What are you willing to do to work at home?

One way to increase your chances of working at home is to be open to making some sacrifices.  Rather than focusing on finding the perfect work at home job, think about changes you could make to widen the net.

Take a pay cut.

A recent Citrix Online report on “the World Wide Workplace” cited a forecast from Forrester Research that about 20 percent of employees would take a 5 percent pay cut for the right to work from home sometimes.  Some companies have telecommute policies that specify that employees who work from home will be paid less than their in-house counterparts.

Consider partial telecommuting

It doesn’t have to be all or nothing.  Maybe your boss would be open to letting you work from home one or two days a week.  It’s a lot easier to convince an employer to let you do that than to try to sell the idea of full-time telecommuting.  Once you can show how much more productive you can be from home, you might be in a better position to pitch full-time telecommuting. For tips on how to sell the idea to your boss, see Don’t Quit Your Day Job! Convincing your boss to let you telecommute.

Consider relocating

If you have skills that are in demand in the telecommuting field, like web development for example, you might consider a move.  Many employers will allow you to telecommute but still want you to be nearby for occasional meetings- and many of them will pay for you to relocate.

Think outside the box and you just may find a way to work at home.

Tags: job searching, telecommuting, work at home, work at home jobs