The most frequently asked questions I get from strangers on instagram are: “do you work?” and when I reply, “yes” the next question is, 9/10 times, “how?”
I know so many people who are stuck in their desk jobs, and unhappy. Now, there is absolutely nothing wrong with working a 9-5 job if that’s something that you love. If you’re unhappy though, it’s your time to change that around. We get one life, and there really is no use in being unhappy for any portion of that time if we can control it. With a little bit of work, and making yourself comfortable with being uncomfortable, I’m sure you can achieve the working style that best suits you.
1.) Decide why you want to work remotely.
Maybe you have kids at home, and you miss hanging out with them everyday when you go to work, perhaps, you’d like more freedom with your schedule to run errands or work on a side-gig. If you’re like me, you want to see other parts of this amazing globe, while also making a living.
No matter what you decide is your reasoning for working remotely, make sure you know what it is. An employer or anyone you talk to about working remotely is going to ask you why, so prepare yourself now.
2.) Choose whether you’d ideally stay with your current company or if you’d like to start a different career path.
Either of these options are fine, but you should know what you’re in for. Starting a blog, or an instagram with the hopes of becoming an influencer, takes time. Starting any business takes time, so in my opinion, it’s best to start these things while you still have a steady income from another source.
If you’d like to stay with your current company, but don’t think they’d go for it, you might as well ask. The worst that can happen is they’ll say no. I really didn’t think that my company in Chicago and I would be able to work out a remote plan, but we did and I’ll lay out how exactly I got what I wanted.
3.) Don’t be afraid to work for yourself
It’s very comfortable working for a company that has your back. A lot of times, full time employees reap many benefits. Maybe you have a 401K set up with your company, they may provide great health insurance, company happy hours, and other things that you can’t imagine living without. The thing is though, that you have to make sacrifices for the lifestyle you want. Return to step #1 and really ask yourself if giving up these comforts is worth your #1 reason for working remotely. For me, there was no question about it, because, guess what (!) you can get all of these benefits on your own.
If you don’t want to continue working for your company, check out freelancing! There are many websites that help you work remotely like:
- Upwork.com
- Toptal.com
- Freelancer.com
Now that we have the basics hashed out, prepare to create a presentation for your bosses and their bosses, to get what you want. Feel free to use the exact layout I have, tweak it as much as you want, or come up with a plan that you think will work best for your company!
Here’s a break down of everything I included in my plan and a link to Grace’s Work Remote Proposal
- Initial summary of why you love your job, and the company you work for
- You’re asking the company for a huge favor, butter them up and make them feel great
- Say why you need to work remotely (here’s your #1 again)
- You should have this down pat, so there’s no hesitation as to why this is a vital necessity in your life
- Incorporate how you, working remotely, could benefit the company
- This is the kicker. Your company is going to want to know: “What’s in it for me?”
- We’ll go more in depth with this a bit later, so keep it short & sweet for now
- List the company’s core values. Every company has them, and although they may be hard to find, they’re somewhere on the World Wide Web, so find them.
- Note how each core value can be embodied by you, working remotely and how you will still commit to these core values, from home.
- Like I said earlier, butter them up. It may seem like you’re sucking up, but you are, and it will be appreciated
- Note how each core value can be embodied by you, working remotely and how you will still commit to these core values, from home.
- List out the company’s benefit. We mentioned this a bit in the initial summary, but go in depth with how exactly the company will benefit from this new role
- Some of the benefits I listed were
- Employee Recruitment
- Employee Retention
- Become Industry Leader
- Convenience
- Some of the benefits I listed were
- List your current job responsibilities
- Limit this to 4-5 day-to-day things you do, similar to what you would put on a resume
- Tell them how these responsibilities will change once you’re away, or how they will stay the same
- If you see anything on your job responsibilities list that will not be able to be done away from the office, figure out a way it CAN be done
- Research different video chatting softwares like Go To Meeting, or how you can get the shared drive from home
- If there’s absolutely no way this task can be completed out of the office, offer a different responsibility you will take on in substitution for this one
- It’s important to be ahead of all possible scenarios that could make this remote-plan not work. You want to be one step ahead of everyone and have an answer/solution to any question the company asks
- List potential concerns
- Say it before they will
- In the back of your mind, you know what could go wrong with working remotely. You’re not being smooth by just not bringing them up and hoping no one else will think of these concerns
- It shows humility being able to admit that things could go wrong and to be open for a discussion on the best way to solve these potential problems
- Say it before they will