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In many ways, the need for the brick and mortar office is being eliminated. So much of what so many companies do, can be done online or on the phone. Unless you are a vendor of some kind who needs a physical space to display and sell items, you don’t really need a physical location to work anymore. And even then, we know how many vendors are shutting down their brick and mortar locations in favor of a cyber store. With Wayfair, Amazon, and similar platforms, a lot of vendors are choosing to just have a warehouse somewhere, rather than any busy office space with phones ringing and coffee pots brewing and sales associates greeting clients.
So the remote worker, the telecommuter, the work-from-home employee—whatever you prefer to call this role—is becoming more and more common. I personally work fro home, and I love it. I don’t burn any time on a morning commute, or a long drive home in rush hour traffic. I don’t worry about coworkers eating my food out of the fridge—I’m the only one here. Well, besides my boyfriend, who does sometimes eat my food. But he’s off the hook. There is, however, something nice about being in a real office to do your work, surrounded by colleagues working for the same company.
For all of the inconveniences that come with going to a real office (coworkers chatting your ear off, little choice over the music that’s playing), there are many perks, like the camaraderie, and the general sense to stick to a schedule because at 5pm, the janitor is coming through and locking those doors. Working from home isn’t really natural. Most humans aren’t built for it, and quickly find that they are prone to some habits that aren’t conducive to getting things done. On that note, here are work-from-home habits that kill productivity.
Telling people
The first rule of the work-from-home club is you don’t talk about the work-from-home club. Okay, sorry, corny, I know. But really, the moment you tell people that you work from home is exactly when they start calling you, asking if you want to get lunch in the middle of a Wednesday, or if you can take their dog for the afternoon, or if you can drive them to the airport at 3pm on a Friday.
