Do you work from your office or from home? Or both?

[SpringMom3]

Originally Posted by Parsec

I'm retracting this statement. I'm trading my Boston commute and 9-5 grind for a part time consulting gig that allows me to work from anywhere in the world. I'll save 15 hrs/week on the commute and I get to pick up my kids from school everyday.

That's awesome! Congrats!! Good luck!

@495Neighbor- I am in Sharon, but I do go into an actual office downtown some days, and the rest I love working from home! I love saving on the commute time. I can be working peacefully for hours before anyone even gets into the office and then have a more relaxing day with all of that out of the way.

I am dreading changing jobs and giving this "perk" up! But if I was wfh FT, I would definitely need to switch it up with a shared office space like you're talking about to get out of the house.

[NewfieMama]

Originally Posted by Parsec

I'm retracting this statement. I'm trading my Boston commute and 9-5 grind for a part time consulting gig that allows me to work from anywhere in the world. I'll save 15 hrs/week on the commute and I get to pick up my kids from school everyday.

That's fantastic! My oldest daughter started preschool last year, so I decided to slightly shift my career in order to end my commute. Now I get to drop her off at school in the mornings and it's so nice that I don't think I could ever go back. You are going to love it! Congrats!

[Dm84]

Originally Posted by Parsec

I'm retracting this statement. I'm trading my Boston commute and 9-5 grind for a part time consulting gig that allows me to work from anywhere in the world. I'll save 15 hrs/week on the commute and I get to pick up my kids from school everyday.

Congratulations! I'm jealous.

[Parsec]

Originally Posted by NewfieMama

That's fantastic! My oldest daughter started preschool last year, so I decided to slightly shift my career in order to end my commute. Now I get to drop her off at school in the mornings and it's so nice that I don't think I could ever go back. You are going to love it! Congrats!

Originally Posted by Dm84

Congratulations! I'm jealous.

Thanks guys. I decided it was time for a change. My kids are growing up too fast and although I make it to all their sports games, recitals, etc. I was not involved in their daily after-school activities. I was the dad who showed up for dinner at 7pm after they were done with the exciting part of their day. I figure we already live off 1 income (either mine or my wife's is enough), so why not make the plunge. Your kids are only young once. My wife plans to go part time in the future when my girls are teenagers (and need a mom around to keep the in check) and I can go back to full time.

[SpringMom3]

Originally Posted by Parsec

Thanks guys. I decided it was time for a change. My kids are growing up too fast and although I make it to all their sports games, recitals, etc. I was not involved in their daily after-school activities. I was the dad who showed up for dinner at 7pm after they were done with the exciting part of their day. I figure we already live off 1 income (either mine or my wife's is enough), so why not make the plunge. Your kids are only young once. My wife plans to go part time in the future when my girls are teenagers (and need a mom around to keep the in check) and I can go back to full time.

Very nice! I like your line of thinking!!

[GeoffD]

Originally Posted by Parsec

Thanks guys. I decided it was time for a change. My kids are growing up too fast and although I make it to all their sports games, recitals, etc. I was not involved in their daily after-school activities. I was the dad who showed up for dinner at 7pm after they were done with the exciting part of their day. I figure we already live off 1 income (either mine or my wife's is enough), so why not make the plunge. Your kids are only young once. My wife plans to go part time in the future when my girls are teenagers (and need a mom around to keep the in check) and I can go back to full time.

I've been telecommuting for 7 years and I've had stretches where I telecommuted earlier in my career. If you have the self-discipline to do it, it blows away the commute and all the office nonsense. My only concern would be the part-time consulting part of it. I've done the consulting thing at times. It's often feast or famine where you burn big chunks of time lining up your next thing. You at least want to avoid the resume-killing big gap in employment. When I see a resume, I assume "consultant" fed into my magic decoder ring really means "unemployed" if it doesn't list the company where they were consulting.

I had a tough time in my first round of telecommuting working through the "I'm still working" issue. I'd have a couple more hours of work to do. My wife would come home from work and expect me to drop what I was doing. With children, it would be even more challenging. If I had those circumstances today, I'd finish a section of the garage or put a guest shack in the back yard to use as an office. Or I'd rent office space as close as I could find. A spare bedroom as an office isn't enough of a boundary.

[pippiep]

There's always this option... Spark Cowork Space | Coworking Shared Office Space in Acton, MA

[Parsec]

Originally Posted by GeoffD

I've been telecommuting for 7 years and I've had stretches where I telecommuted earlier in my career. If you have the self-discipline to do it, it blows away the commute and all the office nonsense. My only concern would be the part-time consulting part of it. I've done the consulting thing at times. It's often feast or famine where you burn big chunks of time lining up your next thing. You at least want to avoid the resume-killing big gap in employment. When I see a resume, I assume "consultant" fed into my magic decoder ring really means "unemployed" if it doesn't list the company where they were consulting.

I had a tough time in my first round of telecommuting working through the "I'm still working" issue. I'd have a couple more hours of work to do. My wife would come home from work and expect me to drop what I was doing. With children, it would be even more challenging. If I had those circumstances today, I'd finish a section of the garage or put a guest shack in the back yard to use as an office. Or I'd rent office space as close as I could find. A spare bedroom as an office isn't enough of a boundary.

This is only a 6-month gig that I'm on so I'm aware I might have lapses of unemployment while looking for my next contract. I still feel it's worth it because of the freedom I get with my schedule. I'm also not limited to working for a single client at any particular time so I can hedge against unemployment by searching for my client right now. I just need to balance the number of hours I put into this or else I might find myself working more hours than I did when I was full time! My consulting rate is $150/hr higher than what I would earn working on salary, so I can work fewer hours and still get paid the same too. It seems like a good deal on paper, but like you said I'll soon find out if this type of working arrangement is suitable for me.