Can You Work From Home Without Co-Workers?

One of the sacrifices you need to do when you opt to work from home is leaving your co-workers behind and work mostly on your own. You’ll be there in your home office alone, toiling to get things done, plan your own rest time and spend your time on the pantry alone in your coffee time.

You will also need to attend to your work problems, address them and solve them without having the luxury to share some of your anguish and worries to your next-desk colleague.

For some people, this is just too tough to swallow. They just missed their chatter buddies, the gossip times and simply the old days of exchanging eye contact and smiles with the colleagues they so long have been admiring to date. There is no more office dramas they can be witnesses to, no more comrades to have meal together, and no shoulders to lean on when work conflict arises.

I worked with few companies for 5 years before deciding to work on my own, in my own home office. This is my 4th year now. Sometimes, I get asked how did I survive these years working alone and having little to talk during the hours. I guess some people can’t just take it not to open their mouth and chat during their work. If you watch the movie “The Man”, the salesman Andy would sit next to detective Derrick and started talking until he was thrown into the car boot for not shutting up.

Well, I’ve had my share of experience working with other people in the office and let’s just say that the co-workers from hell are real turn-offs. In fact, in my own observation, most of the problems occurred in the office were created by people, stemming from their bad attitude, inadequacy, complacency, incompetency and so on rather than by the system, the building or the bad food.

If we’re talking about interaction, well, it’s the 21st century – we have the internet, mobile messaging, the social media and so on and the so-called work interaction has gone up to a completely new level now. Globalization is indeed changing the way we work and the way we create results. For those who work on their own and having a support team made up of local people to all the way to the US, Canada, Europe, India and so on I guess daily chatting and face to face interaction won’t be ideal in the job.

And since we don’t work 24 hours per day, there’s more time for other interaction beyond the work hours – with family, friends and personal network etc which will be more meaningful. If you really want to work from home, spare some quality time for this social activities so that you won’t die talking to yourself at home.

Working from home gives you a lot of advantages, and the magic keyword to remember is ‘flexibility’ which means that you don’t have to be at home all the time to do your work. If you’re bored, the nearest Starbucks is always there for you to offer some hot beverages, fresh air and a completely new panorama.

Other posts you may want to read:

1. 5 Advantages Working From Home Gives You
2. IBM Promotes Working From Home Careers
3. Office Complains
4. Danger of Social Media at Work
5. Pay Attention to Your Work Habits
6. Flexible Work Schedule
7. Work From Home Careers
8. Working From Home The Way To Go

Author's bio: Zul is the founder and principal contributor for the SKOR Career blog. He is the author of two books, The Malaysian Job Seeker's Dilemma and Buat Duit Tanpa Kerja Makan Gaji (How to Make Money Without a Job), available in major book stores nationwide. You can reach him at zulkiflimusa[at]gmail.com.