In my previous entry, I covered some of the monetary costs to you if you work from home. They were:
- Lighting
- Heating
- Electricity for equipment
Now I will look at:
- Space
- Office furniture
- Computer equipment
- Internet connectivity
- Phone
Space:
You will need a space where you can isolate yourself from family and personal distractions to keep your materials confidential, you mind concentrated, and to be able to hear and be heard on those phone conferences.
Luckily there is plenty of space in my house so I chose a room that has plenty of natural light. This is good for moral, and keeps the lighting and heating bills down. You should also take into account the electric lighting - do you need a desk lamp?
Office Furniture:
Initially I did not pay much attention to the desk question. My company (Sun Microsystems) would supply me with a desk but I thought I would just choose from different tables/desks hanging around the house. My first choices were not wise ones because I did not pay enough attention to having furniture that would provide me with the correct posture for those long hours in front of the screen. I would advise you to take this into consideration from day one. You need good support for your elbows, screen at right height, good support from your chair and a leg rest (if you use one).
Computer Equipment:
Initially I used my own computer and when I definitely make the decision to be a full-time work from home employee got a computer from Sun that is dedicated to work. I also took a large screen to make reading presentations/spreadsheets easier.
I work fairly much paper free so I don't need filing cabinets. But if your have confidential documents this will be a consideration.
And you might need printer and fax facilities. I hardly ever use a fax and so have not got one in my house. I have a printer, which is my personal printer. But since I work "paper-free" I do not use it enough to consider it a work-expense. Again, this is something you will have to decide for yourself.
If you are dealing with a lot of confidential paper based material, you should also consider a shredder. In my paper-free environment, this is not necessary.
Internet Connectivity:
Our house already has a wireless network with ADSL. You have to decide if you want a work dedicated Internet connection but for my purposes, one connection does just fine - so no extra cost here. Some of my colleagues debate over taking the cheapest option possible for their Internet connectivity but it is up to you to decide how important a reliable connection is for your personal and professional communication. I have low tolerance for unreliable connections and so we had opted for the established national operator for our personal connection - and so it is also my professional connection.
Phone:
And then there is the phone. I took a separate phoneline for work. Since most of my calls are international, I can reduce the cost by going through a Sun system which feeds me towards work phone extensions but sometimes this is not feasible because I need to call people directly or dial in to phone conferences which do not work off our extensions. With the largely transatlantic nature of my calls, this would be a huge cost, which I could expense to my company. To reduce the expense overall, I looked for the best option from the established national operator and found a limitless call option for 39 euros a month. This is an expense covered my company.
I made one investment and that was to get a really good phone. To me this translates to one on which I can be heard and hear easily. There was a model available from my company but I choose to splash out to get the best sound quality possible. I speak quietly and am frequently on multi-party calls so this was essential. Also, there might be a preconception among some people that phone connections in other countries are inherently worse than theirs, so if you have a bad phone your colleagues might put this down to you being on a "bad-line". This would diminish your credibility and effectiveness.
If you are going to be on the phone a lot, you might also need a headset. Many times I find colleagues working "hands free" difficult to hear so again, take this into account during your calls. If you are the "distant employee" then you must do everything to diminish anything that can be perceived as a barrier between you and your colleagues.
There are also day-to-day expenses such as stationary. This is something you might be able to pick up at your nearest company office. In my largely paper-free environment, this is not a significant consideration.