Work From Home Talk

Reasons for Working from Home

Once you make the jump from working outside the home to working from the comfort of your own home, you are likely to face many new challenges. That is because as a person who works from home, chances are good that you do not get paid by the hour or even by the month. Instead, you get paid based on how much work you are able to successfully churn out to standard in a single day. Yet knowing all of that, many still pick to work from home as oppose to going out to work. What are their reasons for doing so?

As you probably already know, many of the people who work from home have little children to take care of daily. These moms are likely to telecommute in order to not miss out on the important milestones of their children’s lives. Also, working from home eliminates the need for childcare, and that financial reason alone can be enough for many moms.

Many wives like to work from home even if they do not already have kids. They do so because they want to be a housewife while still working and generating income for their family. These wives often have to split their time between doing their household chores and doing their paid work.

Students are another big group of people who like to work from home. Although in their case, they might actually be working from school half of the time. Students like to work from home because the flexibility of it works well with their class schedule.

Start with the Hardest Task

Most of the work from home jobs that I have encountered pay based on the amount of work done, instead of the number of hours worked. That means to get paid more, you need to get more done within your work day. In other words, how long you work is not as significant as how much you are able to accomplish during the time that you do work.

One of the things that can really slow down a work day is knowing that you have a hard task to take care of at some point within your day. That difficult task is on your to do list, and every time that you think about it, you feel a little antsy. This type of scenario can distract you from the other tasks that you have to work on during the day. So that in the end, you do not get as much done as you otherwise could have done for your work at home job.

What should you do to prevent an upcoming difficult task from slowing down your productivity level? Go ahead and tackle that difficult task first. At the beginning of your work day, look over your to do list to see what you need to get done. Then figure out which is the hardest task on your list, and start on it right away. Don’t even bother spending time dreading over it. Be like Nike and just do it. Once you get that hardest task done, you will be able to fly through the rest of the work that you need to do.

Combating Loneliness

Working at home has plenty of perks. However, as with everything else in life, there are a couple of downsides as well. For instance, working at a home can feel a little lonely at times.

So how do you combat those feelings of loneliness? You reserve some time within your day, and use it to connect socially with others. It can be broken up into a couple of minutes here, and a few minutes there. Alternatively, it can be one big chunk of time.

So what do you do with your reserved social time? You can call to catch up with an old buddy, and discuss some of the latest gossip news. If you have an hour to spare, then you can go ahead and meet up with a girlfriend. Either go to lunch, or meet at the mall to do a bit of shopping together.

If your friends are not available during your free time to socialize, there are other ways for you to feel less lonely. You can go to the park that you know will always have a decent flow of people, or you can go to the exercise class at the gym that you frequent. An option that does not even require you to leave the house is to simply log on to various forums. Sometimes just conversing to likeminded individuals online is enough to push feelings of loneliness away.

Loneliness is a feeling that is sure to happen every now and then while working at home. However, you can stop it from becoming overwhelming. Take a break and socialize!

How to Tell if a Work at Home Opportunity is Legitimate or a Scam

Warning signs of work at home scams

There are more people trying to find work at home opportunities than there were just 5 and 10 years ago. As a result, there are also more work at home scams than there ever has been before. Knowing how to recognize legitimate work at home jobs from work from home scams can save you a lot of heartache and money.

There are a few different types of scams. You may come across traditional work at home scams that take your money, scams that take your time and scams that take your information. Keep these warning signs in mind when looking at any work at home position to avoid being the next post on the rip off report.

Money Scams

Work at Home scams that are out to get your money are pretty straight forward and easy to recognize once you know what to look for. They promise you some form of at home work such as writing, data entry, customer service or any number of jobs that can be performed remotely. The warning sign here is simple, they want money upfront, a legitimate company wouldn’t ask you to pay them just to get a job.

Time Scams

Time scams are a little different, they actually will pay you eventually. They won’t request any upfront fees, they just simply get over by paying you pennies for hours of your time. You have probably come across these before. These are paid email sights, many survey taking sights, I would even consider including Cha-cha into this category. I will say that out of all of them Cha-cha is probably the best, however they still pay minimal, I may consider doing an evaluation on them down the road to get their pay specifics.

Information Scams

Information Scams are dangerous scams that many people have fallen for. They tend to offer you money for one work at home job or another yet require personal information before they’ll forward you any details. These scams are often simply selling your contact information, however they can often be even more malicious and be set up to retrieve your personal information in an effort to steal your identity.

Always take a moment to evaluate a work home opportunity so that you stay one step ahead of malicious scams.

Silence is Golden, or is it?

Do not fall into one of the traps of working from home.

I have been a home worker or telecommuter if you prefer, for about eight years now. I fell into this purely by accident and was completely astounded that anyone would pay me to do work from my home.

When I discovered the benefits of working from home, I jumped in boots and all. I felt like it was the best fit for me and I still do. However, this past year, due to a complete relocation from one end of the country to another and some of the projects I took on and needed to devote a large amount of my time to, I suddenly looked up one day and realized I was alone.

Isolation is a hazard of working at home.

The things that probably drove you from working in a brick and mortar setting end up being the very things that you need to keep the isolation away; namely, those things are people.

Be honest, dealing with people in the work environment can have some very challenging moments; the endless visitors, the annoying coworkers, the nosey bosses and the micromanagers. You have the office gossip vines, all the complex relationships, and their effect on you and those around you.

Now, working from home, you do not have that anymore. The people are gone and, thank goodness, the annoyances that accompany that. You have peace and quiet, you have bliss.

Then the quiet sets in. At first you revel in it, it’s as close to nirvana as you can imagine. Then the quiet takes over, it seems to grow louder than the office politics that drove you to telecommuting.

Welcome to home working, welcome to silence and isolation.

As a home worker, you need to take conscious steps to avoid the isolation trap that is so easy to fall into. Here are some suggestions to help you keep connected to the outside world:

Establish relationships online with like-minded people. There are loads of online forums set up to support home workers. Find them and get involved.
Structure your time. Do not face the day without a plan. An unplanned day is the devils workshop. Ok, that is not quite how the cliché goes, but if you have no plans, the day can seem like an endless barren road.
Make time for outside ventures. Join a gym, get involved with a local photography club, or go out with the girls or guys as the case may be. The point is get out of the house. You do not have to have a have an outside event every day. Just once a week will do the trick and make you feel like you are in the land of the living.
Silence can be golden – sometimes. Sometimes it can be an empty void that taunts you. Fill it with something you like. Music is typically my choice, but the TV might be more to your liking. Open a window and listen to the birds, whatever strikes your fancy.

Do not let isolation get the best of you. Remember it might take a conscious effort to stay plugged in to the world, but it is a necessity for you to remain as productive as you can at the work that you do.

When Working From Home, Space Does Matter

Several issues should be considered when determining where you choose to work as a telecommuter.

Depending on your situation when you decide to make the jump from working outside the home to working inside the home, several questions should be answered before you grab your laptop and plop down on the couch in front of the TV expecting to work.

The first cardinal rule of working from home is to treat your space and your job the same as you would when you work in a brick and mortar business. The propensity for some of us (and I have to admit, early on, I was guilty of this) is to be a bit more lax in our approach to working from home. This can cross over to our choice of working environments in the house; in other words, working on the couch does not always foster a sense of professionalism.

Here are some things you should consider:

Will you be visited by your clients or (if you work for someone) your boss? This situation would be best approached in a more formal manner preferably an office setting using a spare room. If you don’t have a spare room to devote completely to setting up an office, at least section off a part of a larger room. Insurance might be an issue so checks with your homeowner’s insurance company to find out if you need some sort of rider or extension to your current policy. Consider the “expectations” of those that might be meeting with you in your home.
Functionality of the Office Setup. Are you the only one who will be utilizing your workspace? If you decide to take on additional help or have a business partner consider their needs as well. Will you be able to complete all the tasks that your work requires? Do you have the proper office equipment? These might include printers, faxes or phones. Is the lighting adequate? Evaluate your needs for accomplishing all the tasks related to your job and go from there.
Aesthetics of the workspace. Considering that in most instances, you will probably be spending the majority of your day in your workspace; don’t underestimate the need to make it a pleasing, inspirational place to work. Determine how you will accomplish this. Personally, I have to work in a room that has a view to the outside and I place my desk right next to the window that gives me that. I have also researched what wall colors work best in a home office. Natural lighting is also a big aspect for me. Don’t ask me why but one thing I really dislike is over-head or ceiling lighting. I use desk and floor lamps for work that I do at night. Artwork is another inspiration for me. I love to travel and am a photographer so I frame my travel photos for my office space. Plants or even a small fish tank can also soften a harsh or otherwise sterile workspace.

Why Does the Work-At-Home Mom Become a Work-Aholic-Mom?

As home workers, we walk a fine line between working enough and working too much. This is an important line not to cross.

Repeatedly when reaching out to my network of work at home moms and dads, I find the same complaint “I am working too much.”

Why does this happen? What is it about working from home that makes typical “clock-watchers,” and “minute-counters,” in the normal work environment, turn into workaholics?

I think a big part of this Dr. Knock off-On-Time/Ms. Must-Work-All-The-Time transformation comes from how tenuous our situation can be. Many of the people who I network with (and you gotta network or isolation sets in and that is a whole ‘nother’ blog post) are either self-employed or they work as independent contractors – which for all intents and purposes is self-employed, just cloaked in a more formal name.

In this type of work situation, something that constantly rolls around in the back of our weary heads is “Will work be here tomorrow?” Self-employment means that now, instead of relying on an employer to find your work for you, the sole responsibility of finding work AND completing that work AND trusting that you are indeed going to be paid for your efforts is on your shoulders and your shoulders alone. This is a mighty big burden to bear.

No longer are you paid for slow times or times when you have nothing to do. In the self-employment world, if your fingers are not flying on the keyboard then you are not making money. Gone are the days when you can engage your cubical neighbor in idle chitchat or office gossip or surf your Facebook page and still get paid.

Another factor is the visuality of it all. In the brick and mortar job, you leave the mess on your desk and you go home. You are able to forget about all the work that is waiting there for you. At home, it stares you down; it calls your name and taunts you. Every time you pass the door to your office, you feel its grip tightening until you finally give in to the sirens call and jump in boots and all – just for an hour, of course. Then that hour becomes two, then four and soon you are watching the sun come up.

Some of us are defeating the whole purpose that brought us to work at home in the first place – being able to spend more time with our families.

Next time you decide to give into the call of work when you should be with your family – just say no.

What is so Great About Working at Home, anyway?

Let me change out of my pajama’s, brush my hair, grab my last cup of coffee and I will tell you all about working at home

When I decided to take that (huge) step and be an at-home worker after spending the last 30 years of my adult life working OUTSIDE the home, I was scared. Ok, there I admit it. It’s a scary prospect knowing that how much money you make depends entirely on how well you organize yourself and how committed you are. Most brick and mortar jobs require you to plant your behind in your seat for eight hours (or more) a day and whether you are productive or not, you will most likely get paid for the day. This is not always true with home workers.

Many of us who work from home are either self-employed or an independent contractor. Both of these titles essentially mean you must work your cute little butt off for less money, less security in your job and zero benefits.

I always cringe a little when someone asks me what I do for work. The simple statement “I work at home,” always elicits eye roll and sideways glances. You would think I just told them that I sit on the couch, eat bon bons and watch talk shows all day.

That is the bad.

So why do it?

Good question. I think many times it comes down to moms who want to be home with their children. Mothers who would rather raise their own children then have a babysitter or day care center raise them for her. Sometimes it can be a matter of economics; the cost of daycare is more than many women bring home in their paycheck. In my case, it is a little different.

I am a 50 something year old woman. I have had my run of working outside the home in the hustle and bustle of being a corporate drone. I have had my fill and then some of worrying about traffic, commute times, what clean clothes do I have to wear and co-workers who irritate me to the point of high blood pressure.

More reasons I like working at home:

I like having the ability to travel to just about any point on the globe and being able to take my work with me.
I like setting my own hours and deciding what days I would like to work or not work.
I like being able to travel to nearly any point on the globe and still being able to work – if I choose to.
I get a certain amount of smug satisfaction sitting in my pajama’s with my cup of coffee and burning through my daily work list
I also get a certain amount of smug satisfaction knowing that those family and friends who do not take my work seriously are fighting the traffic to get to work while I am slowly rolling out of bed. While they are punching the time clock, I am watching Good Morning America’s latest concert featuring Lady Gaga.
Mostly, I just like being home. No stress, no muss, no fuss.
I also like that I have dibs on the coffee pot.

Protect Your Time

You can't teach other people to respect your work hours until you do!

I find that one of the most difficult challenges of working from home is managing the expectations of my friends and family. From their perspective, if I can set my own hours, then I should be completely free to hang out with them whenever they want, and for as long as they want, right?

It only makes things worse that I genuinely like these people, and enjoy hanging out with them. An invitation from a friend to meet at a nearby coffee shop in the middle of the afternoon is like waving a bottle of bourbon at a twelve-stepper. It's not helping!

The worst part is that it often seems like no one ever plans ahead. It's a lot easier for me to adjust my workload if someone asks me out to lunch tomorrow. I can start work earlier than usual, or I can plan to be working later than usual. But most offers seem to be of the spontaneous, "I happen to be in your part of town" sort. It's hard to turn those down!

In the end, I came up with a two-part system. The first part involved formalizing my work hours, which was helpful for other reasons. I'm not too strict about it - sometimes I start work right at 8, and other mornings I sleep in and dawdle and watch The Daily Show at 9, and start work at 9:30. Some days I finish at 4PM, and other days I work until 7 or 8. But for the most part, I work during work hours.

The second part involved setting up a sliding scale. The more often someone asks me to do something during work hours, the more likely it is that I will turn them down. For example, Friend A asks if I want to get coffee at least three times a month, and it's always the same day, and "coffee" usually turns into a three-hour gab-fest. Friend B invites me to lunch once or twice a year, and usually asks several days ahead of time. I turn down three invitations from Friend A for each one I accept, but I will happily drop everything for Friend B.

It's all a matter of training your social circle to respect your work hours. Which means that first YOU have to learn to respect your work hours, of course! Be honest with yourself: we often gripe about people distracting us from our work, when really we leap at any opportunity to leave our desks and go hang out with someone in The Real World.