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People who work from home - what do you do?
I'm currently on maternity leave, and I see a lot of people out and about during the day. Some are probably unemployed or work nights, but I imagine a significant number of people work from home.
I'm reevaluating my career options, looking for a job with a better work-life balance. I have no interest in being a stay-at-home mum (nor can we afford it), but I'd like to be able to pick up my son from school.
I'm curious to know what sort of jobs other people do. I was self-employed for a while, and I did not enjoy it, but it might be better this time around.
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Michael Anderson on
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Until last year I worked from home about 2 days a week, was far more productive than in the office and didn't have the dreaded commute. My employer made an intial investment in decent technology like a laptop I could video conference on and VOIP phone (I plugged it into my laptop and I picked up and made calls as if I was using my extension at work). It also made me a lot more careful about planning my work and about having pointless meetings as these had to fit in with office days.
You could start by having a look at some of the larger government departments and local authorities, depending on your particular skills and areas of interest.
One of the downsides though is home working can creep into your home life unless you're strict. I found myself logged on at 6am and 10pm sometimes!
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Permalink Reply by Rainbow_carnage on
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I currently work in academia, which is reasonably flexible. I can do a couple of days each week from home, though not every day. But I'm also getting tired of my job, so it would be good to find something else.
I don't mind working evenings and weekends. That's the trade-off for taking time out during the day to care for my son.
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Thanks, Hugh. I wouldn't have a clue how to start doing something like this. Do you need to be an expert in the specific subject matter, or in online courses?
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Permalink Reply by Hugh D on
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It certainly helps. I'd been teaching my subject for 20+ years and writing coursebooks for fifteen before going fully self-employed, so . . .
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I know somebody who trades babyware on ebay from home. hope this helps.
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I index books for publishers. Everything can be done from home. The proofs come by pdf and the index is returned by Word attachment with the invoice which is normally paid by bank transfer. The Society of Indexers runs postal and online training courses. I've been doing it for twenty years and can give you more info if you want.
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Thanks, Ian. This is exactly the sort of thing I was looking for.
I've looked at the Society of Indexers website, which has a lot of useful info. I think that this is something that I would probably be good at. I've worked in several different fields and could index books on quite a few topics.
My question is, how easy would it be to find work? With twenty years of experience, you probably have a list of editors who call you up when they have a book that needs indexing. If I was just starting out, how would I find work? I don't have any connections in the publishing industry.
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Permalink Reply by Luci on
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Interested in this discussion, as I've done a few indexes, generally for my mum and her friends, and thought about trying to do this more seriously as self employment. I would think your experience in academia might be helpful, and you could let colleagues/former colleagues know.
Another line where your academia background might be useful is helping postgrad students (especially those whose English is not their first language) with proofreading/grammatical etc help on their dissertations. I have a friend who gradually went fully self employed and she does this as well as audio transcription work.
I was made redundant when my second child was just starting in the nursery class at school and I worked out that my then salary though it sounded ok would barely pay childcare and fares in term time and that I must be paying to go to work in school holidays - as nursery class just mornings I had to pay 1 full time and 1 part time childminder place in term time, and 2 ft in holidays.
That was in 2012 and I've done a bit of work from home along both these lines, but haven't got my act together to seriously make a living - the jobs I've done came to me via mum and a family friend rather than me going out looking. But I think I need to either do this more seriously or return to legal secretarial temping later this year.
I'd be really interested to know if you have further thoughts of working from home and where you go from here.
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There are people who make a decent living selling on eBay, but they are few and far between. You'd need to find a niche market that no one else has thought of. There's so much competition out there, that the profit margins are razor-thin. Unless you're stealing the goods you're selling...
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I work from home, I give careers advise and coaching to people and have an office in my house where I can meet them.
http://coachingexcellence.weebly.com/
check out my website!
mourijn
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