As of a few months ago, I have gone from working exclusively at the office to working from home at least one day a week. So far my transition has been extremely smooth with relatively no speed bumps. Of course, this was prefaced on my part with making my two working environments functional for me. As a service to others out there who have considered working from home, I’m going to share some of the preparations I made as well as outline some benefits (some obvious and some not so obvious) and concerns regarding working from home.
To be upfront about my responsibilities, I am the primary technical resource for a small business. Most of my time is spent in front of a computer doing development, research, tech support or anything else technical. For the most part, I just need Internet access and a phone and I am good to go.
Benefits To Working From Home
- No commuting. The price of gas is a concern to most of us out there. By working from home, you do not use any gas so there is immediate monetary savings. Additionally, you do not have any commute time to or from work, so there is another “instant” savings. In my case, have a 50 mile round trip commute which takes 30 minutes either way. Even though my car gets 35 miles to the gallon, when I work from home just one day a week, I save about half a tank of gas and 4 hours of travel time per month.
- Quieter environment. While this will depend on your working conditions, for the most part whenever the phone rings you know it is for you. You will not be hearing your office-mate’s phones or shuffling going on outside your office, which allows you to focus and be more productive.
- Tax benefits. (Disclaimer: I am not an account or tax attorney.) Whenever you work from home a percentage of the equipment you use (computer, desk, phone, etc.), the space your home office takes up, the utilities required to facilitate you working from home (Internet service, electricity, water, etc.) and the upkeep on these resources (pest control) becomes tax deductible. Be sure to keep track of the number of days you work from home and when tax time comes around you could see some big deductions.
- Reimbursements. Depending on your employer, you might be offered reimbursements to help cover your costs from working at home.
- Lunch money. Many people like to eat out every day at work. Doing some quick math, just $6 per meal comes out to $120 per month ($6 * 5 days * 4 weeks) and $1,440 per year ($120 * 12 months). Now consider you eat left overs at home or make yourself some lunch instead.
Things To Consider / What You Will Need To Be Successful Working From Home
- Access to work resources. The most notable here are computer resources. If you have a work laptop, you probably have 99% of what you need already but consider any network resources, printers, scanners, faxes, etc. which you might not have access to at home and plan accordingly. People with desktop machines at work will most likely need remote connection. I use Terminal Services to connect to my Vista machine at work, but if this is not an option a commercial product such as LogMeIn or GoToMyPC are excellent choices. I would encourage you to use Terminal Services if at all possible because the performance is unmatched. Do not be afraid to consult your IT contact if you have any questions or concerns.
- Long distance calling. Odds are you need a phone with long distance calling to do your job. If you do not have this service already, consider using a voice over IP (VOIP) service. I use Skype with the “professional” service plan which runs (at the time of this writing) $3 per month (yes, just $3) for unlimited long distance in the US. The quality and reliability of Skype is excellent. I did have to purchase a $15 headset and a $20 (per year) Skype phone number, but compare this to the cost of adding long distance to your phone/cable service or using an alternate VOIP service such as Vonage.
- Phone forwarding. Building on the point above, any calls which come to your office phone you will need to have forwarded to your home office phone. You do not want to add confusion or burden to either your co-workers or customers (i.e. “I work from home on Mondays so call this number, but every other day call that number instead” is a recipe for failure.). Pretty much any office phone system will have forwarding options on your extension, so find out how to redirect and unredirect your office extension to your home office number.
- Discipline. Remember, when you are working from home, you are “on the clock”. This should go without saying, but you might be tempted to quit a bit early or turn on the TV. Being at home offers many distractions which you must ignore in order to maintain your productivity.
Pitching It To The Boss
If your employer does not offer some sort of work at home program, do not let it discourage you. Our company did not have sort of policy, let alone requirements for working at home until I helped pioneer it. My work environment is not corporate at all, but just because we are laid back does not mean anything goes, so here is what I did to make working from home possible:
- Research. Before you even suggest working from home, figure out how you are going to make everything work (phones, email access, etc.). You need to be able to explain how there will be no drop off in production from you working at home.
- Explain the benefits. Just because you can mimic your work environment at home does not guarantee a slam dunk. Be able to point out benefits to your employer you can offer by working at home. For example, if you do not have a 20 minute commute to work, offer to work 20 minutes longer. Be prepared to incur all the costs from working from home (they should be minimal and keep in mind your immediate and tax savings) and point this out to your boss.
- Ease into it. If you are going to be “piloting” the working from home program, do not jump head first! Come up with a plan you know will be successful and build on it. For example, explain you want to work from home every other Monday for X months to demonstrate working from home is successful and then “graduate” to every Monday and then to every Monday and Tuesday, etc. This will help you iron out any issues which may pop up. If you jump right into an aggressive schedule and it fails, you might not get another shot at it.
- Perform. Most importantly, when you are working from home you must be just as productive, if not more, than you would be at the office.
Conclusion
Again, I am happy to report my transition to working at home part time has been a smashing success (knock on wood). Naturally, not all work environments are the same, so what works for me might require some adaptation to work for you. Regardless, I do hope this information is helpful and encourages you to explore the possibility of working at home.
If anyone has any suggestions or success stories which can assist or encourage others to start working from home, please share!
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I’ve been telecommuting to work 5 days a week since 1994.
Back then it took a bit of effort to convince management this was a good thing. If you have discipline to move from work to “gone home” modes you can make it work. It was nice taking a more active role my son’s life.. making those school plays, time for civic volunteering, lower auto insurance rates, etc.
I run PCMech from my home office and love it. Although, I have to say, sometimes it is nice to get away. I have a 6-month old at home, and sometimes I find it beneficial to take the laptop and go to Panera Bread to get some work done.
Our oldest son works from home and has for many years. First it was for himself but now it is for a large corporation. He made it work with his children by letting them know not to disturb him when he was “in his office” which was a spare room. He kissed them goodbye every morning and went to his “office” and closed the door. The kids never bothered him while he was in his office. If we called and asked where their dad was they always answered “at work”.