Readers Question: I have returned back to work part time, but ideally I would love to work from home for myself or for a company that allows a work from home arrangement. Why is it so hard to find employers in Australia that are that flexible?? If I am wrong please enlighten me!
Answer:
We are very fortunate in Australia to have a strong telecommuting community (people who work form home), many of these people have self made jobs and many are also work from home mums like me. There are of course still some old school employers that feel if they can’t see you, you’re not working.
The point of working from home is the lifestyle it affords you. So it should not matter if you swim in the pool with your kids during the day or go out with friends for coffee, if you sit down after the kids are in bed and begin your days “real” work ; ) But for some that just doesn’t compute and they can’t let their workers telecommute.
Now don’t get me wrong, some people really can’t work from home, my husband for one. He yaks my ear off, makes endless cups of coffee, does loads of washing and sometime even cooks dinner … this is sounding quite good for me, but not his boss. Being organised is important and making sure you and your family know you really are at work when you are working at home.
Finding these types of jobs is not easy, and there are businesses like mine, that help mums find jobs they can truly do from home or maybe during school hours. The area I find very exciting at the moment is now commonly referred to as ‘future jobs’. These are jobs that we will do in the future but don’t formally have now, some already in limited but growing amounts, jobs like; professional forum moderators, professional ‘content specific’ bloggers, and directors/managers of community content etc. In addition, roles like copy writing, people who write the content for brochures, sales letter, websites etc, are increasing exponentially as small businesses are discovering the need for well written content on their home made websites that have suddenly begun to grow.
Other areas on the increase for home based workers is call centre operators from home, this can be outbound sales work which is a little difficult if you have young children that scream whenever you sit down to talk on the phone. The upside is a lot of roles, certainly on Hire My Mum, are now inbound calls. Many companies have discovered overseas call centres have not worked how they hoped, this has meant this type of work is coming back to our shores. The fact it was overseas has highlighted to business already that the operator can be based anywhere.
I personally work a few shifts per week as a forum moderator for a famous UK chef website in addition to my businesses, this is great work, we have UK and Australian moderators that enable the company to moderator 24/7, and it means that I can attend to B2 when he is hungry, tired or wants to play.
There are many roles out there, finding them is hard, convincing old school employers is difficult and being flexible is important but they are out there.
These are some companies that help mums find work from home jobs;
Sorry this is so long, it is a bit of a passion finding these illusive jobs. Hope it helps.
Leigh
Provided By MumZone – Resources for Mums www.mumzone.com.au
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