A lot of people who dream of location independence want to quit their day jobs out of unhappiness and through finding their true passions outside of their current career, but what if you love what you do, but want to find a way of doing it where you like? Either way there are plenty of options, one of which is making your current office/workplace-based job into one that is remotely based – if you love your job then you get the best of both worlds, but if it’s merely a stepping stone to your new career path, then having the freedom to work from home frees you up a lot of time to grow your own interests.
Over the last 4 years I have steadily progressed into my now location independent day job. My aim is to have no day job at all, but at the moment I know I’m in the best role possible for me – one that pays well and gives me the freedom and extra time I need to build my perfect career and ultimately, life. Until this perfect life is the reality, then I know im in good stead, and I’m so thankful for the steps I’ve taken to make my job one that is remotely based. You may think it sounds complicated, but trust me, it’s not! Follow the steps below and you’ll be working remotely in no time!
Decide Honestly If Your Job Can Be Performed Remotely
If you do most of your work using a computer, phone, internet or email, then I believe its 100% possible for you to work remotely. If you are a medical doctor, teacher, labourer or any in any other hands-on or face to face interacting role, then I think it’s pretty obvious that your current job will not translate well into working away from your work ‘base’. However – that doesn’t mean to say that you can’t work in these jobs anywhere around the world, in fact, the aforementioned jobs are almost always sought after around the world, so if its travel and exotic destinations you want that’s great, you just probably will never be able to ‘work from home’ (wherever that home may be!) or from the beach.
Do Your Research
If you can establish that there is someone else in the company currently working remotely, then you are in luck – it will hopefully be much easier to negotiate for you to start working remotely. If however you would be the first then that’s OK too – just be prepared to fight for it and argue your point until they give in…the key is to make yourself so indispensable that they will give in just to keep you!
The Preparation
What I would recommend is a ‘softly softly’ approach at first – don’t just walk into your bosses office and demand to start working from home, or tell them you’ve booked a one way ticket to Spain – this may backfire. Instead, perhaps you could find an excuse to work from home one day, or simply bring up the topic in conversation to ‘float the idea’. Make sure your work is outstanding leading up to this time – if you ‘butter them up’ they are more likely to agree!
I would have to say that the biggest hesitation from a managers or company’s point of view is that you wont do your work and they will lose money, or possibly their jobs for letting you do such a thing – so do everything in your power to remove this seed of doubt and assure them you’re up to the task.
After you’ve trialled working at home for a day, ask if you can do this regularly – make sure you point out the benefits to your employer before the benefits to you – eg. you’re more productive and less distracted so you get more done, you have more time to work as you’re not commuting etc – if they can see that this may actually be better for them then they are more likely to want to give it a go.
The Proposal
After a trial, then the time will come to have the conversation. In my experience, its best to be as prepared as you can with responses to their questions, even go in with a written proposal if you feel its necessary! Be prepared for them to say no also – but take this as your starting point for negotiations – just remember most people say no 14 times before saying yes, so don’t give up!
If you’re having trouble convincing your manager then perhaps you can look at doing a trial for 3 months – if they aren’t happy after this time then you agree to come back to the office – risky, but if you continue to do your job to a high standard, then it’s in the bag.
Plan B
If you’re looking for the easy way out and have a partner or family abroad then you can always use them as an excuse – ie. ‘my husband is being transferred’, ‘my family abroad need me’ – I know, I know, honestly is not the best policy, but it works. If you can sleep at night and pull this one-off, then go for it I say!
The Reality
So – your manager has agreed and you’re now working from home – whether that’s an hour or a time zone away from your old office. You’ll have more freedom than ever before and you’ll probably have up to 4 hours back of your day too – how cool is that?! You’ll probably also be wondering how the hell you ever worked in an office too – I know I do! Working remotely is not for everyone, but if you love it or have you’re own business or lifestyle goals to focus on in your spare time, then you’ll never go back, I know I definitely wont!
Congratulations, you’re now one step closer to living your dreams and passions – keep working hard until the day comes when you wont need to work remotely at all – the beach or your poolside may be your new office in your new dream career. Good luck!
One Final Caution
Remote working is now the norm in many companies, but in others there is still the ‘slacker’ stigma that goes along with it, but from someone who has been doing it for 2 years, I can assure you, this is not true! In fact, you may have to work harder at first to prove yourself, but this is more than made up for by the hours you get back every day from commuting, mindless chatter with the person sitting next to you, and procrastination. And speaking of procrastination – this can be your worst enemy working remotely – if you’re not performing then you may find your new arrangement is quickly taken away from you, so find a way to stay motivated! I find an ‘inspiration board’ works for me – I pin up affirmations of why I’m working next to my desk, and articles about successful entrepreneurs next to them – when I’m feeling like I hate work and don’t want to do anything I can look up and within seconds I’m feeling pretty damn motivated to keep working, save my pennies and get the hell outta there as soon as I possibly can!
Need More?
Above I have provided you with my advice on how to negotiate yourself into a remotely based role – of course I can never know what your manager is like, but I think that if you follow these steps then you have got an extremely good chance of achieving your goal…and if your company is not willing to listen, or your manager isn’t living up to their title, then maybe it’s time to find a new job where you call the shots? If this is the case, then please check out my article on how to work from anywhere in a flexible career.
Photo Credit – Thanks to Henkster (sxu license)
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I think that it would be awesome if i could work from wherever I want to, unfortunately I am not sutre that it could happen…
You never know! : ) Thanks for stopping by!