Many Community Manager jobs have a telecommute option, which is awesome. As most of my friends know, I have no intention of ever returning to a traditional office job. I enjoy the flexibility of working at home and spending the time with my family. I became spoiled as a freelancer and now I’m spoiled as a telecommuting Community Manager.
That doesn’t mean it’s all bunny slippers and Oprah, however. If you’re hoping to land a gig where you can work from home, let me turn you on to a few things to consider first:
- Folks don’t always respect your time - It doesn’t matter who you are or what you do. People will think that because you work at home your job isn’t so important. They will call you during your working hours, and drop by for coffee. Friends and family will ask for favors and wonder why you don’t get enough house stuff done during your working hours. Remedy this by establishing working hours and making sure everyone knows you’re not available during this time.
- Working at home is hard – Flexibility is good, but you have to make a lot of compromises of your time. I spend free time and “lunch hours” driving children to various activities or running errands. It’s very rare that I go out to lunch with friends or co-workers and any time spent doing children’s activities during the day is made up well into the evening. Plus there are constant distractions: The phone, the TV, the Internet, the fridge. You have to be very disciplined to work at home without a supervisor standing over you.
- You’ll work more hours at home than you do at an office job - Home workers are constantly checking and responding to emails and tweaking projects, even after “office” hours. If the computer is on, you’re checking on work, no matter how often you vow to stay away.
- If your Skype is on you must be working – Many times your superiors or co-workers don’t consider your weekends or evenings as private time if they know you are online. If they see you on Skype or Twitter, they might contact you with some extra things to do. This happens often among homeworkers. Don’t be afraid to set boundaries.
Working from home is the best thing for me and my situation. However, telcommuters must have discipline and a good work ethic. Are you up to the challenge?
