Is there an etiquette for working from home?

[VorFemme]

When the night shift guy on the internet desk retired between one day and the next, I was set up with the program & passcode generating card to work from home - until such time as they got someone else trained or combined my office with another office that would have someone already trained on the evening shift to take over his duties.

I would sign on, work what was waiting in the inbox, call the office if I needed to give someone a warning to deal with the particulars quickly (once in a while), and then check the inbox again.  If there was something new to deal with, I kept working until there was nothing waiting in the inbox.

If the inbox was empty, I would mark down the time I'd worked, sign off, do housework, and then sign back on about two hours later (the goal was not to make anyone wait longer than three hours).  I also signed off about thirty minutes before bedtime, even if something was waiting, because I had to get my kids to sleep and go to bed so that I could go to work again the next day.

It came in handy when there were medical appointments or someone was sick, I would arrange with my supervisor to work from home instead of spending an hour driving back & forth.....I couldn't do it every day - I didn't have access to all the equipment needed. 

[bopper]

I worked from home for 2 years from Germany.

I worked in another room that was not in the kitchen/family room.

I found I had to protect my time...people want you to drive them /do something /etc  so i would only do stuff with my kids outside of the house during working hours very rarely (mine were old enough they didn't need supervision).

People will call you and say "sorry to bother you" and I would say "You are not bothering me, this is my job."

I found that the mental hurdle for others to call me is larger when I was working at home rather than when I was in the office.   So it is up to you to see what is going on.

You have less opportunities to network/socialize/make connections...so you need to call people more proactively to see what is going on.

If you can, keep your old work phone number and forward it home so for everyone it is no different to contact you.

Let people know when you won't be available.

If you do have to run an errand, have your email on your smart phone so you can respond quickly.

Make sure to stop working at night.

[Virg]

EMuir has one of the best ideas for separating work and home, and Sophia has the other.  Set aside a specific place for work, and when you're there and doing it, ask everyone around you not to disturb you.  Refuse to be disturbed if they try to cut in.  Then, choose the time you'll be working, figuring in time for meals, breaks and anything home-related that you want to add in, and simply work in that time.  If you set up a schedule and a place, you won't be as likely to allow yourself to drift into house stuff, and when you're done working (per your schedule) you won't feel odd about stopping.

Virg

[blarg314]

It sounds like your work from home is the kind of situation where you do a full day's work at the office, and then bring work home to finish up in the evening/on weekends, right?

That's a totally different situation than your ordinary work from home commuting. It's also very common in my field (academics) where you are evaluated on performance, not hours, and the amount you need to do to succeed is more than a 40 hour work week.

It's really easy in a situation like this for your work to take over your home life, too.  You're working,  and your SO/kids are getting brushed off with "Don't bother me" when they want to spend time with you. It's worse if you're doing something that requires mental concentration, rather than just physical stuff. If you're doing something low mental effort, you can respond to questions about home-work, or be interrupted by comments, rather than checking out from the evening activities completely.

If kids are an issue, one option is to work after the kids are in bed. So you get dinner and some relaxation with the kids, and the bed-time routine, and as soon as they are in bed, you pull out your work stuff.

Another option is to put a stated time limit on your work hours, particularly on the weekend. So you tell your family "I need to work from 1-4 pm, but after that we can do X", and then go off into your work corner, and when 4pm hits, you leave your work behind.

A third thing to try - schedule your high concentration work for the office, and lower concentration stuff that can be easily interrupted in the evening, so you're at least partially present for the family, mentally.

[hobish]

It sounds like your work from home is the kind of situation where you do a full day's work at the office, and then bring work home to finish up in the evening/on weekends, right?

That's a totally different situation than your ordinary work from home commuting. It's also very common in my field (academics) where you are evaluated on performance, not hours, and the amount you need to do to succeed is more than a 40 hour work week.
 It's really easy in a situation like this for your work to take over your home life, too.  You're working,  and your SO/kids are getting brushed off with "Don't bother me" when they want to spend time with you. It's worse if you're doing something that requires mental concentration, rather than just physical stuff. If you're doing something low mental effort, you can respond to questions about home-work, or be interrupted by comments, rather than checking out from the evening activities completely.

If kids are an issue, one option is to work after the kids are in bed. So you get dinner and some relaxation with the kids, and the bed-time routine, and as soon as they are in bed, you pull out your work stuff.

Another option is to put a stated time limit on your work hours, particularly on the weekend. So you tell your family "I need to work from 1-4 pm, but after that we can do X", and then go off into your work corner, and when 4pm hits, you leave your work behind.

A third thing to try - schedule your high concentration work for the office, and lower concentration stuff that can be easily interrupted in the evening, so you're at least partially present for the family, mentally.

Bolding mine

Yes, that's the situation, pretty much. I'm not complaining. I just need some advice, and i thank y'all for it.

[JacklynHyde]

Are you getting overtime or comp time for your work you take home?  I would recommend you log in to your work systems remotely, if possible.  At the very least, keep a spreadsheet of your time where you're working off the clock.  I've done a lot of work out of my scheduled hours (I have a home office full time) and do my best to log into my systems so HR can verify my work.

[hobish]

Are you getting overtime or comp time for your work you take home?

Yes, i get overtime pay. I refuse to work for free. That's not an issue at all.

I would recommend you log in to your work systems remotely, if possible.  At the very least, keep a spreadsheet of your time where you're working off the clock.  I've done a lot of work out of my scheduled hours (I have a home office full time) and do my best to log into my systems so HR can verify my work.

That is definitely something I will keep in mind. I can only do my work from home by logging into their systems remotely - mostly - and keeping track of time I spend doing what is a good idea all around.

Thanks.