Working from home: The good, the bad & the lack of cake.

By BEC SPARROW

We have good news and we have bad news. The good news is the Government wants your boss to let you work from home.  The bad news is The Circle was axed and Oprah is no longer on TV which means you may actually be tempted to, you know, work from home. Dammit.

This week is National Telework Week. Wait, what?  That’s right. A whole week dedicated to encouraging employers to let more of their staff work from home in their pyjamas while they check Facebook and order shit they don’t need online.

Interestingly, there are benefits to this gig for both the employer and the employee.  Staff who are permitted to work from home (or a cafe or, er, the treadmill at the gym …) report greater feelings of work/life balance, less stress and more job satisfaction.

Employers on the other hand save on office costs and their teleworkers tend to have a higher productivity rate than their office-based counterparts. Who knew?

Welcome to my typical work day.

I’m writing this from bed. It’s 10am, my laptop is on my lap and somewhere in the background a male morning TV host is making jokes about waxing his chest. My 9-month-old Fin is asleep. And I’m drinking tea while I edit a story for Mamamia.(A process my friend Kim calls “bediting” … ).

I’ve been working from home pretty much exclusively for the past 12 years.  And I love it. Big L, love it.

With two little kids who see me as their own personal Sherpa, I can choose to do the bulk of my work on the hemlines of the day.  Early mornings when the house is quiet and my mind is crispy fresh. Or late at night when I’ve chosen to spend the day playing Princess Shops and making Gingerbread biscuits.

But mostly I work during the day, like a normal person (well, except for the fact I don’t always brush my hair which makes me look suspiciously like Newton Faulkner)

I’m tapping out stories while Fin crawls around my feet and attempts to lick the dog.  I’m replying to comments while I’m in the kitchen road-testing Lana’s best ever salad dressing.

There are things I miss about working in an office of course (I’d be lying if I said I didn’t miss all the cake). But mud cake to celebrate the birthday of Sonia in accounts, doesn’t – for me – make up for me being around to take Ava to kindy and pick her up again the afternoon.  And to work in my black and white polka-dotted PJs if I want to.

Do I get lonely? Honestly? Not so much. I have my editorial team Skype chat window open all day, which means at any time I can join in a debate with Nat and Lucy about who would win a cage-fight between Justin Bieber and Harry from One Direction. Seriously though, Mia, Jam, Lucy, Nat and Kate are always there and we dish about our weekends, news headlines, issues we’re facing in our own lives that might make a great post and politics. So. Much. Politics.

And of course, I ring them on the phone and do video calls when the mood strikes.

Or I can shut the Skype window down completely and get more done in one hour at home alone than I could in an entire day in an office full of people and mud cake.

Working from home isn’t for everybody.  But if you’re the type of person who is more hermit than social and relishes the peace and quiet … it’s a winner.

Have you or would you ever consider teleworking?