Susan Daly on the pros and cons of earning a living from your back room
It will come as a surprise to many of my friends that I am not writing this article in my pyjamas. There is a certain stereotype of the person who works from home. It involves the notion that daytime TV watching is mandatory and changing out of nightclothes is optional.
That is not to say that I could not spend the better part of the working day with my feet in furry slippers and one eye on Oprah. I could.
But for my own sanity (and bank balance) I try to adhere to some semblance of a work routine. I am not on my own.
With advances in e-communication, it is becoming easier and more common for employees to work remotely.
Employers too are gradually shedding the suspicion that an employee who works from home is less productive.
The most recent figures available from the Central Statistics Office confirm that 2.3pc of the working population — that’s 151,000 people — worked from home in 2002.
Six years on, with the rollout of broadband services finally underway across the country, that figure is on the rise. IBEC (Irish Business and Employer Confederation) has said that within 10 years, Irish employers will have to be supportive of flexible working arrangements if they want to attract the best employees.
So with the dream of working from home realised by more and more workers every year, we have to ask: is it all it’s cracked up to be?
I left my office-based job at the end of last February to take on freelance work and essentially be my own boss.
Having worked weekends, bank holidays, evenings and, for several years, Christmas Day, I was looking forward to more flexible and sociable working hours.
Working from home would also mean zero time spent in Dublin’s crazy commuter traffic.
Some of it has worked out. I am at my desk within a minute of eating my breakfast, and if I need a day off in the middle of the week, I can work longer hours another day to make up for it.
On the flipside, at the beginning I felt both lonely and isolated in my little spare room. Often I can go from one end of the day to the other without speaking face-to-face with a single person. I miss the buzz of a busy newsroom and bouncing ideas off colleagues.
But as time goes on, I have discovered ways of overcoming the cons of working from home.
I discipline myself to be at my desk first thing in the morning, and get some exercise in at lunchtime so that I feel the day has some structure.
If I have an interview or meeting in the city centre, I meet a friend for lunch or even a coffee while I’m there.
Having a separate work area in the spare bedroom is a big help. It means that I can shut the door in the evening and draw a very definite line between home and work life.
Jenny Ungless is Director of City Life Coaching (www.citylifecoaching.com) and Career Coach for the monster.ie jobs website.
She says potential pitfalls for homeworkers tend to centre around issues of self-discipline and time management.
“It’s all too easy to have that extra half-hour in bed, get engrossed in daytime TV, or end up spending your time doing chores not work,” she says.
“I find a good method is to organise your diary as if you were at the office — so book ‘appointments’ with yourself to do particular pieces of work — and allow yourself to build in coffee breaks etc.”
She also points out that being home alone can be difficult psychologically.
“We do tend to forget how much a bit of office banter can help with our day.
“Make sure you’re not isolated — arrange to meet a friend or colleague for coffee, or at least make sure that you get out of the house at some point during the day — even if it’s just to take yourself to the grocery store.
“Time away from your desk will actually help you to re-focus and give you an extra spring in your step. Even 10 minutes on Facebook will help you feel more connected and ‘in touch’.”
Technology is a huge factor in our ability to work from home. Ireland’s record for broadband availability is dismal by EU standards.
Minister Eamon Ryan has pledged that there will be universal broadband coverage in Ireland by late 2009/early 2010 — but it remains a fact that many rural areas are still e-communication blackspots.
If I want to send an email from my mother’s house in Co Limerick, for example, I have to climb onto the flat roof and hold my mobile internet gizmo up to the chimney breast!
When these technological ‘glitches’ are ironed out, it will be easier to persuade employers that working from home is as feasible as if you were sitting at a desk just outside their office door. Life coach Jenny Ungless gives this expert advice to aspiring home workers: “If you’re trying to put a business case to your employer for working from home, factor in issues like your commute time etc.
“Basically, you can often be more productive at home because you can start earlier and make more of the time in your working day.”
I love working from home now, even if it’s just so I have the freedom to rush out the front door when the sun makes a rare appearance.
But the key is to stay in touch with the world — by email, by phone, by regular outside meetings — so that loneliness doesn’t make that freedom a gilded cage.
Source: Independent.ie
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