Beat high gas prices; Work from home
Posted on May 14, 2008
Filed Under Off the beaten path, Career Development, Boomers, Gen X, Gen Y
As most of you know I’m a big proponent of working from home. I’ve done it for years now and I’ve sung it’s praises previously so I won’t go into that again here. For those of you still commuting some or all of the time, you have no doubt felt the sting at the gas pump recently. I know my last fill up was $90, I almost cried. And yes, I’m one of those Truck/SUV driving, part of the problem not the solution guys. But working from home, I fill up once every 2-3 weeks, so it’s not all bad news for the environment.
Whatever you drive, facing $4/gallon gas, and we will before July 4, is just disturbing. Not to mention budget busting. With all that said, if you’ve ever thought you could do your job remotely, but were unsure how to sell it to the boss, now’s your chance, but you’ll need a plan, so here’s some tips to help make the transition.
- Sell the value -if your work is largely solitary or requires collaboration via countless conference calls, then you can sell the value of doing these remote. Focus on having greater availability based upon eliminating commute times. If there’s value in being available at 8:00 instead of 8:30 or later, work it.
- Offer to test drive it -many supervisors are at first hesitant to having you out of sight for 40 hours a week. Offer to start with a day or two and expand it from there.
- Demonstrate your ability to work independently and then sell it - when you approach your boss be prepared to show this times/projects that you did solo. If they can see that you’ve done good work independently before, you’ll have some foundation to try working remote.
- Play the gas card -you don’t want to lead with the fact that gas prices are killing your budget, but this could be the deal breaker in your favor. If you’ve all but closed the deal, break out the gas card as a little perk to save you money and provide benefit to a good employee.
Lastly remember, once you’ve started working from home, bust your ass for the first month or two. Make sure your boss sees how well this decision is working out. The few extra hours you put in up front will give you endless hours of working without anyone looking over your shoulder. Not to mention the cash you’ll save not driving to the office everyday.
Until next time…
[…] 14, 2008, 10:36 pm Filed under: Uncategorized I read Scott Williamson’s post today about how to beat high gas prices, and I fully agree Of course, I can speak on this because I’ve been a telecommuter for about […]
Wow, I wrote a VERY similar article just two days before this one (even used the same picture), but with a slightly different solution. Check out how to work from home and be your own boss, instead of continuing to work for someone else.
As gas prices continue to rise, this solution will look more and more attractive to people.
Lane
[…] Beat high gas prices; Work from home […]