How to Get Your Boss to Let You Work From Home

ShareThis

Americans spend an average of 50 minutes a day commuting to and from work.

That's about 200 hours a year wasted in traffic jams. With telecommuting, you can reclaim that time and spend more of it with your family!

In a recent guest post we did for My Life Scoop we shared 8 great tips on how to convince your boss to let you work from home. Here are two key tips from that article.

List the Ways Telework Will Benefit the Company

While your boss may be receptive your needs, the company’s needs will trump yours.

Get stats from government agencies and other companies to support your case, and be sure to zone in on the ones most relevant to your industry. Kate Lister and Tom Harnish, authors of the definitive telecommuting guide, Undress for Success, have compiled a comprehensive list of convincing statistics. For example, did you know:

  • Best Buy, British Telecom, Dow Chemical and many others show that teleworkers are 35-40% more productive.
  • AT&T's teleworkers work 5 more hours at home than their office workers.
  • Sun Microsystems' employees spend 60% of the commuting time they save performing work for the company.
  • 72% of employers say telework has a high impact on employee retention.
  • Unscheduled absences cost employers $1,800/employee per year; that adds up to $300 billion/yr for U.S. companies.
  • Telecommuting programs reduce unscheduled absences by 63%. 
  • Telecommuters typically continue to work when they’re sick (without infecting others).

If your boss wants to see some concrete numbers, check out the Telework Savings Calculator and the TeleCommuter Hire Savings Calculator.

Prepare a Written Proposal and an Oral Presentation

When it comes time to finally and formally present your telework proposal, make it good. This video has a great summary of the process, plus details on what to include:


Want to see the complete 8 step plan to convincing your boss to let you work from home?  See the full article at the My Life Scoop website!

Disclaimer: The links and mentions on this site may be affiliate links. But they do not affect the actual opinions and recommendations of the authors.

Wise Bread is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to amazon.com.


Guest's picture

If your company happens to be spread out geographically and there are only a few of you in your area, a great selling point is savings on rent (assuming you all work from home). This is very typical in sales and becoming more so in consulting work.

The cost savings for not having an office in your town can be huge! Factor in rent, utilities, cleaning, and supplies and your boss will be thanking YOU for the budget surplus.

When you need to get together with others in your area, meet at a coffee shop or looking into local coworking groups. They'll often rent you a conference room for a day which is significantly cheaper than rent.

Guest's picture

telecommuting from home is becoming more popular. If your type of job would allow this you should ask your employer. Most employers are looking to save money anyway they can, and this is one way they can save.