Working from home

teresacat

The proverbial brick wall must be VERY long as I keep bumping into it too!

I've been doing the paid surveys, but more often than not you seem to get part-way through them only to be told "your criteria does not match waht we are looking for" etc.
Have done some research into proofreading, but it appears to be very difficult to get into without a degree. I have yet to discover whether or not publishers actually recognise any of the qualifications you can acquire from certain companies.
And I also admit to be a numpty when (much) younger by sending money for work from home!!

Piggles12345

Yeah, I'm not sending money off to anyone!! I won't even give my mobile number out to websites- they're lucky they get my name!

Its looking somewhat like the dream of homeworking is coming to an end for me. :-( I guess I will just have to bite the bullet and leave the house to work!

teresacat

Being in a somewhat similar boat, I sympathise with you. My boss has now spent over a week thinking about my request for a payrise (4 yrs since last one- I run all admin side of business plus do accounts and Vat, and I'm on less than his cleaners!) Was hoping to tell him to get "lost" by having some work from home, but after loads of research, don't seem to have found a great deal!
Oh well.

Piggles12345

You should tell your boss that you have had another job offer, which pays £x per year more than he is offering.
Tell him that the other company has only given you a week to think about the job and then you have to accept/ decline. So tell your boss that, as such, you need to know about the payrise by a certain date.

It seems as though, given that you bear so much responsibility, you are in a relatively powerful position within which you can bargain with him about your pay. Also, if you bear that much responsibility, he won't want to let you go!

At the moment I am just finishing my undergraduate degree and am moving on to a phd in October.
However, during the period June-October I won't have any income as my loan only covers term time and my phd grant is not paid until October.
The reason that I would like to be at home is because I am moving to another part of the country in August so want to be by the phone/ Internet to arrane everything. If I was staying where I am I would just get a local shop job and wouldn't need to work from home!!!

ianmr65

Piggles12345 wrote: »

You should tell your boss that you have had another job offer, which pays £x per year more than he is offering.
Tell him that the other company has only given you a week to think about the job and then you have to accept/ decline. So tell your boss that, as such, you need to know about the payrise by a certain date.

The danger with doing this is that the boss might call your bluff, and unless you really do have somewhere to go you might be out on your ear, or have lost serious credibility.

There is no right or wrong answer, to how to get a pay rise. But having a 'how much i contribute' and ;don't you think i'm worth more' 'orcould you pay me some sort of performance bonus', conversation, would be a better start than an ultimatum.

teresacat

Thanks to both of you. He offered me 50p extra yesterday so we had a "little talk" where I put my case (calmly) and said that I would indeed have to look for something else. He then offered me £1 an hour more, plus would start paying me for the work I do at home currently for nothing. Rise equates to £23 extra per week taking into account the new 10p tax rule, and I'm happy with that. I feel soooo much better, so thanks for the advice which I followed from both of you xx

Piggles12345

That's really good teresacat! I'm glad!! £23 extra a week is about an extra £1,100 (ish) per year on your salary- brilliant!

teresacat

Good innit?? Am chuffed to bits. I know it's not much in the great scheme of things, but to me that's shed-loads of money and will make a huge difference. I decided not to say I'd actually got another job offer in case he did indeed call my bluff, but told the truth and said that the money I was on wasn't enough to cover my bills and that I would now be looking for something else.
So anybody else in the same boat... give it a try. I spent months working up the courage, and in the end I had nothing to lose.

pepperjulie

I signed up to a site http://www.workingmums.co.uk/. Has loads of jobs listed especially designed for Mums who can't work full time or geared around school hours. Some jobs you can do from home and some are flexi and can be part work based part home based. Worth a look.

eripmav

What about WorkingDads? There are fellas that opt to stay home with the kiddies...;)