Convince My Boss to Let Me Work from Home

If you have a job that can really be done from anywhere, why not do your job from home instead? The only trick is, you’ve got to convince your boss. Believe it or not, thousands of people all over the world have convinced their boss to let them do just that – Even in very “traditional” types of jobs. Here’s how to convince your boss to let you work from home.

Have a Good Business Reason

One of the biggest mistakes you could make when asking your boss to let you work from home is to try and convince your boss with personal reasons instead of business reasons.

“I could really use the extra flexibility to take care of my kids” is not a good reason for your boss to let you work from home.

“I’m more productive, I’ll take up less company space, you don’t have to pay for my parking and I won’t bill overtime if I ever need to go over on a project” is a great reason for your boss to consider letting you work from home.

Give business reasons, not personal reasons why you’re asking to work from home.

Start With a Trial

Don’t ask your boss to commit to letting you work from home. Instead, ask if you can work on a project from home instead, or ask if you can work from home for a short period of time – Say, 2 weeks.

Once you get the green light to do a short work-from-home trial, make sure you knock it out of the park. Your boss should be “wowed” by the quality of your work when you aren’t at the office.

That’s when you should make a more comprehensive pitch for why you should work from home more often. You get more done. There are less political workplace distractions. You don’t need to step out for lunch. Etc.

Have a clear proposal when you ask. Let your boss know how you’ll be billing, how you’ll be accountable for work, how often you’ll be in the office in person to check in and so on.

Never Argue

If your boss doesn’t take the bait at first, don’t argue. The last thing you want is to cement in a “no” position. Instead, take it as a “no for now” and keep working.

Carve out an opportunity to work from home the next chance you get. If it really comes down to it, call in sick for 3-4 days and knock out a project. It really comes down to how powerfully you can prove that you can do better work at home than at the office.

If you have your boss’s trust, a solid work relationship and a consistent track record of getting more done at home than at the office, there should be no reason your boss wouldn’t let you work from home.