When You Work From Home, Do You Have to Put on Real Pants?

What are the advantages and disadvantages of WFH? I guess I would say that for me it’s about 90% advantageous. You can linger over breakfast and coffee without having to eat a runny egg sandwich in the car or stop at an expensive coffee shop. That adds up. I once read about the “Latte Factor” in The Automatic Millionaire. If you simply ditch your daily cup of store-bought coffee and invest that money, you can pretty easily become a millionaire in retirement. I think this applies to any income level, from editor-in-chief to freelancer.

If you WFH, you do not have to get dressed. I mean there is a good chance you might have a FaceTime call with your colleagues, but you can be in your Ravens sweatpants all day if you want. Just keep a blazer handy and straighten up your bun. My personal favorite thing about WFH is that you can still do simple chores. Start a load of laundry (even though I never end up folding the clean clothes) or put something in the crockpot and then get to work at your desk. I think this is so much more productive than sitting in your cubicle worrying about all the chores you have to do or spending your lunch break at Wegman’s picking up stuff for dinner. It’s easy to get lost in the splendor of Wegman’s and then you wind up late for your afternoon meeting.

If you WFH, you can make a dentist appointment at a normal hour. I remember when I went through a series of appointments after I chipped a tooth eating a hotdog at an Oriole game. Since I worked in an office every day, I had to have 7AM appointments at a dentist’s office half an hour away from my house (because he was the best) and then I had to go in and try not to fall asleep in my cubicle. Also my current home office has a window and an unshared printer. However, it does not have free office supplies! And here come all the downsides. When you WFH you actually have to buy your own pens! At home there are no free donuts or swag from the company that just visited and left behind notebooks, gym bags, and little booklets of Post-its. At home there is no one to bounce ideas off of (meaning complain to) or share your latest diet attempts and recipes. I do miss the inter-cubicle gab. But at home there is no CEO walking around giving you high fives or pointing that ridiculous finger gun saying, “Here comes trouble.” You are, in essence, your own chief executive officer. And that works for me.