WORKING FROM HOME
Whether a person works from home as an employee of a large organisation
or is running their own business, there are many ways in which they can
learn to work more effectively and to minimise the impact of their home
working on their private and family life. If someone works from
home, or is thinking of working from home, training and guidance in
this area can make a big difference to their whole life, and thus to
the effectiveness of their working.
At first glance, working from home can appear to be very attractive,
with the flexibility of choosing one's own working hours, not having to
travel to work and having control of one's own working
environment. It is true that these are real advantages, but there
are also disadvantages. Things like keeping work and home
separate, switching off outside work time, avoiding interruptions from
family and friends, coping with isolation and many more factors can
make working from home less desirable than might be expected.
Learning to manage these factors can greatly improve the effectiveness
of working from home, whilst still optimizing the advantages.
Although working from home is not just for people with disabilities, it
is considered here in the context of the individual and their
disability. It is likely that a disabled person working from home
will use family or friends as support workers. Particularly for
people running their own small businesses, this can lead to a blurring
of boundaries, so it is important to distinguish between the natural
supports that might be provided in any family business and the specific
needs arising from disability. This is much more difficult when
working from home than it would be when in a conventional workplace
setting.
Back to General Services