Work at Home Possibilities

I read an article in Time a few months ago that said the new generation of employers is going to change the way we think of a work day and a work week. This younger generation of future employers is going to want to work more smartly and more efficiently. People are going to become more production-focused, and there will be less nine to fives for the sake of nine to fives. I mean, why would an employer want to pay an electric bill, Internet bill, phone bill and all that jazz for 40 hours a week, when they might only need you to finish some tasks that might only require 20 hours.




In that case, I would worry about employers paying us less, but it occurred to me, that if pay was performance based, I could have a 40 hour wage for getting done in 20-30 hours, so long as I did a good job.



All that aside, when it comes to the dreaded job search, I usually imagine scouring the local employment center databases, online listings for local jobs, and calling human resource departments in search of jobs close enough to my far-out home to make working for a living worth working for the living. What I haven't considered, until I came in close contact with someone doing it, was a telecommuting job. I've heard of it, but always thought that telecommuting was a type of job that was overly riddled with scammy, "Pay us a bunch of money so you can sell the opportunity to sell to others" types of opportunities. That's not so. I learned that you can work for companies such as Convergys or Alpine Access as a customer service representative or tech support person and never leave your home.



The benefit to working for home in such a way is that you don't have to commute to some other job, which means if you have a 30 minute commute to a traditional job with an hour lunch; you're out of the house 10 hours a day. If you work from home, you get to be home more often. Furthermore, you're not worrying about buying expensive work clothes, or lunches out, and you're not paying for gas.



What you'd have to understand about this kind of "work at home" job, is that it's not as flexible as other work-at-home opportunities. If you have to work from 8am to 4:30 pm, then you've got to be there at those times, clocked in to a very accurate computer system. You might be answering phone calls, one after the other, for your entire shift. You'll get breaks, lunch breaks, and opportunities for paid and non-paid time off. For some telecommuting companies, you'll have to provide your own Internet service, which will have a standard (you won't be able to use your free dial-up service with the pop-up ads), and other office equipment. Some companies might give you a monthly stipend for such service, and others may send you equipment, such as a lap top.



So, if you are looking for a way to work from home, but you aren't sure about starting your own business, try looking into companies who outsource jobs back to the U.S.

When Gen X Runs the Show  by Anne Fisher, Time Magazine's "The Future of Work."