Working from Home: Biggest Trend on the Horizon

One of the biggest trends in the new economy is working from home. Look into any coffee shop and you will either see people hunched singly over their laptops, or intense meetings in progress. Whether you are working from home as part of your own business or through an employer, there are some things you should know before you embark on this voyage.

It can be treacherous. The idea of working from home sounds wonderful to many people. You can work in your jammies, right? Oh sure, that’s all good until the FedEx guy shows up and you have to step outside your door. Or a client calls and wants to meet in a hurry. Or someone Skypes you while you’ve still got bed-head.

But you can do most anything from home that you can do from an office, as well as some things that may require a physical presence, like meetings, some assembly, and even some production work. It all depends on what the job is and what the industry is. Some industries stand up to the idea better than others. Sometimes the nature of the work calls for it, such as with sales reps who cover a large territory and are never in the office anyway.

There are now all types of operations that can help you feel like you are in the room with your clients and coworkers: Skype, GoTo Meeting, instant messaging and other in-the-moment ways to stay in touch. These can be a great help if you feel like you would be disconnected from the mainstream if you worked from home.

Who benefits from an employee working from home? It’s not just the employee. Sometimes it is the employer’s idea (they don’t have to provide space and equipment for you), and sometimes it is the employee. The employee, of course, benefits in that they get a more flexible work schedule (most of the time), they can skip the commute and associated costs and hassle, and they may save money on all types of other ancillary expenses, such as lunches, work attire and those pesky office pools.

You do need to have the right equipment. You should have a solid computer and printer (a 3-in-1 is best), a backup system, a good Internet connection (at least 10mg), and good cell phone service, preferably with a smart phone. You should be able to use your work email from your home computer. Your IT department can tell you if this is possible. Sometimes it’s not possible to get to the work-place servers, but it would be ideal if this were also set up. You should have a quiet space, a kid and pet-free zone with a place to sit and work. Best if this is not your dining room table. You should have other resources nearby, as well, such as a copy center, an office supply store, and possibly a coffee shop where you can have meetings if needed.

The hazards are many. If you are easily distracted, this is going to require some retooling. There are kids, pets, errands to run and of course, the Internet. Your home phone actually rings during the day, too. And there are fine, sunny days when your backyard will look very enticing. There are a million little household chores and a pile of mail to be read. The hardest part comes when your friends and family find out that you are working from home, yet don’t actually understand that you are working. You’ll get offers to go to lunch (long, leisurely lunches of the sort you do not have time for), shopping, movies, and all other types of mayhem.

The best way to treat working from home is to actually go to work in your home. Get up at a pre-business hour, get yourself ready, dress in business attire (it can be casual, but you want to look presentable), pour your coffee and take yourself off to a hopefully-designated area that is solely for work use. If you can be out of sight of that pile of dirty dishes or laundry, all the better. You’ll get more done and it will show. And this way, if you happen to stop by the grocery store on your way back from buying office supplies, and run into someone you know, you will make a better impression than if you were dressed in sweats and a t-shirt.

Maybe you have personal reasons for trying to work from home, beyond the jammies idea. If you are trying to state your case to your employer about working at home, do a little homework. Take some time to keep track of how many times you actually leave your desk during the day at your workplace. If you hardly step away except at lunch and breaktime, you might have a good case. Note the use of the above-mentioned technologies; if your neighbor is IMing you anyway, that’s a sure sign that working from home might be feasible.

If you don’t feel as though you want to work from home, but your employer wants you to, try working out some other type of compromise. Maybe a flex schedule would work best, so you could share someone else’s desk. Perhaps there is a co-worker who wants to work from home, and whose duties call for them to be in the office. You could take on some of their duties and they could take on some of yours. Just be creative and try to think of how things can be rearranged.

Employees have been aiming for this for a long time, and it looks as if employers are now realizing that working from home isn’t losing an employee; it’s gaining productivity, office space and loyalty.