Making a little extra money at home, either after work or between household and family commitments, is an attractive possibility for many people. That means there is a large market for the type of con artist who plays on people’s insecurity in order to make a quick buck. You’ve probably seen adverts stuck on lampposts at busy traffic junctions, displayed in the back of a car or inserted in the jobs section of the local paper – something along the lines of ‘Earn £1000 a day working part time from home’.
Or you might have received unsolicited emails or seen the adverts on search engine sites offering high earnings ‘with cast-iron guarantee’ for operating an online business. These adverts are carefully worded to appeal to people a bit short of money who could do with making some cash fast. They play on the human desire to believe in something that sounds like a quick and easy answer to a problem, while not looking too hard at the facts. Does it sound too good to be true? Then unfortunately it is too good to be true.
If an advert seems plausible, but on enquiring further, you are asked to send money up-front, either as a registration fee or to buy stock, the alarm bells should start ringing. Have you ever been asked to pay anything when applying for a job? I doubt it. If a payment is requested, someone is trying to rip you off. For more information on how to spot a homeworking scam and to read about experiences other people have had, visit www.homeworking.com. The site includes a forum where you can post your own experiences and ask fellow users for their feedback.
There are many factors to consider before deciding to work from home, relating to your own ambitions and your circumstances as well as your employers’. Don’t assume that working from home is impossible for you, just because you are working for someone else. Your boss may simply have not thought of the idea themselves yet and might be open to the prospect if you introduce it in the right way.Here are some things to think about as you weigh up the idea.
One of the downsides of working from home is that you inevitably lose some of your visibility with colleagues and bosses. If you are ambitious and want promotion, you need to consider whether or not your chances will be adversely affected by working from home.
Unless you live alone in glorious isolation, you will need to consider the impact of homeworking on your home life and family. If you are house-sharing with people who have different working patterns or who don’t work, you may struggle to find the time and space to concentrate on work. How will working from home fit in with looking after children or elderly relatives? What will happen in the school holidays? It’s vital your family understand how the change will affect them, and their role in making it run smoothly, before you start working from home.
Any employee can ask their employer for flexible working arrangements, which can include job sharing, varying working hours, taking holidays at specific times of year or, the interesting bit as far as we are concerned, working from home for part or all of the week. However, the parents of children under six years old and disabled children under 18 years old, and the carers of some adults, have the right to apply to their employers to work flexibly and employers have the statutory duty to seriously consider such requests (note that the duty is only to consider, not necessarily to grant). The government has also announced plans to extend this right to all employees with children under 16 years old.
The employee must demonstrate that the requested flexible working arrangements are viable and will not have a negative impact on the business. The employer must consider the request and may reject it if it will, for example, entail extra costs or have a negative impact on business performance or the organisation of work among other staff.
The website of the Department of Business Enterprise and Regulatory Reform (DBERR) gives comprehensive information on your rights, the employer’s duty and the procedure to follow, including templates for an application for flexible working. But in order to stand the best chance of success with your application to work fromhome, first have a good look at your particular circumstances to decide if working from home is a realistic option for you.
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05242010
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