How to Convince Your Boss to Let You Work from Home

Posted by Mike Richard on March 21, 2007
Filed under: Money, Pre-Trip, Tips

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Over on the Productivity501 blog, Mark discusses how to convince your boss to let you work from home. It’s a worthwhile topic for anyone considering not just telecommuting and working in their underwear, but traveling the world as well.

For the ADHD readers in the audience, I’ll condense it down: convince your boss why it’s good for the company, and not what benefit you’ll be taking from the arrangement. If you can help it, don’t even mention what’s in it for you. A few notable advantages that may interest your boss:

  1. Lack of offices and cubicles for new hires.
  2. Increasing employee productivity.
  3. Attracting and retaining valuable employees.
  4. Increasing billable hours.
  5. Being environmentally friendly.
  6. Expense of employee parking.

And, unless you’re an incredibly valued and irreplaceable employee, never threaten to quit if s/he doesn’t acquiesce to your demands. You may just get your wish, albeit with no preparation, and you don’t want to be unemployed with little to no cash reserve, scrambling to figure out what your next move’s going to be.

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Vagabondish editor Mike Richard lives in Rhode Island - a small patch of land in the northeastern U.S. He is a professional web designer and travel junkie with an unhealthy addiction to backpacking, camping, hiking and seeing the world. He enjoys knit hats and speaking in the third person.



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Comments

Mark Shead
March 22nd, 2007 - 11:10 am

Glad you enjoyed the article. Thanks for telling your readers about it.


Mike
March 22nd, 2007 - 12:32 pm

No problem at all, Mark. Thanks for the great info. I’ve shared it with the readers over at the Working Nomad forum as well.


Brooke
March 22nd, 2007 - 9:22 pm

Mike - I like the new look of the site!

Anyways, the reason I’m posting is bc I work from home and think it is great… and any company should look into this. It is so easy and does help EVERYONE. I am much more productive, meaning instead of preparing for work I can exercise and shower then jump on the computer in the same amount of time. No pollution from driving my car, no space taken up in the office. VPN, voIP phones, the way of the world now, and I just think I’m happier with my job in general bc of this flexibility. Look if anyone needs help convincing their boss to let them work from home, have them talk to me haha :-)


Mike
March 23rd, 2007 - 11:27 am

Thanks for the kudos, Brooke! I had no idea you worked from home, you lucky dog. Have you tried Skype? I’ve had a lot of mixed responses/experiences with it.

In this (cliche alert!) “digital age”, anyone working in the IT field should be working from home. It just makes sense for all the reasons you stated above. The only downside is if you happen to manage a team of people, as I do. My working from home would introduce two problems right off the bat:

  1. A tinge of jealousy from my co-workers that I’m working from home and they’re not.
  2. And a perceived lack of control over what my people are doing and when. This is an issue for my boss and for me.

What’s the answer to #1? I mean if you’re a solid employee who’s been working your arse off for your employer for X years, wouldn’t you be a little miffed at knowing that one of your co-workers is home in his pajamas getting paid, same as you?