Working at home is certainly a dream come true for a lot of people! 
The upside is being your own boss, the freedom and flexibility to do what you want when you want and having time for family.
Sounds so inviting and appealing! However, too many people overlook the downside of working at home.
When you are considering taking that leap to work at home, it will be important that you understand the disadvantages because you will have to deal with them.
Some people can tolerate the adjustment to being home and others cannot. It will be your decision to choose if working at home will be suitable for you.
In an earlier blog I talked about the 10 key benefits for affiliate marketing. For me, I find that the upside to working at home definitely outweighs the downside.
You learn to handle them and they don’t bother me too much. I don’t miss driving to work everyday!
What helped me out is I prepared myself so I knew what to expect from working at home. You have to research so you know what you are getting into.
It would be a “bummer” to get one’s hopes up when you only know about the good side and no idea about the bad side of working at home.
My blog topic today is about dealing with the downside of working at home. Before you take that leap of faith, please consider a list of the downsides that I felt were important to me and are listed in that order.
Downsides Of Working At Home:
1. Health Benefits and Income Security
When you leave your employment you will be losing your health benefits and income security. In my case, my husband worked for the Federal Government.
When he passed away I was entitled to keep my long term benefits such as, dental, eye care, prescriptions because I am his surviving spouse.
This worked out okay for me as I don’t need to purchase my own health insurance coverage plus I don’t have children living at home anymore.
You would have to look into buying health coverage to protect yourself and any family members that are dependent on you.
Saying goodbye and letting go of your work income is scary! To overcome this hurdle you should be well established into working at home before you leave your job.
You are totally responsible for making your own income. It is nice to be the boss but you have to keep the money flowing in.
2. Isolation and Loneliness
I got used to being in a 40 employee office environment where it was noisy, busy, lunch and coffee breaks and I could chat with a few friends. That’s all gone too.
Sitting alone all isolated in your own work space/office is so quiet. It was a shock and really hard to get used to.
To help dealing with this I will contact my friends and arrange a lunch or supper date. It does one good to get out into a social environment while keeping in touch with your friends.
After you have been at home for awhile you will gradually get used to the isolation and loneliness. You could look at this as saying good-bye to your work family and you are going through a grieving period.
No they are not deceased, but over time it will get easier to cope with. Believe me I know all about grieving and in time things do get better!
Maybe you are the type of person who has to be surrounded with friends and can’t function without them. I am the opposite and can handle working at home by myself.
Can you give up your work friends and handle being by yourself?
3. Support
It’s a good idea to talk to your family about working at home. There will be changes in routine for all. Not only that but you will need all the support you can get.
Because you are going to be home it might be easier for you to take over driving children to school and in return your spouse can look after the kids for an hour after supper.
It’s a win win situation for all.
You will be doing this all by yourself and having that family support at times when you encounter a problem is so helpful.
I used to ask my husband for his help all the time and it was a comfort knowing he was there and he supported me wholeheartedly! Now he is not here so I am dependent on support from a few close friends.
Or maybe you don’t have a family then I would ask a close friend for their support.
4. Distractions
I will say that distractions are so annoying! My one big baby cat is forever wanting my attention. It’s funny how cats will sit right on top of your paperwork when you are working, an innocent look on their faces.
When I shut the den door to keep her out, that’s an invitation for her to scratch. I’ll keep my door open and work around her.
Distractions can be children, phone, tv, stereo, someone’s cutting the lawn right outside your window. I can control the tv and stereo by not turning them on but other interferences I cannot control.
I do my best to deal with them and I try not to let them bother me or take me away from my work for long periods.
All one can do is control what you can and work around what you can’t.
5. Self Discipline/Motivation/Focus
I find having a daily routine all planned out helps you stay on track in regards to your work time. This should include time out for appointments, some phone calls, or grocery shopping.
Managing your time is disciplining yourself to follow through with your written planner.
Disciplining one’s self is again not easy to get a grip on. No one is accountable for myself but me. If I goof off one day then the next day is catch up time. But I will never get back the time I lost goofing off.
Keep working on yourself as the discipline will get better.
What about motivation and focus? Can you stay focused and motivated for 6-8 -12 hours a day working your business at home? You will need to find some ways and dig deep inside yourself to keep going.
For me I will take a 1/2 hour walk outside everyday. And many times in the later evening too after my daily tasks are done. This clears the brain and the exercise is healthy for the body.
It could be a bike ride or a jog or taking the dog for a walk. Feeling totally rejuvenated after walking sure helps to keep me motivated and focused.
In closing…
This concludes my list of downsides of working at home and to inform you on how I dealt with them when I first started working at home. Please understand my circumstances will not be the same as yours.
You might find different problems and that is okay. Just own the problem and deal with how you can solve it.
When I chose to work at home, I needed some good training and help with building a website in order be become successful working at home.
At Wealthy Affiliate they teach people exactly that – how to start and build your own successful affiliate marketing business.
There is a learning curve and you have to stay motivated and focused in your pursuit.
Again I have to strongly recommend that you don’t quit your job until you are making enough money to support yourself.
If you would like free help to get started, WA offers a Free Starter Membership which includes 2 free websites and 10 lessons.
Are you prepared to work at home?
I hope today’s post has helped to make you aware of dealing with the downsides of working at home. I would be happy to help you answer any questions or concerns you have by leaving them in the comments below.
Take Care!
~Barb~