'Working' from home

There must be many variables. In my last school we were allowed to go home on our PPA afternoons/ There was plenty of work to be done and it was great not to have the worry of school distractions in the background where there was always the danger of being called away from planning to deal with something.

The few people I know who have worked from home are conscientious and it has helped them to have the flexibility when looking after children. If work isn't done in the daytime, it gets done in the evening. This must contribute to overall well-being and support good productivity.

I guess it is up to individual employers to gauge what is realistic and what is useful to them.

I would love another opportunity to work from home!

After I had retired full time I had a couple of part time jobs and the end result for both was report writing. I did more productive work in the evenings even up until midnight than I ever would 9-5pm. As long as the work gets done I do not have a problem. I had an added incentive, I was not paid until the report was written and emailed.

I found that working from home more productive as I was away from interruptions, etc.

My husband also works from home when he's working on CAD for the same reasons. The only downside is that the dining table is covered in A3 drawings!

I guess there are always going to be people who abuse it but it does offer the opportunity of flexible working for many people and cuts down on the amount of travel on roads and trains.

Also saves the employer money on heat and light etc.

I often used to work from home. Some of the distraction in the office were social. My team were "on the road" and we often didn't meet up every day. So there was catching up to do. Work and personal issues. There were days when I could have taken an hour of intense work at home in what I spent in a full day in the office. Don't tell anyone though!

Works well for some. OH worked from home for several years both FT and PT....he's organised and disciplined.....and had a door he could shut.....that's how it worked!

DD works from home. The nature of her work means she works to a strict shift system. So no opportunity for using work time as down time. However it does have the advantage that when a shift finishes, work is over, no worrying about deadlines or having to put in unpaid overtime.

Thecompany DS works for are having a lot of reorganisation in their buildings. They are only having 85% of the number of desks required and no one will have their own desk! This goes across all levels of management. DS says he thinks they will have some drawer or a locker for certain things they need to leave at work. They already do not have sufficient car parking spaces. He needed to be at home for a video conference one morning and when he got to his office could not find a parking space at all so went home and worked from there. He says he gets more work done at home as he is not interrupted by people asking him to do other things. He has completion times for the projects he is working on and as long as those times are met it is OK.

I've worked from home for the last 10 years - everything I do is on line - accounts, scheduling system, mail etc and the company I work for is in the US with no physical offices so everyone is mobile. It's worked out very well as I was able to care for my parents in their last years especially my dad who would sit and watch tv while I was on the computer - when the auditors came in I would put him in the conservatory where we would hear him laughing at the boxed comedy sets he watched (he had dementia so they were always new to him ). The downside is that you never get away from it as it's too easy to just answer one more e-mail or finish a report and over the years I've seen me working 14-16 hours a day at times. Sadly due to the company being bought out I think my job will come to an end in the next few months. I'm not ready to retire yet but doubt I'll find anything so convenient!

Everyone at my dd's former workplace worked two days at home a week. They were able to cut down on the amount of office space needed and heating and lighting etc.

My Dd loved it as she could fit in twice the amount of work at home because there were no disruptions from phones and so on. In her new place, it's not so flexible but she is often at work by 7am because again, she can work free from interruption.

Some people found it isolating, though, so they were not allowed to have two consecutive working from home days.

My DS works a few days a week at home. He says he is far more productive then. At his place of work there are constant interruptions.

If you work from home and log onto your work's computer, I assume the employer can see how many hours you have done and how productive you have been?

I work from home a couple of days a week and find that I get through much more detailed work because I have fewer interruptions. I tend to start work earlier, and finish later too. And Lillie is right, my employer would soon know if I wasn't pulling my weight.

And just because you are physically at work in your office sat at your desk doesn't mean you are actually working or being productive does it?

DS works from home for a Spanish company. He is a web developer/programmer and very strict with his working hours. As it is online they know what he is doing. They pay towards heating and upgraded wifi/phone and have supplied a desk and chair and the hardware. They have a daily Skype team meeting and he has to go to the office every 2 months. He has occasionally felt a bit left out but there is annual team building - last year Madrid, this year to be in Brighton. The company is good to work for and he is well thought of. They have a home worker in Barcelona, Tenerife and New York.

I worked at a university. We were allowed to work from home but our phone calls could be put through and we had to be available to answer them at all times, just as in the office. You get much more done at home - my office was open Plan and never quiet.

Working from home is about achieving objectives not about how many hours you spend sitting at the desk. Many people spend hours in offices not getting anywhere due to the many distractions and noise. It sounds as though you have a particular beef though 8telly8 is this about someone you know who isn't pulling their weight?

I found that people who were productive with quality work in the office were also the same if not more so when working at home. Some people opted not to work at home as they felt it didn't suit them. Others took advantage. However that soon became obvious in the quantity and quality of work completed and was a normal management issue to resolve.

My husband works at home sometimes as he finds he gets far more done than in the office where he gets constant interruptions.
I get far less done when he is at home because of the constant interruptions!
Pleas for coffee, lunch etc & complaining that the hoover or radio is too loud. I try to go out when he is working from home. I dread his retirement!!

I worked from home for decades. I was a mum, full on it was 365 days a year and 24/7 at times.

I couldn't believe how restful an outside workplace was. coffee breaks, lunch hours, a Secret Santa thing that began in September and went on until Christmas eve........

I have also done outside work from home.

It is hard in some jobs, such as mine, youth worker then mental health worker to decide where work and home divide, if I get a brain wave for a youth event when I'm washing up at home, how does that get counted?

I used to make christmas crackers for a posh dept store, they collected them once a month for the 3 months up until Dec. I made them while watching telly, sometimes breasfeeding and then, when they were stacked in the spare room, I had to hoover around them, and move them everytime I wanted something from airing cupboard.

Some jobs just weave themselves into the fabric of your life. Most farmers nip in and out during the day, there are many jobs that have always incorported working fron home.

Nothing new under the sun so they say.

Both my daughters work from home 2 days a week. They are both conscientious and have work they must get through during those days. They sometimes have Skype meetings arranged and the companies they work for are national companies where it is part of their working regime. I am sure there are one or two who take advantage of the situation but I feel, in general, most people think of it as just another day at the office, without the travelling.

Agrees with lillie. Our eldest son is a software developer and he works from home as well as going in the office. It's called remote working now.

He has to log in when he works from home on his computer so they know the hours have been put in.

Our eldest and his wife have just had a baby so when she returns to work 2 days a week he will work from home.

As long as his hours are in which they can see ftom the login screen there isn't a problem. It will save them on childcare fees and so on. As they are over the family working tax credit threshold they won't get help with childcare so they need to save where thet cam as they still have bills etc to pay and are not rolling in it

I worked from home due to health reasons, but I ended up overworked, doing hours and hours of legitimate overtime and my boss wouldn't allow time off in lieu as all my office based colleagues were having.

There are plenty of people swinging the lead in actual workplaces.
It's up to the employer to have a system of assessing whether work has been completed in an acceptable time, whether the employee is at home or not.