So the boss asks you if you would like to work from home. I'll bet at first you could hardly contain yourself. Sweet, right. The first question that pops into your mind is can I work irregular hours? The boss says just get the work done. Sleep in and if I need to I can shop in the day and work all night. All nighters just like college. I wonder what the wife would think.
Man will I save money: gas, clothes, cheap lunches, commute time the benefits are endless.
Then it starts to sink in: I'm going to miss the water cooler chit chat, the face to face conversations, the over the wall collaboration, and the drink after work with the gang.
Wait a minute you mean I won't be able to talk to Sally about gardening, or Phil about hunting? Email is for business. What about the bowling team, I'm not going to drive for an hour just to bowl. Forget the small stuff. What about walking down the hall and talking to Freddy the tech genius. The last time, I didn't have the heart stop the boss when he bragged about how I fixed the latest bug.
And remember how I got this job in the first place. It was over lunch with a co-worker and his girlfriend. She put me on to this gig. OK so the last three jobs are the result of work/social networking. What will I do if I'm at home? I'll never meet these people.
Forget moving on how do you get promoted if you hardly ever see your boss.
This may not be you, but think about your career and is working from home a good fit for your career. Your can always come to WASM meetings to meet like minded professionals. Heck invite your friends.