Homeworking – Designed for Working Mum and Dads

Homeworking is one of the most popular options for those seeking greater work-life balance and wanting to avoid hours of commuting. Figures released earlier this month for National Work from Home Day show that there are 373,000 more employees working from home than 10 years ago. However, it can be challenging swapping years of being surrounded by colleagues for solitary working and it’s not for everyone, writes Mandy Garner, Editor at flexible working platform, Working Mums.

Home or hub?

If you’re the kind of person who gets their energy from constant interaction with people and loves to bounce ideas off others, working in solitude may be unfavourable for you. If you find it hard to motivate yourself without the camaraderie of others, working from how may be one element you may reconsider. Only you know how you work best so weigh up whether the pros of working from home are enough to balance the cons.

There are, of course, many ways to interact with others even if you are not physically in a room with them - there are all sorts of collaborative apps, such as Slack and Yammer, where you can exchange views with colleagues and instant messenger allows for rapid exchanges of views and chat. Conference calls, including video calls, meaning you can hear and/or see your colleagues or clients regularly, but it may take time to adapt.

If you are missing face to face contact, you could try to organise meetings through local business networks or regular meet-ups with homeworking neighbours or friends. You might find there are more than you think. Investigate whether your area has any local hub offices or co-working spaces where you will get more of an office atmosphere and maybe make useful contacts with other people working in your area.

Separate Your Workspace

It's also important to ensure you have the right set-up to work from home. It’s highly recommended to have a separate workspace – if possible, a separate room or a converted shed with a door you can close during working hours. Work-life balance is an important thing and a door is a good physical barrier against the blurring of the line between work and life that many homeworkers experience. 

If you don’t have a room, it's a good idea to make sure you have a place where you can keep any papers, etc. separate from normal family life.

Ensure you have the right equipment

At the very least, this is likely to include a functioning phone, computer and possibly a printer/scanner/photocopier, if required. A good broadband internet connection is vital, as is a back-up solution – a handy cafe or library with Wi-Fi or a work-from-home neighbour with a different internet provider. Also, bear in mind that there is generally little in the way of technical support for homeworkers. Again, ensure you have a back-up solution for those occasions when office equipment is unreliable.

Actually ‘Working’ from home

Ensure everyone in the family is very clear that you are working from home and does not expect you to be on hand for all manner of visits, calls, etc. 

Routine

Create a routine to get you kick-started in the morning. This could involve going for a walk to induce the feelings of a traditional commute to work or simply getting dressed and starting with the most difficult tasks on your list.

Take screen breaks, do some exercise and get out. It is easy to be rooted to your desk for hours on end, but exercise helps to give you an energy burst and getting out provides a much-needed change of scene to motivate you for the rest of the day.

As a contractor operating through your own limited company or a freelancer, you may be more than familiar with the experience of remote working as a result of the working style and the nature of the contract. Although this has an interactional difference to traditional working, there are ways to encourage communication with other working professionals in the same situation in your neighbourhood. Home working can offer a greater level of freedom as you are in control of structuring your working day. As a working parent, this could be the preferred style of working due to childcare and work/life balance.