For many people, working from home is the dream. Imagine that you can say goodbye to travel and office politics. Sounds great right?
But even if you know your work won't suffer, it's rarely easy to convince your boss to let you work from home. Your superiors will think about your work. will suffer. That your productivity decreases. That you're going to do the dishes when you should be responding to emails.
When you prepare to ask your boss for the opportunity to work from home, you'll need to do some prep work. You'll need to find some solid ground to at least negotiate a trial of working from home.
There's a word-for-word script at the end of this article to help bring this up to your boss, too.
According to Global Workplace Analytics, more than 50% of jobs in the US are “Supports at least partial telecommuting.” Roughly a quarter of today's workforce telecommutes “somewhat frequently.”
This is just the beginning. Since 2005, the number of telecommuters in the US How the Internet has reinvigorated legitimate work at home. How legitimate work at home has been revitalized. Is there any truth to the stigma of working from home? We would like to present two examples of today's "online workers" who work exclusively online and you can decide for yourself. Read More has more than doubled, and 80-90% of the workforce wants the opportunity to work, at least partially, from home.
A survey conducted by Microsoft shows why the idea of remote work is so appealing, with the top five benefits remote workers provide:
Faced with these kinds of benefits, working from home seems like an obvious choice. But you also need to see this from your boss's perspective. They will have many reservations and you should be armed with the information and tools to make them feel comfortable.
When it comes to working from home, you're not only asking your boss to trust you to focus on unattended work, but also to work with far less guidance than you might have previously received. This all boils down to a concern for productivity.
Fortunately, many studies have shown that these concerns are misplaced. It might be worth sending links to the studies below to your boss if they're particularly concerned about a drop in productivity.
This doesn't even begin to touch on the potential savings on overhead (including office supplies and snacks), environmental benefits, and reduced employee turnover.
The moment you ask your boss about working from home is extremely important. The question should be asked when your boss is in a positive mood and confident about his work..
As Ramit Sethi points out in his best-selling book I'll Teach You To Be Rich (UK) Ideally, this would be shortly after receiving a positive performance review.
Even if those earlier studies manage to convince your boss of the potential benefits of working from home, the practicalities can still get in the way of you getting a thumbs up.
Before asking about working from home, you should prepare a plan to see how it works in real life. The goal is to cause as little inconvenience as possible to your boss. You should be able to walk into that meeting knowing that he has every angle covered. That he can sell the idea of working from home as a benefit to the organization..
It's best to write this down in a concise document so you can leave it with your boss for further review. This is better than giving a long tirade about how you're going to work from home.
Use the list below as a guide to what might be included in this document.
Explain the current bottlenecks and frustrations to your office workflow. You may get too many distractions when you are at your desk. Your computer terminal may be too slow. You may feel exhausted from your long journey.
Please indicate how these issues would be resolved if you were able to work at least partially from home.
Your boss may be concerned that you don't have a reliable or fast enough Internet connection at home. Run an Internet speed test using a site like SpeedTest or Fast.com to make sure your home network is in good shape 9 Quick Ways to Instantly Speed Up Your Home PC Network 9 Quick Ways to Instantly Speed Up Your PC Network Home On a wired or wireless home network, you're probably looking for ways to optimize it so that it works as fast as possible. Read more.
If your Wi-Fi goes down for whatever reason, make sure you have an Ethernet cable that you can connect directly to your computer, as these may be more reliable (and faster). Finally, reassure your boss that if there are any serious connection issues, you can still get into the office on short notice if necessary.
Any work that can be done from home is likely to require access to certain software applications. Make sure you can access all of these from home. If you have a company laptop, this should be pretty easy. If you plan to use a personal computer, you'll need to figure out how to access each piece of software securely.
If you need to access company data on a company server, you may already have access to a VPN connection. What is a VPN tunnel and how to set one up? What is a VPN tunnel and how to set one up? Read More. If not, your IT department might be able to help.
Another concern for your boss will be that you are not open to communication as much as you would be in the office.
Your concern may be explaining that you'll be available just like you would be in the office, whether that's by phone, email, Skype, Google Hangouts, or your company's current communication tool (which might be something like Slack or one of its alternatives). Free Slack Alternatives You'll Love 7 Free Slack Alternatives You'll Love Slack is great. It is. But that doesn't mean you shouldn't buy an alternative. Check out these seven alternatives that can meet your team's collaboration needs effectively. Read more ). If needed, you might also suggest one of these collaboration tools for remote workers 8 Free Tools to Work and Collaborate Online from Home 8 Free Tools to Work and Collaborate Online from Home Working from home can be a convenient setup, thanks to its flexibility. But collaborating online with clients and teams can quickly become complicated and stressful. We show you free tools to build a reliable workflow. Read more.
To help your boss keep an eye on the work he's doing at home, suggesting a regular performance review can be helpful. This will be a way of explaining what you have done each day/week, any problems you have and the progress you have made.
If you're not already doing something similar at work, introduce something simple. This could be as obvious as sending a regular email or spreadsheet (at the end of each day or week), keeping your boss up to date on her progress. Or you can send a plan every Friday that covers your goals for the next week.
To quote Ramit Sethi's book, I will teach you to be rich , after a positive performance review, you might tell your boss something like:
If your boss just says “sorry, we don't do that here”, you have a chance to turn this into an opportunity for the organization.
Sethi advises him to hold schtum after this point and wait for a response. However, he would recommend that you also mention that you made sure it's fully achievable and that he can send a document (which we've covered above), explaining everything, if your boss wants it..
Hopefully, your boss will accept a trial. And if the trial goes well and he starts to see the benefits mentioned elsewhere in this article, he'll be in a great position to apply to work from home more regularly..
If it still doesn't work, and for some reason you really need to work from home, there are plenty of work at home jobs 20 Micro Jobs To Help You Make Money In Your Spare Time 20 Micro Jobs To Help You Make Money In Your Spare Time Online opportunities for extra income are everywhere . It can be hard to tell legitimate companies from scams. Here are 20 legitimate opportunities to easily earn extra income on your free account... You can read the information that suits you best. LinkedIn tiene algunas características muy útiles para ayudarte a trabajar desde casa. ¡Trabajar de forma remota es el futuro! ¡Así es como LinkedIn puede ayudarte a trabajar de manera remota es el futuro! Así es como LinkedIn puede ayudarlo Un trabajo remoto o de teletrabajo es el Santo Grial de la búsqueda de empleo. Aproveche los recursos en LinkedIn para encontrar el trabajo de sus sueños. Read More
Si pudieras convencer a tu jefe de que te permitiera trabajar desde casa, ¿cómo cambiaría eso tu vida? ¿Tendrías la autodisciplina para que funcione? ¿Por qué la autodisciplina es la mejor productividad que necesita? ¿Por qué la autodisciplina es la mejor productividad que necesita? ¿Cuál es el secreto para hacer un trabajo profundo? Is it motivation or is it discipline? If you can't focus and get your work done, here are some habit tips to help you accomplish more. Read more
