4 How To Know If You Should Work From Home
How To Know If You Should Work From Home - Working from home is becoming an increasingly popular option for people around the globe. Deciding whether it’s right for you takes time and contemplation. Being self-motivated, having good communication skills, and having the ability to prioritize and focus independently are all personality traits well suited to working from home. If you are suited for remote work, you’ll need to consider the benefits and challenges of working from home before pursuing a remote career.
Deciding if You’re Suited to Work from Home
Ask yourself if you are self-motivated. Working remotely requires a certain degree of self-motivation. You won’t have the same degree of supervision as you do at a brick and mortar office. You will need to exercise discipline in completing your work and staying on task, which can be difficult without the in-person support of a boss and co-workers.
Consider your communication skills. Working from home requires good communication skills. You will be using web-based applications, email, and the telephone to communicate with your supervisor, co-workers, and clients. You should have clear writing skills, be able to effectively communicate via email, and be able to express yourself effectively over the phone and internet.
Think about your ability to prioritize and focus. Working from home means having the wherewithal to set priorities and focus on finishing the task at hand. This can be more challenging than it is in a traditional office where you have more direct supervision. You will be in charge of setting your hour-by-hour priorities and focusing on getting them done, despite distractions like dirty laundry or hungry kids.
Assess your home environment. It's important to think about exactly where you'll be working in your home. You need a dedicated office space that is clean, free from distractions, and equipped with the proper technology. For example, if your current computer room is also where your ten-year-old practices piano and your husband tosses his dirty laundry, it might not be a suitable space for working from home.
Recognizing the Perks of Working from Home
Eliminate your daily commute. When you work remotely you can save precious time each day when your daily commute is eliminated. Instead of spending an hour commuting to and from a brick and mortar office, you can spend that time on more important things like planning healthy meals, exercising, or spending time with friends and family.
Spend more time with your children. Working from home can mean a more flexible schedule and fewer hours spent commuting back and forth from the office. This translates into more time you can spend with your children during the workweek, allowing greater opportunities for transporting children to and from school, participating in extracurricular activities with them, and devoting more time to helping with homework. Parents of small children can even spend the work day with their kids.
Save money on transportation, clothing, and lunch. Remote workers don’t need to spend their hard earned cash on gasoline, bus fare, or train tickets. You also won’t need to invest a ton of money into your work wardrobe, and you’ll save money on eating out for lunch as well. These savings can be significant, especially when you consider the miles you won’t be putting on your odometer driving to and from an office space away from your home.
Strike a more manageable work life balance. A 2011 study found that people working from home reported around twenty-five percent less stress than those working away from home. They were also more likely to sustain a positive work life balance and managed to eat healthier than their counterparts who worked at corporate offices.
Minimize office drama and politics. Working from the comfort of your living room means you might be able to avoid some of the politics and drama at the workplace, because you will have fewer face-to-face interactions with your co-workers. Employees who work remotely may be less likely to engage in gossip and idle chat because they’re not hanging out in the break room, around the water cooler, or having lunch together.
Considering the Challenges of Working from Home
Contemplate the challenges of maintaining work life boundaries. While working remotely has its perks, it also has some downfalls. When you work from home it is often difficult to establish and maintain boundaries between work time and the rest of your life. When work bleeds into non-work, or vice versa, it can be difficult to maintain boundaries and effectively complete tasks.
Consider the costs. While working from home may save you money on transportation, it also might mean that you are bearing the burden of other work-related costs such as electricity, office supplies, and even equipment. Carefully consider these expenses before deciding whether working from home is right for you. You might, however, be able to take a home office deduction on your taxes.
Think about the importance of human connection. Working from home most often means working alone. By doing so you are foregoing day-to-day, in-person contact with your co-workers. This can lead to isolation. The lack of contact also means you are missing out on valuable face time that can spawn creativity and boost productivity.
Examine your IT and computer maintenance skills. Working from home means you will not have the benefit of onsite computer maintenance and information technology specialists that many brick and mortar offices provide employees. When you have a computer issue while working from home you may have to assess the problem and find a solution on your own.
Don’t disregard distractions. In order to successfully work from home, you will need to figure out ways to eliminate distractions. These can be as simple as that unfolded basket of laundry or as complicated as a crying child who interrupts an important conference call. Take all possible distractions into consideration before you ditch the office and take up business in your bedroom.
Finding a Job You Can Do from Home
Talk to your boss about working from home. The first step in figuring out whether you should work at home is exploring the possibility with your current employer. Many employers already have work-from-home policies in place, and you can explore these options with the help of your supervisor and your company’s human resources department.
Explore careers that are open to telecommuting. There are endless possibilities for working from home in the 21st century. Fields like computer and information technology, sales, customer service, marketing, finance, research, and web and software development often encourage employees to work from the comfort of their own homes.
Develop a new skill set. Once you’ve decided working from home is a good choice for you, consider developing a new skill set that will help you find employment in a telecommuting-friendly field. This could be as simple as refining your already existing web development skills or pursuing an entirely new degree in a field like computer science.
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