| Q |
How long have you been working at home? |
| A |
I have been working from home part time at first since 1988 and then full
time about three years ago [c. 1997]. |
| Q |
Where do you work at home? |
| A |
The small room, with the kids' Thomas The Tank Engine wallpaper! |
| Q |
Do you manage to keep your work and home life separate? |
| A |
I think its time to stop seeing it as work and home and just see it as one.
When you are self employed you do not always have the luxury of start and
stop times: they vary day by day as work comes in and sometimes you can get
the odd day free. |
| Q |
What is the best thing about working from home? |
| A |
No travelling, no premises overheads, being able to see the children more. |
| Q |
What are the negative points about working at home? |
| A |
Not having a social work area, to chat and have a break, thank goodness for
the phone and onsite work. |
| Q |
What was the deciding factor to help you to decide to work from home? |
| A |
Did not want to travel to work and the high cost of premises. |
| Q |
How do you cope with the isolation of working at home? |
| A |
I phone other people in the same trade as me to hear what the word on the
street is. I also use the internet a lot to gather information, I use the
news groups, mailing lists to stay in contact with the outside world. |
|
| Q |
Does your homeworking pay the bills? |
| A |
Yes at present it pays all the bills. |
| Q |
How did you manage financially when you first started working at home? |
| A |
I slowly eased into it, saving money to back me up during the lean times. I
also stayed put in my house and avoided upgrading when finances allowed,
this helped to keep the mortgage low in real terms and put the money to one
side. I also have some Endowments that were available to me. |
| Q |
How do you manage your time? |
| A |
I am hopeless at this. When I was employed I was good at it, but here at the
home I have to do everything so I do the best I can with the interruptions. |
| Q |
What sort of work did you do before you worked at home? |
| A |
I used to install and commission Radar all over the world for Raytheon
electronics. I also worked as Repairs team leader for BIC a cable fault
locator company. |
| Q |
How do you cope with distractions at home (and as compared to distractions in the office)? |
| A |
I tend to the kids when they need it, but as they are at school during the
day and they are very good and keep them selves amused, it works well. My
partner works part time during the week and we work around that. We also
have our families close at hand to help in child care when needed and we
look after their children when required. |
| Q |
What two pieces of advice would you suggest to someone considering working from home? |
| A |
This is not a quick get rich and becomes your life. Think hard before
jumping into something where the high's are as low as the lows, but it does
have big family perks.
Be prepared to be on call up to seven days a week, have savings in the
bank, frustrated at company's that can take up to 60 days to pay you. |
| Q |
What else? |
| A |
I think we are over looked by the government in terms of help (getting
payment from companies) and no real help when it comes to lean times. |
|
