[butterknucket]

I don't mean the occasional day working from home, but actually based out of a home office?

What were you doing? Did you like it?

 

[Kerry Brown]

I don't mean the occasional day working from home, but actually based out of a home office?

What were you doing? Did you like it?

I've been working from home for the past 15 years. I run an IT consulting business. Most of my clients are small business and not for profits. I manage networks remotely and do break/fix troubleshooting on site. I don't think I could go back to a nine to five job although eight months ago I started two nights a week doing the night audit at a local hotel/brewery. I'm phasing out some of my smaller IT clients with an eye to eventually retiring.

It is not for everyone. I miss the social interaction at times. You have to be very disciplined and at times force yourself not to play your guitars and get the work done. It is very easy to procrastinate. You have to do all your own paper work which is not fun. I have found that having a room dedicated to the job is best for me. When I go in there I am at work. If you are the sole employee holidays are few and far between.

The good parts are really good. When you have something to do in the middle of the day you can do it. This morning I'm taking my granddaughter and grandson to an orthodontist in the city. I get to spend several hours with them. Once a week my wife and I pick up my other granddaughter at her daycare and spend the afternoon with her. On a nice day I can take a break and go for a walk. Most days I play my guitars for an hour or so in the middle of the afternoon. I love the flexibility. As long as you are disciplined and get the work done you can be very flexible with when you work. I am the boss. I have a hard time doing something the way the boss wants it done when I know there is a better way.

 

[SaucyJack]

I'd enjoy working from home.

 

[butterknucket]

I've been working from home for the past 15 years. I run an IT consulting business. Most of my clients are small business and not for profits. I manage networks remotely and do break/fix troubleshooting on site. I don't think I could go back to a nine to five job although eight months ago I started two nights a week doing the night audit at a local hotel/brewery. I'm phasing out some of my smaller IT clients with an eye to eventually retiring.

It is not for everyone. I miss the social interaction at times. You have to be very disciplined and at times force yourself not to play your guitars and get the work done. It is very easy to procrastinate. You have to do all your own paper work which is not fun. I have found that having a room dedicated to the job is best for me. When I go in there I am at work. If you are the sole employee holidays are few and far between.

The good parts are really good. When you have something to do in the middle of the day you can do it. This morning I'm taking my granddaughter and grandson to an orthodontist in the city. I get to spend several hours with them. Once a week my wife and I pick up my other granddaughter at her daycare and spend the afternoon with her. On a nice day I can take a break and go for a walk. Most days I play my guitars for an hour or so in the middle of the afternoon. I love the flexibility. As long as you are disciplined and get the work done you can be very flexible with when you work. I am the boss. I have a hard time doing something the way the boss wants it done when I know there is a better way.

I've been told by many people if you're going to work from home, you need a room where that's the only thing you do there.

 

[Mooh]

19 years so far as a private music instructor in my home studio (such that is is, it’s just an 11’ x 21’ room attached to the back of the house. The room has two doors, one to the kitchen and one to outside. It’s kind of half living space that takes gear overflow and provides guest seating, and half actual instruction space. I change the layout every few years, most recently this past July, and move the art around to give me variety. The back covered deck provides some shelter for those who wait, but as I always run on the clock, that’s kept to a minimum.

Best job I’ve ever had, best location too. Between lessons I have you guys to annoy, dogs to care for, and the damn refrigerator that’s always calling my name (it’s the worst part of my “commute”)...oh wait, I hear it now...

 

[colchar]

My brother is an editor for a company based in NYC so he works from home. Everything he does is online and he has never been to their offices. He had to conduct interviews last week for something they are doing in the Philippines and those were done remotely as well. If he really feels like getting out for a little while, he takes his laptop to a local pub or coffee shop.

I sometimes teach online courses which are done entirely from home, but at the same time I also teach on campus classes so I am not sure my experience really counts.

 

[greco]

I've been told by many people if you're going to work from home, you need a room where that's the only thing you do there.

This is certainly also true if you are going to declare use of space at home for business purposes. BTW, if you do declare this space, don't declare a percentage of your mortgage. We did that and it was very complicated when we stopped. Declaring percentages (by square foot of total) for heat, hydro, water, etc. are easy and reasonable.

 

[butterknucket]

19 years so far as a private music instructor in my home studio (such that is is, it’s just an 11’ x 21’ room attached to the back of the house. The room has two doors, one to the kitchen and one to outside. It’s kind of half living space that takes gear overflow and provides guest seating, and half actual instruction space. I change the layout every few years, most recently this past July, and move the art around to give me variety. The back covered deck provides some shelter for those who wait, but as I always run on the clock, that’s kept to a minimum.

Best job I’ve ever had, best location too. Between lessons I have you guys to annoy, dogs to care for, and the damn refrigerator that’s always calling my name (it’s the worst part of my “commute”)...oh wait, I hear it now...

I have a friend who converted his garage to his teaching space for guitar. His students never need to enter the main part of the house. Do you have any pics of your space, if you'd like to share them?

 

[Merlin]

I do guitar setups and minor repairs from home. I’ve previously taught at home as well.

 

[Mooh]

I have a friend who converted his garage to his teaching space for guitar. His students never need to enter the main part of the house. Do you have any pics of your space, if you'd like to share them?

We considered both an out-building or an attached garage but never got to it. Certain things (appendix, cancer, tornado) intervened. After the kids left home the space race wasn't so necessary. I would have loved an out-building with a loft.

I guess I can oblige with

a couple of studio pictures.

 

[keto]

From 1993 to today, all but 5 years of that I have worked for big corporate employers from a home office.

Now, at 55 and after all those years of freedom, I would have a very hard time going back to an office environment.

-no office politics to deal with. This is #1 by a mile, I never was good at those games.
-in current job, set my own schedule - have to travel some but not extensively, and can do it working around anything else going on
-it takes personal discipline, and I am not perfect but am considered a top performer at what I do (equipment finance/risk management)

The downside is there's essentially no advancement beyond my position, which I have had since 2002. There's more to it than that, but it would mean getting back into an office, so no thanks. But they treat us very well, and if I am able to run out the string for the next 10 years doing this job, I think I will be satisfied. Lots of guys in this position keep it until they retire.

 

[Merlin]

My bench at home:

 

[butterknucket]

We considered both an out-building or an attached garage but never got to it. Certain things (appendix, cancer, tornado) intervened. After the kids left home the space race wasn't so necessary. I would have loved an out-building with a loft.

I guess I can oblige with View attachment 224654 View attachment 224656 View attachment 224658 a couple of studio pictures.

That's beautiful!

 

[butterknucket]

My bench at home:

View attachment 224660

The beverages underneath are a nice touch.

 

[Mooh]

From 1993 to today, all but 5 years of that I have worked for big corporate employers from a home office.

Now, at 55 and after all those years of freedom, I would have a very hard time going back to an office environment.

-no office politics to deal with. This is #1 by a mile, I never was good at those games.
-in current job, set my own schedule - have to travel some but not extensively, and can do it working around anything else going on
-it takes personal discipline, and I am not perfect but am considered a top performer at what I do (equipment finance/risk management)

The downside is there's essentially no advancement beyond my position, which I have had since 2002. There's more to it than that, but it would mean getting back into an office, so no thanks. But they treat us very well, and if I am able to run out the string for the next 10 years doing this job, I think I will be satisfied. Lots of guys in this position keep it until they retire.

I'm an awful control freak, obsessive compulsive, and leftist as all hell. I work best when I'm alone to set my own agenda. However, apparently it also allows me to set aside my own thing to work in service to the student. Screamo to Taylor Swift, Bach to The Bee Gees, it doesn't matter as long as it's all about music education.

Office politics? None of that, but because of my previous career in labour negotiation and grievance settlement, I know full well why I don't like it. Can't picture myself in that roll now.

 

[torndownunit]

I work from home. Graphic/web design. Over the last 15 years I had 2 office jobs in the same field, for about a year each.

I enjoy it. I have had chronic migraines since I was 7, and bring able to manage my own schedule makes a huge difference. I absolutely hate commuting, and enjoy living in a more rural area. So it works well for me. I can take the 2 hours I used to commute to enjoy the things I like about living where I live. Eg in the summer I take a long lunch to hike.

While the length of my work days vary, I find it very important to still get up at a set time and keep a routine. I could see how the trap of sleeping in or keeping a really chaotic schedule could affect someone's productivity.

The only real downside I had was when I was still together and living with my ex. It can be hard for some people to wrap their head around the fact that just because you are at home, it doesn't mean your days are free to do whatever you want. Working from home means WORKING from home. We just could not get on the same page with that, resulting in serious issues.

 

[fretboard]

My wife has for the past 5 or 6 years and loves it. She enjoys what she does so the lack of an actual schedule isn't a big deal for her - and I have an adequately stocked music room so I don't tend to pout if she's busy at night...

I retired over a decade ago to watch the kids while she travels and part of my "Freedom 35" arrangement with her (I highly recommend it if you can swing it...) was I handle the domestic stuff (groceries, laundry, driving the kids around, etc.) so when she started working from home, there wasn't a big change to our routines (I won't lie - I did stop with the occasional afternoon nap once she started being home more). She looks after clients whims and whenever I go to the bank, money has magically appeared in our account. I look after what she calls our "domestic bliss" and when she's done for the day, the kids are fed, clean and their homework is done so she gets to swoop in for family fun time.

We have our roles & responsibilities and it works for us. It wasn't easy at the start, but it got better once the little things we would do to piss the other off got ironed out. I obviously hold the opinion that it's up to me to suck it up during the day and remind myself I don't get to spend the day at home if she's not being productive so I mumble "lighten up, Francis" to myself under my breath a few times a day and remember what the daily grind used to be like.

She has her own office in the house and "we" thought it fair that she should be able to set it up with approaching the grand designs (and budget) I implemented in my guitar room, so she's happy and comfortable in there. Setting up her office to her liking was a big part of making it work for us.

It isn't all fun and games, and there is for sure a learning curve to get a routine down for everyone, but it's ideal for us. I can't imagine she'd want to go back to an office everyday. I'd ask her, but she's on a call...

 

[guitarman2]

I'm the Network guy for my company managing our networks, firewalls and servers, SQL, Exchange, etc. and I work from home Wednesdays and half of Thursday as well as random other times. In the winter if it even hints of bad weather my boss will have me work from home. I manage a lot of cloud services and co locations so I can pretty much work from anywhere.

 

[High/Deaf]

I don't have the discipline. And I'm a horrible procrastinator. I couldn't do it and actually make a living.

Besides, I'd miss my dodging through security gates and turnstiles when going into the office. It feels a little like this some days (I even hum the tune to myself):

 

[bw66]

I've worked from home teaching music (mostly guitar) since 2004. Initially it was just a couple of hours a week, but I'm up to 3 days a week now - and for the moment, that's enough.

My teaching space doubles as a family room and people do come through the house to get to my teaching space, so it forces me to keep the visible areas of the house a bit tidier than I would otherwise.

I love the commute.