Tell me about working from home!

[GliderPoss]

Hi all

I am interested to hear about anyone who works from home, particularly in Australia but everywhere is welcome too. More specifically:

1. Do you work for yourself or another company?
2. Did you struggle to find work-from-home opportunities? Seems a lot of scams out there...
3. Do you enjoy it or feel isolated?
4. Can you live off your salary or is it only supplimentry income?

Background: Some of you know I'm a military spouse. We dont have kids (and may never have them!) and I currently work in Executive/Personal Assistant roles in major cities. The money is great and i love my job BUT we are moving frequently and sometimes to places that simply dont have this kind of work on offer.

Our latest posting to a small country town has got me thinking about how I can find a job that is online/work from home to have some continuity in my life. I love the moving but not having to quit my job and start all over again every few years! Sooooo sick of everyone telling me to "just have babies & stay home coz that's all Army wives do anyway" I want to have career - something of my own that will earn a decent wage and give me independance.

Hubby is completely supportive and suggested I start my own business! My parents are self-made business owners so I really grew up knowing that hard work & dedication can lead to success BUT it's very daunting. Where do I start? What do I do? How much captital do I need? I'm really keen to know if anyone else out there has a job that isn't location dependant or has started their own small business please share your experiences! Thanks in advance

 

[MonkeysInk]

I work from home - I'm an HR consultant employed by an HR outsourcing firm, plus my husband and I own a small business that serves the home birth community. I knew that when I left my full-time job that I wanted to find something part-time, work from home if possible, but it took me two years of searching to find something that was a good fit.

My HR job can be isolating, in that I visit clients about every other week and often only talk to my support team via email. For a long time, I lived 30+ miles from everyone else at the company (which is very small), so I never had lunch or coffee with coworkers and only saw them once a month at our staff meetings. Earlier in the year, we hired someone closer to me and she and I have worked at building a relationship. Our plan for 2014 is to start having lunches/coffees with people in our network, just to get out more and have more professional-social contact.

We could live off my salary if I worked more hours. I work about 25 hours a week and make an hourly wage that's slightly less than what I made when I worked full time (if you took my annual salary and divided by 2080, assuming a 40 hour work week). However, taking into account that I don't have to wear professional clothes every day or drive to my office every day, I actually net more per hour than I did before. After working from home, it would be hard to make the change back to working in an office every day.

My small business is good, too. We are friends with our midwife and doula, and they asked us to take over a task that they didn't like. We did some research and gave it a go. We've been open about a year and business is good (we've even expanded into another city about 200 miles from us) and we're making plans to open in another city. This is by far the most interesting and rewarding thing I've ever done, just because it's easy to see that effort = success, and I'm genuinely interested in home birth, so this is less like work and more like making new friends all the time, because all of our clients are having home births and love to talk about it and most have kids the same ages as ours, so it's just like expanding my circle of mom-friends.

I know you don't have children and probably won't, so I'm not suggesting that this is the job for you, just that maybe if you find a niche that you're interested in, you can make some money and some friends and be able to do it wherever your duty station is. Is there some service or need that military families have that you could provide via internet or near the base wherever you go? Also, have you looked at Elance?

 

[distracts]

I work on political campaigns so it's kind of different and probably not an option for you since the political hiring schedule probably wouldn't line up nicely with your movement schedule, which would make it really difficult to find jobs. But I answered some questions anyway!

3. Do you enjoy it or feel isolated?
Sometimes I like it because I can roll out of bed in my pajamas and shuffle over to the computer to do Important Work Things, and take breaks to play with my pets. But sometimes it's annoying because my sleep schedule can get WAY off. Plus no one wants to cold-call alone. Cold-calling is better done in a group of people who are sharing that particular misery. Plus if you are bored or have questions it's easy to go way off track before you regain your focus.

The worst part is when you occasionally have a boss that thinks that since they can't SEE you doing work, no work is getting done. It doesn't matter how many updates you give or assignments you complete. Since they can't SEE you, they don't believe it! Drives me crazy.

4. Can you live off your salary or is it only supplimentry income?
I am not willing to live elsewhere for jobs so I am limited to what is available in my geographic area, so on off years I am underemployed. So my income is just supplementary. I'm actually even considering getting a Real Person Job that doesn't have an "off season" so I can, like, work full time all year long. But after doing this for several years, working full time all the time and having to wake up and put on real clothes every morning all year round and go somewhere seems like such a drag. Usually even if I have to go somewhere every day, it isn't until about 2pm! With the exception of the months immediately preceding the campaign, when it's like 9-10 am. But then it's just a few months and there's a countdown to the end of it.

 

[zoebartlett]

Hi HotPozzum! I don't work from home but my husband does. I can answer for him if that's okay.


1. Do you work for yourself or another company?
He works for the division group that heads up the parent company of several hospitals in the US. He used to work at one of the hospitals in their IT department, but then they did some restructuring. He didn't change jobs, but he began reporting to someone new and his boss and all of his new team members work in another region. Although he didn't change positions, he's noticed a shift and he's getting new opportunities and trainings that he didn't have before.

2. Did you struggle to find work-from-home opportunities? Seems a lot of scams out there...
This doesn't apply to my husband's situation. My husband made it clear to his new boss that we weren't moving, and she had no problem with him working from home. He does travel a bit now (to attend training sessions and/or department meetings), whereas he didn't before he left the hospital.

3. Do you enjoy it or feel isolated?
This made me laugh because my husband and I are so different in this way. I need interaction with others, but he's happy as a clam working from home. He LOVES it. He's not really into "water cooler talk" anyway, and he doesn't feel isolated one bit. Sometimes he does errands in the morning before beginning work or during lunch just to get out of the house. He also spends a lot of his day on the phone or exchanging e-mails with colleagues regarding different projects, so he gets plenty of interaction (even if it's not face to face).


4. Can you live off your salary or is it only supplimentry income?
My husband's the bread winner in our small family. We need both of our incomes but he makes more. We love that we save on wear and tear of his (older) car, and he doesn't need to fill up the gas tank as often. Plus, he'll be able to deduct his home office space come tax time, so that's a plus.

 

[SB621]

Hey HP!

I'm also a military spouse! And I also work from home.

1. Do you work for yourself or another company?
I work for a major tech company. Many ppl in my company happen to work from home. Though we do have offices all over the world as well. It makes it easy for me to transfer my job everytime we move. If there is an office nearbye I go in, but most usually I work from home as military bases aren't typically near anything.

2. Did you struggle to find work-from-home opportunities? Seems a lot of scams out there...
I think alot are. I was lucky that at least with Tech companies they realize the benefits for everyone by having employees telecommute in. I have a friend though who is a beach body coach who makes 35k+ a year part time doing that. She is the only one I know though that is sucessful working from home with that type of home business.

3. Do you enjoy it or feel isolated?
It has it's moments. Normally I really do enjoy it. I like making my own schedule and being able to not stress about my children, appointments, etc. It takes a lot of pressure off. however it was stressful the first 6 months as i found my stride. I felt I had to overperform to show my boss what I could do because we lacked face time. And of course a few times a year I travel for work. I miss "water cooloer" talk with my co-workers and just getting out of the house. During a busy time I might not leave my house except to pick up kids for a week.

4. Can you live off your salary or is it only supplimentry income?
Yes I make more then my husband so it definitely allows us to have a higher standard of living compared to most of our other friends who are active duty.

Hot many tech companies have a hire veterans program and many more now are installing hiring active duty spouses. I know we are currently rolling out a program right now like that. I highly recommend looking at your edu background and seeing what you could fit into. Then start googleing. Your employement office on base might also have other information. Goodluck!

And feel free to contact me offline if you want. I'm always happy to look at resumes or point spouses in the right direction. I got my current job just being in the right place at the right time. I'm happy to set you up with a few of my contacts.

 

[GliderPoss]

Thanks for all your replies - just wanted to come back and update this thread. We moved - my company were amazing and offered me a new role the day after I had resigned. I didn't even have to interview formally! To top it all off - my new boss was happy for me to work from home 2 days a week so my long commute is only 3 days. I love it and feel really blessed.

 

[Gypsy]

I don't work from home all the time. Only about 2-3 days a week. I love it.

That said, I am hoping to convert my current job to full time from home. And sometimes you can do that. Put in a few years at a company and then have them trust you enough to work remotely.

 

[madelise]

I'll be checking in this thread. I'm hoping to pick up a few clients while in grad school via Skype (as a Standard American English dialectical coach) before I graduate as a speech language pathologist in a few years. I hope to actually continue doing that after I graduate to supplement income since I am really interested in working in a school district, and those jobs pay peanuts! I'd love to do this 2-3 days a week. I keep joking that I'd put on makeup and do my hair, wear a nice top.... and be in pajama pants.

My best friend does voice lessons from her home. Not all her clients can make it through LA traffic to her school. She has some clients about an hour away, some out of state, and some out of country. It's convenient for the clients to not have to travel, and it's convenient for her since she can stack more clients into her busy schedule.

I think it's a nice way to have the crockpot or oven on, making something that doesn't take a lot of attention, while still 'supervising' it in case the house burns down. I don't know... I always thought it would be very nice to work at home. I'd just need a separate office just.for.work though.

 

[Nyc2chigal]

I work from home once a week, more if needed.

Depending on the day, it can be quite refreshing to WFH, and sometimes it can drive a person mad!!!

 

[Nyc2chigal]

Poo, forgot to mention...
I work for a large corporation.

 

[sarahb]

1. Do you work for yourself or another company?
I have my own business, consulting; & have worked from home for 18 years, don't plan to stop until either both hubby & I retire, or as long as my clients will keep me

2. Did you struggle to find work-from-home opportunities? Seems a lot of scams out there...
No, it was a natural for me, had tons of experience with the exact same skill set/same client base. When the opportunity presented itself, I took it. Have never looked back, love it, is like a hobby to me. I don't find myself distracted in the least.

3. Do you enjoy it or feel isolated?
At times, it can be isolating. I find I want to go-go on the weekends when hubby wants to relax. I have a TV in my office & at times will listen to news etc while I work. It's really not so bad. I walk through the office doors & I'm in a totally different world. I loose total track of time at work.

4. Can you live off your salary or is it only supplimentry income?
With economizing, we could live off of my salary/income, although husband is the bread winner--we are blessed.

Its really a personal thing, as not everyone is not suited for this--maybe younger people would find it not to their liking. I've had the downtown office & enough schlepping myself to the office & back. I'm very content at this point in my life.

 

[diamondringlover]

I work from home been working from home for almost 5 years

1. Do you work for yourself or another company? I work for a large corporation

3. Do you enjoy it or feel isolated? I love working from home but some times you can feel isolated

4. Can you live off your salary or is it only supplimentry income? I work full time for a large corporation so its my only income.

My only advice is you have to be dedicated and be able to block out distractions, I literally sit at my desk for 10 hours a day, I work 4 10 hour days...the only time I take breaks is to make breakfast and lunch and of course potty breaks.

But working from home has advantages, once of them is taxes, I use to pay 2 different city taxes but now I only have to pay my local tax, it saves on gas and because I work from home my SUV is now classified as a pleasure vehicle only and my insurance cost less and of course gas is less, wear and tear is alot less, you put less miles on them so they last longer.

The best part is working in your PJ's