Over at eMoms at Home, Dawud Miracle, in his post Why More People Should Be Working From Home And How You Can, celebrates the fact that for the past ten years he has not had to commute to work. He goes on to promote the concept of working from home and provides some practical suggestions for people interested in transitioning to this way of working.
There’s nothing like getting up in the morning and not having to rush into the shower, shave, get dressed, catch some grub and sit in traffic during a long commute. According to a recent Gallop Poll, the average American spends 46 minutes on their daily work commute. 46 minutes, that’s basically an hour.
I relate to that, although it’s a lot longer than ten years ago that I left behind that way of getting to and from work, in exchange for the 30 second commute, working from home. In that time I’ve worked, at different times, both in the house and in a purpose-built office but on the same site as the house. Both ways of working, in the house and separately but on site, have worked for me.
I know that some people feel that if you work from home you should have an office quite separate from the rest of the house, but the reality is that for some that is not practical, or not immediately so.
Working from home is not everyone’s ideal, but for anyone attracted to the idea and still in a regular, “commute to and from” job, Dawud’s tips on how to broach with a supervisor the possibility of testing the work from home idea are required reading.
If you want to work at home the most important thing is to show your boss and your company how it will benefit them.
One of the particular benefits of following Dawud’s suggestions is that it is an alternative to parachuting out of an existing job that may or may not be perfect but still pays the mortgage.
You can go back. The beauty of the approach Dawud suggests, i.e. getting a current employer’s support to testing the possibilities of working from home, is about a different way of doing an existing job, not an alternative to doing that job, and leaves open several possibilities. Not everyone who wants to work from home wants their own business. And not everyone is going to be happy with working from home, however much the rest of us love it.
Thanks to my colleague Bill Vick for the heads up on Dawud’s post.
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Hi,
Could not agree more. Dawud makes some great points about working from home, without the risk of setting up your own start-up business.
We all know that 97% of start-up internet businesses fail, for a variety of reasons. Perhaps if the follow the tips from Dawud and transition into working “from” home before working “at” home more might succeed.
It’s funny how we all want to fire the boss, but when it comes to being our own boss many of us do not have the discipline necessary to succeed.
Cheers
Allan Barker
[...] Christine wrote an interesting post today onHere’s a quick excerptNot everyone who wants to work from home wants their own business. And not everyone is going to be happy with working from home, however much the rest of us love it. Thanks to my colleague Bill Vick for the heads up on Dawud’s post. … [...]
Hey Des. Thanks for covering my suggestions on your post. After having worked from home - albeit self-employed - for years now, I can’t imagine wasting so much time driving to-and-from work.
I also think companies are more open today to the idea then ever before. The key is to show that it’s beneficial - highly beneficial - for them that you work from home. So I suggest doing everything in your ability to be much more productive on your days at home than you are in the office. Then, once your boss settles into the idea, you can ease back into a normal level of productivity.
I do know people this has worked for.
I think that telecommuting is definitely becoming more and more attractive — especially in areas where the commute is really congested. If you spend an hour a day commuting, that’s 20 hours a month, or 240 hours a year — which is basically ten 24 hours days! (Check my math…)
Hi,
I think we all want to spend time with our family that’s why we want to work where we can still be with our family. Most of us thinks that working from home is the perfect solution. For many, working from home has brought a lot of advantages and for some it has brought both advantages and disadvantages.
I have to agree with Allan, working from home could make us complacent and lazy because there’s nobody to call our attention if we are doing our job.
I still want to work from home and at the same time keep my regular job.
Sorry about the typo.
I was trying to say that working from home could make us complacent and lazy because there’s nobody to call our attention if we are not doing our job properly.
Working from home expect self discipline morality and free time. If you to tried to sit on two chairs is a possibility to sit on the floor