Working from home involves the process of completing work-related tasks from your own home instead of a work-based office or location.
Are working from home jobs real?
Working from home is as much of a real job as any other. Before the Covid-19 pandemic, many people would have considered working from home to be a dream job. However, in recent years, working from home has proven to be a sustainable method of work and employment.
If employees are equipped with the right equipment and have access to what they need, working from home can be a great and efficient way to both run a business and work for a business. It can often be referred to as virtual working and the basis can be either a full working week done in the comfort of your own home or a selected few days a week.
Home Worker Policy
Homeworker policies will vary depending on the individual businesses and what they want to put in the home worker policies. However, through research, we have listed some of the notions that should be included in a homeworking policy.
Employee Supervision
When working in the traditional work environment employees will have a system of supervision. It may feel as though this is not the case if you are at home. It can feel as though you have been left to your own devices, however, in a good worker policy, you should have support in the form of employee supervision. This can be done in the form of regular virtual meetings, either through telephone or video or in-person meetings in the office where appropriate. Alternative, this support can be offered through regular emailing or texting. Ideally, there should be check-ins in such a way that colleagues and supervisors can check the mental as well as the physical health of the employee.
Correct Equipment
For employees who are working from home, the right equipment is essential. For employers, they can provide the employees with the right equipment so that they are able to work from home. However, this will remain part of the workplace property. Employees need the space to cater for the type of equipment that is needed in order to properly execute their job.
Such equipment that is needed to complete most home working includes but is not limited to the following:
Office Chair
Most of the chairs in a domestic house are designed for reclining in or sitting at the table. This is fine for an hour but when working through the day, day in day out, the correct chair will make a huge difference to your health, concentration and ability to work for long periods of time.
Such chairs should be adjustable in both the angle of the backrest and the height of the chair so that the chair user can maintain the ideal posture and work position.
Office Desk
The office desk is a critical piece of equipment. It needs to be large enough to accommodate the desk furniture. The desk needs to be the right height to allow you to comfortably sit under it. The edges need to be smooth and free from anything that could cause your clothing or skin to catch. It needs to be able to take the weight of monitors as well as be easy to clean.
Some people like to stand at their desks. This can bring many health and productivity benefits so if you are going to spend a long time at the desk it may be worth considering an adjustable desk that you can raise and lower to provide the ideal height for both standing and sitting.
PC, Laptops, mice and keyboards
If working on a PC or laptop you will probably need a mouse or keyboard to help you input your work information. Long periods on a laptop with just a trackpad and a small keyboard can cause repetitive strain. Varying the way you input the data can help to overcome the possibility of developing such problems as well as being more productive.
Health and Safety
Health and safety measures should still be in place for employees who are working from home. This can be in reference to both physical and mental safety. For those who do work from home, there has been much concern for the effect this has on their mental health. It is the responsibility of the employer to ensure that their employees' house is safe for work. Businesses will conduct a risk assessment and outline potential health and safety concerns that they have and then determine whether home working is applicable.
Home Worker Insurance
In a typical home working environment, you need to get the insurance that will cover you for home working and if your home working involves members of the public coming to your home in order to conduct your work then public liability is important to consider as well.
Several insurers have some helpful guides to insurance for home workers, several are set out below:
Garden office
A garden office is a building set in the garden which provided the same benefits as a home office but separates your space so that your home is not seen as your workspace but you can separate your work-life balance.
There is a lot more cost involved in setting up a garden office. A suitable building, providing electricity for equipment and adequate heating and insulation to make a comfortable working environment. If space in your home is an issue then a garden office could be a good solution, cheaper than an extension in many situations and allowing that short walk to work and back.
There is a lot to be said for being able to shut a door and walk away from work.
Can work from home be high paying jobs?
There are many high paying jobs that can be done from home and since the pandemic, the range has increased. A lot of these jobs are ideal for home working but developed out of the office culture so they were office jobs just because they were. Now we have become used to the pros and cons of home working the types of work from home high paying jobs has grown considerably.
- Actuary
- Account Manager
- Accountant
- Business Development Manager
- Business Intelligence Analyst
- Cyber Security Analyst
- Front-End Developer
- Market Research Manager
- Mobile Developer
- Product Manager
- Project Manager, IT
- Sales Executive
- Software developer
All of these jobs have the potential to be high paying and can and have been work from home jobs.
There are many more that fit a hybrid modal with people working some days of the week from home and the rest in the office. It can be that the office visit is only needed for more complex negotiations or problem-solving so the
It has become popular to work Monday and Friday from home and Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday in the office. It has been labelled TWAT working! interesting how language changed.
A lot of the underlying changes that have made the home working revolution possible occurred some time ago. The increase in high-speed internet connections. Smart mobile phones and the better battery life of equipment have allowed for more mobile, agile working. The slow trend to paperless offices and the use of cloud computing to house most documents and resources that allow the working day to take place. It has been the social stigma of letting people work from home that has stopped a lot of the home working from developing and the pandemic enforced that cultural shift to cut away at a lot of the presumed issues with a desire to just make it work to survive.
There is a medium to be found. New workers learn a lot from senior workers and that experience is often shared in the office. It is more difficult to impart that knowledge through screen time only so offices may become more a place of knowledge transfer and some forms of training as well as social bonding and team building.
Many cities and towns are designed around a daily movement of workers to and from the office. Coffee shops, snack shops, hairdressers, shoe repair and a host of small convenience shops rely on that tide of people washing past at various times of the day.
On the way to work for the morning paper and cup of coffee for the train. The lunchtime meal and a pint in the office local as well as the take out shops for a desk-based snack. Then at the end of the working day the after-work socialising, restaurants, pubs and wine bars and theatre or cinemas for entertainment before the journey home.
With more and more being home-based and seeking a different journey if any, the work from home jobs are a real threat to some of those premises and the shift in the work demographic will have implications for years to come not only on the workers who now don't work away from home but also the shops and services that they used on their to-and-fro back and forth to work and home.
There will be more opportunities arising for some nimble and forward-thinking people who will rise to the challenge of servicing these home workers with mobile food services, mobile office supplies and home office repair and setup services.
