Who works from home?

[bcoop]

Good stuff, thanks guys. I'm sure the social interaction will be tough to not have, though some of the folks in my office are nails on the chalkboard, and I wont miss that at all.

I've been thinking about what I would do for an office at the house. The wife suggested I put a desk in a corner of the master bedroom, but I feel like I would need more of a disconnect than that. I know how I am, and if there's something I need to get done, i'll be extremely tempted to work on it instead of sleeping. Not that I couldnt walk into the other room to do it, but it wouldnt be RIGHT THERE.

I have thought about building a room in my shop/porch area also, so I can "leave the office" when I am done.

If you want the tax benefit of home office, a desk in a room that also has a bed in it, is a no no.

I work from home here and there. It's usually knocking stuff out between appointments. We have a shit internet line at the office, and it's hard for me to get anything done because it's so goddamn painfully slow. I'll go to the office from 6-9 or 10am most days, hit some appointments, then finish out at the house. I can't get shit done around here with people always interrupting asking questions. Which is why I hit the office early and knock shit out before people get here and the phones start ringing.

[CWO]

I left my old company after 10 years because they wouldn't allow me to work remotely from time to time. 95% of what I do is on a PC that needs the internet and proper software to be productive, that's it. My new gig has me going in once a week for a staff meeting and the rest is done over Skye or Zoom.

If your companies are not using Skype for Business and/or Zoom videoconferencing software (or whatever) to communicate and keep a personal touch on meetings, your company is behind the times. It's 2019, commuting to an office every day for most people is a complete waste of time. My new place has reoccurring meeting times to call into Zoom conferences during the week so we stay on the same page.

Working from home is not for everyone, I couldn't imagine trying to work if I had a wife and 3 kids hounding me constantly, but since it is just my wife and me, it works out fantastically.

[CWO]

If you want the tax benefit of home office, a desk in a room that also has a bed in it, is a no no.

Quick question: Who would be able to verify this scenario? How would this be enforced? Just curious.

[Ruffdaddy]

Maybe you could CNC me a social life?

Man you're already getting salty!!! You havent even made the full transition yet.

[Baron Von Crowder]

Man you're already getting salty!!! You havent even made the full transition yet.

Speaking of transitioning, how is that going for you?

[Tx Redneck]

I've been work from home for almost 2yrs now. The flexibility of hours and being able to take care of things when I need to is great. It sucks hardly leaving the house, I find myself excited to run to the grocery store or other menial errands. Being able to wake up and just grab my laptop w/out having to shower, shave and such is pretty nice. No fighting with the home-bound mob in the afternoons is FREAKING amazing. If I don't feel like working that day, I fire off an email and choose PTO or to make it up on another day that week.

Because of my position, I'm more or less on call all the time. Staying focused can be difficult, so I tend to put some music on and try to tune everything else out. It's real difficult when the kids are home(summer vaca, etc), so my wife works to keep them elsewhere in the house till I "clock out" for the day.

The entire Co meets twice a year for 4 days at each instance. We have meetings during the day and pretty good time in the evenings.

[Ruffdaddy]

Speaking of transitioning, how is that going for you?

Aww you're even trying to make a funny!!!

I guess if you already have a sensitive and whiney personality you might as well fully commit.

[bcoop]

Quick question: Who would be able to verify this scenario? How would this be enforced? Just curious.

I really don't know. I'm guessing it would only come up in an audit. However, I don't know that I'd want to take that risk on the chance that it does come up. I just know, because I looked in to it last week.

I'll be doing this next year, will let you know what the CPA may require me to document.

https://www.irs.gov/businesses/small-businesses-self-employed/home-office-deduction

[Mach1]

Most of this has been said already, full time WFH not a big fan, I like 60% WFH. The social interaction is important, right now I go in every Monday, and meet with customers throughout the week, I am in sales so some weeks I'm WFH the whole week, others I meet customers all week, it's nice to switch it up like that.

[jluv]

My wife and I have both been working from home full-time for the past 4 years, ever since I moved to CO. I love it, and could never see myself going back to a cube. She maybe doesn't love it as much as I do, but I'm almost certain that if she suddenly had to go back to work in an office, she would freak out and beg to be remote again.

We travel back to Texas several times a year to visit family, and when we do, I try to go in and work from the office a few times to show face. I get WAY more work done at home. For me, there are just way too many distractions in an office environment. At home, I can get into my groove and stay focused with any other noises or people around me. If people need something from me, they email me about it vs coming over to my desk, so I am in total control of when and how I respond. It's really bonkers how much more I can get done in a day.

I love being able to use my own kitchen, my own bathroom, and to take breaks on my back deck looking at the mountains. I like being home for UPS/FedEx deliveries, or for when I need something to go out. I have a much nicer desk than you'd get in a cube, with a big comfy chair and three big monitors, nice speakers, etc.

I get to hang out with my dog all day, and he sure loves that.

I don't really miss my coworkers. I still talk to them by phone and email, attend all the meetings remotely, etc. Frankly, I don't want to deal with them anymore than I do now. When I'm in the office, they want to gossip or complain, or talk forever about stupid shit, and I just don't have time for that. I talk to doctors all day, so I still have to keep my social skills and professionalism polished, and that hasn't been an issue. I am a social guy when it comes to parties or hanging out with friends, but to me, that's totally separate from work. When I'm working, it's all about making money.

I can sleep until 7:59 and then throw on pajamas or sweats and log in and start working. Screw a commute! Less miles on the vehicles. No stress of traffic. Those are huge wins.

Sometimes, if I'm bored, I'll hop on after normal work hours and get more shit done. It's easy to do when my laptop isn't stuffed in a bag, and I'm not having to wind down from a drive home. And ya, sometimes I get caught up when I'm busy and work until 9 or 10 PM, but that doesn't bother me. The lines do get blurred when you're not living and working in two separate locations. I can see where that could bother some people.

About the only con I can think of is not getting out of the house as much, and being pretty isolated. I also happen to live in an extremely remote mountain town, and I'm even up the mountain from the town itself, with no real neighbors around. It's especially quiet and isolated in the winter. We often go several days without seeing another human. I actually don't mind it. It's one of the reasons I moved here. The wife, on the other hand, does get stir-crazy in the winter, so we go to Texas more during that time of year to protect her sanity. She'll say she misses being in the office and seeing people every day, but when we're there, I have a hard time getting her up early and into the office, so she's pretty much full of shit on that.

For my job, I just need a phone and the internet. For jobs like that, I think cube farms are a huge waste of space, energy, and time. I believe (and hope) that they'll be mostly obsolete at some point in the not-so-distant future. Maybe 10 years? 20? I think we'll look back on the idea of droves of people driving to office buildings to sit inside of little squares like a damn bee hive, and we'll realize how crazy it was.

[jluv]

I really don't know. I'm guessing it would only come up in an audit. However, I don't know that I'd want to take that risk on the chance that it does come up. I just know, because I looked in to it last week.

I'll be doing this next year, will let you know what the CPA may require me to document.

https://www.irs.gov/businesses/small...fice-deduction

We've been doing the itemized tax deductions since moving here, and have always used the same CPA. We were able to deduct for a percentage off our mortgage for the square footage that we used for our office space, a percentage of the utilities, and the first year, all of the office equipment we bought. Pretty cool. Just this year (for 2018), he informed us that we can't do it anymore. Something about new laws, something to do with Trump (he's a hardcore Trump supporter, so it wasn't like he was blaming him for it). I don't remember the details. It honestly didn't change our return a whole lot. I think with whatever they changed, they offset it by increasing the standard deduction. I'm far from a tax guru, so I can't really explain it. It actually was kind of nice not having to get everything together, though.

[46Tbird]

I've been WFH since January 2015. It took some time to get comfortable sitting in my house and working. It really wasn't the distractions for me; it was knowing when to call it a day. It's really easy to go right past business hours since you don't have to find a stopping place and get on the road. Speaking of that, gaining back 1.5 to 2 hours of my life every single DAY by not sitting in traffic with the other miserable assholes has been terrific.

For the first 2-3 years, I missed working with people. Now my wife is also WFH so I don't get lonely. I am just as "social" as I ever was, but there has been a really interesting side effect: I'm not as good at speaking to people as I used to be. I tend to pause to think of that just-right word that's on the tip of my tongue. It seems like I'm out of practice. It might just be that I'm getting old. Other than that, I haven't noticed anything recent that seems weird about me, but hopefully my friends would tell me if they do.

I would rather have a clean split to a WFH situation than a 60/40 split or something like that. I'm more productive with a consistent routine, so trying to split time between two radically different work environments and schedules would seem weird to me.

[Chili]

I have young children at home and finally ended up building an office in my back yard. It's a 14x16 building with power, internet, phone, AC/heat, etc. Not only did we gain a much needed bedroom in the house, I now have a completely quiet space to work and not be disturbed. I'm less prone to get up and walk to the living room as well.

That sounds optimal to me! Is it stand-alone or connected to the house? Did you convert a shed or was it a custom job? Not asking for any reason other than being nosy.

Good stuff, thanks guys. I'm sure the social interaction will be tough to not have, though some of the folks in my office are nails on the chalkboard, and I wont miss that at all.

I've been thinking about what I would do for an office at the house. The wife suggested I put a desk in a corner of the master bedroom, but I feel like I would need more of a disconnect than that. I know how I am, and if there's something I need to get done, i'll be extremely tempted to work on it instead of sleeping. Not that I couldn't walk into the other room to do it, but it wouldn't be RIGHT THERE.

I have thought about building a room in my shop/porch area also, so I can "leave the office" when I am done.

If I were you, and didn't have an extra room in the house for it, I would absolutely build a small 'office' into your shop. But short of that, there is no way I'd put it in the master bedroom. Even just putting the desk in a little-used dining room or formal living room would be better, IMO.

I wasted no time taking over the boys' rooms once they moved out, lol. I started in the back bedroom but was not a big fan. Now we converted Austin's old room into a shared office for both of us, and it's so much nicer. It's big enough for us to both have our desks, plus I have a workbench and she has a 'craft' area for her cricut and heat press.

Being at the front of the house, with the ability to look out the window without getting up, is great!

I'm likely going to be working 'from home' a lot more, and had already been thinking of renting some shop space. If I do go that route, I hope to find something with a small office area that is air conditioned. Kinda like the old shop you shared, though not likely stand alone.

Quick question: Who would be able to verify this scenario? How would this be enforced? Just curious.

IRS via an audit, I would think?

[Chili]

We've been doing the itemized tax deductions since moving here, and have always used the same CPA. We were able to deduct for a percentage off our mortgage for the square footage that we used for our office space, a percentage of the utilities, and the first year, all of the office equipment we bought. Pretty cool. Just this year (for 2018), he informed us that we can't do it anymore. Something about new laws, something to do with Trump (he's a hardcore Trump supporter, so it wasn't like he was blaming him for it). I don't remember the details. It honestly didn't change our return a whole lot. I think with whatever they changed, they offset it by increasing the standard deduction. I'm far from a tax guru, so I can't really explain it. It actually was kind of nice not having to get everything together, though.

I was just looking at that (deductions for home office) and read that there were changes in 2018.. I think one of the changes was that if you choose to WFH, but are not required to by your employer, you can't claim anything. In other words, you cannot benefit from a tax standpoint if you are only doing it as a convenience for yourself. That may be what bit you?

[jluv]

I was just looking at that (deductions for home office) and read that there were changes in 2018.. I think one of the changes was that if you choose to WFH, but are not required to by your employer, you can't claim anything. In other words, you cannot benefit from a tax standpoint if you are only doing it as a convenience for yourself. That may be what bit you?

That would explain it.