Working Remotely and How It Could Work for You

Jan 19, 2016

By Matthew Derry, Research Consultant for Gateway Group Personnel

Remote employees are a growing segment in today’s work force.  The Department of Labor released an American Time Use Survey last June that showed 23% of employed persons did some or all of their work at home. To compare, 2003 showed that 19% of employees worked outside of the office.

The option to “work from home” is a concept that a lot of companies are migrating towards, whether on a full-time basis or to allow flexibility as a perk to their employees. Employers recognize the extensive benefits that result from allowing telecommuting, and the practice is becoming more of the norm, not the exception.

Recently, my wife and I made the decision to relocate from Memphis, TN to Wilmington, NC.  As part of this move, I arranged a setup that allowed me to stay with my Memphis-based company while working remotely from a home office. It’s taken a few months to adapt, but I’ve started to get the hang of things and wanted to share two main pieces of advice:

1.  Make every day a regular “work day”. Each day, I drop my daughter off at the bus stop, and then I come home and act as if going into a traditional office. I recommend treating the day the same way you would as if you were going into a conventional office setting.  The only difference – there’s no commute! 

2. Stay focused and ignore household distractions.  It’s very easy to see the dishes from breakfast or the pile of laundry that needs to be washed. Ignore those issues until you take a break. For example,  I try to do chores during my lunch break. I avoid cutting into productive time while keeping the daily “routine” as normal as possible.

While these two points may seem like common sense, they are the main reasons I’ve been able to make working from home a success. Did you just start working from home? Are you considering making this change? Click here for “Seven Best Practices for Working Remotely”. 

Matthew Derry has been with Gateway Group Personnel since August 2012. Currently, his primary focus is on the recruitment and placement of Accounting and Finance professionals. Learn more about Matt here.