Work At Home Parents

10 Reasons Telecommuting May Not Be For You

There are so many people that think that working at home is

a great thing and some are envious that I am able to work for

a large company at home that offers good pay and benefits.

But telecommuting is not for everyone. In this article I will 

address 10 of the reasons why working at home may not be 

for you.

1. Lack of socialization with co-workers. Human beings crave socialization. Without it we are often left feeling alone and sometimes depressed. The workplace is usually the main source of socialization for adults who work full time jobs. When you telecommute instead of commute to your job, you lose most of the socialization from the work place. Many individuals that I have spoken with whom telecommute claim that they miss the "Water Cooler" talk or trips to the break room to talk to friends and co-workers. If you are the type of individual who needs to be around people then telecommuting may not be for you. Often you will be required to work alone in a home office that will allow you to continue to be productive.
2. Lack of motivation to stick to work that needs to be done, especially work that has a deadline. Believe it or not many people need to be "supervised". They feel they work better when they know that the boss is watching you to make sure that work is done as needed. When you work at home your boss may be monitoring you a different way, via Virtual Private Networking (VPN) access, email monitoring or just by the quality of your work completed. To be successful at telecommuting you have to be self motivated and work best alone. Luckily I am a person who does not like a big boss breathing down my back, although I am constantly monitored at work but at least it's over a computer or on a phone line.
3. You OVER-work. When you work at home you are literally bringing your work home and many people find it hard to separate work from family and this is so very important for so many reasons. If you are always working or looking at your work it makes you think about all the work that you have not finished or that you need to do the next day, you may even be tempted to do a little extra work to "Catch-Up" which leads to working more hours than you did when you were in the office, usually for the same pay. Over working leads to higher stress levels which leads to burn-out.
4. You can not find suitable arrangements for children that are young or even older kids who do not allow you to work without interruptions. Working at home does not mean you get to cancel the day care. There are exceptions where some companies will understand certain child care needs but these companies are few and far between.
5. Lack of computer knowledge. If you run into problems with your computer and you don't have the knowledge of how your computer works or how to do simple maintenance to keep your computer working efficiently, you will have no onsite IT dept to help you out.
6. You don't have the "Real Estate" to give up for a dedicated office. When you work at home you really need a dedicated office space. A spare bedroom or den is perfect. Sometimes kids may have to share rooms to turn a bedroom into an office. Having adequate space with good lighting and privacy is essential to telecommuting. If you handle confidential client information from home then a door with a lock is essential to your home office and some companies require it.
7. Letting off steam may not be as safe as once before. Emails may be monitored more closely. When you work at home you will not have anyone to "vent" your frustrations at. I have read about many Instant Messages and emails sent to the wrong person while venting or gossiping. This is very risky and could result in your termination. Best bet is vent to a pillow.
8. Family and friends may think you are available because you are working at home. Sometimes people just don't understand that the only thing that has changed about your job is the location. If they wouldn't disturb you at your old office, then they should respect the fact that you are working from home also. It is best to talk to family and friends before you start telecommuting and let them know that you can not be disturbed during business hours.
9. You may make more trips to the kitchen to snack. Being at home makes it very tempting to over indulge in snacks, especially when under stress but it also saves you on the costs of eating out. Try not to let the kitchen be your enemy. Treat your commute to your desk the same way as if you have entered your old office. Bring your coffee and any snacks that you need to your desk that will hold you until lunch. You may even want to plan your snacks in advance when making your daily schedule out the night before.
10. You may let yourself go. When you work at home you usually do not have to wear work clothes so many individuals think that they can work in your PJ's. Although this may be true I don't recommend it. Your mind needs to know the difference between relaxing and working. Also it has been my experience that when I get dressed, shower and put make up on that mentally I am in work mode and I perform better. The only thing that is different for me is the commute time.

Being a work at home mom, typically referred to as a WAHM,

means that you have two full time jobs! We all know being 

a stay at home mom is a full time job in itself, but when 

you add running a full time or even a part time business

to your day it may feel like you are always "on the clock"

so to speak. So how does a mom stay sane and run her home 

and business successfully without losing her mind or sanity? 

It's all about time management and efficient daily planning.

There is one tool to making your home based business and home run smoothly and that is the use of a day planner. Use your day planner to run not only your business, but your house as well. Use it for everything including meal planning, grocery shopping, doctor appointments, goal planning and your every day kid's schedules, such as soccer games, PTA and such.

While it may be a hot new trend to use a PDA or blackberry to manage your day, I highly recommend the use a paper based day planner in conjunction with an electronic day planner or PDA. With a paper based planner you can easily jot down notes, add a to-do item on your list, clip coupons and attach to your grocery list, and see the overall picture of your day or week at a glance.

One planner that I use exclusively is the Franklin Covey planning system. It is the best planner I have ever used and I have tried many different day planners to best suit my life. Franklin Covey also has very valuable tools that teach you how to best manage your time. You can see these planners and tools online at http://www.franklincovey.com/.

I highly suggest networking with other WAHM's to find out what works best for them. It is best to meet face to face with other WAHM's, this gives you the chance to pitch your business to other women business owners and also it gives you a chance to get out of the house and socialize while still being productive. A good start at finding local networking groups is using a site such as http://www.meetup.com/; here you can search by topic and location to find the networking group that best fits your needs. Be sure to have some flyers and business cards on hand when you go to any networking event.

If you find it difficult to find the time to network outside the home there are many great networking boards that you can glean information from that are specifically for work at home moms. You can search web sites such as About.com, wahm.com, clubenetwork.com and womenentrepreneur.com to find message boards that will help you network with other WAHM's. If you are a minority owned business then MBnet.com is a great starting ground.

Being a WAHM is extremely rewarding and challenging but when you have the right tools and resources it all can run smoothly!