I think I am going to like this work at home thing...

I am....and most the time I love it, but I am tied to phone and computer communication such that I don't feel as flexible to too far from my tight radius. I really do have to push myself to go out for lunch every once in a while with a friend (like I would if I were in an office).

It is nice to not have to fight any traffic getting down the stairs LOL! That sleeping a little longer helps too!

But I do miss other adult interaction (except for DH who also works from home now) and the "water cooler" conversations.

Congrats on your new role!

I work from home and I mostly love it. I work for a bank so have some very strict information security processes and procedures I need to follow which does make some things a bit of a hassle, but overall, it's good. I am in a project-based role, so I too have a lot of flexibility in my schedule as long as the deliverables are done on time, but I also have a lot of conference calls that I attend, so I do need to be at my desk for those. DS knows the rules around me working - he's at school most of the day, is respectful of my time and my office when he's home, and it works great. I don't make it a habit of doing things with him during business hours, but sometimes I do. Like yesterday was a gorgeous day and there were reports of a bird species we've never seen at a nearby wetlands, so after school, we took off and went birding. Added three new species to our life list before I'd normally be done working for the day (But I did work on a writing project last night to make up for the lost productivity.)

I will say this, the flexibility of working from home is great, but also can lead to bad habits. When I was new to working from home, I found myself doing more and more work after-hours because it was there and available. I didn't realize, at first, the pressure it was putting on partners and teammates to be receiving documents/emails (to corporate addresses, not personal, don't freak out ) late at night or early morning. I'm on the west coast and if I'd IM someone on the east coast at 8:30 AM their time, they'd wonder if they should also be online at 5:30 AM their time. Once I realized how those kind of things were being interpreted, I changed my habits to keep any contacts in more normal business hours. I still work odd hours sometimes, but I will schedule emails to send at 8 AM instead of 11 PM, for example. Anyway, be sure you pay attention to those kind of unintended consequences of the flexibility.

I have a part time work from home job. I tell my husband it's the world's most boring job because I do data entry on a website. That's it. Drop the picture, answer the question, upload, download. It's the same form over and over and over again. Got very boring. But I love that I'm at home for it. Most of my hours are late evening, so I may be working, but I can still have a conversation with my dh and be there to make sure the kids go to bed on time and take a couple of hours to go to a band concert, etc. I just have to get my work done by ten pm and it's flexible from there. I love that.

I work from home too but at the moment I'm more or less taking a break while I get my studio put together. Before DD, it was nice to be able to set my own hours and do what I needed to do whenever. We had an awesome in-home part time sitter for two years when DD was 18 mos through 3.5 and that was great, but she got a much needed full time job so we've been on our own for almost a year now and it hasn't been so easy.

I thought having DD in half day preschool would give me enough time to be somewhat productive and get stuff done, but it hasn't worked out that way at all. First it took forever for her to get on the bus coming home, and the carpool craziness was just a joke. Then almost every month since the kids have had a scheduled week off of school right when I feel like I'm about to get some traction. Every.stinking.time. And then I started the buildout on my studio/office in the fall, and everything has come to a complete standstill until I can get unpacked and organized. But next year she will be in full day kindergarten taking the bus both ways, and then I'll be able to get things back on track again.   

I actually do pretty well with sticking to a self imposed schedule otherwise. This summer will be kind of ugly unless I get a sitter a couple days a week because I also started helping out DH with his office work too. His business has really ramped up lately, and he's terrible at knuckling down and doing the boring office stuff that he hates. It's easy for me and pretty mindless work. But if it means we have our weekends free to do family stuff it's worth it.

I have been working from home since Oct. 2000. It was definitely wonderful when my kids were young and we could go in the pool, go to the park, etc. during the day. I will say though that while I definitely am thankful to be working from home, that it has become pretty isolating for me. It is like work never leaves, I am always thinking of something I have to do and running into my home office to take care of "just one more thing". It has become so easy to do other things around the house and I end up working after dinner some nights.

Enjoy your time at home and congratulations on the new job.

From an outsider's viewpoint.  I think it is humorous how you decided in one week that your boss was nuts.  That is a special kind of crazy!   

I am going to add my ditto to this. I've been WFH for over seven years and I've learned that I have to behave as if I'm really *going* to work and I have to keep regular office hours or my work/home life bleeds together until both are shitty and miserable. I do have flexibility; that is nice and I do take advantage of it but not really more than I'd take advantage if I was at the office.  I don't nap or watch TV or do much housework during the day because those hours are when my clients and co-workers are at work and expect me to be available. 

It's easy to fall into the trap of "I'll have time to log on later" so just be careful about it because it can really screw with your head in a bad way. Have fun, stay focused. And enjoy the advantages - stretchy pants every day, flip flops, every day is bring your pet to work day, and you never have to commute or put your face on if you don't want to.  

I love it too. I'm not sure how long I've been doing it, probably 8 or 9 years. My job is similar to yours--I'm an instructional designer, so lots of writing and developing.

There is an expectation that I'm available during normal work hours, like 9 to 4, but our department is very loose about it. As long as I'm making my deadlines and delivering my project, I get no interference. It has completely changed my life as a parent. I NEVER have to worry about how I'll work out transportation for my kids and their activities, appointments, lessons, etc. I flex my work schedule to fit it in. I love that I am seven minutes from all of their schools and can be there so quickly if an emergency arises.

I was very social at my old job for the same company. I was a corporate trainer and trained almost every staff member there. I knew everyone and was constantly moving about the office checking on people and helping out. I got to know so many people on both a professional and personal level, and, not to toot my own horn (was very beloved). I thought I would have a VERY hard time giving all of that up. I really loved the people I worked with. The transition was surprisingly smooth and I wouldn't go back to that unless I absolutely had to. My only issue is, as someone else mentioned, staying on task. I can get too flexible and then I'm working evenings or weekends to catch up. That's something that is a work in progress for me, but it's a very, very small downside. I guess the other downside might be that people (family especially) think that if you work from home you're basically available for whatever they need.