Work at Home Mama

Archive for December, 2009

Working from home brings so much comfort to those who want to make money at home. This is for people who dreads the rush-hour traffic jam everyday, the hassle of choosing clothes each morning, or simply for those who hates leaving home.

Working from home is an answer to every mother’s wish, that is to be with their kids yet still earn and contribute to the household budget. For me, this is really a great opportunity since all I wanted to be is to become a hands-on mom to my little girl and earn at the same time. But what’s make it more special is I don’t have to see company big wigs everyday. Let’s accept it, bosses add STRESS to anyone’s corporate life and without them, employees can work better, right?

But despite all these benefits, working from home still has bad sides BUT the good news is, we can do something about this! Here they are:

1. No work stability. 
   Because there is no contract between you and your employer, there is a big risk of easily losing your job. This is a fact and you must accept this the moment you decide to work from home. A lot would maintain several jobs, just so they have a fall back when one employer quits, but this is not feasible to moms like me. You can’t have several jobs, maintain a household and have desirable work output at the same time. But of course this is feasible when you have a helper at home to do the household chores,  attend to your children’s needs, and do the errands. This is quite impossible for a yaya-less and help-less household like ours. And oftentimes several jobs brings so much money YET it drains all the energy in you, therefore, defeating the purpose of working from home. 
   I manage this by maintaining a good relationship with my employer. I only maintain one employer now and I’ve been working with him for 6 months now. He pays on time and communicates well, I, on the other hand, provide him with beyond outstanding output so our working relationship is okay. I just asked him to notify me ahead if he can no longer give me enough work, at least with that I have ample time to look for another employer.
2. No insurance, health cards, and government benefits such as Pag-Ibig, PhilHealth and SSS.
   Employers who hire people online veer away from government mandated benefits, so as workers, do not expect to receive these benefits.
   What I do is apply for individual or accounts and pay voluntarily. My husband is still in the corporate world so my daughter and I still benefit from his PhilHealth and Medicard. Now I am voluntarily paying my Pag-Ibig and SSS accounts.
3. No Social Life.
   This is true and sometimes working from home eats the best of me. A person needs to go out and be with his friends (unless one has no friends!) otherwise you’ll end up depressed. At some point working in an office is healthy because you can separate real life from work. Working from home is very stressful as you need to work and mind your home problems at the same time. So to avoid depression you need to go out once in a while. Visit the malls, drink some coffee, eat out, go to the park. The list is endless! The most important thing here is to get out once in a while and do something work unrelated. 
   I already developed friendship with several online friends, going out with them once in a while helps me keep my sanity.
4. You will become less and less conscious about time and self-discipline.
   Yes, this is true. Since you have no schedule to follow and no boss to see everyday, you are responsible to keep track of your time and your work. Some online bosses can be so time and deadline conscious so you have to fix your schedule to maintain their demands.
   What if you have a boss like mine who cares less of my schedule? All he asks of me is to complete the 40 hours each week? Great? Not really. Oftentimes I would get so relaxed and play games on FB that I lose track  of time. It takes a lot of discipline on the employee’s part if you want to succeed in working from home.
5. No Promotion.
   If you are promotion-driven then working from home is definitely not for you.
   But one good thing about working from home is that you can learn so much everyday. The web is a treasure chest of knowledge and you can make use of this to your advantage. Read and keep yourself updated. You may not be promoted by this BUT if you arm yourself with knowledge on technology, current events, and all – you are more than ready to face the world.
6. You’re doing what?
   This is the hardest part. Whenever someone asks me about my work, I always end up looking for the right term to make people understand. Sure almost everyone knows about the word INTERNET but not everyone knows that they can actually earn from it. Its hard to explain that the internet has more to offer than YM, emails and Farmville.
   The more I explain to people, the more confused they would become. Oh life! Oftentimes people would give me strange looks which is quite irritating! This has become a real life issue that I have to face everyday. People would think that I am up to no-good because I am JUST working from home. This is definitely not the case, I am jobless but definitely not worthless. I hope that people will start recognizing alternative ways to earn and start accepting the fact that in life, “kanya kanyang diskarte lang yan para mabuhay.”