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Original poster

"Working from home"

66 replies

TrillianAstra · 09/09/2011 13:11

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?

OP posts:

tabulahrasa · 09/09/2011 23:51

It depends on the age of the child really, I work at home, sort of, lol

DP is a sole trader and I do his invoices, emails and books and it makes no difference to me if the DC are here, but then they're 11 and 15...I've also done a 4 year degree including dissertation without using childcare when in at home.

But they mostly just need fed and occasionally stopped from killing each other, once they're at the age where they play out - they don't need your attention in the same way, they like to spend time with you obviously, but they can entertain themselves if you're busy

BirdFromDaNorf · 11/09/2011 16:46

I don't think that people can work from home unless there is childcare in place, or, they were doing a 2 hr day whilst their baby/toddler was asleep.

I don't think that it depends on the age of the child, because they are always going to want something from someone, throughout the day.

If I am working from home, you can expect me to be putting in a full 8 hour day. When I talk to people who freelance for me, I find it difficult if their children are in the background. I'm paying for their undivided attention to their work for the business. But maybe I'm not tolerant enough because my DH is a SAHD whilst I work full time from my office in the garden??

cat64 · 11/09/2011 16:56

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn

BirdFromDaNorf · 11/09/2011 17:54

Interesting Cat64, our boys are 4.5 and 3 years old so I have no direct expeirence of it. Even when I'm talking to staff who've got children around 9/10 years, they are still interrupting in the background, so I'd assumed most people had that.

I can see your side of the fence with the opportunity to do things that aren't being tracked, but I don't think I'd be concentrating as much if I had someone at home who wasn't well enough to go to school.

Having said all this, if it's not regular, and the person works hard the rest of the time, it's not an issue is it? In the future, I need to explain to people that that I find it distracting having someone I'm talking to being interrupted by their children when we are on a skype call and it happens regularly.

cat64 · 11/09/2011 18:10

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn

GnomeDePlume · 12/09/2011 22:17

I have worked from home full time. With older children and DH at home there was no problem. I had a separate room which the children knew they werent allowed into until given the signal (me stumbling out demanding tea).

If DH was out and I knew I had a conference call then I would plaster the doors with 'be quiet' post it notes so that the DCs didnt shout 'hello' when they came in.

If someone is working from home then I do expect them to be working from home and not, say, from Sainsbury's.

StealthPolarBear · 12/09/2011 22:30

As a one off I think it's fine - if your child is ill or whatever you bundle them up on the sofa watching DVDs and do whatever hours you can, making up the rest at another time. However DH recently requested to work from home as a regular thing, and we were careful to explain that, while this was to manage DS after school, DH would start early, so would only "owe" half an hour or so once he left to go to the school. He'd do that at some point in the evening, while still being on call during core hours. We also made sure they knew our smaller one would be in FT childcare.
Still said no :(

Geordieminx · 12/09/2011 22:32

SPB did they give reasons?

Hatesponge · 12/09/2011 22:40

Mine are 10 and 13, I would be able to work from home with them here no problem - it helps that we have a fairly large house so even if they are upstairs being noisy, if I'm down in the kitchen it's still quieter than my office.

Unfortunately I work for a shit employer who doesn't permit ANYONE to work from home. EVER. Am therefore v of those who get to do it, even once in a blue moon.

Beamur · 12/09/2011 22:46

I work from home one day a week while DD is at school, I couldn't really give work my full attention if she was home too. On the odd occasion I have worked from home while DD is here, usually with either my Mum or DP caring for her, she still interrupts me - so I claim a reduced number of hours to account for the time I have actually been working.

cat64 · 12/09/2011 22:50

This reply has been deleted

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Beamur · 12/09/2011 22:55

Yup cat64, my employer is very supportive of homeworkers and would like more people to do it, as it will save them money. They are also looking into carbon related issues and would like more people to avoid commuting.

StealthPolarBear · 12/09/2011 22:55

Kinda GM they told him they were phasing that out, and he would get a pay rise to compensate....we are still waiting

Hatesponge · 12/09/2011 23:03

I'd save 2.5 hours a day commuting time if I could work from home :(

There are 'security' issues as to why we can't work from home (I don't work for MI5 or anything, I'm a contractor working for a leading insurer...although the contractor bit is irrelevant as they don't let their actual employees WFH either)

The best they can offer is 'compressed hours' - working 8 til 6 with no lunchbreak 4 days a week to then get one day off...

gomez · 12/09/2011 23:07

I wfh at least one day per week, sometime two depending on circumstances. For the other 3 or 4 however I may be travelling for a couple or pulling 12 hour days in the office, so quite frankly when wfh I will answer emails, take calls or do what needs to be done. But I also take the kids to school, take them for a lunch or indeed sometimes have breakfast with DH and lunch with the kids depending on conference call demands.

Equally this last weekend we had a large event and I was available on BB from 5pm Friday until 3am Monday morning. I also was up at 6am to catch train into the Office this morning. But frankly presuming all okay by Friday I will 'work from home'.

But re: OP's question childcare is needed. However I don't think bad of those whose children I hear in the background presuming they are not toddlers.

GnomeDePlume · 13/09/2011 02:11

It does need a supportive boss. I had that when the agreement was first made but then she moved on and her replacement decided I needed to be in the office. Apparently this was so he could just talk to me if he needed to. This was strange as he never did talk to me on the days when I went into the office!

I think it is a sign of a confidant manager if they can weigh the request up and give a sensible answer. It is the weak and ineffectual who ban it out of hand because they are frightened that they can only manage you if they can see you at all times.

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