Recently two articles of contrasting opinions were published about working from home, the first concluding that it sucks, the second claiming that it rocks. I offer a third possibility. It depends on what you make of it. Like with so much in life, you have the chance to control circumstances and happenings with your decisions and actions. And when working from home, it is no different. Here's how.
1) Time. You could claim that working from home gives you flexi-time. You can work whenever it suits you. Most people would see this as an advantage. But it can become something negative, if applied to certain people. If you find it hard to start working each day, flexi-time may not be for you. Assuming, of course, that you WANT to be productive. If you are not forced to start working at a certain time, you may find it hard to force yourself. If you have the motivation, this isn't a problem, but not all people have that motivation all the time. Self-discipline is what is needed here. If you don't have it, working from home can be difficult.
2) Loneliness. Working from home doesn't provide you with much inter-personal contact. Everyone craves human contact. So you can just sit at home, day in and day out, going through the same routine, becoming more depressed with every passing day, until you are no longer producing anything of value. Or... you can work hard during the day and then do things with other people in the evenings. And if you don't have any friends, then you have the opportunity to find some. It's your choice.
3) Flexibility. You can do what you want. Whether this is positive or negative really depends on your decisions. If you want to play games all day, that's your choice. But if you want to work on a project you are passionate about, you can actually achieve something. Of course self-discipline plays a role again. Without it, you could find yourself wasting a lot of time. With it, you could potentially be very productive.
I worked from home for 3 and a half years. It was a great time, but there were both ups and downs. I am not the most self-disciplined person, so sometimes I had trouble actually getting going in the mornings. Often I would only start getting things done in the afternoon. But with time I learnt.
Loneliness sometimes became a factor, but mostly I went out in the evenings and kept myself busy by socialising with close friends, or mostly with my girlfriend (now wife). And I know what some people will say here. "You are just lucky that you had a girlfriend!" I wasn't lucky, but rather fortunate. And I wouldn't be married to her today if I hadn't pursued her. It was a direct consequence of my actions. She didn't just fall into my lap. I persisted.
While working from home, I seldom had the chance to do only what I wanted. I took on almost all the jobs I got offered, otherwise I wouldn't have survived financially. So there were a lot of jobs I didn't particularly WANT to do, but which I HAD to do. And that didn't help with the motivation. That was part of the reason why decided to work for a company again and leave freelancing behind. And I'm glad I made that move. It allowed me to re-assess my situation and think about what I want to do with my career.
At the moment, I am still a full-time employee, and I enjoy it. But I do miss certain things about working from home. It is quite nice being able to go out on short notice, or take holiday when you want. But if I do work from home again one day, it will not be as a freelancer (taking on projects from other people), but rather as an innovator, working on projects that I conceive. For me that will already solve a big part of the problem. But until that day comes, I have a long journey ahead, to get to the point where such a "business" can support me and my family.
In short, I don't believe it's so clear-cut whether working from home sucks or rocks. It depends on a lot of things. But I know that if you want to, you can MAKE it rock.