Reasons to work from home

Since graduating, I have joined the throngs of the full-time employed. I gave myself a good few months to settle into a routine and come to terms with having a lot less spare time than I was used to.  And after a year of full time work, I don't much care for it.
I decided to come up with a few pro's and con's about working from home - you may not be able to do much about the full-time bit, but you can about your surroundings. Initially I considered moving my couch to my desk at work, but decided that would be a tad impractical and probably against a zillion safety regulations.

Pro's:
1. I'm socially inept
To me, this is the strongest reason to work from home. I don't know how I manage it (if I did I wouldn't be socially inept) but I always say either the wrong thing completely, or the right thing but to the wrong group. This always results in an awkwardness paralleled only by holding your husband's hand in the supermarket, only to find it isn't your husband at all, but some stranger you grabbed by the frozen veg.

 2. Personal development
This is touted so often in the office environment I doubt anyone even knows what it means anymore. It has nothing to do with nude photography. I checked.
What better way to develop your cultural understanding and knowledge than surfing the web at home? If it wasn't for home net-surfing, then I would never be aware of things like this, and frankly, I think I'm a better person for it.

 3. PJ days!
Seriously, who doesn't love the idea of lounging working in your PJ's on the couch? In fact, the PJ day shouldn't just be confined to those who work at home, we should campaign for PJ days at work, and discourage people from dressing up just for a web conference.

4. Avoiding the office coffee
I think this one explains itself:

5. No commute
The problem with working conventional hours is that so does 97% of the population (I totally made that figure up, but I bet it's high). This not only results in traffic jams and tardiness, but also a complete lack of identity, as the amorphous "we are one" being crawls its way to and from work. Depressing.

                                

Con's:

1. I'd become even more of a social recluse

The more time I'd spend at home, the more of my paltry social skills I'd lose. Eventually, I''d barely be able to form a coherent sound, let alone sentence and I'd be become known in my street as the crazy lady with all the dogs. Whilst technically correct, it isn't an impression I'd like to encourage.

2. Money
Once the novelty of working from home has passed, the reality would strike and I'd find more and more excuses to avoid working. The home environment is the worst place for procrastination - there is always something that needs cleaning, calls to make or personal development to catch up on.

3. The real PJ day
The reality of of the PJ day looks something like this:

Very little work is actually conducted during a proper PJ day, and the work that is done is probably crap because your mind is set to slob mode and nothing you do is going to achieve a standard that will actually get you paid.

                                

To summarize, whilst there are more reasons to work from home than not, none of them are likely to result in an income that could support my dogs in the lifestyle they have become accustomed to. Maybe if I actually thought of a viable idea rather than wait for one to fall in my lap...