Who Works at Home, Why, and How You Can Join Them How ...

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Computers have proved a boon lo these indi
viduals. Miller esiimatcs thai about 40 percent of
current home-worker computers are in the homes
of employees from work sites with less than 25
employees.
The self-employed have particularly taken to
the machine. According to Miller's survey, 53.2 per
cent of those who began working ai home in the
past 12 months said the computer was essential or
very important to their decision to work at home.
"The computer has led some people to go out on
their own. using the machine as their primary re
source," he said.
Cohen, of the American Home Business Asso
ciation, agrees. "Home-based businesses today arc
enabled by the personal computer," he says. "One
of the needs is high output, and the computer has
enabled consultants—the most typical example—to
organize themselves as the one-person businesses
that 95 percent of them are."
He notes that a new kind of computer owners is
joining his organization. "We've seen in the last
year a lot of home-based blue-collar people: con
struction people, plumbers, people with some kind
of inventor-' who must keep careful records. They're
becoming computer-literate."
Working out of the home assists small busi
nesses in a number of ways. First, it lends itself to
demanding schedules. The self-employed do not
typically work 9 to 5. but often longer and more ir
regular hours. The home office is always there for
them. Second, it's less expensive than an office in a
large downtown building.
Third, as Miller says, "Small businesses fluctuate in
size and the amount of business they conduct. They
may have to staff up to handle a contract." Such ups
and downs do not encourage fixed-size offices, but
rather decentralized arrangements, with subcontrac
tors who may work at home also.
Intriguingly, more women than men seem to
rely on the computer for work at home. Almost 80
percent of the corporate women working at home
told Miller's group that the computer was cither very
or somewhat related to their decision to work at
home. Only about 62 percent of the men said that.
"Often women at home are called on not only
to deliver work at home, but to do the household
tasks as well." says Miller. "So flexibility in lime
management is very important to them, probably
more so than to men."
The third major distinction is between profes
sional and nonprofcssional workers. Professionals
aren't the only people to use personal computers
while working at home. Another group of home
workers? Data-entry tclecommunicators. "There are
data-entry people for insurance companies, hospi
tals, and other organizations. It's the so-called pinkcollar
ghetto," says Lenny Siegal. director of the
Pacific Studies Center in Mountain View. California.
Data entry is arduous and repetitive, and while
doing it at home may work out well for a particular
individual, it may also lead to difficulties. "You
don't have the protections you have in an office."
DECISION
says Siegal. "For instance, they're
often paid by piecework, so there
are no benefits, because they're
treated as subcontractors."
But. except for such situa
tions, working at home can con
fer both productivity and peace
of mind. It's a happy combina
tion, and it's one that more and
more people are learning suits
them just fine.
Not Sure
Not At AH
Somewhat
Very
Dan McNeill, who has several
books and numerous magazine
articles to his credit, works at
home as a freelance writer. Paul
Freiberger, reporter (or the San
Francisco Examiner, spends
more time than he likes to admit
in his home office.
26 COMPUTE