Working from Home is WORK

Pssst, come here, can I tell you something? It's not what you think.  Working from home is actually WORK.  I hear so many Nurses say that they want to work remotely because they want work/life balance.  Well, that sounds great if you are looking to eliminate an hour commute time from your work schedule but if you are thinking you can do laundry, make dinner, yell at the kids, that is just not the reality when working for companies.

Let me give you a little glimpse of a typical work routine.  Keep in mind that your hours are going to vary based on the job you are offered.  Not every job is M-F 9-5.  As remote Nursing jobs increase, so does the need to have employees who work varied hours in order to be available for their customer base in the evening and weekend.  Let's use the scenario of M-F 10am - 7pm.

• 10am punch in.  Yes, even though you work remote, you will have to log into the employers website that they use for payroll to clock in.
• 12pm take a 10-15 min. break based on the companies break time protocol.  In all my 15 years of experience working from home, you will have to most likely set yourself as "away from desk" or on "break" so your manager is able to see when and when you are not working.
• 2pm punch out for lunch.  Again, you will have to set yourself "at lunch" in the application the employer uses to make them aware you are at lunch and punch out.
• 3pm punch back in from lunch.  You will now make yourself "available" in the system so you are able to take calls and your manager sees you are working.
• 5pm take a 10-15 min break.
• 7pm punch out for the day.

This is a typical work day.  Some other important information for you to know.  I have worked as a Manager for several years managing a team of remote workers.  I can tell you that I saw everything!  I can see the phone calls you are making, listen to your calls (depending on the state) for training purposes, all of your documentation, every bit of activity you do throughout the day in all applications that are used that shows me you are or are not working.  So if you think you can slide by, it is impossible.  I have had to "let people go" because I could tell they were not at their desk on a regular basis or listening to their phone calls and after providing coaching after coaching they still were not performing up to expectations.  This is remote work style.

So what do you think?  In my next blog, I'm going to give you some tips that I use to help me get through the work day.  It is a huge adjustment going from never getting a chance to sit working a floor nurse position to sitting at a desk all day tethered to a headset.  Stay tuned.

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