Isolation is regarded by most people as the main disadvantage of telecommuting. Working at home hides the teleworker away from society when compared to a social job in the office.
Most teleworkers find their biggest fear before starting to work from home, is that they will not do enough work. But once used to it, it may draw the worker into doing excessive amounts of work.
Thus it may be difficult to maintain a balance between work and home life.
There are always the health and safety precautions to observe. The telecommuter will have to personally take care because the employer will cannot govern how they work in their own home.
The costs of telecommuting, e.g.: the domestic electricity bills would be higher and there would have to be adequate insurance on the equipment. If there was burglary in a "telecottage" it would cause drastic effects on its "balanced"
running. It would also cause destructive pain for the teleworker - which they will have to personally bear.
Telecommuting is increasing - with the growing popularity of "e-mail" (electronic mail) to keep the telecommuters in touch with each other. Communication is very important to prevent isolation. It also helps to meet "physically" toge
ther once in a while - very much like working in an office.