Almost 3 years ago the company I work for announced they were closing my local office. They let about 50% of the workforce go, and gave the rest of us the option to either relocate to our out of state headquarters or work from home. Since I had met a girl, and just purchased a home, I elected to work from home.

At first the transition was tough. Immediately I missed the office comradely, I had many friends there and being able to stop in someone’s cube for 20 minutes just to shoot the breeze made the day go by much faster and made it more enjoyable. Also if I had a problem I couldn’t just pop in and ask someone a question – I now had to either hope that they were on our company instant messaging software, wonder if they would respond to an email quickly, or try them via phone.

One thing that did make the transition easier is that many other people were in the same boat. I had about 6 people who I worked closely with who also elected to work from home that live close by. Usually every week or every other week we’ll try to get together either for lunch, or sometimes even all work together from one of our homes. That’s one thing that quickly added to my budget was lunches – going down to not even once a week instead of 3-4 times a week eating out gave me a serious positive cash flow.

Another big boost was the fact that my company now pays for my internet connection as well as my phone service. Not to mention the gas savings as well as the wear and tear on my car commuting. Financially it really was a huge plus.

Now that I’m adjusted I can’t imagine having to go back to the office. It would take a great incentive for me to give up waking up at 7:50 in order to sign in at 8:00. Being able to watch the Yankee’s game in the background, mow the lawn / take the dog for a walk at lunchtime, and work out of my P.J.’s. I would guess it probably added about 10 hours a week to my free time from being at the office.

The only real negative that exists is since our management is down at our headquarters you feel like you don’t get to connect with them as well. Its one thing to be on a conference call with them, but there is a lot to be said for discussing your projects and accomplishments face to face. Fortunately my team is about 85% remote employees, so just about everyone else is on the same playing field I am.

It can also be difficult sometimes to differentiate work time from personal time. I have a dedicated office setup that I use solely for work which I highly recommend – it also is helpful at tax time for that home office deduction. So when I leave the office, I’m off work. Still I find myself at night while halfheartedly watching something on TV breaking out the laptop in front of the tube and responding to emails.

Overall it has been a great experience for me. I just hope that being so young and having such great flexibility doesn’t ruin me for future career opportunities.

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