an individual?

Image: fancycwabs (Flickr)