Work From Home

The notion of being able to work from home is an attractive prospect to an increasing number of people these days. Being able to fit your work routines around family life is appealing, not least because of the convenience, but because it seems to make some work feel more interesting, less boring, or at least more acceptable. However, people who work from home fit into several different categories.

Firstly, there is the telecommuter. This is simply an employee who can achieve their work and job requirements via a PC, an internet connection and a telephone, and a PC can be located anywhere. So they are able to set up a workstation at home.

This arrangement usually only happens when suggested by an employer, and is most likely to be offered to employees with special knowledge or skills, and whose location is not essential to fulfilling the job requirements.

Then there are workers whose job is confined to a specific territory - state, county - whatever, such as sales reps and service engineers. Their employer's head office or regional office might be hundreds of miles away, so they work from home. They probably have the following days tasks downloaded each night to their home PC, and they organise everything they need to do their job effectively, at home.

Probably the main body of workers who work from home are the self employed. They may not do all the actual work at home, but that is the base for their operations. Skilled tradesman such as plumbers, carpenters, landscape gardeners, and anyone freelance such as music teachers, copywriters and craft workers.

Most people, however, think of work from home in the context of either being employed to do something indoors at their own home, or of running a business, independent of an employer, and with little or no need to venture unnecessarily beyond their domestic base. More a case of 'work at home' rather than 'work from home'.

Sounds ideal, doesn't it? Get up when you want, work as much or as little as you want, and get paid for it, without anyone looking over your shoulder and checking up on you. But it's not as simple as that.

Working from home - whether for someone else, or as your own boss - requires strong, personal discipline. There are so many distractions at home that can impact on your work time, that, unless you are well organized and disciplined about the tasks you have to achieve, you will find your work schedules slipping and your objectives compromised.