While many people make money finding online work from home opportunities, selling things online, writing articles, or even starting their own home based businesses, some people would prefer to stay with their current employer, but telecommute. You’d like the steady income, but maybe you’re certain that you can do everything you do in the office from your home, saving you commute time and money spent on petrol. How do you ask your boss if you can make the switch?
- Establish yourself as a valuable and productive employee in the office, so that your request seems like a reasonable one. If you’re constantly needing your boss to tell you to do your work, your boss clearly won’t feel that you’ll be able to monitor yourself while working from home. Additionally, if your boss regularly finds that you’re using your computer for something other than company tasks, he’ll likely assume that you will be doing the same thing at home rather than completing business related tasks.
- Have a plan about how you’ll telecommute. How will you communicate with the office without causing an inconvenience to employees working in the office? If you don’t have the proper equipment at home that you need to do your job, be sure that you do before you even bring up your request to your boss. Be sure that you’ll be available on the telephone and through email during work hours, and have contingency plans in place in case something happens to your telephone or Internet connexion.
- Give your boss a legitimate reason for your request. This reason needs to be related to your job, rather than just to your personal life. Do you feel that the stressful commute is affecting your attitude in the office, and that cutting out the commute would make you a more productive employee?
- If your boss isn’t sure about the idea, suggest that you start by telecommuting only one or two days a work on a trial basis so you can prove that your productivity will increase. This gives you the advantage of trying out what it’s like to work from home. Some people think working from home will be easy, but find they lack the discipline to do so; testing out the waters while on a company payroll is a great opportunity.
- Be flexible about doing some work outside of your home. Maybe your boss would like you to mainly talk on the phone with clients, but would like you to occasionally meet with them face to face. While you may feel like this request is inconvenient for you, it’s a small price to pay to be able to work from home.
If you want to work from home, but you don’t want to leave the company you work for, it may be possible to convince your boss to let you telecommute. Establish yourself as an exceptional employee, and ask for a trial period working a few days per week from home to show your boss that you have what it takes to be productive while telecommuting.
