20,673,000 People in the U.S. Work at Home and You Can, Too!

by the Editors of Work-at-Home.org

According to the United States Department of Labor, Bureau of Labor Statistics, of the 136,602,000 workers over the age of 16 in the United States in 2004, a whopping 15.1% of them, or 20,673,000, people worked at home.

Of the 20,673,000 people that worked at home, about 49% of them did so without it being part of their actual job description or work agreement. Our report is going to focus on the remaining 49.9%, or 10,315.827 people, who were actually PAID a wage or salary to work at home or who operate their own home business.

If 10,315,000 people are getting paid to work at home, you can, too.

The types of people that work at home or have their own home based business include people from virtually all walks of life and ethnicity, but there were some interesting statistics with regard to ethnicity. Among the 21,473,000 people who were paid a salary or wage to work from home: 16.3% were White, 7.9% were Black or African American, 12.7% were Asian, and 7.1% were Hispanic or Latino Ethnicity. There was quite a huge difference between ethnic groups. But among those who are pursuing the American dream of owning their own home based business there was far less disparity between the ethnic groups with all groups being very similar, with: 33.8% White, 31% Black or African American, 33.7% Asian, and 34.4% Hispanic or Latino.

There were also some fascinating revelations and inspirations found when analyzing the various educational groups. Again, among the hourly wage and salaried work at home positions there was significant disparity between each educational category: Less than a high school diploma, 4.9%, High School Graduates with no college, 7.6%, Some college or associate degree, 13.7%, and Bachelor’s degree and higher, 31.6%. But again, when analyzing the numbers of people who own their own home based business, there was much more uniformity and the less educated Americans jumped into their rightful ranks of the self-employed from home: Less than high school diploma, 58.9.0%, High school but no college, 54.0, Some college or associate degree, 46.7%, and Bachelor’s degree or higher, 24.1%. Interestingly, higher education seemed almost a handicap for people starting their own home based business. “The less education the better” seemed to be the rule when considering the educational levels of people who have their own home based business.

In most categories, for every 1 to 2 people that were paid a salary or hourly wage to work from home, there were about 3.5 people who had their own home based businesses.

About 5.1%, or 6,966,801 people of the entire working population in the U.S. owns their own home-based business. Of those, 37.6% are men and 29.4% are women.

But moms catch up quick when they've got young children at home.

Moms with kids under the age of 6 represent the smallest demographic group of the total number of employed people in the U.S., but they also command the largest percentage of PAID home-based workers. Of the total 9,331,000 of working moms with kids under the age of 6, 377,676 get paid to work at home and 526,164 have their own home based business. Almost 1 out of 10 moms, 903,840 stay at home moms total, with kids below the age of 6 get paid to work at home or have their own home business.

And what about dads? Well, Mr. Mom isn’t far behind his wife. Of the 12,042,000 working dads in our workforce with kids under the age of 6, 313,788 of them get paid to work at home and another 655,380 have their own home based business, for a total of 969,168 stay at home dads, or 8% of the total working population of dads with kids below the age of 6.

Wondering what type of electronic equipment you might need to start that work at home career or seize that home based business opportunity? Of those who were paid a salary or hourly wage to work at home: 84.8% used computer, 78.3% used the internet, $55.3% used a fax machine, 84.6% used a telephone. Home based business owner were somewhat less electronically connected with the outside world. Of those who operated a home business and worked at home: 74% used their computer, only 63.2% used the internet, 58.9% used a fax machine, and 86.9% used their telephone.

The following industry groups posted these respective percentages. Percentages shown demonstrate the total percentage of people who work at home or have their own home based business of the total work at home labor force for that particular industry. The percentage of people who work at home on a non-paid basis are not included in the table.

Industry Mining Construction Manufacturing Whole and retail Transportation and utilities Information Financial activities Professional and Business Services Education and health services Leisure and hospitality Other Service Public Administration

Paid/Hourly Workers ** 7.1 26.3 21.1 14.7 30.0 21.3 17.6 9.2 10.7 18.4 31.4

Self Employed ** 72.8 18.2 41.8 39.5 28.4 38.4 48.8 14.3 61.8 33.7 --

According to the Department of Labor the results of the 2004 Survey were similar to the previous survey that was taken in 2001.

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News!! Lefebvre pleads guilty to charges

Gulf Islands Driftwood, Wednesday, July 18, 2007

By sean mcintyre

Part-time Salt Spring Island resident John Lefebvre faces a $250,000 fine, up to five years in jail and may have to forfeit $100 million after pleading guilty in a Manhattan courtroom last week to illegally transferring funds over the internet.

According to documents filed during a plea allocution on July 10, Lefebvre, 55, knowingly took part in illegal activities between 1999 and 2007 when he and his Canadian business partner Stephen Lawrence controlled a majority stake in NETeller, an online money transfer service based on the Isle of Man.

Lefebvre, whose Salt Spring real estate portfolio includes several Sunset Drive waterfront properties and the Vesuvius Inn, will be sentenced in November.

“I’m really grateful for your concern but I am advised to not discuss my case and must follow that advice,” Lefebvre told the Driftwood via an e-mail from California earlier this week.

A majority of the company’s transactions involved online gambling services, made illegal in the United States when new legislation came into effect in October 2006.

Lefebvre has lived under a court order at his Malibu, California bungalow since federal investigators arrested him in January.

As part of his plea, Lefebvre has reportedly agreed to cooperate with the government’s efforts to curtail illegal gambling operations in the United States.

Aside from spending more than $1 million on renovating the Vesuvius pub, Lefebvre has frequently used his wealth to support local charities and the arts.

Lefebvre said he plans to return to Salt Spring soon and confirmed he has no plans to either stop renovating or to sell the Vesuvius Inn.

In 2005, the University of Calgary alumnus donated $1.2 million to his alma mater’s faculty of fine arts.

Work at home jobs

Coping with stressful work at home jobs

By Work-at-Home.org

Most of us who are fortunate enough to have work at home jobs have less stress simply because we have work at home jobs. Most of us find our lives far less stressful without having the daily commute, the political pressures of traditional offices, the constant infections passed around the office, the constant interruptions of traditional workplaces, and all of the seemingly endless impediments to productivity that used to annoy us to death in offices.

Now, thanks to our work at home jobs, we work barefoot in oh-so-comfortable clothing, getting more work done with less effort to the gentle hum of the clothes dryer. Our kids are calling us mom again and we're feeling well, frisky, toward our husbands again.

But what if our work at home jobs aren't going quite that well? What if your work at home job is a constantly ringing telephone, pressure to get more done in less time, a team of 'virtual' people who never do their jobs right and a computer network that's always down when you really need it?

Chances are that if our work at home jobs are that stressful when done at home, they were even more stressful when we did them in that stuffy old office. It's hard to imagine a job becoming more stressful when it becomes a work at home job unless there is some environmental issue at home that needs resolving. Perhaps it is some comfort to us to know that we are at least in some respects better off with work at home jobs.

Obviously, your first step toward taking the stress out of work at home jobs would be to objectively and thoughtfully examining your work at home job to see if certain changes can be made to reduce your stress. Can you take calls during specified times and let calls go to voicemail during other times to reduce interruptions? Can you ask certain long-winded callers to email you instead to reduce time? Can you explain your limits to your boss and get them to back off of the endless pressure? Can you reduce noise annoyances in your work at home space?

Once you've made all the changes that are possible to your work at home jobs it's time to see what you can change about your work at home environment. Those of us with work at home jobs spend a lot of time at home so our environment should be conducive to both productive work and positive living.

Here are some simple ways to reduce the stress
related to your work at home job:

• Eliminate any stressful situations about your workspace, such as inorganization
• Put a soothing water fountain or similar water feature near your desk where you can hear the soothing sounds all day while you work. (Buy the fountain from a store that has working models on display. Each model will sound different and some will sound far more pleasing and relaxing to you than others.)
  
• Take very long, relaxing deep breaths anytime you notice you're feeling stressed.
  
• Make sure your work at home environment is not decorated to over-stimulate you. Instead of cold whites or alarming reds and oranges make sure your work environment includes soothing colors, such as soothing greens or blues.
  
• Learn the Serenity Prayer: God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change; courage to change the things I can; and wisdom to know the difference. (If you'd like toorder a poster for your office you can order this prayer in your choice of several absolutely beautiful formats from www.churchofthenativity.com/posters/serenity-prayer-poster.html.
  
• If you're the kind of person who can commit to a pet for a decade or two and be a good parent to a pet, consider adopting a dog or cat from your local animal shelter. Try to select one that is calm and affectionate, not independent and hyperactive.
  
• Talk to yourself (silently or not) and ask yourself if the things that are stressing you out are really worth getting stress out for. Five years from now, are any of these things going to matter? Don't allow yourself to react to things that are simply not important when you really analyze them.
  
• Get exercise. Studies show that exercise helps us cope and reduce stress. Previous generations were able to be physical while they worked, thus able to work off daily stress, tension and emotion. Now, we're stuck behind computers being bombarded constantly with more stress with no way to relieve it. Those of us with work at home jobs have the added benefit of flexible schedules so we can exercise at our convenience! (Like when the gym is empty, for example.)
  
• Slow things down. Are there self-imposed deadlines that can be slowed down?
  
• Take little mini-breaks throughout the day. Take deep breaths. Pet your cat or dog. Do some stretches. Walk around the yard. Garden for a few minutes.
• Call a friend. Interrupt the stressful pattern so it can't build on itself.
  
• Drink some chamomile tea while you work or during breaks from your work at home job. Chamomile tea is very calming and quite pleasing during stressful times. Most of us with work at home jobs can stop working and fix ourselves a cup of tea anytime we wish.
  
• In cases of sudden, extreme stress, try screaming into a pillow for several minutes to relieve the negative emotion. They say no one can hear you. An alternative to pillow screaming is having a good old cry, like kids do when they get stressed out.
• And finally, look at your life and see if you're balancing your hard work with some hard play. You know that old saying, "Work hard. Play hard." All work and no play made Jack a very dull boy (and Jill and very dull girl.). If you're the hard-working type, good for you, but maybe it's time to see if perhaps you're a little too hard-working. It is very important to recharge yourself with relaxing recreation and 'play' that will relieve tension and stimulate your pleasure sensors.
  

Obviously, if these techniques don't reduce the stress from our work at home jobs enough we must consider whether or not we should simply find different work at home jobs. But consider that option carefully: work at home jobs aren't quite as easy to come by as those traditional jobs we're not the slightest bit interested in anymore.

Take this stress test:. Do you over-react to these types of situations? Driving during rush hour Dealing with someone's incompetence at work Getting a last minute work assignment Being late for an event Waiting in long lines Misplacing something you feel you need, such as your sunglasses

You've heard of good stress and bad stress. Stress is an important part of our lives. It keeps life interesting, keeps us motivated and alert and helps us solve problems. Problems come when we have too much stress. Signs of having too much stress can include: sleep disorders, digestion problems (such as diarrhea, nausea or frequent heartburn), headaches, depression, and tendency toward excessive drinking, overeating, smoking and/or drugs.

Some stress is good. Too much stress is bad.

We all experience more stress when we feel we have little or no control over situations. Learn to exercise control over the things that you can control and ponder this inspirational saying: "Always depend upon the calm knowledge that you can be master of anything that may happen to you."

Learn and adopt the Serenity Prayer.

Remember that if we were under the same conditions in an office instead of having our work at home jobs, we'd be even more stressed out!

Can Bloggers Make Money?

April 19, 2006

Blogs have a lot of buzz, but there's still considerable debate about whether that can translate into profits. While many blogs remain little more than amateur diaries, several bloggers have tried to parlay their online ramblings into branded businesses. One, Jason Calacanis, co-founded Weblogs Inc., a network of blogging sites that was acquired last year by AOL. Mr. Calacanis has been an outspoken proponent of blogs as business vehicles, arguing that quality content can drive enough traffic to attract advertisers. But longtime Internet entrepreneur Alan Meckler is skeptical. Mr. Meckler, who is chief executive of Jupitermedia Inc., believes that some blogs may achieve a measure of success, but doubts most blogs will be able to generate meaningful profits. The two agreed to debate the issue for the Online Journal, and their email exchange is below.

Alan Meckler writes: Jason, few people if any will ever make money from writing a blog. One way to make money is to create a "blog network" as you did with your Weblogs Inc., which was sold to AOL a while back. This idea can work, but blogs in such networks are cherry-picked by skilled business people such as yourself. Therefore most blogs are not commercially viable.

Jason Calacanis writes: Alan, you are correct that the best model for making money from blogs is by "curating" and grouping them like we did at Weblogs. Engadget, Autoblog, and Joystiq have become the largest blogs in their verticals because we've packaged, marketed and sold them better than any one individual blogger ever could.

Now we've taken that to the next level and are offering our blogs along with AOL's massive reach. Major advertisers that are doing seven- and eight-figure advertising deals with AOL can now add a couple of blogs to their marketing program in the same buy. We call this our "reach and niche" program and we're hitting the ball out of the park with it. As we all know marketers are looking for efficiency.

When it comes to individual bloggers they have many choices now that include blogging for a network or going solo. Many bloggers are in fact making money with the automated advertising tools that never existed when I started publishing in the 1990s -- let alone when you started publishing in the 1980s. :)

oday you can start a blog, build an audience, and give the advertising slots to AdBrite or Google AdSense. With three or four ad slots you're gonna do a $3 to $10 RPM (revenue per 1,000 pages viewed) with these automated tools on average. So, if you can do 500,000 pages a month -- which isn't easy -- you can make $1,500 to $5,000 a month. That's today and without a sales person. That number will go up over time and some folks might even be able to hire a dedicated sales person at some point. Solo blogging is starting to pay rates similar to the smaller media outlets (think local newspaper or a small magazine). Walt Mossberg might not be running out the door to start a blog, but it's only a matter of time in my mind.

Alan Meckler writes: Jason, good stuff as usual for one so sharp and original! But look at the number you have in your reply --- 500,000 per month (page views) is virtually unattainable for 99.999% of all bloggers.

My blog only gets about 300,000 per month -- so with your model I might make enough money per month to buy a candy bar. And I have the advantage of getting promotion through the Internet.com home page as well as many links to other bloggers.

Your concepts are good, but once again only for a selected few.

Jason Calacanis writes: With 300,000 pages in the B2B [business to business] space you could RPM at $15-$50. That's $4,500 to $15,000 a month, or around $50,000 to $180,000 a year. You make $242,000 a year according to Yahoo Finance -- the candy bar gap is closing!

However, you are correct that the majority of folks are not going to make a living from blogs, but that's because they choose not to try, not because they couldn't. If folks focus in on a niche and own it there is a good chance they could make half a living from blogging.

The online advertising market is going to grow to $18.9 billion in 2010 according to some company called Jupiter Research I found on Google. :-)

That means we are going to add $1.5 billion a year in advertising to the Internet. That money needs to go somewhere and I think blogs and citizens media could take 10%-20% of that. Right now the homepages of the big three are sold out at very high rates (Yahoo, AOL, and MSN). There is a major inventory problem on the Internet and the reason that Google has done so well is that they are spreading that money out over hundreds of thousands of sites which carry Google AdSense.

The fact is that the "long tail" of sites is largely unmonetized. Over the next five to 10 years, Google AdSense, Weblogs Inc., Yahoo Publisher Network, AOL's white-labeled version of AdSense, and Microsoft's "AdSense killer" will enable the monetization of a lot of those smaller sites.

Look at MySpace, they are the number two site on the Internet but they are making $13 million a month. They probably have the lowest RPM in the history of the Internet! That means they have a lot of growth ahead of them. Of course, the fact is they moved instant messaging to the Web (talk about back to the future!), which is largely responsible for their page growth. If you took the number of IMs on AIM and [Yahoo Messenger] and put them on the Web, they would be the number one and two sites on the Internet tomorrow... So, I'm not that impressed, frankly.

In fact, I think based on this email conversation we're gonna start a repping business for smaller blogs.

Alan Meckler writes: Jason, compelling data and information once again! Perhaps I should sell Jupitermedia and become a full-time blogger? With you repping me my life would be much easier!

But getting back to earth -- the monthly revenue sum for my blog would be within a Weblogs Inc. type environment? Again making it the non-typical blog. In fact in a small way your data makes me an "elite" blogger.

Take MySpace -- I read yesterday in the N.Y. Times that they have 50 million in the community. Every member can launch a blog with little or no difficulty. Blog growth is and will be huge. But again, while a very select few of the blogs will make significant money, most will never be worth anything because their information is worthless and therefore they will garner few monthly page views.

Blogs are fun for someone who wants a pulpit and does not care about making money. Blogs are really the "diaries" of yesteryear. Social historians of the future will have a field day mining blogs for nuggets of the mores of present day civilization. But in terms of making money from blogs, I doubt they will be anything more than an interesting subset of Internet ad revenue.

P.S. Interesting to note that my spell checker does not recognize "blog."

Jason Calacanis writes: OK, I think we've reached entrepreneurial stasis on this one: The majority will not make a living off blogging, some will. Time will tell how big the some market is, hundreds or hundreds of thousands. I'm going with the latter.

Alan Meckler writes: Blogs are really diaries or microcosms of what is happening in millions of ways in daily life -- ranging from special interests to business specialties to whatever. Obviously there is money to be made with blogs, but very, very few will bring in more than a few hundred dollars per year.

Jason created a great business model in aggregating blogs. But here again the opportunities to replicate this model will be few and far between -- the reason being that such a model requires at least one or two anchor blogs that will be attractive to advertisers. Much like great magazine empires that offer magazine networks only a few of the magazines are big winners -- these big winners help support the weaker magazines -- same with blogs.

Source: http://online.wsj.com

You work at home. To Block or Not to Block... That is the Question.

By Audreena Anderson

You work at home or have your own home business. Privacy is important to you. Should you block callers that don’t give their name and number from getting through to you? Should you block your number from being given out when you place a call?

Let’s deal with blocking callers that don’t
give their name and number first...

If the phone line in question is a sales line of any sort… any sort of line that a customer or prospective customer might call, you should NOT block calls unless you want to limit your business, even slightly. If you are reluctant to answer calls that won’t give their name and number, consider the option of allowing those calls to go to voicemail and then returning their call (they will have to give their number if they want you to call them back), or acquiring an additional phone line that is not your regular, secure line and using that for business purposes exclusively. You can still put the blocker on your personal line, which I do recommend. If your phone line has absolutely to do with customers or prospective customers (be careful, such a work-related phone line is rare), go ahead and place a blocker on it if you wish.

About blocking your phone number
from being displayed on Caller ID…

Again, you should have a telephone line that is used for work exclusively that you don’t mind giving out for work-related calls. If you try to use your personal phone for your work at home job or home business, you may be tempted to block it. If you block it you will be inevitably be forced to remove the block to place certain calls that have blocked you, in which case you will pierce your own security and peace of mind anyway. On your personal line, go ahead and put the block on, but understand that you will madden your friends and family who won’t be able to see who’s calling them when you call. After awhile, they’ll get to know you as “Unidentified Caller”.

Remember that anytime you call an 800 number, your number is captured, and I do mean captured as in it will never be set free again. At the other end of some 800 numbers they can even see your house on the computer monitor while your call is coming in, and view other personal information about you while your call is coming in.

If you work at home or have a home business, one of your favorite friends may be the new Voice Over Internet Protocol (VOIP) phone services, such as Vonage. You can get cool voicemail services, unique rings, number blocks, and even new phone numbers for really low prices, and totally customize your work at home job or home business’s communications system.

My job in advertising requires considerable phone contact with sales reps at various advertising outlets. Some of them also work at home. If I try to call them from my personal (blocked) line, I can’t even call to give them an order. It’s very unprofessional. They should have an un-blocked line for business calls. Once, I had to fax a sales rep’s boss because the sales rep’s fax machine (and my fax machine) both had blocks… I couldn’t fax her and she couldn’t receive my fax.

The blocks are GREAT and I highly recommend them and use them myself. You have to these days to have any measure of privacy and peace and quiet at home. But in your job or business, communications should be professional, easy and efficient. Find a way to eliminate the block and still maintain your personal security. It can be done with the tips in this article.

The Truth About Work At Home Jobs

By Earl Taylor - Expert Opportunist

"Are Using These Clever Strategies To Find Legitimate Work At Home?"

After weeks and weeks of searching and reading all the different ads on the internet, you finally discover what you've been looking for in a work at home job.

It tells you everything you want to hear and they also show proof of their claims.

The deadline is approaching "This offer ends by midnight..." You can't wait to whip-out your credit card to get your material and get started making hundreds or even thousands of dollars.

But wait! Now is the time to ask yourself. Is there enough information letting me know what is needed of me to get this system off the ground?

Will I have everything I need to get started right away? When and how will I get paid? Am I willing to dedicate the time? and Finally, is this really what I want to do?

By taking a little more time and asking yourself these simple questions could decide between your failure or success. And could even save you time and a whole lot of money.

But before we get started, I would just like to tell you, whether you've finished high school or never attended college. It doesn't matter who you are or what you've been doing in the past.

Just remind yourself that you can learn anything and you'll be on your way. All it takes is the determination to want to learn to make money.

"Specific Work at Home Jobs in Detail"

Paid surveys, assembling products, mystery shopping, data entry and stuffing envelopes.

With paid surveys you can earn money either by filling out forms and answering questions about a particular product or by trying out new products for companies and jotting down your experiences on whether the product would work for a particular segment or audience.

If you don't want to leave home for an extra income, this would be a great way to make $500-$3,000 a month from your computer. Just getting paid to tell what you think about a product or service.

"Can Assembly Jobs Work for You?"

Home assembly has been around since I started my career online. Which has been about 8 years now. I can also remember when I was in to mailorder 2 years before that, home assembly jobs were being offered as well.

It consists of building products for a certain type of company (sewing,wood constructing,electronics,etc..) and sending the products back to the company when finished, for a paycheck.

From my experience, the majority of websites only give you a listing of these companies claiming that you'll earn $400-$500 weekly.

Here's how it works, when you get the listings of these companies, you will personally have to send for the info from the companies on your list.

When and if you get the info, they will send you an order form with the price (ranging from $30-$40) of their package which contains patterns, sample of finished product and maybe some material.

Afterwards, it'll be up to you to get whatever else you'll need to make the products. Costing you even more money.

Now, very rare have I heard of someone making good money with these companies. There may be a few out there but you would need to do your homework in finding these companies.

And the only way to do that is to buy in to these companies to see if you were to get a paycheck, which could cost you a substantial amount of money, or find someone who has been paid by one or more of these companies.

"How a Mystery Shopper Earns a Paycheck"

Mystery shopping is very popular. But you don't really work at home. You work for companies that are trying to make their prices, products and services competitive to other companies. You work your own hours, shop and/or eat for free.

Here's how it works. As a mystery shopper you will complete a special assignment for a particular company by going to a location in your area. You go to the location as a customer but you will be completing a questionnaire or evaluation sheet about the location.

After completing the assignment, you will then file the sheet either electronically, faxing or postal mailing it to your company for a paycheck.

There are a few reputable websites out there that offer these mystery shopping companies. These jobs are a very good source of parttime income.

"Is Data Entry What You Think it is?"

Data entry has become very popular in the past year. I noticed it moving forward from the mid-point of google adsense. You are paid to do typing assignments for a particular company. But do be careful of these types of businesses.

These companies make claims of earning a home income with their company listings. Majority of these companies will only scam you! Their listings consist of only outdated information. There maybe some websites that could assist you in finding this type of work.

If you do a search for these companies you will have to sift through the results to possibly find the ones that have been in good standing if you're interested in doing this kind of work from home.

"Is the Stuffing Envelopes Opportunity a Scam?"

Now lets talk about stuffing envelopes. This work at home job is just as the name states, filling envelopes with direct marketing for companies to advertise their products and/or services.

You are usually paid anywhere from $.50-$5 per envelope stuffed. I have yet to find a company that proves its claims.

I would consider staying away from these types of companies unless you know for sure that the company is legitimate.

"3 Strategies to Arm Yourself Against Online Opportunity Scams"

1) Testimonials- Be sure the website offers testimonials of satisfied customers. If they don't offer testimonials, there are no satisfied customers.

2) Money-Back Guarantee- If the company does not offer a 100% money-back guarantee for at least 30 days or longer. I would not trust giving them my money. The longer the better. There are too many scams to take a risk. You can always use the guarantee to back you up if you need to make a complaint.

3) Not Enough Information- Make sure they answer your questions. If they can't answer the most important questions, they may have something to hide. I know they can't tell you everything before you make your purchase but the important questions,for example; how you get paid and when you get paid should be answered.

Now you can be a confident expert on work at home. OK, maybe not an expert. But you should have something to bring to the table next time you join a discussion on working at home.

Now you can be a confident expert on work at home. OK, maybe not an expert. But you should have something to bring to the table next time you join a discussion on working at home.

Could a Medical Condition help you Turn your Current Job into a Great Work at Home Job under the American Disabilities Act?

by Work-at-Home.org

Under the American Disabilities Act (ADA) employers are required to make “reasonable accommodations” for employees with certain medical conditions if doing so will allow them to remain full time employees despite their medical condition. For example, if, because of his or her medical condition an employee with a disability is unable to obtain special transportation to commute to work in time for the usual work hours, an employer may allow that employee to work different hours to accommodate the employee’s special needs. Doing so would be considered a ‘reasonable accommodation’.

So, if you have a condition that is defined as a “disability” by the ADA that makes it impossible for you to keep your full time ‘on site’ job but you feel you could successfully do that job from home, talk to your boss about the possibility of allowing you to work at home. He or she may be able to make slight modifications to your job and make a ‘reasonable accommodation’ that would include you working from home.

Your boss does not have to allow you to work at home simply because you request it or because you need it if there is another accommodation that can be made for you or if allowing you to work from home is unreasonable. For example, some jobs are impossible to do from home while in other situations it may be too costly or disruptive for an employer to allow you to work from home. Not all jobs are suitable for work in the ‘virtual’ world and not all jobs can be done from home.

But other jobs can successfully be done at home with or without making a few changes that will allow you to work where you live. It is reasonable for you to expect that minor changes to your job be made if those minor changes are the only obstacles to you working at home. For example, if your current job involves communicating with other employees and you currently do that by written memos in the office and in person at the office, you could still perform your job at home effectively by communicating by email or phone.

If you can no longer keep your full time job and want to convert your job to a work at home job, talk to your employer. You may want to prepare for your meeting in advance by reviewing the essential job functions of your current job and finding easy, inexpensive, non-disruptive ways that you can do those same essential functions from home. The easier you make it for your boss to convert the job, the higher the chances that you’ll be successful. When you’re ready and you have a plan, discuss your essential job functions with your boss and explain why you can’t perform them onsite at your employer’s place of business, but why and how you CAN do your job at home.