There’s snow on the ground, the roads are an icy death trap and the public transport system is acting like it’s never encountered the idea of winter. But I don’t have any excuse for not getting to work. That’s one of the advantages of working from home. (Or disadvantages, if you’d rather be out sledging).
I spend at least some of my time working from home. I find it helps me work more efficiently. It also keeps overheads down, and helps with the work-life balance too (especially for those of us with small children).
Head space
When you have some serious writing to do, an office is often the worst place to be. The phone keeps ringing, people interrupt you with irrelevant questions, and there’s a conversation going on about last night’s episode of Eastenders.
By contrast, in your own space, you have peace and quiet to concentrate without interruption. You can also pace around, speak phrases out loud and head-butt the wall (whatever works for you…) without getting funny looks.
Efficiency
But working remotely doesn’t mean being cut off. I constantly keep in touch via Skype, email and conference calls. And with tools like shared drives and collaborative calendars readily available online – often costing little or nothing – it’s easy to run a secure and efficient virtual office.
Home working and flexible hours can be a great advantage for charities, particularly for staff in areas like communications who don’t necessarily need to keep to a 9-5 schedule. They help keep costs down – always an important consideration, and especially so in the current economic climate.
Charities can rarely compete with private sector salaries, but they can attract and retain staff by offering people-friendly working patterns. And you’ll probably find – as I do – that happy staff are motivated to produce great work.
Now, if you’ll excuse me, my daughter needs my help to build a snowman…
