Their biggest argument is that according to some un-cited “tax law,” they can’t let us work from home due to us not being classified as actual employees or as free-lancers.

Now, I’m no expert, but if I am a full-time, salary employee, how can my classification change if I happen to work from home for a few days out of the week? I would be most grateful for any insight or legal advice regarding the “tax laws” they keep bringing up.

Kath, I don’t mean to be a curmudgeon, but working from home is grossly overrated. You are not going to get any more work done from home and your kids will probably irritate you.

I just do not see what the real difference in location will do for most. You still have to work for a living. Sitting at home or another remote location is not going to decrease your work load by very much. You will probably be more likely to decrease in your performance due to outside influences.

We all need to find ways to NOT work.

I commute 35 minutes each way from my home, and that’s not counting taking the kids to daycare first. So let’s make it 60 minutes each way (the sitter lives 5 miles north and then I backtrack south again and then another 20 miles to my office). That scales up to 16 days of time in the car annually — 480 hours at $45/hr = $21,600 in “my time” that I could dedicate to other income-generating activity if I didn’t have to commute.

I have to be at work at 8:30, but the kids don’t start school until 9:30, but to get us all where we’re going, we’re up at 6:30. If I worked from home, I could put the kids on the bus at 9:00 in front of the house and get working in my bunny slippers (I do have some). That’s 2.5 hours each morning = 450 hours per school year = $20,000.

So just with those two time factors–commute time and get-up and ready time–my $99,000/year job “costs” me nearly half of that!

@yadgyu–Yes, I get that Tim’s approach does not really work for folks who must physically be at their jobs to perform it–retail, trades, civil service–and I appreciate all that you do…but as a single mom of four kids with a soul-sucking corporate job, seeing the hidden costs of “workin’ for da man” in my own life has been a real eye opener and has prompted me to take action. After bonuses in March, I plan to propose a contract arrangement at 24-hours per week, virtually eliminating the above soft-dollar costs and significantly reducing certain hard-dollar costs associated with commute and childcare. Just the reduction in hard expenses alone allows me to work 16 fewer hours per week and take back some of my life for myself and my kids (and that even includes my buying my own health and life insurance). And my company will benefit from eliminating an FTE and the corresponding benefits and costs. Win-Win!!!

People who work in retail or manufacturing or health care cannot telecommute. I think that those who perform actual labor in this world are grossly underpaid.

It sort of upsets me to hear about an office worker complain about a commute when there are people who work with sewage and do dirty jobs that really keep this world going. But when you have a boring office job, complaints come with the territory. Those of us who do real work do not have time to gripe about things.

By coming up with a revised list of questions, I’ve learned to get much better at vetting the potential clients to learn if they have what I’m interested in, and if they are really ready to do business, or if they are just throwing out feelers.

A wasted trip saved is a 100% savings of time and fuel.