I’m too social to work remotely

I have come to a conclusion - I could not - and probably would not - work from home if given the choice. I’m too social for remote work. Have a pile of work to do all day and no one to deal with accept via email, conference call, and live meeting drives me crazy. For the last few weeks I have been working from my dining room table. I have been putting in 10-14 hour days and only leave the house to go grocery shopping or to the gym for an hour and ½. I like my house, I like spending time there, I don’t like spending all my time there. And when I have work to do it is hard to get out for a little bit. I don’t know if this is the case with most people, or maybe if I had a home office that would help. But I think being home all the time is only ½ the problem.

While it is nice to see my wife all day long, I miss seeing the people I work with. I miss the banter that comes from sharing and office. I miss lunch breaks, coffee breaks, and so on. If fact I feel like I take less breaks and work more remotely. The truly sad thing is you would think these longer hours and lack of breaks would translate into productivity. But they don’t.

My normal MOD is when I need something from someone I simply find them and hassle them until they give it to me. I don’t like sending a lot of emails and escalating issues through the chain of command. I will if I have to but I find it much more satisfying to walk over to the persons desk, sit down, chit chat for 2 min, then politely let them know I am going to hang out until they do what I am asking them to do, or at least until they schedule some dedicated time to get it done. I can’t do this remotely. People screen their calls, avoid answering emails, turn IM off, and so on. And I don’t think every little hold I run into should be a subject for all managers on a project to discuss. I know people are busy if I can talk to them face to face many times I can get an answer in less time than it takes to compose and email.

That said I also find I am missing the travel. I don’t mind being on the road. I don’t know why. I am always pleased to get home on Thursday nights when traveling, but I kinda like being able to concentrate on work during the week. I do call the wife every day and we do email, but for some reason it seems easier to concentrate away from home. Plus I like exploring new places so to go somewhere new every few months or at least every year is a nice perk. Even if it is the middle of nowhere Ohio! At any rate I am going to avoid remote work from this point on, at least for any duration that is more than a week or two.

Of course the one up side is all the time I get to spend with my wife and getting to sleep next to her on a regular basis. But I could probably get that working locally at a normal job, I just don't like working from home.