Working From Home: Can you trust yourself/others?

[NicholasTaylor]

At the tender age of 21, I've progressed from Apprentice, to assistant, to senior (somewhat ironic) and finally Manager.

I've seen many colleagues take up the opportunity to work at home - only to see their stats fall, their passion diminish and their overall performance plummet.

Now I've previously attempted to work from home when the weather was to bad to get into the office, or I was suffering from some illness - and I tell you now, I simply cannot do it.

I have no visual control over my team, I can't access the people I need to quick enough, I'm distracted by things far to easily, I find myself getting behind at an alarmingly fast pace and getting no where at the same speed too.

I could never work from home.

What about you? Can you knuckle down no matter what environment you're in? Do you trust those you've employed to work from home?

Love to hear your responses

Nick

 

[enous]

Im fully agree with you, as its better working and living apart

 

[businessfunding]

It depends in part whether the work is pro active or reactive

Many people can be highly productive from home writing reports etc, whilst keeping home-based telesales people motivated is very challenging.

 

[Mister B]

It depends on the motivator.

As an employee, it's almost impossible to work as effectively from home as it is from an office. Some may manage it but the majority find it far too distracting.

As an owner operator though, it works fine for me. As long as ground rules are put in place with other housemates it's amazing how much productivity you can achieve. Other plus, is that there is no commuting time which means earlier start and later finish.

Now then, I'm off to watch last nights Emmerdale

Mister B

 

[tj1979x]

It depends of this sort of work to be done. If it is IT, there are monitoring programs, and if workers are logging on remotely, as long as the work is done it should be fine. if they need to communicate there is always Skype. I have known people who say they are 'working from home' only for a friend to report later they were seen in the shopping centre. Some companies i have worked for reimburse travel, and from that standpoint it would be more economical to let workers work from home. It would also mean they could do more with greater energy as they wouldn’t have to waste time and money on travel. The planet would be greener and the roads less congested for people like doctors and manufacturers to who need to be 'on site' to get there.

 

[ExperiencedCopywriter]

Hi,

I love working from home. I've managed to escape Monday mornings on the London underground! Yes!

 

[easiprint]

Started off working from home, but far too many distractions. Just popping in for a cuppa, good film on TV, couple of hours gone. End up working into the early hours doing the things you should have done in the day.

Excellent idea if you are disciplined enough for it, but alas I'm not! Now, to find a way to stop surfing when I should be working....

 

Think of all those hours not wasted on travel.

No brainer for me.

 

[conquertheodds]

As pointed out above, the benefits of working from home are things such as saving time travelling.

I find it very easy to be motivated because I am my own boss and if I do not work, I do not make money. Simple. You have to be very self driven to be able to work from home in my opinion, as it is so easy to pop to the shops, or flick the television on.

Would I trust employees to work from home?! No way! haha but luckily I don't have this worry as I work alone currently.

 

[Esk247]

I started off working from home too, it just doesn't work. Saves on travelling and such but if you're home everyone else thinks it's fine and dandy to just walk on in and start talking to you. Gas people coming round to check the meter, cold calls, rolling news on tv...no it just doesn't work.

You have to be separate, either have an office at the bottom of the garden or rent a small unit so you separate work and life completely.

 

[billybob99]

At the tender age of 21, I've progressed from Apprentice, to assistant, to senior (somewhat ironic) and finally Manager.

I've seen many colleagues take up the opportunity to work at home - only to see their stats fall, their passion diminish and their overall performance plummet.

Now I've previously attempted to work from home when the weather was to bad to get into the office, or I was suffering from some illness - and I tell you now, I simply cannot do it.

I have no visual control over my team, I can't access the people I need to quick enough, I'm distracted by things far to easily, I find myself getting behind at an alarmingly fast pace and getting no where at the same speed too.

I could never work from home.

What about you? Can you knuckle down no matter what environment you're in? Do you trust those you've employed to work from home?

Love to hear your responses

Nick

Lol. I worked out of my bedroom when I was your age for over 2 years before the business was in a position to get an office and staff.

You are right though, when you know you are working from home, usually woke up at around 11am sometimes later, usually going to bed at 3-4am. Eating crisps and ordering pizza most days. Lucozade bottles everywhere.

Was worth it though.

 

[Paul_Rosser]

It depends on the person, some can work from home and are more productive than in the office but sadly some will see it as an easy way to take the p**s.

That said provided they are doing their work then does it really matter ? Just because someone has gone into the office and stayed there between 9am and 5.30pm have they put in 7.5 hours of solid work ? I know from personal experience you can easily have days in the office where you don't really do a great deal of anything.

Usually when people get away with not working hard it's because the company has poor controls in place for monitoring the level of work staff are doing or poor managers who don't know how much work staff should achieve in an average day.

 

[Deleted member 138423]

Ah, the old chestnut of working from home!

I did with one of my businesses years and years ago. Hated it with a passion. Couldn't really segregate home life with work life so it all morphed into one weird conglomeration of both which was highly unsatisfactory. Phone calls and faxes at silly o'clock in the morning. No determined hours of work, none of rest, having my 'office' next door to my bedroom was a huge mistake, didn't have an alternative. Days became one long day and so weekends were the same as any other day it seemed.....hated it, but made a few quid.

So, offices all the way now. Open door and do work. Close door and go home. Focus remains within those walls; not that true as wherever I am I will be working, even at the weekends or evenings. I'm never not at work, but that's the more reactive side. The focus is concentrated in the office, not at the home. It works for me. The home office doesn't, and if you can work properly, really properly from your own home, then I salute you!

 

[Paul_Rosser]

No determined hours of work, none of rest, having my 'office' next door to my bedroom was a huge mistake, didn't have an alternative. Days became one long day and so weekends were the same as any other day it seemed.....hated it, but made a few quid.

May explain why I've been up since 5am working in my "office"

 

[Deleted member 138423]

May explain why I've been up since 5am working in my "office"

And what am I doing here at home - doh!!!

 

[BustersDogs]

I've had a couple of jobs where the odd day was done from home, it was clunky to connect to emails, but as I worked on a website mostly there wasn't any difference. I missed being able to 'confer' with colleagues.

Now I've taken on staff to do more of the physical work and I'm in the 'office' I do find things terribly distracting, but instead of fighting it I'm happy to be working at 6/7am while things are quiet. I don't work into the evenings anymore, after around 6/7pm I stop. I do like to have an afternoon nap as I don't always sleep very well, so working 'split shifts' suits me.

I miss having a boss more than working with other people - if there's something I find challenging or extremely boring it can get 'abandoned' until really at the last minute - which is effectively sabotaguing my own business! I need someone to tell me to stop brainstorming new ideas and get on with finishing the one I'd already started!

 

[graftonmedia]

We used to work from home and although it had its benefits, and we enjoyed it, it really did take a lot more discipline to stay focused - it was also very hard to get people to understand that because we were at home (working) it didn't mean we could quickly run someone to the shop etc.

We actually love working from the office.

 

[tj1979x]

It does take discipline and it helps to have a separate working area but it also depends on what you do. Sometimes working in an office can be distracting and I know of plenty of people who are supposedly working in the office but are just wasting time.

 

[thelegalstop]

I have always said that working from home requires a huge self-discipline. I work from home sometimes, however only occasionally. Usually I do the urgent tasks and delay the others For every manager, i believe it is best to see the employees around.

 

[vvaannmmaann]

I'm all for working from home.
At 09:30 this morning I was e-mailing clients - and I was totally naked.If only they knew.

 

[Apprentice Guru]

When I was an employee and worked from home, I took the Mick. Now I'm my own boss working from home, I find I've got a different mindset. If I don't work, I don't earn and the choice is purely mine to do either.

The only difficult times are when I want or need to work either earlier or later than I normally would and family think I should be with them and not at my desk.

 

[fairdealworld]

I've always liked working from home as I find I get more done while still being able to cuddle the cat or hang the washing out. In my current and third career as a shopkeeper I don't get much chance to do so as I'm often in the shop six days but whenever possible I arrange it so I'm in the shop five days and have one weekday at home both for admin and more creative stuff such as the website.

Running a small shop with no 'office' area you are constantly interrupted even when other staff are on hand. I think the catch is that if you work at home you have to be hard hearted. I know some of my neighbours think I'm unfriendly, actually I'm not but if from my point of view it is a work day then that is what I am doing and I just can't chat over the garden fence or whatever. I've learned over the years that many people just don't understand the concept of working from home at all and find it difficult to deal with people who are working from home.

I did have a bit of a disaster a few years back with a member of staff who turned out to have a great talent for the marketing side of the business and it seemed like a good idea that she should work from home one day a week. It was a disaster and the arrangement was eventually dropped by mutual consent. I realised she was one of those people who just couldn't say 'no' to offspring (all adults and no longer living at home!) or refrain from picking up a ringing phone or be hard hearted enough to say to a neighbour 'lovely to talk to you but I've got to get back to work'.

 

[Deleted member 162294]

Those cat videos on youtube, I just can't tear myself away from them

 

[Nord20]

I think this pretty much sums up everything you need to know about working from home (I do, and I ticked pretty much every box):

http://theoatmeal.com/comics/working_home

 

[Christine Hough]

And what about living with someone who works from home? They are there but not, and you find yourself stopping in mid sentence as you realise you are interupting their concentration. And the phone rings as you are about to eat, and the kids cannot make a noise. Your friends suddenly are less welcomed.

But its not impossible and also has benefits. All in all I would opt for a separate garden office, and a time-lock on the kettle as it can mean a drink at every distraction.

 

[Chris34]

I work from home and find it almost impossible to do a hard days work. I end up doing bits of work here and there but only work that is 'reactive' type work. The proactive work that will earn more money in the long run but doesn't have to be done always gets put off.

I tend to be on the computer all day but not working like I should be doing. The internet, with the t.v in the background, followed by the fridge and other people in the house are the main distractions. When it's a sunny day it doesn't help either.

I have just taken on a large unit with an office which I will be setting up to work from soon. The thing is though I don't think my productivity will improve much. The internet is the worst distraction of all. I have looked at software that lets you block websites for certain times of the day and I think that it will help but I know what I'm like, I'll probably have to block most of the internet

I think my main problem is that I'm more of a person that is better doing actual physical work rather than the computer type of work. With physical work you can usually see a start and an end, with computer work there is no end.

I'd say that is currently my biggest problem in business, not tough economic times, not competitors, not lack of ideas, not lack of finance, no the only thing that is holding me back is the distractions and motivation.

As someone else here mentioned, I think the best set up is to have an office to do the serious work and always do serious work in the office. Then at home do the less serious work, the stuff that doesn't feel like work. That way you have a place for focused work and a place for unfocused work but don't let the two places cross over.


Chris.

 

[pamw1001]

I've been working from home alternate months for a few years now. My company acknowledge that I actually get through more work than when I'm in the office with all the distractions.
I'm on line almost all the time, so pick up Skype & emails as necessary, have a company VoIP phone, so conf calls are fine. Nobody begrudges me the odd 5 mins to deal with the electricity man or go hang out the washing, and my friends & neighbours know that if I don't answer the door at the first ring then I'm definitely Working-And-Not-To-Be-Disturbed.

 

[daviesluke101]

I've been working from home. I find it really good. It all depends on time management, motivation and work ethics

 

[Deleted member 61074]

There is no one answer to this, some people like working from home, others prefer the office. Some situations require you to be in the office whilsts others dont.

My experience was as an employee i hated working from home, my work was boring and i needed the stimulation of the office. But when running my own business having an office was pointless, working from home gave me flexibility and I found it easier to work smart. At home you can work uninterrupted for a couple of hours and often achieve what could take you all day in the office.

 

[andycan]

I disagree with those who have stated (like it is a fact) that remote or home working doesn't work.

The reality is, that most services industries will progress in the future managing their operations in this way.

It is just a case of self discipline and depends on the person involved, just like any work.

I've seen just as many folks wasting time on facebook or gossiping with their colleagues in offices.

I've worked remotely/home based for the past 4 years. I am self employed and run a team of home based Virtual Project Managers. If we don't perform well or spend the day watching 'rolling news', then our clients look elsewhere.

If you manage home based employees, then it is very easy now to monitor their performance using technology and you will soon find out when performance levels are dropping.

It is certainly the case that there are also studies in recent years which suggest that home based workers are even more productive than office based workers. Most are self employed and won't take the risk of jeopardizing their contracts or client relationships.

I think it also depends on the work involved or industry.
The point made about telesales is true, but the turnover of staff is this field i.e cold calling,, is extremely high anyway, no matter where the worker is based.

From my experience, home workers are generally more productive and are less likely to just drop everything as soon as the clock strikes the hour, but will put in longer hours off the clock and are generally more flexible.

 

[Moneyman]

mitchell and webb explains it all

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=co_DNpTMKXk

 

[garyk]

I disagree with those who have stated (like it is a fact) that remote or home working doesn't work.

The reality is, that most services industries will progress in the future managing their operations in this way.

This was first touted as the 'future' in the late 80s/early 90s. It has never fully happened. Some big corporates embrace it to a degree. What was suggested was that there would be 'telecottages', as in local hubs would offer hot desks where people from different companies would turn up and work in these centres. That was supposed to be the future when broadband was first mentioned.

It is just a case of self discipline and depends on the person involved, just like any work.

I've seen just as many folks wasting time on facebook or gossiping with their colleagues in offices.

Agreed, I think if you are disciplined it *shouldn't* make any difference. For me however it just doesn't work. I guess it doesn't help that my wife works part time, she gets visitors. We might have deliveries and some days I feel like I get interrupted more than if I'm in an office. Add to that there is still this massive perception that if you are working from home then you aren't 'really working' and can be disturbed!


Gary

 

[Kevincloud]

On the odd occasion, that I find myself working from home, I have to be 'suited and booted' as per the office.

 

[Liz Perry]

I think if you have great self-discipline it will work.

If you dont - having an office or a clearly defined workspace/study/office at home helps a lot. If you can lock the doors behind you and set the clock for breaks, you can be very productive.

Working from home has many benefits too, especially if you have a family, or if your commute to work is ridiculously far. I think it takes some time getting used to, but you can definitely make it work for you.

 

[21C Telecom]

With a hosted IP telephony system it is easy to generate call statistic reports to monitor your employees activity. Our solution, Halo, also has a call recording feature so customer service and sales call quality can be assessed.
Have a look at our website .....21ctelecom.co.uk for more information or give us a call on 01332 415010

 

[21C Telecom]

With a hosted IP telephony system call reports can be easily generated to monitor employees activity. With our solution, Halo, a call recording feature is also available to allow customer service and sales calls to be assessed.
Have a look at our website for more information ....21ctelecom.co.uk or give us a call on 01332 415010

 

[Kevincloud]

With a hosted IP telephony system call reports can be easily generated to monitor employees activity. With our solution, Halo, a call recording feature is also available to allow customer service and sales calls to be assessed.
Have a look at our website for more information ....21ctelecom.co.uk or give us a call on 01332 415010

I will have a lok at that cheers.

 

[Gecko001]

Sometimes I get criticised for working from home by those who have never done it or have an adversion towards it. The way I reply to them is that "it takes a lot of self-discipline". That usually shuts them up!!

But that aside, I think it is far from ideal and has a lot of drawbacks for a business. Here are a few.

1. You can become out of touch easily with what is going on in your particular type of business. Those chats in the corridor or at lunch or over the "water cooler" do not happen when you are working from home.

2. If your working in a business which have normally carried out in an office where clients/customers normally visit then when those clients find out that you work from home they expect you to charge less. You tend to attract clients who are looking for a "cheap job" so you have to be very firm on your prices and not be tempted to lower them.

3. It is difficult to employ people as working in someone's home is not for everybody.

 

[globalguy]

mitchell and webb explains it all

lol thanks for sharing

 

[OnlineSavvy]

I used to work from home one day every week. Everything that needed a clear mind, little distraction and my full concentration got done that day. It was highly productive for me. However, I have been in the situation of managing people that work from home and a high percentage of the time, the productivity was lower than the times the same employees spent in the office. I agree it's a lot to do with the type of person