The Pros and Cons of Working Flexibly
I’ve been asked today to talk about the pros and cons of a flexible work environment. While working from home might mean fewer distractions, people can get lonely and it can lead to spending long periods of time online. Working from home requires a certain level of discipline. I would say you need to have a balance between working from home life and your social life. I know myself when I was in a relationship with someone that did work standard hours and I was in a flexible work environment, I was sometimes seeing people and sometimes I wasn’t.
How to Deal With People
I found that she would come home from work and be exhausted and not want to talk to anyone. She was in a retail environment so she was talking to people all day, where I was in silence all day. I would be like a puppy dog wanting attention and pestering her when she just wanted to sit there and watch TV. I believe you have your pros and cons to a work environment and also a flexible work environment. The key here is understanding that this is the case. You don’t want to go crazy, become a hermit and start using a rope for your belt and sitting at your computer in your jocks. You need to make sure that you are still acting as if you’re going to work.
If you have the mindset that you’re at work and you’re wearing the things as if you’re at work, you will perform as if you’re at work. When you take your clothes off and change into your casual wear when work is finished, you’ll feel like work is finished and you’ll be able to create that segregation. This will let you not spend too much time working and let it suck your life away.
Setting Up Your Workspace
It is also important to make sure that you have a nice room and environment set up to be your work sanctuary. If you do that, you’ll be able to know that when you’re in there, you’re in work mode and when you leave, you no longer in work mode. That will give you a bit more separation when you are working flexibly. In short, make sure you’re drawing a line between work and home. When you’re working at home, have a room and an environment devoted to it. Make sure that you understand that when you see someone after work that you don’t go and slobber all over them and make them feel like you’re suffocating them.
Remember that they have been at a workplace and you’ve been in an environment where you aren’t talking as much. If I find myself starting to go stir crazy working from home, what I would normally do is just go for a run. I just bolt out the door and go for a run for five or 10 minutes, or to sit outside on a hammock and just look outside amongst the yard and go, “okay, cool. I’ve had a little bit of break, time to come back into reality.”
Final Thoughts
So, they’re my hints and tips on how to deal with working flexible hours. Try and still get into the office occasionally and have that human time, even if it’s just through a Skype conversation. It’s sensible just to reconnect so you don’t go stir crazy. Good luck!
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