Working at Home-Is it for Everyone? The Work at Home Series-Part 1
Working at home is a dream many people share, but is it really for everyone?
Whether you are just entertaining the idea of working at home or you are seriously pursuing a work at home position, there are a few things to consider before making that leap. Later on in the series, I will be discussing these all in much greater detail; for now I want you to just think of these as food for thought.
Can you afford it?
This is probably the first thing that comes to anyone’s mind as they think about working at home. It’s at the top of everyone’s list and deserves a lot of thought. Most work at home positions are part time and generally pay less per hour/week than a typical 9-5. However, there are many other factors to think about besides the size of your paychecks. While you may be bringing home less per pay period, your associated costs may actually be less and you’ll end up breaking even or actually making more. I’ll be going through all the particulars of this topic in the next part of the series;but here are a just a few ways working at home can actually save you money: Commuting and vehicle maintenance, child care and/or babysitters, and professional expenses. There are many more and I will dive deeper into this issue in the next article.
Can you be productive at home?
A work at home job is like any 9-5 in that you still have a boss somewhere expecting you to produce your best work no matter where your office is. You’ll need to be organized, and you’ll need to manage your time wisely. You’ll need to find time to work without distractions and without the nagging feeling of other things to be done around the house-which means you’ll need to ignore your household to-do list and make your work to-do list a top priority.You’ll need to set boundaries with your family-no touching Mommy’s laptop, no sticky fingers on the printer, etc. This can be a struggle, but to maintain professionalism-you’ll have to set those boundaries firmly. I can proudly say in almost 8 years of working at home I’ve had only one rogue Sponge Bob sticker land on my laptop! Coming up in this series I’ll be talking more about being productive at home and keeping the balance between work and family-so stay tuned for more.
How flexible is your employer?
Before accepting any position, it is important to know that you will need maximum flexibility. Without question. You’ll need to be able to schedule your work deadlines by days, not hours. Meaning you’ll have a project done Tuesday, not Tuesday at 10am. Why? An hour based schedule leaves no room for those little “issues” that are bound to pop up and mess your whole system up;no matter how organized you are. Jr. gets sick, you have to make a last minute dash to the Dr. or you finally printed and assembled the 15 reports you needed to have done and your toddler decides to pour a little grape juice on them; you run out of printer ink or your laptop freezes up and you lose 2 hours worth of work. Whatever the “issues” are, they are much more likely to happen when you are at home, you have no IT department or a “team” to delegate to. You are essentially all you’ve got to work with, so better plan for the unexpected and ask for flexibility up front.
Can you let go of the office?
Picture this: No more lunches with coworkers, drinks after work, free coffee and bagels, water cooler gossip, Ally Mcbeal style potty breaks, and the list goes on. Some people really thrive in a team environment and need the camaraderie of coworkers to really enjoy their work and work to their full potential. If you are one of these people-working at home may not be for you. You can still do some of the above things, but that office environment will be gone, kaput. You’ll officially be a one person rodeo and you’ll be the only one riding in it. It is definitely something to consider before making a choice.
The balancing act-how well can you juggle?
Emotionally speaking, there will be a lot to juggle when you work at home. You’ll have the kids, the house, the work, the housework, the errands to run, the 3 square meals a day to make and well, the list goes on. It can take a toll emotionally, because you feel you are being pulled in a million different directions. You’ll feel guilty for working instead of playing with your kids, you’ll feel guilty for playing with your kids when you should be working. You have to learn to handle it or it can get overwhelming. I speak from experience; trust me. You’ll also need to consider the emotional impact of others. When you announce to the world that you’ll be working from home; surprisingly many people will frown. No joke, they’ll roll their eyes, laugh in your face or ask you something like ” well, is it a REAL job?” I have no idea what makes people behave this way, but it still happens to me 8 years later. Someone asks what I do for a living and I respond with I work at home and next thing I know I am being verbally assaulted with things like ” Doesn’t it feel weird to not work a real job?” “Why did you waste your time going to college if you weren’t going to use your degree?” on and on they go. Develop a thick skin. Hopefully, people won’t frown on your decisions or belittle you for choosing not to work full time, but just in case..prepare yourself now.
From my experience, working at home is very rewarding, often challenging and the best decision I ever made. I’m contributing to my family’s income, staying connected to my profession in case I ever choose to re-enter the work force full time and most importantly I am here each and everyday for my children. I hope to help you in your decision to work at home with this series and even help those of you out who are already working at home.
I’ll be diving into just about all of these issues and a whole lot more as I continue this Work at Home series. Next up, we’ll take a deeper look into the question of affording a work at home job. I’ll also be covering how and where to find a work at home position, managing your time, balancing family and work, productivity tips and tools for working at home and more.
How about you? What are some of the things you’d consider before working at home? If you work at home; what has been your biggest challenge(s)? I’d love to hear your thoughts and ideas.
Topics: Make Money |
April 8th, 2008
I finally decided to write a comment on your blog. I just wanted to say good job. I really enjoy reading your posts.
Tina Russell
April 8th, 2008
LJ, you bring up some great points! The hardest adjustments for me was staying motivated when I had work to do and the weather was awesome…and the golf course was calling me!! But my situation was a bit different as I was working at home for myself.
The opposite was true as well. If I had a lot of work to do I would find myself going back into the office after dinner because it was just down the hall. I had to find that balance and it took some discipline. But overall, I love working from home.
April 8th, 2008
I’ve been working from home since last September, and I really love it. I don’t yet have kids, so during the days, it’s just me and the computer (and whatever errands I need to take care of).
Even though my paychecks aren’t as high as they were when I was working outside the home, we have a lot more money now, and we’re a lot happier. Strange how that works!
April 8th, 2008
Hmm, you ask some really good questions. I have always wanted to work from home. I even ran my own licensed daycare for a few years. It was nice but not exactly for me. It did help me to realize that working outside of the home is not a option for me. My husband has a job that offers great rewards because he is very flexible with his hours. He is able to be flexible because I make sure I am always here for him and the kids. But I would like to generate some income too. I am trying to accomplish that now but I have a huge problem with balance and focus.
April 8th, 2008
I love working from home and have been since my little man was born in January of ‘07. I work for a small aerospace firm doing “rocket science,” so I don’t get too many comments about not having a “real” job.
My two biggest challenges have been more related to my company. I love the work that I do and the team with whom I work…but they seem to forget from time to time that I’m only supposed to be working 20-hrs/wk to their 40. The workload has been overwhelming from time to time.
But the more frustrating challenge has been that while my team and department value me and my contribution highly, the “corporate” division of my company apparently does not. HR, finance, and IT support have been almost non-existent. Most frustrating has been when my team gets new equipment and programs and I do not (despite equal need) until I whine and complain for weeks on end…which doesn’t exactly endear me to the people who already aren’t fond of me.
My supervisor suggests that I bring cookies to our IT guy the next time I’m in the office (about weekly)…but it _REALLY_ rubs me the wrong way to have to _bribe_ someone to DO THEIR JOB! Especially when the company’s making money on me hand-over-fist.
April 8th, 2008
I love working at home (if you can call blogging working). I’m a total introvert, and I get really stressed out when I try to balance being around people all day at work and then trying to manage the house and kids in the few hours I have at home at night.
I’d much rather work at a relaxed pace during the day, alternating housework and blog work, and then catch up on any missed blog work late at night.
April 8th, 2008
I’m not sure I could work at home for an employer, but I could for myself. If I worked for an employer I would feel required to keep a certain schedule, do a certain amount of work each day, etc. If I worked for myself I could flex my schedule a bit around other events of house occupants (kids and wife). One day I dream of writing full time from home, but now I bang away on the keyboard into the wee-hours and continue my 8-5 job. Just saying that out loud makes me tired!
April 9th, 2008
Great topic! I’d love to hear more about how you balance the kids and working at home. Do you try to coordinate worktime with naptime or do you ever have to hire someone to help out so you can get a few hours of work in? What do you do when the kids are going nuts but you have to get some work done? Thanks!
April 9th, 2008
[…] Work at Home Series Part 1-Is working at home for Everyone? These icons link to social bookmarking sites where readers can share and discover new web pages. […]
April 11th, 2008
[…] Working at Home-Is it for Everyone? The Work at Home Series-Part 1 - LJ takes a detailed look at working at home in a two part series. Is working at home for you? […]
April 11th, 2008
Shannon-I’ll be talking more about this in the next few editions of the series…I have tried a lot of things to balance work/family life and it is always a challenge, but well worth it. I’ll have an entire article dedicated to just this topic, because it is one that is very important and very challenging. Here’s a hint: naptime, bedtime and DVD time work great !:)
April 11th, 2008
Frugal Dad-
Working for yourself is a whole different ball game than working for an employer. When I have a project to be done, I have to have it done by a certain day, so I NEED to work. If I was working for myself, chances are I would not feel so rushed….but then again if my company’s livelihood was counting on my working, I would most likely work twice as hard if it was my own company rather than somebody else’s. I think it is about how passionate you feel about the work too, if you truly enjoy what you are doing, you’ll work more, harder, better and if your work is just sort of something you do, you’re more likely to be lazy about it!
Great points you bring up!
April 11th, 2008
Lynnae-I agree with you-working all day and then coming home to manage the house, the family and everything else, plus try to unwind from your day at the office is about impossible! I think it is great to be able to walk away from a project during the day to get a fresh perspective and you could NEVER to that at any old 9-5!
April 11th, 2008
Princess Leia(i love the name, may the force be with you)
Rocket Science? Wow, yes i would consider that a “real” job…although I am in engineering and people don’t consider that “real”!
I totally understand feeling left out from the rest of the company…I never get invited to the functions and the IT department doesn’t even seem to know I exist and the “big” guys at the company don’t seem to care that my laptop breaks on a daily or weekly basis and I need a new one….ugh.
Being sort of left out of the loop is one drawback to working at home, but I think most of the time you can look past it, because after all you do get to miss out on all the office politics!
Take Care!
April 11th, 2008
1stopmom-
Flexibility is one of the most important things in the life of a family…my being home makes it easier for my hubby to be flexible with his work schedule too and makes it easier for him to schedule his days better(I help him make appts and things so he can get his butt home at a decent hour!) and it works out better for us that way. That is definitely a deciding factor in making the choice to stay at home to work-flexibility..
Balance and focus…..YES, that is a challenge…I’ll be jumping more into that topic soon, it is an important one because it can make all the difference in the world. I had such a hard time with that when I started working at home, so I have tried a lot of different things and still try new things all the time to keep that balance and get my work done without taking away too much time from the kids and the housework. I’ll be sharing all my tips and more pretty soon, so stay tuned…hopefully I can help!
April 11th, 2008
Kyle-agreed…working when you look outside and everything looks a lot more fun can be hard. Finding balance-that is at the top of everyones list and it can be a challenge, but totally worth it in the end
April 11th, 2008
Tina-thanks, glad you enjoy the posts!
Take Care
April 11th, 2008
Kacie-isn’t if funny how even with less money you can live much “richer”? I love it!
April 13th, 2008
[…] Gets Paid put together a 2 part series on working at home. Part 1 Part […]
April 28th, 2008
[…] Gets Paid is more on this track with a three-part series on working at home. She asks first, “Is it for everyone?” Assuming it’s for you, she goes on to address the topics of affording it and […]