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If I want to socialize, I'll hang out with my friends or family, not a bunch of fake, grumpy strangers who are often rude.
I am in sales so we like to chit chat and some of my co-workers I was friends with, but you have made it clear before you are an introvert and like to be left alone. To each his own.
Location: Stuck on the East Coast, hoping to head West
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I'm worked from home for over 15 years now, for several different employers. Love it. You couldn't pay me enough to ever work in an office again. On the rare occasions I've been on campus, I've been amazed at how little work actually gets done. It's ridiculous how the employees are treated like children: told when to eat, oh, and the meetings are ridiculous. They actually have meetings to plan future meetings. Jeesh.
I love working from home. I have had a full time work from home gig for over 3 years or so already. In some previous positions I had, I got to work from home 1-3 days a week. Sure, remote working is isolating at times, but I have enough friends I can chat to online or meet up with once in a while. I don't miss office politics, commuting, and all the other things that take up your time getting to and from the job.
On the other hand, people who are social butterflies tend to like being in the office more. The other drawback is you tend to work more from home than you do going in a traditional office.
I have been working from home for the past 3 years and love it. The part I like most is the flexibility with my schedule. Prior to this I spent the majority of my career (22 years) working in a very structured corporate environment. During those years I had to deal with a lot of office gossip and backstabbing, long commute times, bipolar co-workers, and those dreaded Morning morning staff meetings. I don't miss any of that at all.
Me and my wife work from home. The problem is we are worked to death and we have no start or cutoff times during the day (such as going in and leaving the office). However we do have the whole day to work as we please which normally amounts to staying up late and sleeping in. We also can go to the gym at any time of the day etc. I personally don't think work is the place you should be looking for friends because either you or them can be "forced" to leave at any time.
I went out of my way to keep the remote job because I thought it would help give me more time to focus on getting back into school. However for quite awhile now I've been on the fence to whether I need to get a regular job so that I can get some defined hours per day set aside for my own things.
I have worked from home off and on for years, in very different situations.
I had a WAH job for four years, working remotely for a local company doing data entry. Forms were scanned in at the local office after being received in the mail, we had to log in and access these forms (handwritten) and convert them / enter the info so they were in a digital format and then re-submit them.
This job had the potential to be awesome but in the end was a whole lot of suck. We were paid piece-rate, not hourly, so it was dependent on the speed that we were able to get the data entered and submitted on a minute-by-minute basis. Problem was, there was no accounting for technical problems, slow servers, or issues that necessitated a call to a manager. If you had a "WTF?!" form and had to call for help, your "time" didn't magically stop so you would just lose money.
Also, the work levels were not consistent. Sometimes we were begging for work and lucky to get 15 to 20 hours a week. Other times, we were swamped, they would not hire extra help, and we would have periods that lasted several weeks or longer where we had mandatory overtime and worked sixty-plus hours a week.
The entire attitude and response to ANY concern was "Well, you DO get to work from home..." and I guess in the end that wasn't enough. Nevermind how we saved them money by working from home with our own computers and so forth. Most of us at that job were averaging $8 an hour due to issues outside of our control. Pay raises were pretty much never. Work load was too varied, couldn't count on a full paycheck at Christmas, for example. The social interaction consisted of having a list of co-worker's phone numbers and being able to call them up and chat while working, which we sometimes did.
The next job I worked that was very similar in nature but in an office paid $12 an hour to start and was way less stressful, aside from the fact of having to go and be there in person and dress for an office and all that. Much more down time, less frantic pace. I was worked to death at the WAH job for sure. But then again, I am introverted and the in-office job of the same nature came with all those things I don't like, like pressure (constant!) to chip in for someone's wedding shower or baby shower or b-day cake or whatever, constant pressure to go out for drinks on Friday, and the annoying aspects of office work that have been mentioned (like being told when to eat, when to go to the bathroom, basically managed like a little kid).
So my other WAH experience has been as a self-employed person, basically eBay and similar buy & sell activities. I've been doing that off and on since 1995! I have an amazing eye for a bargain. Some periods I've done it full time, but mostly it's been a supplemental way to make money and a part time thing. It's a totally different deal because I am my own boss. Sometimes that is bad though. Right now I am probably sitting on about $2500 worth of inventory that i need to sell but I just haven't because I have been busy with other things. When I did it full time it was a struggle to make the equivalent of what I'd make doing a clerical job but I still preferred it. I just don't see it as a long term plan.
If I could find a WAH opportunity where it wasn't something like what I did before, but an actual respected position where I was not one of many worker bees in some frantic race to make a quota, then I would do it. I always read about people who WAH, make GOOD money, and love it, but most often they do not mention what, exactly, they do.
I work from home every other week. This keeps us in-tune with what's going on with others on the team. We also have a daily conference call in the morning to check-point what everyone is doing. It works out well, there are many benefits to working at home. I find that I'm more available and checking on things more often than I would if I was in the office.
i prefer office for the simple fact that i have to be there physically which means my job won't be outsourced. working from home is the #1 excuse an employer will use to outsource a job to india.
personally i have no real preference. just get the job done. i do hate the office though because of politics and gossip. what a waste of time and annoying. i am there to work, not like you or hear about your problems.
I could very easily do my job from home. All of the documents I request are sent to me by e-mail format, the projects I work on are on my laptop, and all communications with the clients are conducted by e-mail. There is absolutely no reason why I have to be stuck in an office every day.
My boss has the ability to allow us to telecommute but chooses not to. Personally, I just think he likes to keep an eye on us. He is a bit of a control freak.
i prefer office for the simple fact that i have to be there physically which means my job won't be outsourced. working from home is the #1 excuse an employer will use to outsource a job to india.
I doubt that. Most jobs outsourced to India have involved things like call center, back office, or manufacturing work done at a facility. Many jobs like mine require U.S. citizenship so it's not an issue in my situation.
I don't see how doing something in an office would make one any more immune. They have perfectly nice offices in India and we now have teleconferencing technology to link offices there to people here. My wife who has worked from home for years , has co-workers over there. It's a global economy.
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Some periods I've done it full time, but mostly it's been a supplemental way to make money and a part time thing. It's a totally different deal because I am my own boss. Sometimes that is bad though. Right now I am probably sitting on about $2500 worth of inventory that i need to sell but I just haven't because I have been busy with other things. When I did it full time it was a struggle to make the equivalent of what I'd make doing a clerical job but I still preferred it. I just don't see it as a long term plan. 
