Even if you know that your job is 100 per cent suited to working from home, you still need to ask yourself some hard questions about whether your personality is suitable for homeworking. See the quiz or ask yourself briefly :
How suitable am I for homeworking? If you get a buzz from being with people, love to be in the thick of things and can remember just who’s dating who in which department, homeworking may not be right for you. The same applies if much of your social life is based around the office or your place in the hierarchy is very important to you. On the other hand, if you are a self-starter, enjoy your own company in limited doses and find it easy to concentrate, you may be well placed to work from home. Confidence in your ability, self-discipline, a good network of local social contacts and enough space to work are all vital for a homeworker. ‘I thought that I would spend more time working at home than I actually did,’ says Ken Davey, who initiated Mercury Communications flexible work project. ‘I used it for writing reports and initiating strategy, but I came to realize how much of my job depended on interacting with colleagues.’
How supportive are my family? Working from home, even part- time, does alter the family dynamics. Children will have to be taught to understand that mummy or daddy are not available for play and that they must be quiet if clients come. Some may even need to be taught how to take messages, although one disillusioned teleworker quoted in The Telecommuters by Francis Kinsman, said that ‘you might as well open the window and shout out your message to the hills as expect my kids to answer it.’
It is vital to discuss the possibility of homeworking with your family before you discuss it with your boss. A recent British Telecom report cited the case of one spouse who became so fed up with her husband holding client meetings at home that she interrupted one meeting by pouring a bowl of cold water over her husband before silently walking out again!
`It’s a difficult area,’ says Joanna Foster, Head of the BT Communication Forum. ‘There need to be distinct boundaries between work and home life that are accepted by everyone in the family.’
How hard am I prepared to fight in order to work at least part of the time from home? It’s a good idea to know when you are prepared to give up the fight — will it be at the first refusal, when promotion prospects are jeopardized, or when you hand in your resignation ? Clare, an editor on a trade magazine, had asked her boss several times about working part-time from home — and had always been turned down. However, after the birth of her second child, her maternity leave replacement left, and Clare was asked to return to work early to help out. She agreed — on condition that she be allowed to work from home at least two days a week. ‘Once they saw it was working, they made it a permanent arrangement. The down side is that they cut my pay on the basis that it was less convenient for them. I was upset about it, but it was better than traipsing into the office.’
Cutting your wages because you work at home might be drastically unfair, but it is quite possible that an employer will offer this as a trade off If you are a member of a union, they may be able to intercede on your behalf. Otherwise it is up to you to decide how much you are prepared to sacrifice.
Why do I want to work from home at all? If you want to work from home in order to escape a boss who makes Mussolini seem liberal, or to avoid cut-throat office politics, then maybe what you need is a change of employer, rather than a change of scene. On the other hand, if you enjoy your job and respect your employer, but the daily commute is getting you down, or you miss seeing your children, homeworking could be a solution. For me, working some of the time at home was a way of easing myself back into work after a career break,’ says Judy Greavey, Human Resources Manager (Retail Services) of National Westminster Bank. ‘When I’m at home, I might stop work when the kids come home from school and then work again in the evening, once they’ve gone to bed.’
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