Working at Home: The Information Age meets home renovation and the dust of decades

Working at home has obvious benefits: a commute measured in yards rather than miles, relaxed dress code, and flexible hours.

On the other hand, things happen at home that don't, generally, in a conventional office or plant.

At a "normal" workplace:

* Your kids won't come up to you with statements or questions about Bionicles, bicycles, and the nature of reality
* You won't have to fight the urge to take a break "for just a couple minutes" and watch TV
* The environment already looks like a business, so you don't have to either make part of the house a production-boosting environment, or develop the sort of self-control it takes to stay on-task in a residential setting

I could go on, but there have bushels of books written on the subject. Why duplicate the effort?

Then there are the sort of distractions that can happen in either.

Yesterday, my wife's north-room renovation project reached my desk. I held my position as she cut around the desk, and me. In her wake came my young son, pulling up the carpeting, the underlayment, and what seemed like several pints of dust.

I don't know what had accumulated down there over the last several decades, but it gave me the first headache I've had in a long while.

I quit early. Of course, that means that the boss (me) will insist on my getting back on task over the weekend. So, back to work.