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Want to Work from Home?
How to Get Your Boss to Say "Yes!" By Crystal Patriarche
We all know someone with that coveted job the one where they have a really cool title, fitness benefits, money for the season's newest clothes and they get to work from home to boot. So, green with envy, you may be asking yourself, "How can I convince my employer to let me work from home?"
Before diving into strategies to convince your boss to say yes to telecommuting, you should ask yourself why you want to work from home.
"If a woman wants to telecommute to avoid child care expenses, that is not a good reason," says Catherine Roseberry, a telecommuting expert and guide on About.com who started working from home in the early 1990s.
Working from home does free up time you would normally spend on your commute, allows you to see more of your kids and in some cases even allows you to have them home with you. This depends on your employer, as some companies require you retain daycare when you are working from home.
"Anyone contemplating telecommuting should always present a written proposal," says Roseberry. "You want to be taken seriously, so present yourself in the most professional manner."
Before you go off writing your own proposal from scratch, check with your human resources department. Some companies today have policies and proposal formats already in existence for telecommuting.
"You don't want a written proposal to be so rigid your boss feels trapped into a scenario of accepting all or nothing. My boss happens to be a very personable, social character," says Sonja Nickels, who works from her Denver, Colo. home two days a week. "I think the face-to-face meeting worked best with her. It gave us both the chance to discuss what might work and might not."
"An employee who wants to work from home has to earn the trust so I know they can get the job done," says Samantha Steinwinder of Seattle-based Steinwinder Public Relations. "It's a major honor system."
