Be aware that there is no fill-in-the-blank form that you can present your existing employer with to pitch your suggestion that it may be highly beneficial for the company and you as the employee to turn your office job into your telecommute gig and work from home from this point forward.
This may be your idea, to convert your job into an online job, or it might be necessary. It could be the only way to continue to work your job during the COVID-19 lockdown. Many government agencies, organizations, and businesses have continued to conduct their affairs and remain solvent enough to weather the coronavirus storm by initiating the move to telework solutions. Those who adopted this new style of doing business fared best of the businesses that suffered greatly from the pandemic.
Maybe you’re working for an essential business, or maybe you’d just like a little more freedom and increased quality of life that comes from transforming your day job into a telecommuting scenario.
Family leaders can possibly save a great deal in daycare expenses, and everyone can benefit from the hour-and-a-half loss of life during the commute to-and-from work, as well as not having to pay the cost of commuting to and from work.
You must formulate a compelling presentation for your employer to get a glimpse at all the unforeseen positive possibilities that could arise from such an arrangement.
- Evaluation
You will have to take a good hard look at your job duties and how your work interfaces with the rest of the agency or business. Then, ask yourself, “Would your job function and the performance of these duties translate well to a work-from-home environment?”
If your boss hasn’t already told you how this is supposed to look, it is up to you to chart out exactly what you performing your job duties and working from home is going to look like.
Evaluating what is required of you and translating this to a telework scenario and remembering that the result must be more advantageous to your employer as you work from under your own roof than working under his roof.
If you cannot show at least a 20% increase in your work performance, it will be a harder sell to your existing employer.
Be as explicit as possible as you evaluate how much time you spend doing each task throughout your regular workday.
- Prepare Your Presentation
The presentation that you present to your employer must be well thought out, detailed, and look good. This is not the time to take your employer to lunch and scratch out the details on a napkin. Use your best presentation skills.
Make sure to express your strict work schedule, how you will separate yourself from other potential household distractions, and how you will be available to your employer and via which methods (phone, text, video chat, desktop sharing, email, etc.). Note that you may not be able to translate all specifics to your home, so you may end up with a presentation that has you working Monday, Wednesday, and Friday from home and Tuesday and Thursday in the office.
Advantages to you are obvious but you will have to emphasize all the benefits your employer will enjoy from this enhanced working enhancement.
- Troubleshoot in Advance
You must be prepared to address all extraneous issues that might come up, such as technology and security issues. Have your answers ready in advance. Will you be able to connect to the servers in the office? How will you attend in-person meetings? Does your employer already have a Virtual Private Network (VPN) for your telecommuting usage? Check with the IT department to make sure that you don’t forget anything that might be a barrier to your successful telecommuting gig.
- Give It Time
If your employer does not already embrace the idea of teleworking, don’t demand a yes or no answer right away, because the default answer from any employer who has little no experience with telecommuting workers is, “No.” Instead, allow the employer to think about it, mull it over, sleep on it, and make yourself available to answer any questions or concerns that he might have with your working from home arrangement.
If you are prepared and not impatient, there is an excellent chance you will be working from home soon.
And if your boss doesn’t go for it, there are many other employers out there anxious to talk to you about working for them from your own home.