The Right Way to Work From Home

NEW YORK (MainStreet) -- Some employees would do almost anything for the opportunity to work from home -- even divorcing their significant other, according to a recent survey -- but telecommuting full time or part time poses several unique challenges workers may not anticipate until they actually go through with it.

To find out more about the secrets of succeeding as a telecommuter, we spoke with Heather Huhman, a career counselor and founder of Come Recommended, a public relations firm for recruiters. Aside from being a career expert, Huhman has worked from home full time for the past two years and has telecommuted on and off ever since 2002. Here are her tips on how to do it right.

Telecommuting poses several unique challenges workers may not anticipate until they actually go through with it.

Set the ground rules early on.
As with any job, it's important for telecommuters to consult their managers to set expectations at the start about schedules.

"Just because you are working from home doesn't mean you can work from midnight to 5 a.m.," Huhman says. "You need to set ground rules pretty early on. If the company doesn't set them you should bring it forward as an employee."

At her company, Huhman says employees usually have pre-determined "core hours" they must work, but beyond that, employees can customize their schedules to pick up kids from school or go to the gym as long as they tell the team in advance and still get their work done.

Stay in constant contact with your co-workers.
One risk when working from home is that you might miss out on the casual check-ins with your boss and watercooler conversations with your co-workers that help build confidence and camaraderie in the office.