I have worked with a number of young entrepreneurs, consultants and teleworkers who have made the decision to work from home. For some of them, it has been a great choice - their flexible work schedule and ability to integrate work and family time has been good for all concerned.  But others tried the experiment and decided not to continue to work from home - it was too hard to concentrate with other demands in the immediate vicinity and it was too difficult to make the delicate blend of job and family work.


While it may seem like just the right thing to do to create a work from home opportunity, it is certainly not for everyone.  As I have visited with work from home fathers, they suggested that anyone considering working from home carefully assess their priorities and their strengths and weaknesses as employees and as husbands and fathers before making the decision to work from home.

So, consider these key questions and answer them honestly.  The answers will help you make the right decision about working from home.

1. Am I disciplined in my work?  If you are easily distracted, working from home might be a challenge.  At home there are distractions galore, and while there might not be more distractions than in an office setting, they tend to be more demanding distractions like kids wanting your attention, barking dogs or projects at home that are nagging at your psyche.  If you can’t put those distractions aside, working at home might not be a great idea.  If you can focus on your work, regardless of your environment, then you might want to think seriously about working from home.
   

1. How does my spouse feel about it?  If your spouse is at home full time, having you work from home might be a challenge or a blessing, depending on her perspective.  Having some added flexibility by having both parents in the home can be nice, but if you are invading her “space” at home, it might be good to think twice.  If she is working but outside the home, you need to make sure that she is OK with you being at home, especially if you are playing the primary caregiver role while you are working from home.  Her opinion is critical to how the whole work from home experience will go down.
   
2. Can you handle the comparative isolation?  Many of my work from home friends love the convenience and the flexibility, but miss the camaraderie, workplace humor and friends that being in the workplace brings with it.  Even if you are having teleconference or video connections with the office and colleagues, the physical distance can be a real emotional challenge.
   
3. Can you handle the idea of being in one primary place most of your life?  In addition to the loss of human contact that a traditional workplace brings, working from home has the challenge of keeping you in one place - the home - virtually your entire day.  From sleeping to eating to working to playing to catching up on projects, your home becomes your nearly total base of operations.   The lack of variety can be a difficulty for some of the work at home dads I work with.  
   
4. Will you have a separate place for work?  Trying to just work from a laptop on the kitchen table in the midst of the dither of home life is not an ideal situation for the work from home father.  You will need a place where you can close the door and work without distraction.  That may be a spare bedroom, a home office or a part of the basement that you can wall off and put a door on.  Your work space will need a desk, chair, WiFi, power outlets and whatever other tools you need for your job.  But it clearly needs to be separated from the rest of the home and its activities while you are working.
   

?Working from home can be a really good option for fathers.  It has low overhead, saves you commuting dollars and time, and provides needed flexibility for work-life balance.  But it can be challenging as well if you have not thought through all of the concerns, alternatives and options before you make a decision and get started on your work at home experience.