Work at Home Questions

I am hoping to be able to work from home once both of my children are in school full time. I would never be able to get actual work done in a timely fashion with both of my girls being home. I expect to be paid a bit less than I would earn in an office setting. That is a trade off I am willing to make. I honestly would expect to be treated as a contractor and therefore receive no benefits. I guess my benefits would be no business attire required.

The thing that I don't think some people understand is that by working from home, you're working 2 full time jobs: your actual job, and your normal SAHM stuff. Yeah, I get to hang in my jammies, my schedule is flexible and I can break as needed, throw in a load of laundry... but it's still extremely demanding.

My original WAH job required that my clients were under the impression I was working from an actual office. My kids could NOT disturb me at ALL 8 hours a day. More often than not, they still went to a babysitters, even though I was home. I don't think a lot of mom's realize that's how it works.

My job now is all via email, so iCarly can be on in the background with my kids causing a ruckus, and no one would know. HOWEVER, there have been many nights when I had to stay up past midnight to get my work done.

I do not get benefits other than not having to pay for childcare for my son. I ABSOLUTELY miss getting out of the house and going to an office, being able to see and converse with other adults, etc... sometime's, being home all the time, I feel like the walls are closing in on me! You NEVER get away from it.

I'm not trying to sound like I'm complaining, I LOVE LOVE LOVE my job and wouldn't have it any other way. But for those mom's who think working at home is a cake walk, you're WAY off base. It's twice as demanding as working a full time job, twice as demanding as being a SAHM. You literally have the world on your shoulders.

Yes, my sister (the attorney) and her husband (Director of Project Management for an IT healthcare firm) are having these delusions. I point out there jobs to prove that these deliousions are not tied to intelligence or monetary need/success. They are under the impression that Daddy can take his conference calls at home and watch the newborn (when it comes in February) because (and I quote) "well, newborns sleep alot, so it should be fine, really, until she's mobile. Then we'll just need someone like part time".

I laughed so hard martini came out of my nose.

Then I quietly shut my mouth. Gosh, March will be fun.

Just like there are all these allegations all the time from SAHM that working mom's have no idea how hard they actually work and Working Mom's say stay at home mom's have it so easy...... WAHM are a 3rd breed. NO one really understands until you do it what it's like. For either of the 3 scenarios.

I did work at home for about 1.5 years. The company I worked for relocated to Pheonix and I didn't want to move. So we worked out an "arrangement" because I was valuable to them. But my daughter was in Kindergarten and then in "after school" care. So, I LOVED IT. It did give me the flexibility to run to a parent teacher conference whereas when I worked in the office it would have taken too long to commute there, have the conference and get back to work with parking on both ends that I would have to take 1/2 vacation day, but walking 2 blocks and back was MUCH easier. Other than that, I treated it like a "real" job in order to get my "real" salary.

H.!!

I SOOO get you!! When I work from home - even my husband at first was like - 'why isn't this done? You were home all day..." well, DAH! I WAS WORKING!!!

When one of my clients calls me to recruit for them - I get paid per placement - there are times when I get an upfront fee because they know it will be hard to find - but my clients EXPECT me to be working for them. Not doing my laundry, watching movies and taking care of the kids.

When I had a full time WFH job - it was clear cut - my hours were 830 to 530. i had an hour break for lunch. Did I do laundry throughout the day? Yeah - like the 15 minute smoke or potty breaks...I also had a cleaning company come in weekly to clean the house...

Working from home? Kids gone or you are in a space where they can't be heard.

benefits? to working from home? If my child is sick - I still tend to them.

Thank you for saying this. I see post after post here about moms wanting to work from home while watching their kids. It just doesn't work that way if you want to bring in a real income (not just spending cash doing party sales).

I've worked from home for nearly 11 years now and used childcare during work hours when my kids were younger. Now, I just work when they're at school. It's impossible to hold down a professional job while caring for children ... something will suffer and it tends to be both.

These jobs aren't just advertised, either. You need to have the motivation to go out on your own and start a business or prove yourself to a company that will allow you later to telecommute. It's not as simple as going to Monster.com and applying, for the vast majority of WAH positions.

I'm not sure what you're asking but I've worked at home before for both West Corp & Alpine Access (haven't tried LiveOps yet). I prefer the freedom of West's ability to make my own schedule & wk when I want for however long I want...be it 30 mins or at 2am but dislike having to answer calls for literally anything, getting prank calls, having to follow a script that makes me feel I'm lying to the customer (making them feel obligated to purchase upsales due to scripting) but disliked the pay per call per minute thing. I liked Alpine b/c it's answering for just one company, it's hourly pay regardless of if I get a call or not but lacked the freedom of being able to take off work if needed for dr appt, etc & having to jump thru hoops to get a day or even a few hrs off for something important but still may get rejected for time off, with West I didn't have that problem. W/Alpine, I'm also stuck w/a set schedule...once I choose a schedule, that's it. VERY hard to switch to another program or change hourly schedule even though I'm told it won't be a problem, it's a problem when I tried to change programs, always getting rejected. They're more strict on certain things too but each wk at home company has it's upsides & downsides. Mainly I'm requiring flexible schedule to my discretion & enough pay to pay bills plus a little extra. It's also having to have a quiet, soundless, room to make my office in. No pets, no kids, no outside noise...we're supposed to pretend we're in an actual office & have to make up stuff to excuse what this or that noise was. Having to remove my cat's collar b/c the tags jingle & can be heard. I had a half Siamese cat before & they yowl rather loudly (even w/the door closed) & customers thought I had a child at work I told them no, it was stray cats outside the window in the area but they never believed me so one has to be really really careful about things like that if you work for an actual company doing customer service.

Good question.

I am like you with thinking that some people actually think you can get paid to "hang out, clean house and play with children".

Even if you are with a MLM/direct sales which I despise..... if they make any money, they have to put forth some effort. Money just does not fall off the trees because you sign up with MLM/direct sales.

I do work from home running our company with my husband. He is the one on the road with consulting, sales, negotiating...... I am the one at home running financials, booking the next flights, hotels cars for him and managing the warehousing inventory, etc.

Gees... I don't have the extra time to clean my own house and work from home.

I am working from home quite often at all hours of the day and night, it is not a set time 8-5.

I do work with 1 at home mom who runs her accounting business from her home. She is my Quickbooks "tutor" and helps me when i have questions. She gets $85/hour, prorated accordingly.

IF I were to hire someone to help me as an admin.... (Hubby and I have already talked about this at length with our legan and financial counsel)..... Yes, they would get benefits because per our company set up, any employee would be covered at 100% no cost to them (I think that is a pretty nice perk),

I would CONSIDER a mom working from home ONLY after I had worked with her for a while to get a feel for her work ethic, self discipline and motivation. I would not be as tough on the childcare requirement because they would not be on the phone with customers BUT I would be very picky that my work is correct and done correctly the first time in a timely manner.

SO as a potential employer... those are my expectations.

I so agree with you. I work from home. I started in an office, then travelled 100% for a year and then started to be assigned to remote accounts (in another state). My company chooses to reimburse us for a phone line instead of paying 'rent' on cubical space in our local office. That is how I ended up a work from home employee. I worked from home about 5 years before getting pregnant. I am on calls all day with customers and my own internal team. We do everything on the computer/shared drives/email etc. I have deadlines. When my son is sick, he stays home with me and my coworkers can hear him in background. They overlook this when I say he is home sick that day but there is no way this would be acceptable on a regular basis. They know when you have a child to care for that you are not working steadily doing what we are being paid to do.

So many people ask why my son is in preschool/after care instead of home with me since I am home. I don't understand how they think that I can spend quality time with him while working all day...OR why it would be better for him to watch TV all day while I work instead of playing with friends and learning something. Until he was 2, I had a sitter come to my home all day to watch him for the same reason. It was nice that I could take "breaks" to play with him but there is no way he would get the attention he deserves all day if I did not have anyone else here to watch him/focus on him.

If you could find a job that requires no calls etc then part time work at home with kids may work. I am talking about freelance writing projects that can be completed at night while they sleep etc. That type of work may be the best of both worlds but there is not much of it out there.

I also work at home part time. I get paid hourly without benefits since I never know how much work they will have for me, could be 5 hours a week or 30. I have scheduled 3 days per week for my kids to be in daycare no matter how much work I receive. I rarely try to work when they are home since they can't really entertain themselves for very long without getting in trouble (they are 2 and 4 years old). If I need to get something out that day I wait until my husband gets home and finish it up in the evening or on the weekend. Since I don't get benefits I ask for $30 an hour to cover my own costs, which is comparable to what I would get working full time with benefits, converted to an hourly rate. I never log any hours on my timesheet if I was not truly focused or productive. Also, instead of telling people I work from home, I spin it by saying I work "remotely". Sounds more professional in my opinion. :)

When I was unexpectedly and without notice cut from full time to part time, I rushed to start my own home-based paralegal business. I worked part time in an office and then home for my business work. I had about an hour to hour and a half at home in the afternoons before picking up my granddaughter from school. That was the best working time, but just as I was really hitting my stride, it was time to go get her. After that, work was difficult because like others, I didn't want her sitting in front of the TV. I felt guilty for not interacting with her and leaving her to herself while I was shut up in my office. So, then I started trying to spend afternoons with her and working after she went to bed, but then I had no time for my husband. So, then I started working more on the weekends so then I didn't get any time with either one over the weekend and felt like I had absolutely no time that wasn't work time. All in all, it didn't work well for me. I find I'm happier going to the office.

What people expect varies. I left a job that was horrible and costing me my health. My DH and I were able to crunch some numbers (no daycare and no 2 hour commute helps) and make it work. I work to fill in the gaps, have some money of my own, and support the family. I work very PT and have no expectations to support my household on my income. My DD is home and like I said elsewhere I have a job I can start/stop and I can have the TV on some kiddie show to help entertain DD when I need to concentrate. (Right now, lunch is cooking.) When I have to have meetings/training, I usually get someone to watch her though the boss is alright with the occasional noise. That's more about ME. If it's important enough to skype or GoToMeeting, then it's easier for me if DD has a playdate.

Sometimes I trade kid care - she goes to a friend's house and I watch their son for an afternoon on the weekend. My benefits are that I can work, be with my child and pay a few bills. Any time off is unpaid. There's no 401K. No Christmas party. No frills. I did freelance gigs (very fits and starts) for a year before I got this job. I still take on occasional freelance writing work, and work weird hours til those projects are done.

There was a supernanny episode where the mom did over the phone customer support and I don't know how she was effective at both things - work and kids. But WAH can be done. You just need to be realistic, about your abilities, your set up and your pay. Independent contractors pay their own taxes, too, which can be a shock at first.

When my DH telecommutes, I'm still "ON" all day with work and kid. He doesn't have to do both. When he was wondering out loud why the dishes weren't done, I started to detail to him my day. He doesn't complain so much anymore. I was doing dishes and laundry at 12AM to get caught up.

All that said, I feel very fortunate to have such a flexible job where if DD needs me, I can just log off. It's been a blessing to have found this long-term contract.

With my work at home job I do get to hang out, clean the house and spend time with my family. Do I work yes I do but I have a schedule of when I work, how long I work etc. I am my own boss so I choose when and how long etc. I work to make extra money and I think other Mom's want to bring in extra money. I don't have to worry about Health benefits etc. and I get paid as much as I want or as little as I want. I keep my 5 1/2 month old great nephew, my 4 year old grandson (I have kept him since birth while my son and daughter in law work) my granddaughter who just turned 13 when she is out of school and I have kept her since birth too while her Mom works. I earn money while on vacation, while I sleep. I work my job I don't just play all day but I do have the option NOT to work some days. I have been sick for over 2 years (much better every day now) my job is still my job, there was no threat of getting fired and I never had to ask someone for time off for appointments. Is it work yes but I don't consider doing what I love as work I invest a few hours of time a week to work. I hope this answeres your question. Make it a Great Day!

I think a lot of the confusion come in with the type of work folks are looking for. I think folks are confusing work from home "jobs" vs work from home businesses. If you own your own business (not always a traditional business) you can work on your time. I own 4 franchises on the internet. I meet with folks on my schedule. I can play all day and clean and help out at the school or whatever I chose. I chose to work at night when the kids are off to bed. In fact I was playing at the Christmas Tree shop yesterday and several folks were Christmas shopping on my site. I made commissions while I was playing. :)
If folks are looking for a job, it's tough to find. Most companies want you there. Not that it's impossible, just tougher to find.
Either way though, you do have to work hard, when you work. You have to be able to focus. It's not all play. And I feel with a job you have to work on their schedule not yours which folks just don't get.
:)
Good question.

I work part time from home on a contract basis. Fortunately, I have the flexibility to determine how much I do and whether I accept projects. I only get paid for what I produce, not by the hour, and I have no benefits. Although my kids are older I find that I can only work when they are in school and generally turn down projects in the summer or tell my employer I won't be able to get much done until school is back in session. Even with the kids in school I find it's very easy to get distracted by the laundry, the dog, email, Mamapedia...........