1. Separating work and family life.  For all people working from home this will be one of the main problems that you are faced with and it will take a lot of self-discipline to manage effectively.  Trying to separate “business from pleasure” will be one of the hardest tasks.  Without the right support from your partner or spouse this will be almost impossible.  You may feel obliged to step in at any given opportunity for fear of being branded a bad parent, but the reality is unless you learn to separate your working time from your family time then working from home could prove a huge struggle. 

It will often be the call of daily routines that cause the most distraction, laundry, housework, picking the children up from school and feeding the cat, to name but a few, however more serious points to consider are going to be finding a suitable quiet and organised space from which to operate.  A child screaming in the background or the drone of a vacuum cleaner does not create the ideal professional background for either you or the person that may be on the other end of the phone!

2. Not enough space.  Finding a suitable space within your home to work from can be as difficult as getting the children to keep their rooms tidy!  The most obvious choice for most would be the option of a study.  However this is not always practical, often as many families outgrow there homes far quicker than they plan to, it is quite rare now that the average household will have the full utilization of a dedicated room that they call the study.  Even if this isn’t the case, then this room will no doubt be the home to the family computer or the place the dog sleeps, or where your Husband practices his guitar!  If this is so, then using this room solely for your office will pose a problem as this could cause further stress with always worrying whether the children have crashed the computer or moved important files.

Other options include the dining table but this is very rarely a practical option as you will never be able to secure this as a permanent base and will create a logistical nightmare when the daily task of laying the table for the dinner calls. 

3. Being taken seriously.  Creating a professional environment from which to work will also be difficult when there is no dedicated area for you to operate within.  Creating the right image is often the key to the success of many businesses and professionals.  Working from the kitchen table might prevent you from being taken seriously by your family and will give them the temptation to pose more distractions due to the fact that they don’t see that you are doing a “real” job.

4. Getting the job done.  With the constant distraction of daily life it will take a lot of commitment and dedication to effectively manage your time.  Without the right space in which to work from, this will prove to be even harder.  Constant interruptions will prevent you from being fully productive and will, of course have a knock-on effect on your performance.   If you are not being fully productive then this no doubt could affect the revenue of your business income.  Also if the standard of your work slips then this will cause you further stress as repeated distractions could mean that things are overlooked.

5. Lack of privacy.  In today’s society, confidentiality and privacy are a major concern for many businesses and if you are not able to conform to this standard you could be at risk.  Working from home, you will need to be able to separate your private and social life from your business.  As a teleworker, you could be handling commercially sensitive information that needs to be kept confidential.  With this sort of information being managed from the comfort of your kitchen, you could be at risk of exposure, should you find yourself entertaining nosy neighbours.  This could also prove difficult with members of your family who may feel you are untrusting of them.  All round, this is going to be a difficult situation to manage and will create unnecessary stress for you unless you are able to utilise a dedicated area from which to work.

6. Strain on family relationships.  Working from home can often place a strain on your relationships mainly through lack of understanding.  You may find that your family’s perception of “working from home” does not actually include getting any work done!  This might mean that while they realize that you spend all day at home; this must mean that you are there to undertake all manner of household task as part of your daily routine.  It needs to be explained and understood, that whilst you may work from the family home you still have a job to do.  This would be the same if you commuted to the offices of a company that you are working on behalf of.  In the outset this may be difficult to manage, as you will have to carefully balance the load with your partner or spouse, children may struggle to understand that if you are at home that must mean that you are not working!  You may also find that working from home impacts on your family in other ways, for example if you need to turn a spare room or playroom into your office space then this could cause extra stress on the family’s living space.

7. Working too much.  Working from home can, if not managed correctly, create a workaholic environment for an easily persuaded addict.  The work-life balance needs to be maintained in order to effectively manage a working from home situation.  If you are the sort of person that finds it difficult to organize and manage your time, then you may want to consider taking a course to help you do so.  Otherwise, the temptation of “burning the midnight oil” will overcome you and you will find yourself increasingly more stressed by the whole affair. 

8. Feeling isolated.  Another danger is the ‘cutting off’ of the teleworker from informal exchange at the workplace.  For Teleworkers who are ‘out of the loop’, it can be difficult to keep up with the current company climate.  There is an issue of motivation and independence. Certain tasks can become less interesting or stimulating without exchange with colleagues, even on an informal level.  You may find that this can then affect your productivity and the distractions from an unbalanced home life may prove too difficult to ignore.

9. Self-discipline or Self-management.  To work from home you need to be extremely self-disciplined and be able to manage your time in a way that enables you to be as productive as possible.  The quality and performance is often different and differentiated from the material results of an employee.  An employee may be “efficient” – that is to say ‘doing things the right way’ but not necessarily “effective” – ‘doing the right things’.  These notions are even more difficult to evaluate when one considers teleworking.  This is something you will need to be mindful of, during your employment with a company you would normally expect to be subjected to appraisals and support from an HR perspective.  Working from home, this will require a high level of discipline to ensure your own development and performance is constantly reviewed and appraised to ensure that working from home does not compromise your professional ability. 

10. Home office legal constraints.  Before you finalize your plans be sure to know the rules and regulations that govern your circumstances. If you rent an apartment, check with the landlord the level of business activity that they can tolerate. Your may not be allowed to receive too many visitors or the frequent comings-and-goings of delivery trucks may not be acceptable.Is there a clause in your contract that does not allow you to use your home for business purposes. Think about storage space you may need so not to block doorways or exits and keep potentially harmful substances well away form children. It is better to be aware of the restrictions governing your business at the very start of your enterprise.

I Hope we have highlighted the pitfalls of working at home, while also covering some of the benefits. The solution is an obvious one, we all desperately need to create professional, secure and dedicated office space within our home environment for home working to succeed at all. Its these exact needs that garden offices address.

Garden offices are designed to solve the need to work at home for as many hours as you need without your work becoming a problem in your life.

So, now lets look at some garden office solutions to these problems facing the teleworker...