Flexible Working - with Kiddies at home?!?

brians_daughter

Marisco wrote: »

Where does he think your child is at 4am?? Does he think s/he sleeps somewhere else when you're on nights? Mind, at 4am the kid should be in bed, but s/he could be up ill or something!!

lol, My youngest still isnt sleeping through the night and can often be awake several times through the night. Hence needing someone here to assist. Plus ds2 is an early riser(very!) in summer he can be up at 5am. However, it is expected that when a client calls in there is no noise such as TV, children etc. Infact we have a tape that plays to make it sound like we are office based lol

The boss calls as we have a '3 rings policy' I have to answer the telephone within those 3 rings..in the past ppl have simply gone to bed to sleep with the telephone and have slept through an emergency call or answered unprofessionally as they are woken from sleep.

Marisco

I'm not even going to ask what happens if you're in the loo (3 rings!!) when the phone rings!!!

bestpud

missmontana wrote: »

Is that the real issue? Jealousy? Surely as long a she gets her work done, which could well be when the child is asleep then it doesn't matter!

Yep, good dose of sibling rivalry going on here!

I can see how the conversation panned out and now the OP is desperate to burst her sister's bubble!

Horrible really, but probably quite common in families!

brians_daughter

Marisco wrote: »

I'm not even going to ask what happens if you're in the loo (3 rings!!) when the phone rings!!!

lol, hum., maybe i will have to ask about that one... answering 'professionally' whilst peeing would be an obstacle i doubt i could overcome :D

jojo_2012_2

Cybes100 wrote: »

She's a Medical secretary, but I'm not too sure what that entales!

She has to take phonecalls from patients.
She has to type letters and put them in patients notes.
She has to arrange things for the consultant, and liase with other medical professionals/services.

I don't see how she can do this from home. I can see that typing can be done at home, but surely she would need to be available as much as possible.

tyllwyd

I'm a freelance editor, self-employed working from home, and it is well known in my industry that the most usual reason for going down that route is because you have had children, so to some extent people make allowances for the fact that you are fitting work in around family life. It is difficult answering the phone in a professional way when you have a toddler tugging at your skirt (when I first started I had to invest in a cordless phone so I could run into the next room and get a few minutes peace!) - or even a teenager interrupting to ask for help with homework - but nowadays most things are done by email which is a bit easier to manage.

But with my job, I'm paid to do a certain task within an agreed deadline, and beyond that I can organise my own time, so if I am snatching a few hours work during the day, and catching up in evenings or early mornings, that's my decision. If I had to be available to work 9 to 5, I couldn't do it with the kids in the house, and I have always had to pay for a certain amount of childcare.

To do the work you describe, I guess you would need access to the office network to access documents etc, and to be able to pick up work emails, and you'd also need to be able to have some kind of access into the work telephone system, so you could make & receive calls?

FBaby

I think it is ridiculous to think that you can work as a secretary whilst looking after a baby and any company who would agree to it is really not one looking at efficiencies...

I occcasionally work from home and have done so during the holidays when looking after my children, but only when they reached the age that i could explain to them that I was working and they would need to look after themselves, and old enough to expect that would indeed happen. They are very autonomous children, get along great, and even started sorting out their lunches on their own. I usually arranged my work load around that day, so that what requires talking on the phone, writing challenging proposals ect... was done prior to that day and keeping more reading, organising work to do at home. Still, I've done telephone conferences from home with my kids there.

The thing is, I want to do a good job and wouldn't want to be constantly interrupted and disturbed. I don't work only for the cash, i also work for the good feeling I get when I've done a good job and know that people I work with are happy with it. Besides the fact that my boss would quickly put a stop to any sort of arrangement that was detrimental to my productivity, I wouldn't feel comfortable, either as a mum, or an employee to feel that I am doing either job to its best.

skintandscared_2

I'm a legal secretary and the criteria are pretty similar to a medical secretary - confidentiality and accuracy are priorities. I have no idea how this job could be done from home, except just for the basic typing. I'm set up to do that from home in an absolute emergency (trains not running, snowed in, etc) but it's laughable to suggest I could actually perform my whole job from home. And I don't have children.

The digs about sibling rivalry are frankly pathetic. Anyone would be slightly envious of someone who could earn a salary from a company when they are only capable of performing about 20% of the job!! The fact is, it is totally impossible to give a job and a child 100% at the same time. There will always be someone who loses out. If the job is getting way less than 100% the person should be ashamed of themselves for drawing a salary and will no doubt be caught out very quickly and sacked. If they are giving their child way less than 100% they will be lucky not to have a serious incident at home or social services involved. Either way isn't acceptable.

neverdespairgirl

There could well be data protection and confidentiality issues.

I'm a barrister, so I have lots of confidential documents and papers. I have to register as a data controller, and take lots of precautions about making sure data is secure, laptops are encrypted, etc

bestpud

skintandscared wrote: »

I'm a legal secretary and the criteria are pretty similar to a medical secretary - confidentiality and accuracy are priorities. I have no idea how this job could be done from home, except just for the basic typing. I'm set up to do that from home in an absolute emergency (trains not running, snowed in, etc) but it's laughable to suggest I could actually perform my whole job from home. And I don't have children.

The digs about sibling rivalry are frankly pathetic. Anyone would be slightly envious of someone who could earn a salary from a company when they are only capable of performing about 20% of the job!! The fact is, it is totally impossible to give a job and a child 100% at the same time. There will always be someone who loses out. If the job is getting way less than 100% the person should be ashamed of themselves for drawing a salary and will no doubt be caught out very quickly and sacked. If they are giving their child way less than 100% they will be lucky not to have a serious incident at home or social services involved. Either way isn't acceptable.

Nah, it's pathetic to be so envious of someone that you feel the need to ask questions like this on an open forum.

Any risks and practicalities are between the employer and employee. Nobody on here knows exactly what is planned so it's all guess work.

Let her work it out with her employer and be happy for her if it is allowed, I say. Jealously is a destructive emotion.