The idea of working from home for mothers with a baby or young children is a very attractive one.
Especially if you wrestle with the constant guilt of working outside the home, leaving your children in the care of strangers, having to leave home three hours early to beat the traffic just to be at work on time, missing all your child’s milestones, and only getting home just in time for them to be in bed.
It may be the journey to and from is too long, and it takes too much of your time and energy just to get you and your child out of the house.
Or your morning routine during the week is so chaotic that it makes you almost crazy by the time you get to your desk. You might just be tempted to quit the commute and the office environment, and work from your living room.
Or perhaps it’s not just the journey to the office and back. What about the time spent there? Maybe the office is too hot or too cold, but you can’t complain because of your colleagues.
Or you can’t stand the gossiping and chit-chat when you’re trying to concentrate?
Perhaps it’s the annoying constant ringing of the telephones that give you a headache. Or the fear that something would go wrong with your child, and you would not be there for him or her.
The good news is if you work in a non-contact industry – such as accountancy, translation, data entry, writing, sales, editing and proof-reading, graphic design, illustration, insurance, media buying, speech-writing, research, sales, travel agency, stockbroking, website design, childminding and so on – then you may just be able to convert a part of your home into your office and work remotely.
Working From Home Can Be Attractive
Many mothers work from home for many reasons – to combine it with bringing up a family, to save on the costs of renting an office, to effectively control their working hours, reduce their commute, or as a launch-pad for a growing business.
And more and more people, it seems, are doing it. According to the official Labour Force Survey, in the spring of 2009 there were 691,000 British home workers (working mainly in their own homes, using both a phone and a computer) versus 582,000 three years before.
Working from home does have many benefits. Home workers reduce the need for expensive premises and they are often more productive.
BT claims it gets an average of 20% more work out of its 10,000 staff who are home workers. They also claim that their staff who work from home have reduced sick absence and high levels of performance.
Home working also encourages a more diverse labour force by bringing in women and carers who have difficulty travelling because they have to be near people they are looking after. It can also benefit disabled people or those living in remote locations.
Then there’s the reduction in transportation costs, pollution and greenhouse gases.
According to Telework Exchange, an organisation promoting the practice, an employee who works three days a week from home can save $5,878 (£3,775) a year on commuting costs and spare the environment 4000 kilograms of pollutants.
Technology has played a huge role in the increase of working from home mums.
It is now so much easier than it was ten or twenty years ago. Turning a small part of your home into an office, or fixing up your computer so that you can work remotely on a full or part-time basis is not hard.
There are many different types of video conferencing software, Blackberry devices, online networking and collaboration software, mobile and online office packages and 24/7 emails that make it possible.
So if you are interested in working from home as an employee, how do you propose it to your employer?
In the UK, if you have a child under 16, or if they are disabled, your employer is legally obliged to consider your request to work flexibly, which could include working from home for part of the week and/or changing your hours.
They must also consider an application if you are caring for a friend or a family member. You can still approach your employer even if you don’t have any dependents, but you can present a strong business case.
Is it for Every Mum?
Working from home may not be an option for every mum. For a start, there are some industries where the job requires you to be physically present, such as healthcare, teaching, emergency services, transportation, construction and so on.
Workers in such industries cannot do their jobs outside of the workplace.
Some employees also claim that working from home makes them feel isolated. Without the constant interaction with colleagues in the workplace, working from home can seem like a lonely prospect.
It can make them lose their creativity because they don’t have any one to bounce ideas with.
It can also make them feel like they are missing out on career advancement prospects because they are disconnected from the rest of the workplace.
Employees also worry that their employers might abuse their availability and make them work extra hours.
The same technology that makes it possible to escape the office – mobile phones, laptops, broadband – makes it harder to get away from your boss.
You can feel pressured to keep working even after you should have finished for the day, if for example your boss sends you an email at 10pm.
And some people want to have clear boundaries between their work and personal space.
Mothers who work from home may feel like their work starts to encroach on their personal time and space, and they cannot ‘escape’ from the office, because it’s right there all the time.
So do you think working from home is for you? Click here on some working from home tips including the advantages and disadvantages.
Read this working mother’s thoughts on why you should become a work from home mother.
This is a guest post from Tolulope Popoola. She is a writer, blogger and a work from home mum. She blogs at http://www.onwritingandlife.com and is the creator of the online fiction series, ‘In My Dreams It Was Simpler’. She also writes short stories, flash fiction and magazine articles. She has recently published her first novel “Nothing Comes Close”.
