The Coronavirus is forcibly introducing much of the American workforce to the phonomenon of working at home. I understand what these folks are going through because my late wife and I had a work-at-home household for 16 years. I had a post-corporate career as a freelance writer/consultant and Kathy was a home-based clinical social worker.
Having a dedicated office (rather than a kitchen table) is a must. We bought a home with work requirements in mind. Kathy saw her counseling clients in a paneled den on the first floor and my offfice was in a finished basement at the opposite end of the house. We sometimes emailed back and forth. I did most of my work during the day while Kathy’s peak client hours were in the afternoon and evening. So fixing dinner was my job.
I decided early on that I needed to be open for business the same hours as my clients. That meant being at my desk every morning dressed, shaved and caffeinated. I soon learned not to ask people in the Eastern time zone to call me first thing in the morning, however.
At the same time, I enjoyed the flexibility to take my mother to a doctor’s appointment or mow the lawn before it started raining. When I took time off during the day for personal chores it was easy enough to shift tasks that did not require client contact to the evening.
I worked more efficiently at home than I had in a corporate setting and that surprised me. At first I felt guilty that I was not putting in as much time as I used to in a downtown office. But then I looked at what I was actually getting done. My working day was more productive because I was not attending meetings, chatting with colleagues over coffee, supervising people, showing up at the savings bond rally or sitting through the human resources department’s latest mandatory training. Not to mention commuting. I kept better track of my time because I was billing for it. Best of all, I could focus on a major writing project for hours without interruption.
Much as I enjoyed freedom from distraction, I sometimes missed the daily companionship and professional stimulation of colleagues. I made up for much of that by being active in my professional association and teaming up on projects with other freelancers. Being invited to a client’s meeting was more satisfying than being dragged into a meeting as a company manager because the client was paying for my time and was reluctant to waste it.
Working at home is more comfortable than any office. You can personalize your workspace and listen to music to fit your mood or task. I found bagpipe music a good antidote for writer’s block, but that’s just me. When I wasn’t working on something intense I used to turn on the TV to catch the news or some Jerry Springer Kabuki with the sound off. Home offices are inherently pet-friendly: When I told a client my assistant was on it, that meant the cat was lounging atop the computer monitor.
At the same time, a comfy home office makes work/life balance especially challenging. When an increasing share of our entertainment and social interaction is online, it’s tempting to spend most of your waking hours at your desk. I still do that, even as a retiree.
I found an unexpected disadvantage of working at home when we retired and moved across the country. During my corporate career I was transferred to a new assignment every few years. This usually entailed throwing a few personal items into a box and walking down the hall to my new office, leaving the files and work products for my successor. As a freelancer I occupied a large basement office for 16 years and had a lot of stuff to throw out. Kathy had an even bigger challenge because her years of confidential client files had to be carted off to a commercial shredding service.
Working at home as a self-employed freelancer was satisfying for me, but will it work for employees and organizations? Companies have flirted with working at home for years with varying results. Now the economy has been forced into a mass experiment of remote collaboration. Will it work?
I was able to work successfully at home in the 1990s because I had a home computer and knew how to use it. Today’s technology has spawned a generation of workers who use video chat and streaming apps on their phones. Many will thrive under the quarantine and may embrace working at home as the new normal once the pandemic has passed.
Managers will have a bigger challenge: to break away from traditional in-person leadership and create an organizational culture that unleashes employees while building group identity and motivation. It’s going to be interesting.