"Working from home"

[TrillianAstra]

Inspired by this thread.

If someone is working from home (by which I mean that they generally work in an office and sometimes work from home, not that their entire job is at home), do you think it is possible for them to do so with children in the house?

Does it depend on the age of the child(ren)?

If you worked from home on Tuesdays, for example, would you get childcare, or try to work while looking after children?

If your colleague worked from home on Tuesdays would you expect them to do as much work as they would if they were in the office?

How would you feel if someone said they were "working from home" but you heard children in the background of a call, and they were extremely slow in responding to emails?

noviceoftheday - well said.

Until quite recently I worked in an office and thank goodness my Director was supportive of home working. The 'skiving from home' attitude was prevalent in 4/6 of the other managers - all men btw. The rule was I had to have childcare in place when working. I could carry this out at anytime and so worked at both days over the weekend. On my working from home day my child was around (as agreed); I checked for emails hourly and was available to make/take phone calls.

The main protagonist of the anti working from home camp worked 8:45 to 16:00 with an hour lunch and frequents breaks. He also took unofficial breaks to talk about football. I worked far in excess of 40 contracted hours and was contactable 24 hours a day by blackberry. He was present in the office but once he clocked off he was totally unavailable .

I am currently self employed and so whether my child is there or not is my own business. I mostly work whilst he is in school or my DH .

I work from home. I might get up to two hours done in the afternoon if DS was asleep, but otherwise it is evenings or whilst he is at nursery (2-3 days a week)

No way can you look after children and work AT THE SAME TIME. That's impossible.

"I checked for emails hourly and was available to make/take phone calls".

But you weren't working in between those two things.

No-one at my work gets paid to just do that, either at work or at home - what a cushy number!

If you have an arrangement to make the time up at other times, that's different.

In our office if we need to work from home we say why and establish waht that will mean - i.e. "My DD is ill and i need to pick her up from school. I'll have access to emails but I'm not going to be proactive" Or "I need to stay in for the plumber so I'll work as if I were in the office as the house is empty"

It wouldn't be beleived for a second if someone said "My DD is sick and so I'm going to work from home but I'll work as though I'm in the office" as it just wouldn't happen. Unless the kids are 8+

It also depends what type of job you have. if you have clients calling you it's hardly professional to have children in the background is it.

it's a shame that some take the piss really. Luckily I am in a very small company and we're all grown ups with a strong work ethic. I couldn't bear to work with either people who didn't appreciate that sometimes life calls for "working form home" or on the flip side - people who assume that anyone or works from homeis skiving.

I work from home at least 2 days a week. I do not have childcare in place during that time although now my eldest is in school full-time and my youngest has just started a morning playgroup. I work at night every night after the DCs are in bed - including weekends - to make up the time, sometimes until 1 or 2 in the morning. I certainly put in more hours than a full-time working week but I also did that pre DCS just in the office instead of at home until the wee hours. It is knackering but I enjoy the flexibility because it means I can spend more time with the DCs while they are small.

To be honest, I think only I know how hard I work, I reckon some of my colleagues whose working from home requests have been refused because the policy is only for parents of children under the age of 16 think I am taking the p**s.

P.S. It really annoys me when people at work talk about "working from home" in inverted commas. To be honest it speaks volumes about how much work they do on the days they "work from home"...it's pretty lonely at 2am in front of the PC...

I work from home when the DCs are off school sick or the school has unexpectedly caught fire (unless I've got a vital meeting in the office that day by sods law, so actually not that often). As a one-off I am more than happy to stick them in front of the TV for 7 hours or insist they stay in their bedroom with their books and audio books for the whole of the day except for lunch / snack breaks, and hence I can get a full day's work done (or catch up in the evening if I don't). But clearly that would border on child abuse if you did it every day.

The one drawback of working from home is that you never switch off from work. I didn't like having work books around my home and preferred to be mum at home rather than mum who is working. I would much rather be in the office and child free.

I work a full time week, but I am only in the office for 4 days. The remainder of the time is from home, but it is a flexible arrangement. Basically I can make up the rest of the time whenever and however I want. So I spread it across evenings the 2 hour nap my DS has on my non-working day. Plus I'm clocking up 37 hours, so if I have managed 33 over the 4 days I am in the office, as I do regularly, I only need to find another 4. I would never try and work whilst DS was awake unless DH was in and looking after him.

My boss has also allowed me to 'work from home' when DS has been ill once or twice. I put a sensible number of hours on my timesheet which reflected the number of hours I actually did, mostly when DS was asleep or in front of CBeebies, rather than a full days work, which would have been impossible.

I work bloody hard from home and always feel like I'm skiving if I make a cup of tea or go to the loo. I don't give it a second thought at work!

hairylights - correct, on the day I was out of the office "I checked for emails hourly and was available to make/take phone calls". The agreement with my boss was that I would work 40 hours over the remaining 6 days. This included 4 week days in the office and 2 working from home whilst my OH was out with our child. Other people may call this a 'weekend'.

I worked between 50 to 60 hours every week; my "9 to 5" (ha) office based colleague worked a maximum of 30. It was not a cushy number - it was flexible and mutually beneficial to my employer and I.

You either have a work ethic or you don't; location has little to do with this.

"P.S. It really annoys me when people at work talk about "working from home" in inverted commas. To be honest it speaks volumes about how much work they do on the days they "work from home"..."

ROFL. So because I am fully aware that some people work from home and some 'work from home' that automatically means that I am one of the ones that are 'working from home'?

Guitargirl - I totally agree, people that equate skiving with "working from home" are talking about how they would behave.

MissMarjoribanks I agree. Sounds sensible and fair. When I was in the office people understood I may not be available 8am to 5pm and that I would have meetings, taking calls and travelling. If you work from home the rules totally change and some people are suspicious if you don't answer the phone after 3 rings.

adamschic Working from home doesn't suit all.

I worked for a forward thinking boss and everyone could work from home as long work was progressed as expected. If my child was ill I took annual leave - still answered emails/was available by phone.

when i work from home it is to do a 'task' and i am not contactable in the same way as i am in the office - generally cause in the office i can't get left alone long enough to do a big 'task'. on these days my email 'out of office' is on (even though i do check it occassionally) but my boss and one or two colleagues have my mobile number.

when i'm doing this i work odd hours - early morning, late evening, break in the middle of the day... a parent working like me could possibly cover childcare too (if shared with another parent and/or school).

"Guitargirl - I totally agree, people that equate skiving with "working from home" are talking about how they would behave."

What are you on about? So everyone who has ever known of anyone who worked from home without childcare must therefore be skiving themselves when they are working from home?

flowery in my ex peer group the people making the most complaints and comments like ' you skiving from home tomorrow' when I was working were the laziest.

Not everyone CAN work from home; even if they had the opportunity would not want to.

As adults we should be able to a mutually beneficial working pattern that includes working from home and flexible, SMARTER working. For me working from home meant I needed suitable childcare or an agreement to work hours outside a 9-5 Mon to Fri pattern ( which was agreed). Others they may be able to work productively from home with their children around.

I worked from home earlier this week because my son (12) was not yet back at school and the arrangements I'd made for childcare fell through at the last minute.
He hung around the house amusing himself and I was just as productive as I would have been if I'd been in the office - maybe more because people are less likely to interrupt you and ask you something if they have to phone you or email you about it. I had a report to write.
I wouldn't want to do it regularly because ds basically spends his whole time on Wii or watching TV - but I think it is definitely do-able if your dc are a bit older.

I have had a half day working from home because ds was ill. I was only able to do it because he was ill in bed rather than "ill" running around the house. I made sure I made up any extra time lost by caring for ds by working in the evening when dh got home.

I did a similar thing when his nursery was closed by snow for a day last winter. I had a piece of work that had to be finished that day, so ds was stuck in front of a dvd, I worked on the laptop in the other room and we went out to play in the snow once his patience was exhausted. I made up the hours that evening and at the weekend.

My boss knew about the circumstances on both occasions and in a way it was more flexitime than strictly working my office hours but from home. I'm lucky that my work lends itself to that sort of working on occasion.

I've got a friend who is a home worker (handknitting for v pricy shops/designers) and she pays for childcare because she just can't guarantee to work to deadlines otherwise. As a general rule, small children mean that you can't give your full concentration to your work.

Tyrion if you read my whole post you'll see that I added that if the missed hours are made up, then that's different.

At my place if you've exhausted your paid emergency care entitlement (three days in 12 months) you take time off in lieu if youve stocked any, annual leave or unpaid leave, requests for which are always granted.

Hairylights - "What are you on about?" - we are in agreement and always were. My post said 'I worked far in excess of 40 contracted hours and was contactable 24 hours a day by blackberry'.

In response to the original question - I think it may be possible to work from home whilst there is a child at home. I find it difficult to concentrate and would need to arrange the type of work to suit this or work at different hours. My OH would be able to, even with a 4YO about the house all day.

fluffles with agreement I worked 'offline' also. Other people socialising and taking constant tea breaks was very disruptive to working in the office.

The answer is of course entirely dependent upon what you have agreed with your boss. If your boss is happy that your 8 hours of work might take place between 5am and 9am and then between 6pm and 9pm and that you will not be around at other times, then you're both happy and the work gets done.

Likewise if you are working at home because childcare has fallen through and the alternative is a day off then so long as your boss is happy, then it matters not a jot that you will be dragged off every now and then to look after the kids.

What is most definitely NOT ok is to pretend to be 100% available for work during normal work hours when in fact you are not 100% available because your kids may need attention at certain points. Unless your boss has expressly OK'd it, you would end up in deep trouble. I would personally pull someone up on this if they worked form home with young children in their house without OK-ing it in advance. It is bad bad form and you are defrauding your company.

I absolutely don't think it is possible to WFH without childcare, unless the children are really quite old enough (prob secondary school age? - not sure, mine aren't there yet!) to look after themselves responsibly and give you peace to work in.

I do think it's possible to an extent to work with younger children in the house if there is someone else caring for them. I know a number of people at work who have sometimes had children's voices in the background of conference calls, in most cases though they were among the hardest-working people and we knew they were at home because they were working unsociable hours or similar. But I doubt it would be possible to do your best, sustained work under those circumstances.

I typically do work from home one day a week, but on those days the DCs are at nursery and I am expected to be working just as hard as in the office (sometimes work harder as less chatting/distractions!) and just as contactable. Where I work this is a perfectly normal arrangement, for men and non-parents as well as mothers.

Re the last question - I don't necessarily think anything of it if I hear children in the background of calls occasionally (see above!) providing they are not interrupting the call and it's not a regular thing. BUT I did work with someone (a man!) recently who was permanently working from home and was definitely taking the piss - very slow responding to instant messages or calls, even though he had few meetings booked and relatively low workload, and he wasn't getting much done. This was definitely NOT overlooked though and he was on his way to getting fired (but quit first). We suspected he might have had another job on the side - but of course he could equally have been trying to combine working with childcare, we'll probably never find out now!

I also heard of a friend-of-friend who is planning to WFH permanently with a 1-year-old (employed not self-employed), wonder how long that plan will survive then

StillSquiffy I agree, well said.

MyNameIsInigoMontoya 'I know a number of people at work who have sometimes had children's voices in the background of conference calls, in most cases though they were among the hardest-working people and we knew they were at home because they were working unsociable hours or similar. But I doubt it would be possible to do your best, sustained work under those circumstances.'

I agree somewhat. Before I had a child I worked 70 hours per week and afterwards 50-60 hours. My priorities changes but I was still and was productive - more so than some of of colleagues in the office and working to a traditional office timetable. I maintain my OH could work from home with my 4 yo in attendance. (DS would be fine but probably be bouncing off the walls having watched TV for hours). Combining full time motherhood and employment is very difficult. You CAN do both fully and well.

No