Do we work from home or work at home?<\/p>\n
There\u2019s a distinction: do you work for yourself at home or do you work for a company from your home?<\/p>\n
My wife works\u00a0from home<\/strong><\/em>\u00a0(WFH)<\/strong> because her company office is located elsewhere. She telecommutes, working from home in place of going into the office. This arrangement predates the pandemic, when it was called telecommuting.<\/p>\n I work at home<\/strong><\/em> because I am a freelancer. Home is my workplace and there\u2019s no other workplace.<\/p>\n Working from home suggests you should be somewhere else. It\u2019s a temporary location. \u201cToday, I\u2019m working from home,\u201d sounds like an apology for being where you want to be. At least \u201cI telecommute\u201d sounds like you\u2019re virtually in the workplace.<\/p>\n Sure, I\u2019m reading a lot into the phrases, but corporate consultants are being paid to nudge everyone back into offices. Managers want to be able to see everyone working. It\u2019s a silly need to feel like they’re in control and that no employee is cheating the clock.<\/p>\n Companies used to claim they supported telecommuting\u2026 just not yet. And \u201cyet\u201d never arrived. Even in the pandemic, companies aren\u2019t embracing telecommuting.<\/p>\n Words shape how we think about the world. Work takes more waking hours than anything in our lives, so the way we describe work shapes us and our identities.<\/p>\n I\u2019m not letting any employer define me, not even where I work.<\/p>\n Lines are blurred enough, with after-hours emails and employers expecting us to work (only a little) during vacations. Use language to set some boundaries.<\/p>\n Telecommute to work<\/strong> and don\u2019t let an employer have any claim on your private spaces.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Do we work from home or work at home? There\u2019s a distinction: do you work for yourself at home or do you work for a…<\/p>\n