does anyone work at home once in awhile?

[suis]

My company is thinking of letting people work at home one day a week to save on fuel.  I was wondering if any other companies do that and if you have worked from home?  Do you get the work done or is it easier to goof off?  One day a week I think I can do, but more than that I would need more discipline.   Has anyone considered working from home and if so, how do you do it?

[JessW]

I used to take a day out each month to work from home, although not really becaues of petrol savings.  It proved a really good idea as I was able to produce the monthly work in progress reports for my then (now deceased) boss and he really appreciated the hard work I did.  I also managed to finish the report in a fraction of the time and far more accurately than if i had done it at work with all the interruptions.

If you do have the opportunity, I would take it so long as the work meritted it, you have the self motivation and home conditions were not distracting.  You could get twice the work done in half the time.

Jess

[gee4]

Not possible.

In NI unless you are a manager with a laptop, mobile phone etc there would be no way to connect to a network in order to work from home.

[peaches2160]

I have a laptop and would work from home at least one day a week if the boss would let me, especially with gas prices as they are.  The phone can easily be forwarded to my cell phone or home phone number so no calls would be missed.  Anyway, so far he prefers me in the office.  

Personally, I prefer the interaction.  My daughter works from home and has come to the conclusion she prefers the human interaction as well.  

I do bring the laptop home every now and then and catch up on projects though.  Working from home does require discipline.

[ControlledChaos]

There are times when I work from home.  Usually it is if I have a lot of reading to do (for consultations) or minutes to type up from meetings and occasionally when the kids have been ill as we have remote access to our intranet, emails and personal drives.  I have an office set up at home which means that I am motivated to work (I find that I can get twice as much done at home because there are no distractions) and also I feel as though I'm going to work.  This also means that at the end of the day I can close the door on work and "come home".  I do enjoy the personal interactions at work but sometimes find that it can be annoying, especially if I am working on tight deadlines and need the peace and quiet home can offer

[Cathy S]

For the past 4 weeks I have been splitting my time between mornings in the office and afternoons at home - I have been provided with a laptop which has our VPN installed so I can access all my files and e-mail from home, over my wireless home network (I pay a fixed price for our Home broadband anyway).

This was a short term arrangement, but I get so much more done at home.  It has worked well because one boss has been in the States so I had afternoons freeish and then did some work with him in the evening - so the flexibility works both ways.  My top tip for disciplining yourself to do the work even if you are at home - dress in your office clothes so you feel the part.

I am hoping that I might be able to make this a longer term arrangement, since it seems to suit all of us.

Cathy

[raindance]

We have a lot of home-based workers in my company and only one is at director level.  I also occasionally work from home.

I think there are some requirements for home-based working if it is going to be a successful, full-time and permanent arrangement.  Dedicated work space is important. The corner of a bed-room, the kitchen table or the dining-room are not particularly ideal in my experience. Dedicated and fast internet connection and separate telephone line with an answering machine, lockable cabinets for paperwork if you need to keep paper files, space for printer and computer, and a door that you can shut when you are working or have finished working.  Ideally, your company should carry out an ergonomic assessment of your working area and provide you with the necessary equipment.  Your company should also fund the internet and telephone connections either in whole or in part.  

Not every worker is a suitable candidate for home-working.  It requires a lot of self-discipline to work the proper hours, and a certain level of maturity to be able to work in isolation without becoming discouraged or demotivated.  That's where good communications with your manager and support staff come in.  You also need to agree level and method of contact with your manager, how post will be handled, expenses and so on.  

Some of my friends work in whatever clothes they would wear at home; others work in "office clothes".  Most of them work the proper office hours and ensure they take the required breaks for lunch and so on.  One of my friends has the workroom in a part of the house where no-one goes except to work - so "home time" is a very clear demarcation in the day.

When all the arrangements are in place, it's great to be able to work from home.

[misslynn]

I have a laptop with VPN to connect to our network and for my phone, I work solely off my cell phone anyway so that's not a problem.  I have wireless broadband installed at home so I connect in through that.  I haven't tried wearing work clothes at home, I prefer to dress casual and be comfortable but hadn't thought about how the different attire might effect my work perspective. I will have to try that out.  I can tell you that my cat doesn't understand why he's not allowed to sleep in my lap while I'm working!

It does require discipline and accurate time-keeping. If I stop working for a bit to do laundry or the dishes, I mark that time in/out on my timesheet.  I work a flex-schedule so I'm not required to work specific hours.  My contribution is that when working from home, it's important to answer all works calls and respond timely to e-mails.

It can get lonely without that human interaction so even though I'm not required to go to the office when my boss isn't there (and he's only there about one day a month) I usually go for at least a couple hours anyway.  Get some printing done, use the fax machine, have lunch with the girls in the office and make it back before traffic hits.

[Cathy S]

Hi Misslynn

Our office is not a really smart besuited environment, so office clothes for me are perhaps a smart skirt and blouse; at home I would tend to wear combats and a sweatshirt for everyday stuff.  If I change when I get home (ie between office and home office) it is then tempting to stop and do some chores (because I won't mess up my work clothes) or mess with the dogs for a while - and my work clothes actually serve as notice to them that I am not on home time and they don't get to climb up and pester for cuddles.

I also feel more professional when it comes to phone calls and dealing with e-mail or interruptions - (non-work) callers at the house realise I am not dressed down and don't linger.

Once I have done my hours its quick change to casual and a whole different person appears!

I am planning to have a log cabin in the garden to have a separate home office because medium term I want to run my own business from home and perhaps with dedicated office space the clothes thing won't make as much difference.

Cathy

[Katie G]

I thought I'd love to work from home, and I can access our company's network from home, but the nature of my job requires me to be onsite.  "Minding the store" so to speak.  

The biggest problem is, I already have a husband who works from home.  The one time I called in to work from home due to weather (my driveway was a solid sheet of ice), well, I didn't get much work done trying to share the home office.  First of all, we're only set up with a single internet connection, so we had to keep getting on and off and out of each other's way.  

Second, well, my darling husband really doesn't know what it is I do all day and couldn't quite understand why I'd rather NOT be interrupted when working on a mammoth spreadsheet or a complex database, and that I really wasn't in a frame of mind to discuss what finish to put on the kitchen cabinets while crunching numbers.  The problem was, in his mind, me being home = "home mode" not "office mode".

All in all, it just didn't work out.  And when I thought about it, I'd rather my home be separate from my work.  My home is my sanctuary.  

[msmarieh]

I did it and I loved it and I would go back to do it again in a heartbeat. But that's me...

I actually wrote an article on the subject (for deskdemon in fact, but I think it was so old it was pulled long ago). There are a number of factors to consider - especially your working style, how much you might miss your co-workers (sometimes you don't realize how much you actually need human contact until you don't have it), your level of self-discipline, etc.

My hubby worked from home very briefly and couldn't stand it. Even though he is not very social, he found that he missed having some co-workers around. He also was more inclined to get distracted by the TV, whereas I hate daytime television.

My distraction at home is the same as in the office - the internet, which I need to do my job, but which I occasionally end up getting distracted with news article or related research that ends up going way beyond the scope of what I originally intended to research.

Marie