The Money Mustache Community
Learning, Sharing, and Teaching => Ask a Mustachian => Topic started by: nic1 on March 28, 2019, 08:47:09 AM
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I have been struggling with a decision to stay working from home or go back to working in an office, Currently I am doing both, I work in a clinic one day a week and at home 3 days per week. They are both in the medical field but completely different jobs. At home I completely do everything online, no interaction at all, in clinic I am a provider.
I make more money an hour at my clinic job, and bring home 200 dollars more per day working the same amount of hours after taxes, however I do have to tack on 2 hours of commuting and higher stress level. I really am missing the personal interaction though and find after a few days of working at home I am getting down and feel isolated.
The other advantage of working in clinic is that I can work 3 days per week as opposed to 4 days now because I do make more each day.
I have kids in middle school so I know being home in the afternoons is better for them, I do have someone that can bring them home and to activities but it is still not a parent present, so that is weighing on me also.
Any perspective is helpful, I really am at an impasse on what to do. I REALLY miss only working 3 days a week and having 4 day weekends, right now I just feel like my days run into each other because I am doing everything at home and then working 4 days and usually my one day off during the week I have a ton of appointments for the kids and myself. Ideally I would just work from home less days and not add more clinic, but our youngest child just started at a private school, (which was another post) and we love it and I need to make a certain amount of money to reach our goals and provide this for her.
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I've tried to summarize your post into pros/cons of each option:
3 WFH + 1 clinic days
Pros:
- Less commute time
- Spend more time with kids
Cons:
- More hours worked per week
- Isolating
3 Clinic days
Pros
- More money in fewer hours
- Social
- Extra full day off each week / more time for household upkeep
Cons
- Not home with kids 2 more days per week
- Commute
- Higher stress job
I would rank how important each of these pros/cons are to you and that would help decide. You could also look at it financially - including the commute time, how much more would you make/lose per hour switching? Do you have the option of ramping up your clinic work to see if you like it? And if not, downshift to one day a week again and look for a similar WFH position?
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Personally I'd go for the 3 days in the office. Too much work from home and I feel sluggish and out of sorts. Computer always there staring at me to do more. It sounds like the isolation is a factor for you, and I think this part alone might impact how long you can do this work. If you make this decision now is it a one and done or can you change your mind in a few months?