Job Offer - work from home

A vendor for a former employer of mine with whom I have a great relationship has offered me a position in Cyber that would be a substantial raise and 100% work from home. It's a remote position because they are in another state.

I have never worked remote full time and hoping to get some input from this group. I've only been at my current job for 6 months(also in cyber). I like it a lot but this new position and significant pay increase is very tempting.

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MJK9550

Work from home and that big of a pay increase?! I would take that in a heartbeat as long as you feel you will be able to get the job done while being at home with freedom.

Danielm7

I"d be on that in a flat second. There are some negatives to working from home, but it really depends on your personality. If you're single/live alone, it can be lonely, you have to force yourself to get out sometimes, go work in different locations, just be social. Some people don't like it, I do, but my workplace is also fairly social so if I had a mostly WFH setup where I'd go in every other week or so I'd be perfect. Right now I WFH on Fridays and by Thursday I feel like it's the end of the week. I get a lot done at home, I don't mind doing the work, but hanging out at home, no commute, is really pleasant for me.

Make sure you have a separate space to work. If you have a family and think you can work from the kitchen table you might have a really hard time. Make sure everyone else knows what you're doing and is on board with it too. You're not "off", you're working, just at home. Some people have a lot of trouble with the separation.

NotHackingYou

Thanks for the comments. I have 4 kids with one in school. I've worked from home for a week at a time before and it was fine. I have a large, bright second living room that I use for my office, which can be separated from the kids. My wife is a stay at home.

alias454

I WFH one day a week and I would find it hard to do everyday. Much like Danielm, I appreciate a WFH day because I get way more done and have less interruptions overall. One thing is when WFH, it is easy to work well past quitting time so setting some boundaries for yourself is a good idea. On the flip side, nothing beats having lunch with your kids everyday and being able to enjoy them while they are young.

EANx

Someone who is married with kids can pull this off but the key is how your wife perceives it. If you aren't disciplined, if she catches you goofing off, she'll think that's what you do most of the day. She and the kids need to know "these are my work hours. No, I can't do X as long as I'm at home." Once you establish work-place discipline, you can have some exceptions but I've known a few people whose marriages took a hit because they stopped dressing professionally and their wife caught them goofing off too often.

networker050184

I've been doing WFH for a few years now. With the family the key will be setting boundaries. They need to just act like you're not even home.

Besides that, stay active. I didn't realize how sedative I had become the first year. Take walks in the morning, get in some exercise at lunch.

Know when to walk away. End of the day is the end of the day. I had trouble with this at first and ended up working a lot of 12 hours days. Sign on early and sign off late.

Good luck!

xxxkaliboyxxx

EANx wrote: »

Someone who is married with kids can pull this off but the key is how your wife perceives it. If you aren't disciplined, if she catches you goofing off, she'll think that's what you do most of the day. She and the kids need to know "these are my work hours. No, I can't do X as long as I'm at home." Once you establish work-place discipline, you can have some exceptions but I've known a few people whose marriages took a hit because they stopped dressing professionally and their wife caught them goofing off too often.

I'm guilty lol. I get paid to just surf the net according to some

NotHackingYou

Thanks for the feedback everyone. Networker, do you find that you miss the face to face interactions?

Thoughts on leaving my other job after only 6 months? I really like the place I'm at now.

E Double U

I enjoyed my time as a permanent remote worker. More time with the family and saved money. My biggest issue with working from home is not giving myself enough breaks plus starting early and working late even though it isn't required.

networker050184

I don't really miss the face to face at work too much. My social life has suffered a bit not going to happy hours etc. after work with coworkers, but just have to make it a point to find non work related activities. All in all, definitely a small price to pay for all the other benefits.

I've also started to take advantage of industry meet ups in the area to ensure I still get some professional networking in.

As far as leaving after six months, I wouldn't make it a habit, but I don't think anyone will fault you for taking a great opportunity.

scaredoftests

Don't take your work home with you. LOL. I am not kidding. Turn the phone off (or lower the sound) on your office phone when you are done.

powerfool

With that much of a pay increase, you could probably easily afford to get a nearby office to rent if it became problematic.

I have worked from home for a few years and I can tell you the things that are problematic for me:

1) Wife stays at home - she wants to have the "freedom" to do whatever she wants while she is at home, including television watching or vacuuming, and it can conflict with phone calls.

2) Kids - I have three and it is fine unless they are on break from school, then it drives me mad. If they aren't being loud, they are being quite sucking up all of the bandwidth watching Netflix or something.

3) Office space - We built a new house a year ago and I picked an office location in the house that was essentially the same (room designated as the dining room at the front of the house). I like the location. The old house everything was open, which exacerbated problems 1 & 2. Now, it isn't open, but since we have very little carpet, everything echoes. I would recommend an office with a door that can be closed (btw, I am in the market for door system to install in a space that is 89.5" W x 93" h, preferably solid glass like what is the door/wall from hall into House's office on the show by the same name).

LinuxRacr

Having worked from home for 2+ years, and then going back to the office 4 years ago, I can tell you that I would take the offer in a heartbeat, because I know it would provide all of the flexibility needed.

On top of some of the boundaries with family and office space stated above, the biggest boundary to set is within your own mind. You may get up and take a break from work, and see a pile of clothes that needs to be folded. Mixing home and work can be tricky....

networker050184

powerfool wrote: »

With that much of a pay increase, you could probably easily afford to get a nearby office to rent if it became problematic.

I've started to look at this a bit lately. Some decent options for renting a shared space a couple days a week at "tech hubs" and they also do happy hours/networking on Fridays, which is the more important thing to me. Lots of startups in these things, opportunities for side projects, etc. on top of getting out of the house.

powerfool

I need to make sure I am not painting a bleak picture here.... working from home has probably ruined me for working in the office ever again... I know it would be a tough transition to go back. I really do enjoy working from home and there are more distractions and rude people in the office than at home.

One thing I think about is since I work from home... I can technically work from anywhere... so why not go somewhere else for a month or two. Take some PTO while there, but have every evening and weekend there. Something to consider.

gespenstern

It depends on how do you like people and in person collaboration. A little chat here and there, physical presence on meetings, lunches with your team outside, etc.

I personally don't like it much and enjoyed my two WFH gigs a lot.

Had to get back to office space though because the position I was offered paid much more and didn't have the WFH option.

koz24

I've done 100% WFH and 100% office but never a hybrid. I think a hybrid would be the best-- where I'd have an assigned office space but could work from home whenever I wanted to. I like to go into the office and communicate with people face-to-face and do lunches and after work happy-hour. I'd probably maybe do 3 days office / 2 days WFH and have the option to WFH in bad weather. That would be ideal. 100% WFH it gets lonely and it's a little harder to network with others.

My last job we all had visitor office space and everyone had a WFH option so it was basically 100% WFH. I came into the office a few times and it was a ghost town. Now I'm 100% office and I have to say I like it a lot better.

tmtex

I did the hybrid, at first the WFH was great then I started to hate it. I hated it so much I then only did it on bad weather/repairman situations. Now with the big raise yes DO IT.

Matt2

Very cool, I've been looking for just that, as there are few local opportunities in the Washington Community I live in. As long as you're disciplined about work hours etc (both to work the minimum and not work crazy long hours) then I say go for it!

NotHackingYou

I haven't found many local opportunities this way either. I would be required to travel to the home office each quarter, which would be a cross-country flight and an overnight.

DatabaseHead

powerfool wrote: »

I need to make sure I am not painting a bleak picture here.... working from home has probably ruined me for working in the office ever again... I know it would be a tough transition to go back. I really do enjoy working from home and there are more distractions and rude people in the office than at home.

One thing I think about is since I work from home... I can technically work from anywhere... so why not go somewhere else for a month or two. Take some PTO while there, but have every evening and weekend there. Something to consider.

+1 It really is no brainer. If you get can get away from the office do it!

JoJoCal19

I worked remote full-time for BoA as a Sr Security Administrator for about 5 years and I LOVED it! As was mentioned, it was great to see my kids during break, and to save commute time so I got more time with them. It's been about 2.5 years since I left that job but I just had a final interview today for a InfoSec Risk Management Sr Mgr job that is fully remote and it appears the job is mine so I cannot wait to be back to working remote.

I'm a huge proponent of remote work. As a matter of fact I've only been considering companies that are forward thinking with remote work and push it for their employees. I am a people person and like being around people, so I do miss that, but I leave the house several times a week to go out into public and often spend weekends out with the family so I get my people interaction that way. I also find I'm more productive at home since I don't have distractions and office BS to deal with.