It's very dependent on the person. I quit my office job last year and worked contracting from home for six months. It was utterly awful. My study is small, dark (north-facing, and the previous owners painted the walls mid-blue, which makes it even darker) and cluttered. I felt very isolated and ended up very depressed.
Last month, my contracting colleague and I moved into an office in a converted house. It's small (just four desks) but the ceilings are high, the walls are light, the lighting is nice and bright, and there's a south-facing window with a view all the way across the city to Arthur's Seat. I have a good office chair and a big desk to spread out over, and a cleaner comes in to hoover the floors. And I get to see humans every day, which - I was surprised to find - is a key ingredient in keeping me sane. I'm a lot happier, and a lot more productive, even though I don't have as much control over this office as over my own home.
This is just me, and I understand that people feel they need to push hard for private offices or working from home, because the default nowadays seems to be a big open plan office. However, every time I see somebody extolling their vision of the Best Way To Work, I think it's worth emphasizing that different people work differently, and what drives some people mad might be a necessary component for someone else's perfect office.
Of course, as the article points out, having the choice is the real thing that matters.
I quit my job and started freelancing last year. I redecorated my home office, and felt really satisfied with the perfect office space I'd created. A month later, I was feeling trapped, anxious, and deeply, deeply lonely -- and I'm an introvert! I'm working in a real office now, and I feel so much better. I guess it takes a certain nature to work from home, and I don't have that.
> A month later, I was feeling trapped, anxious, and deeply, deeply lonely -- and I'm an introvert!
I'm going on 3 years working from home and I don't miss an office one bit. I don't feel trapped, anxious or lonely. I have house mates, so I get some daily socialization there. I also get out of the house at least 3 times a week specifically for social activities.
I could see where you might feel those things if you worked all day, every day and never got out of the house. That's one of the challenges when you first start working from home: You now have to manage your own time.
Then again, maybe I'm just an outlier. My idea of an ideal office is a standing desk in a garage with concrete walls and a concrete floor filled with weights, tennis rackets, hockey sticks, lacrosse sticks, punching bags, etc to play with while I work.
Last month, my contracting colleague and I moved into an office in a converted house. It's small (just four desks) but the ceilings are high, the walls are light, the lighting is nice and bright, and there's a south-facing window with a view all the way across the city to Arthur's Seat. I have a good office chair and a big desk to spread out over, and a cleaner comes in to hoover the floors. And I get to see humans every day, which - I was surprised to find - is a key ingredient in keeping me sane. I'm a lot happier, and a lot more productive, even though I don't have as much control over this office as over my own home.
This is just me, and I understand that people feel they need to push hard for private offices or working from home, because the default nowadays seems to be a big open plan office. However, every time I see somebody extolling their vision of the Best Way To Work, I think it's worth emphasizing that different people work differently, and what drives some people mad might be a necessary component for someone else's perfect office.
Of course, as the article points out, having the choice is the real thing that matters.