Is it a good idea for a programmer to work from home?

It can be excellent if you have the self-discipline that http://stackoverflow.com/users/275/lubos-hasko mentions. One important thing is to have a work area that is completely separate from your living area. That way you can avoid family distractions, and it makes it much easier to stop and have a non-work life when you need one.

It's actually quite good, the best environment ever, I'm doing it right now. But it's not for everyone. If you lack self-discipline, you can easily end up procrastinating whole day. Oooops, I'm going back to do some work because this is exactly what I'm talking about...

I've worked from home at least one day a week for about five years, and there's another guy in my group who telecommutes from a thousand kilometres away. As long as you have enough self-control to not sit in front of the TV all day and actually work, it's fine. It does make collaboration a little tougher; IM and email are no substitute for face-to-face meetings. It's beneficial from the company's perspective because it makes employees happy. In the case of my colleague, his wife got a job offer on the east coast (we're in southern Ontario), and having him telecommute allowed us to keep an excellent programmer that would have otherwise left. In my case, I have an hour commute each way and if my company didn't allow me to work from home now and again, I might have grown weary of the commute and left to find another job closer to home.

When I did it for about 1.5 years working at home for 4 days with 1 in the office i started to get long term solitude issues... I started to actual withdraw from conversations and the like - missed the being in the office and meeting people. Discussing things. I did have a separate room for the office (and it does help), also the discipline to work and to turn off the computer at 5pm to stop working - which is the big issue - the discipline to stop working on time too, just because its there doesnt mean that you have to do it. Just "leave" the office as you would do normally.

It has it's pros and cons. I allow members of my team to do both. I have one developer that has a long commute to and from and work, one day a week, I allow him to work from home. It gives him a break from traffic and to get back some of that time lost. I do agree that you have to be self-disciplined to do it ... and even though you are at home, you still need to be a part of the team, that means communication. As longs as the productivity is there I am cool with it. It also works out well when trying to schedule personal appointments as well as if a developer is starting to come down with some sickness. If you're hacking and coughing you can still work ... just not from the office! =) On the flip side, I don't like my team members to always work from home. It's hard to keep a team gelled if there is no face-to-face interaction. Whether your misanthropic or not ... there is some weird social pull between developers ... those that get along professionally ,,, and in an office environment, it facilitates information exchange. This is critical to a solid team, at least in my opinion. It's like out of sight out of mind, if a developer is always working from home, it's hard to form a solid professional relationship with them, and I may forget about them, which is not a good thing. Just my thoughts.

I think it can be a good idea. I have been working from home for 2.45 years now. Here are some pros and cons: Pros Getting to see more of my family Less distractions Occasionally working from the recliner in front the fireplace Working for a Silicon Valley company without having to move far from relatives Cons Lack of interaction with coworkers Sitting too long because there are less distractions The line between work and not-work can easily blur Like others have mentioned, for it to be successful you need to be self-disciplined. That goes both ways - try and keep a dividing line between work and not-work. I turn my PC off at the end of the work day to make it less likely that I will gravitate back in to see what the latest buzz in the company IRC channel is or to look at the latest RCS checkins. I'd also suggest getting involved with some other local organizations for the socialization benefits. Get more involved in your local government, programming user group, church, etc. It will help you as well as them. Give it a shot.

One thing I haven't seen mentioned is that it depends on the day. If I need to work head-down on something then I'm more productive at home because there are no interruptions. On the other hand, if it's one of those days where I don't have anything pressing to do, I find that in the office I find ways to keep busy (helping co-workers, discussing issues, getting dragged into other people's problems), so at the end of the day I feel like I accomplished something. But if I stay home on one of those days I tend to just putter.

It didn't work as well as I'd hoped, and now that I'm back in a job with an office, face-to-face interactions, and the like, I'm much happier. In a telecommute, it's too easy to get isolated and to be cut-off from communication. Problems fester until it's time to craft an email, or make a phone call. I struggled with that even in a job which I should have been able to do in my sleep, and they eventually led to my career change. My situation is not everybody's, but I would have to say that there are situations (and people) that don't fit for telecommuting. YMMV. Good luck!

It should be like 3 days work from home.. 2 days office.. and 2 days weekend..