Working from home is the diggity. It's not that we WFH-ers are anti-social, we LOVE working with people - especially us marketers, but sometimes the benefits of a home office are too good to pass up.
1. You save money. With both of my dogs at my feet acting as foot warmers (right now, actually), I don't have to wear high heels or even socks if I choose not to. I don't have to wear expensive dry-cleaned clothes. There's no $10 breakfast drive-through on the way to work (a hard-boiled egg and orange juice are perfectly fine), nor a $12 lunch with colleagues. I really enjoy my food and my colleagues, but at home I can just as easily create the perfect Caprese salad just the way I like it, and I can do the same thing for three days in a row for the same amount of money.
2. Your employer or client saves money. Your space, including your desk, chair, cleaning, computer equipment, toilet paper and even "free beverages" all cost money. After that there is likely some insurance they have to pay for having you onsite. Not to mention the cost in lost labor when a colleague passes by to talk about their weekend.
3. More valuable meetings. With today's technology, your team and I can meet virtually and really focus on the agenda. After a mutually-beneficial meeting, what follows is total and complete concentration on the action items which were just discussed. Don't get me wrong, I used to be Queen of the Water Cooler Conversation, but it is a time-killer. At the end of the day, I would rather feel good about all the productivity I had that day, than hearing about who was on The Voice the night before. I don't even have cable.
4. True multi-tasking. Laundry is the perfect example of this. The machines run on their own, so whenever I take a water break, I just transfer from washer to dryer. Bada bing. Feeding the dogs takes only a minute, so they don't have to wait for me if I need to work late. I can defrost meat for dinner without having to leave it out all day (not that I cook, mind you, but I could defrost if I wanted to).
5. No commute. No 10-hours of commuting each week means more time for myself, more time to work, time to work out and my personal favorite - more time to be with my daughter. Especially in the mornings. There's no substitute for that valuable time that you cannot get back. We have breakfast together, water the vegetable garden or change her outfit a few times - all without the stress of getting out the door at a certain time, which can affect us both and really set the tone for the day. I'm usually still at my desk by 8 am without missing a beat.
6. Enjoy the outdoors. When the weather is nice, as it so often is in Colorado, I can take my laptop outside and benefit from some Vitamin D. It's good for your physical, as well as mental, health to get outside in the fresh air. Breathe it in and focus on the task at hand.
Of course the list can go on, but this is just what I have found in the last week. What other benefits have you experienced while working from home? Has your employer noticed higher performance when you work from home?