Telecommuting: Great Advantages with a Few Minor Disadvantages

Telecommuting, also known as working from home, can be a great way to make a living, but it can also be a disaster for you. You'll need to know what you're getting yourself into first so that you can make a knowledgeable decision. All that is required is a telephone, a computer, and the willingness to work hard. Concerning most telecommuting jobs, companies require unlimited long distance and high-speed internet, however, it is not always necessary. Telecommuting is tempting to many mothers who want to spend more time with their children or can't find good or affordable childcare. No driving time means more time to spend with your family while also saving a substantial amount of gas money, especially if you are traveling a long way to work. It can feel luxurious to be able to have breakfast with your family before they go off to work and school all day as opposed to being in a rush right along with them, trying to get ready for work and get them ready all at the same time. That hardly leaves time for any bonding or breakfast. It is typically a hectic and sometimes frustrating hassle that no one seems to enjoy, at least not in my home.
I have been telecommuting for six months and I love it! I had been researching telecommuting since I quit my dream job over a year ago as a portrait studio photographer due to long hours and a one-hour commute each way. I loved that job! I had always wanted to be a photographer, but I was gone about thirteen hours a day, sometimes six days a week. It was impossible to get a weekend off. My children were suffering and missing me. I was crying with guilt on my way to work and they were asleep when I got home at night. I had a job I loved but I knew that for myself and my family to be happy I would have to make a change.
Telecommuting jobs are rather easy to find if you know where to look. I live in a place where there are hardly any jobs and the ones that are available do not pay well and require a drive lasting at least 45 minutes one way to get to work. My first try at telecommuting was Surveyscout, a survey site promising that with a little hard work I could make enough to live on each month. By reading the testimonials I thought I was going to make money from taking surveys. Unfortunately, I must admit that I was very naïve. I had to pay them thirty-five dollars to get membership advantages and access to their site. I signed up for so many survey sites that this site gave me access to. That was over a year ago. To this day I have probably made a total of seventy-five dollars total on surveys, and I feel I got ripped off. I was led to believe that I could make as much as a full-time job would give me. I learned quickly that you don't pay for a job. You allow the people to pay you, but you do not pay to work for anyone. Those are all scams.
Soon after the Surveyscout fiasco, I ran across Telecommutingmoms.com while browsing for work-at-home employment. This is a great website that has a message board for moms to share in their experiences about telecommuting. People, mostly moms, help each other out in learning which companies are scams and which actually hire work-at-home independent contractors and employees. I applied for everything I could, but the one thing that was holding me back from most of the jobs was that I did not have high-speed internet or unlimited long-distance. I was in a place that did not offer dsl internet and I couldn't afford to get cable internet hooked up. I kept researching and going on websites trying to find something for me. I found a very popular website called wahm.com (work at home moms) and found that it has many new job leads everyday. Going on the message board and looking over the job leads posted there became very beneficial. A couple months after I discovered wahm.com I saw a post that mentioned needing someone to make calls for an upcoming project. The post asked for interested persons to send a resume to the email address provided. I did just that and got a call the next day from a nice lady explaining to me that the job was recruiting for a Research and Recruiting company that has not been in business long but is doing well. They are a small start-up company with a few employees who recruit people to participate in focus groups and on-line panels. It was hard at first, but after doing it for a bit and getting paid well for each person I recruited who actually showed up to the focus groups and online panels, it comes naturally to me. I love the job and feel that I have been blessed to be a 29-year old mother of four who lives in Appalachia and is able to work for a company based in California. It is amazing to me and I think telecommuting is a great way for people to reach their goals even if they have obstacles that would normally stop them from getting a good-paying job or any job at all. Since I began telecommuting, I have made more money than I possibly could have made in my area considering the fact that jobs are scarce here and I have no degree.
I now have high-speed internet and that has helped me a lot with the job I have. I also have more job options now, such as West and LiveOps, which are two companies that pay for you to do customer service from home. For anyone experienced in customer service, it isn't too hard to get a job with one of these companies. Just get online and go to www.waha.com to apply at West, and for LiveOps, go to www.liveops.com. I have heard great things from people who work for both of the companies, but I know LiveOps pays more. West pays per call minute, while LiveOps pays per hour. Another company that hires telecommuters is Working Soloutions, which is call-center work, only from your home. They do a variety of projects, such as market research and customer service. The website to go to for this application is www.workingsol.com. This is also a reputable company to work for from the comfort of your own home.
The flexible schedule of the work-at-home mom leaves time for me to go to sporting events and school activities that I would not have been able to attend if I was working in a regular job. It allows me to meet the kids as they get off the bus everyday or to even pick them up from school. With most telecommuting jobs, the telecommuter has the freedom to set his or her own schedule and determine how many hours per week he or she is willing to work. I have a more flexible schedule than even most telecommuters because I work for about one to two weeks on a recruiting project and then I usually have a few days off. During each project, I basically just have to email my boss or my project manager and let them know approximately what time I will be starting work the next day and around what time I will have to stop. If something comes up, I just email the boss and say, " I have to run out for a couple of hours. I will be back around such and such time". I am able to take my kids to their doctor's appointments and go grocery shopping in the middle of my work day. My flexible schedule as a telecommuter makes it easier for me to have dinner ready when my husband comes home from work if I feel like it.
It has been a wonderful work experience for myself and my family. All of us benefit from my telecommuting work schedule. The great thing about telecommuting is that I can wear whatever I want. I can talk to Betsey from Vermont about an online cat food panel while I am wearing my pajamas. She doesn't know. I sound professional and sweet and I am offering an incentive: that is all she cares about. I feel comfortable and I can be more productive that way. I don't have a boss looking over my shoulder like some neat-freak with OCD, which is how most of my co-workers and I viewed my previous boss. I have no worries of customers cussing me out over a box of pictures that Fedex felt like dropping in the mud. I don't have any annoying co-workers to watch kiss up to the boss, which I always found kind of entertaining and irritating both at the same time. It is so much less stressful in my home office than it was working outside of the home. I know if the school calls for me to pick up one of my kids, I won't be an hour away at work. I will be at home to take the call, email my boss, and out the door I go to get my baby. Just knowing that is possible is a huge weight off my shoulders. I don't have to get up and be out the door to go to work at 8am in 20 degree weather or in 100 degree weather. I don't have to worry about it snowing while I am working and weather or not I will be able to make it home on the icy, curvy roads in these mountains each night during the winter. Overall, I am so much less stressed.
I am not going to lie: I know there are disadvantages to working at home also, such as less chances to advance with a company, isolation, and the lack of benefits.
It is very possible that it could end up to be more difficult for a telecommuting individual to advance at their company than for someone who is at all of the company meetings and events, which gives them the opportunity to network and get in good with the bosses.
Isolation is one thing to worry about when working from home, and I do believe that meeting new people and getting to know them is the one aspect that I miss most about working outside of the home. I loved making friends with my co-workers and with people who worked in stores nearby. I was always meeting new customers and seeing the looks on their faces when they got their photos back was indescribable. I do miss working at the portrait studio, but at this point in my life, my children are my number one priority. This job and situation works so much better for my family than the photography job. I am able to enjoy photography as a passion and a beloved hobby, and I am able to do what is best for my family.
Although I do not meet anyone in person while telecommuting, I meet some awesome people during my phone-work now. Just the other day I talked with a detective who works for the LAPD and I talked to an OBGYN who lives in Utah. Some of the people I meet now with this job are such interesting and funny characters! It can be a hard job, but is also a lot of fun.
Last but not least, another disadvantage of telecommuting is the lack of benefits with independent contracting, which is what I do with my company. I am an independent contractor. They pay me a generous amount per person who shows, and I pay my own taxes. That is not a big deal since I have four kids I won't be paying any taxes, but there are also no benefits like medical, dental, sick leave, or anything like that. That is kind of a bummer since to me the job is wonderful. I think telecommuting is the right road for me to take right now, but after I get my degree, which I am also doing online, I will be putting in a lot of applications with other companies who offer benefits.
The best-case scenario in my future would be that I get my degree and find another telecommuting job that provides benefits. I know they exist, but right now I don't have the experience or credentials for a good one to take me in. The job I have now is a blessing, and I know that more blessings will follow as long as I work hard and have fun too!