Is working from home “skiving”?!

If, like us, you read this article from a few years ago in a popular tabloid newspaper (which will remain unnamed!) about working from home being an excuse to ‘skive’, you may also have nearly choked on your cup of tea.

Now, we all know that you shouldn’t believe everything you read, but it’s articles like this that give people working from home a bad name. Luckily for most readers, this article was about as old fashioned as the idea that all women should stay at home and mind children while their men folk go out to work.

No excuses, no distractions

We know a lot of professionals who work from home, as well as those who work remotely and also commute to offices. Sometimes they simply have to work at home to juggle school pick-ups and drop offs. But one thing is guaranteed – when they work at home, they work really, really hard.

Unfortunately, there’s still an attitude that if you work at home, you’re doing your washing, making endless cups of tea and catching up with Facebook. And most home workers feel they have to overcompensate for that.

A freelancer’s view

In fact, a freelancer we know says she won’t take a lunchbreak unless she’s broken the back of the work she’s got – and often not even then.

Kay says, “As a home worker, I need to know that I’ll hit my deadline and add extra value too. But the irony is, there are in some ways fewer distractions when you work at home – no background conversations you can’t help join in with, dodgy music or water cooler chit chat. It’s just head down and get on with it. And I’m happiest that way!”

Working from home – not going out!

If you’re working from home, check in with clients by replying to emails swiftly, so they know you’re getting on with the task at hand. Smartphones have given everyone the ability to work wherever they are, but if you cut corners, it’s likely you’ll be caught out. It’s important to establish trust and employers must recognise this also.

What you do, not where you sit

If you freelance, you probably won’t be working for the client again if you can’t cut the mustard. That’s true for permanent members of staff also, regardless of where you sit. We’re all measured by our output, so it’s kind of unfair that presenteeism should still be considered king in the workplace.

Many companies have flexible working policies and it’s looking likely that this trend will continue, particularly as research tells us that millennials expect greater work-life balance from their careers.

All in all, working from home should be viewed as a brilliant way of increasing staff productivity. It’s a huge time saver, helping to avoid long, often tiring commutes – and employee retention. In fact, by the time you’ve got to work, logged on and finished reading an article like this, home workers have probably been hard at it for several hours. The perks of the job, as they say.

If you’d like to find a role that lets you work from home, get in touch with Ten2Two, the professional flexible recruitment agency. We handle all sorts of briefs across all different industries – and some roles will have a degree of flexibility that includes…yes, you guessed it, working from home!