Working from home

nc79 · January 2016

I've seen a lot of you post you either have our are trying to start home businesses. What do you all do? I'm a scientist and work a lot with a long commute. With the baby coming I would love to cut down my hours to be at home more. However I'm the primary money maker, so I'm hesitant. But I would love to be inspired by you. Thanks!

jjang27 · January 2016

This is something I thought about, too. I don't have my own business though.

I work for a large company and had to put in long hours in the past (the current position is not too bad). Last year when I was super stressed out at work and was TTC at the same time, I thought about leaving. I evaluated potential alternatives and what other skills I can use, but I couldn't think of a good one that could pay the bills. (I thought about making and selling stuff on Etsy, but I didn't think I could do it full time.) DH works, too, but relying on a single paycheck would be tough. I had to admit the paycheck, benefits, and health insurance through work was difficult to walk away from.

I am not ready to make a leap at the moment, but I have a lot of respect for people who did! I'm interested to hear the stories, too.

bexsd · January 2016

I am a birth doula and also work mostly from home with a company that does consulting for nonprofits. I love it but it can be hard to get anything done! Sometimes I really rely on my in laws for child care when I have deadlines.

bananers · January 2016

I'm in communications. With my old job I used to work two days a week from home, but I still sent DS to daycare fulltime. I couldn't get anything done with him here unless I just wanted to park him in front of the TV all day. It was nice to not commute twice a week and get a couple hours back with my family. My current job isn't as WFH-friendly. I can do it on occasion if needed, but not regularly.

crystalraebryant · January 2016

I don't know if I have any advice to contribute, but I'm getting ready to have our first baby and I work from home full time. I made the jump from working from home 1 day a week and the rest in the office to full time when I finally convinced my husband to quit the job that was draining the life out of him and move to Costa Rica. I'm a software developer, and went to my boss and said, "I'm moving to Costa Rica, you can keep me or not. If you're not, tell me quick so I can find another job." Thankfully, they kept me.

Living in Costa Rica is SIGNIFICANTLY cheaper than the US, and we live much more comfortably on only my income here than both incomes in the US. We're actually moving back to the US for a few months -- the decision was 90% certain before we found out about baby -- for my husband to work a contract job that ends in August (2 weeks before my due date!). We wouldn't even be going back for that if it wasn't something he was super excited about. I'll be flying back a couple months before him to make sure I'm in Costa Rica for the birth.

The negatives for us is we're both self-employed contractors, so all maternity leave and health care is funded completely by what we set aside and save up. So for those of you with husbands who have great health insurance, you're golden on that! Self employed folks can get a tax deduction for the money paid into insurance, but that's still oney out. Because we don't live in the US, we're generally exempt from the health insurance requirements and Costa Rica has a good public health care system and an excellent private health care system. We'll be paying for the birth completely out of pocket, and we're looking at something between $2500 and $5000, depending on hospital, doctor, and if a C-section is required.

Just like being a SAHM or a working mom, working from home isn't for everyone. Some people need to get out of the house. Some need the structure of an office to be productive. I have no idea what starting work after the baby is born will look like for me. Thankfully, my husband will be home with me for as long as I need him to. He's worked at an animal rescue center and a hostel down here, just to keep from being bored, and I think an infant should cover that qualification for a while. Right now I'm only planning on taking a month completely off after the birth, but debating about going back part time for the month after that to ease into it. I work "normal" US hours right now. I'll be discussing it with my supervisor, who is a wonderful woman, mother of two college aged boys, and is always real with me about expectations.

@bananers -- The not commuting thing for me was HUGE. Before I went full-time at home, we moved from an apartment 25 minutes (with no traffic--don't even ask with traffic) from my work, 30 minutes from husband's to 10 minutes from work. And that 10 minutes was from stepping out my door to butt-in-chair, not just driving time. The stress reduction was AMAZING for both of us. Even with putting your munchkin in full-time daycare, just reclaiming that amount of time per day JUST FOR YOU is such a benefit.

I highly recommend anyone looking to work FOR a company and work from home to look into working for tech/software companies. They tend to be more friendly to working from home than many other industries, and they're not completely staffed by techies. You need admin assistants, customer representatives, writers, accountants, project managers, account managers, etc. Key search terms might be "location independent jobs" or "digital nomad jobs". These terms both refer to people who generally travel a lot (for personal reasons) and want to work while travelling, but the jobs are often just as applicable for anyone wanting to work from home. Another is "remote jobs". The nice thing about telecommuting for a company is that often, the health insurance benefits, retirement, etc. all still apply.

@nc79 -- I'm not sure your situation at your company, but if you're valued, you might be able to work something out. It rarely hurts to ask. When my aunt decided to leave her job (she being the primary breadwinner) to spend more time with her daughter, the company begged her not to and paid her more money to work less. I'm not saying that's what will happen, but it seems than any scientist would have a very specific skill set that would be not super easy to replace. Especially if you've been there a while and have lots of "tribal knowledge" of how the company works. If they wanted to hire someone to replace you, they'd have to lose time (and therefore money) waiting for someone to get up to your speed, even if they had the same education level and knowledge as you, simply because you have internalized company patterns and policies. You know the right people to ask the right questions to get things done faster. (As fast as anything can get done in a company surely weighed down by government regulations and internal bureaucracy. Yes, I'm projecting.) You could always try and merge your scientist and mom worlds like this lady does -- https://www.stopthestomachflu.com/norwex-cloth-independent-testing -- and attempt to monetize it.

Luck to you all!

cbpalagi · January 2016

I'm an Enterprise Software Account Executive, and I travel a lot for my job. I live in Chicago, but my team is based in NY. So I go to NY about every other week and work at that office, but when I'm not in NY or with a customer, I work from home. Things have been slow lately with the holidays so I've been working from home alot. While it's nice to be on your own schedule, sometimes it can be debilitating. It can be hard to get into a routine and feel motivated to work from such a comfy place where you have no accountability. If you need structure in your life to function then working from home is a big challenge. At my last job I worked from home 1 day a week and that was better for me because I still had structure the rest of the week. I just started this job and I'm having a hard time balancing working from home so much. Hope this helps!

smilormarie · January 2016

I work at home for a contract company who supplies employees to biotech and pharmaceutical companies. I'm a senior Clinical Trial Specialist on an oncology study and I would have a 2 hour commute to the nearest office if I was office based so I'm permanently Home-based. Good luck!

bgrace44 · February 2016

I am currently a lab director at a toxicology lab. I don't want to turn this into a stay at home mom verses moms who work outside the home war by any means. It's looking like I am going to have to keep a full time job. However, This is my first baby and I'm surprised about how anxious/sad I already feel about sending my son to day care so early. I would really like to work from home at least part time. Does anyone know of any legitimate online companies that allow you to work from home? It doesn't necessarily have to be science based, that is just my background. Any advice is appreciated. Thanks!

tmk0325 · February 2016

I worked from home the last two years with my previous job before I was permanently laid off. I absolutely loved it. I did travel about 30-40% with said job in between my territory and I loved that too. I'm debating if I were to get a new job how feasible working from home and/or some travel will be with twins. Thankfully SO also runs a business from our place so is less busy during certain times of the year, but I still think we would need to do full time daycare or hire a nanny.
@crystalraebryant thanks for your tips, I'm going to look into some of that. It's not the field I want, but I have many transferable skills with my masters degree do something would be better than nothing at this point!

kattyleigh · February 2016

Guys. Please don't think you can be a SAHM and get work done. Not going to happen. You'll still need child care. Newborns are easy, they just eat and sleep...a lot. But soon you'll need someone to entertain your kid so you can actually work. It sounds romantic to stay at home, but the reality is, you still need child care.

mmclark10 · February 2016

I'm a STM and while I know this doesn't work for everyone, we had a nanny part-time until our first was about 11 months and then he went to day care. My mom did the other two days a week, but she had a time limit of one year so she could still be grandma. It was definitely easier to leave my child at home, knowing he had one-on-one attention for almost a year. He's now in a day care and LOVES it. With our second, I've recruited grandma (and possibly grandpa) to come live with us (we've moved about 3.5 hours away from the grandparents) and get this little one to almost 5 months before needing to be at day care. I'm also hoping I can work from home every once in a while, but honestly, I treasure the adult interaction on a daily basis. By the time my husband and I both get home from work, feed and spend time with our kid, the meaningful conversation is at a minimum because we are both exhausted!

But we love it.

Pepper6 · February 2016

kattyleigh said:

Guys. Please don't think you can be a SAHM and get work done. Not going to happen. You'll still need child care. Newborns are easy, they just eat and sleep...a lot. But soon you'll need someone to entertain your kid so you can actually work. It sounds romantic to stay at home, but the reality is, you still need child care.

This! I don't work from home now, but my boss and I are trying to work something out for after #2 is born, but we've been discussing a few hours a week after the kids go to bed (and Dh is home to handle any wake ups) and maybe a Saturday here and there. I am home 3 days a week with one toddler and I can't even get dishes done while she's awake, let alone actual work. Working full time from home is just not realistic unless you have other childcare.

Curls919 · February 2016

kattyleigh said:

Guys. Please don't think you can be a SAHM and get work done. Not going to happen. You'll still need child care. Newborns are easy, they just eat and sleep...a lot. But soon you'll need someone to entertain your kid so you can actually work. It sounds romantic to stay at home, but the reality is, you still need child care.

I was going to post the same thing. I'm currently finishing up a part time work from home job doing bookkeeping. I started it a year ago (when DS was just over a year and a half) and tried just working during nap time or after he was in bed. It's not that demanding a job but I was getting no sleep and not getting anything else done around the house. He's in school 3 days a week now and still naps and I STILL find myself struggling to get the few hours of work a week I need to do done with everything else on my plate.

pelorunningmama · February 2016

I still work my corporate job, but have two home based businesses. One is pretty much only on weekends though b/c I cater mini-pies for weddings and showers. So, most of that is done Friday afternoon and Saturdays. The other is with Rodan + Fields and that is primarily online based so is really easy to fit in here and there.

I had high hopes of working my corporate job from home once or twice a week, but I quickly realized that just wouldn't work. I did ask to shift my schedule so I get to leave early several days a week to pick DD up from MDO as long as I am available via email and phone and that has worked well. However, I'm not sure how long that will last. Fingers crossed I can keep it up for a little while.

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