Covid-19 has opened the eyes of many employers with regards to working from home and there are many conversations going on regarding the future of this.
Without wishing to upset the apple cart too much, I want to respectfully point out that this is not an action to be taken without a great deal of thought and consideration. Let me detail some of the things that need to be considered:
LONELINESS. this is a major factor when working from home. At the moment I have my three cherubs home from school and I’m loving it – but post Covid-19 they will return to school and my home will be empty again. I overcome it by going to networking events and co-working spaces. How will employers help to alleviate this issue?
WORKSPACE: I work in a dedicated office space, with a comfortable office chair, a desktop PC, good lighting, ventilation, heating etc. I have however worked at the dining room table with a laptop! Let’s see if you can work out when I had aches and pains!
BROADBAND: I still use my home broadband to access the internet at home. I’m lucky; I live in an area where there is Fibre To The Property (FTTP); ultra fast broadband. But if it were to go down I would possibly have a long wait for a repair – business broadband gets priority. Are employers going to install business broadband for their home workers? I’ll just up and go to find a cafe or somewhere to jump on to!
INSURANCE: on top of the normal insurances associated with running your own business, don’t forget Home Insurance! Working from home needs to be declared to your home insurer – admin is a low risk industry so it hasn’t really affected my premiums. I believe that insurers are overlooking this during Covid-19 but will they in the future?
TELEPHONES: how are employees going to access their company’s phone system? On their own personal mobile phones? Seems to me that this area could create some issues for both sides alike.
SECURITY: by this I mean security of their work. Anti virus software, firewalls, malware, physical storage of documents. All data needs to be held securely. This means suitable processes in place and lockable cabinets etc – now the responsibility of the employer!
I really enjoy working from home and for me it is ideal. If I need to take my child to the orthodontics I can just up and go – I catch up with my work in the evenings or the weekend. I set my own deadlines and only accept the work that I know I can fulfil – that’s the beauty for me of being self- employed. I am dedicated to my work and loyal to my business at all times – it’s mine after all.
Stay Safe everyone!