Working at home is becoming increasingly popular. This year, 5+ million employees will spend 35+ hours per week working at home with some kind of formal arrangement with their employer. Working out of your home, in your pajamas, is a dream that plenty of 9-5 workers have. Working from home can be a wonderful thing, if you can manage it. There are many benefits like reduced expenses for things like childcare, commuting, work clothes, lunch out, etc. Also, there tax advantages to working from home.
There are however some negatives. No one is there to be the boss or set the schedules so you have to be disciplined. Working all alone isn't something that appeals to everyone and some people feel isolated. Some people find it difficult to draw a line between home life and work life. You have to be prepared to deal with unrealistic expectations from the rest of the family, procrastination, children (if any) and unsupportive spouses. Working at home isn't harder or easier, but it is work.
If you have decided that working from home is the best for you, talk to your employer about Telecommuting. Although telecommuting has been around for years, it is now on the rise. Many more companies are offering this for many more jobs even if the offer is for a partial week telecommute for starters. Remember your employer knows about the benefits of allowing their employees to work at home. The biggest benefit being increased employee satisfaction and retention. Employees who work at home are less likely to quit so recruiting and training costs are greatly reduced. Employees who work at home are more productive so fewer employees are needed to achieve the same results. Employees who work at home are highly motivated. Employees who work at home cost the company less -- less real estate needed for facilities, desk, supplies etc.
If your employer is not willing to allow telecommuting right away throw out the following options:
-- Compressed Work Week
This can allow you to put in a full work week in less than five days and reduce your overall commute hours. For the employer, this option can help improve worker coverage and extend the hours of service they can provide to their customers. If you cannot financially afford to decrease your working hours, this maybe the way to go.
-- Flexible Work Schedule
This option allows you to vary arrival/departure times. Flexible work schedules are usually considered on a case by case basis, and usually demand work during some core business hours.
-- Job Sharing
If you are willing to go part time, this may be the answer. This option allow you share your job responsibilities with another person while you still preserve your position & status with the company. Job sharing also benefits the company because overtime costs are all but eliminated and they have employees who are more productive and ready to work when they come in.
Do not be shy to ask your employers about these options. Remember: you don't ask; you don't get. You may be pleasantly surprised.
If your employer is not willing to entertain some flexibility, look for an employer that will. You may even be able to use another job offer with such flexibility as leverage. There are many companies out there that will accommodate you.
Good luck!
All the things that can get in the way of being productive at home are a lot of why so many people fail when they try to work from home. They just don't have the focus or the drive to make themselves productive. All the fun stuff at home as well as all the work around the house that could be done are allowed to pull them away from the work they know they should be doing in order to succeed.
The best thing to do is to come up with some sort of schedule you can keep to. How specific this is will depend on several factors, such as the age of your kids, when you focus best and your other obligations. But I can give you some basic tips to get started.
The very first things you need to look at are the things you absolutely have to do at certain times. This can be things such as picking the kids up from school, taking them to activities, any classes you may be taking, any meetings you may have. These are the times you know you can't work on anything else and you shouldn't try to plan around them.
Another consideration may be the non-work things you need to do around the house. This may include things like cleaning and preparing meals. Hopefully these will be more flexible, aside from the fact that dinner must be served sometime before the children declare that they are starving to death. But you may be able to get some help with that, depending on how your family is run. Do be sure that everyone is pulling their weight in keeping the home and family running.
Now it's time to think about when you are most likely to be productive. For me it's late evenings into the night. I'm just not an early riser. But others will prefer early mornings and some will do best in the middle of the day.
Next consider any times that your home business will need you to be working. If you're calling people on the telephone, the middle of the night or extremely early in the morning won't do for that aspect of your work. You're going to need some work hours at times that meet the needs of your customers or clients.
And of course consider how many hours a week you plan on working. Not everyone pulls a 40 hour week from home. Some only want part time while others will go at it as many hours as possible, and have to be reminded to stop.
Combine these various factors into something of a work schedule. As much as possible have your best working hours be when you plan on working. Write it out if that helps you. Many people do well with a daily to-do list.
Babies and toddlers will generally make sticking to your schedule quite challenging, of course. You do have to be more flexible when your children are of an age that they need you more. And at any age kids are prone to emergencies that may require your attention. Just be glad that working at home often makes responding easier.
Do not force yourself to stick to a schedule that just is not working for you. If it's making you miserable, see if you can identify the problem and move things around.
You may also want to consider scheduling the kind of work you do by day. My own work routine varies by day of the week as well as of the month. It allows me to focus on particular activities regularly. Many things are easier to do if you can work on them without interruption or feeling like you should be working on something else. Other times you want that break.
Just taking the time to work out even a partial schedule can really help you to be more productive. It takes one of the excuses for being unproductive out of the way, and sometimes that's all you really need.
Both Ann Mckee & Stephanie Foster are contributors for EditorialToday. The above articles have been edited for relevancy and timeliness. All write-ups, reviews, tips and guides published by EditorialToday.com and its partners or affiliates are for informational purposes only. They should not be used for any legal or any other type of advice. We do not endorse any author, contributor, writer or article posted by our team.
Ann Mckee has sinced written about articles on various topics from Acne Treatment, Womens Health and Home Management. Ann is a home based business entrepreneur who researches and reviews many products on her site If you are looking to work from home online like she. Ann Mckee's top article generates over 49500 views. to your Favourites.
Stephanie Foster has sinced written about articles on various topics from Credit Cards, Shopping and Pets. Stephanie Foster runs as a resource for work from home parents. Get mor. Stephanie Foster's top article generates over 823000 views. to your Favourites.