5 ways to convince your boss to let you work from home

It’s a working arrangement that has sparked debate over the past year but an expert reveals the five best ways to convince your boss to let you work from home.

How to convince your boss to let you work from home. Picture: iStock

There’s no denying the popularity and convenience of the flexible working from home arrangements many employees have enjoyed over the past few years.

Yet, while we’re constantly being told to embrace this ‘new normal’ in the post-Covid world of work, at the same time, some companies have begun pushing for their employees to return to the office full time.

For some workers, however, that might be an issue and instead, they may prefer to continue the work from home trend.

If it’s an issue you’re grappling with, or foresee in the future, read on as an expert reveals the five best ways to convince your boss to let you continue to work from home.

1. LEARN THE COMPANY POLICY ON WFH

“The first thing to do is learn their company policy on working from home,” entrepreneur Daniel Clark told news.com.au.

“There’s two groups, I would say that companies that are fiercely against work from home and just absolutely never let anyone do it. The second ones are usually that people are a little bit more flexible.”

“Government organisations are especially a little bit more flexible because they’re trying to attract the best talent.”

To be sure which camp your employer falls into, before broaching any conversations on the subject, get up to speed on what your company’s official policy is around working from home.

Entrepreneur Daniel Clark. Picture: Supplied

2. DEVISE A PLAN AND BE FLEXIBLE

The 27-year-old businessman said having a plan for how you’ll approach the request to work from home and being flexible are important factors in whether you’ll be able to do so.

“If someone’s having every Friday to work from home, they’re not really going to be working the full day,” he said.

“When people do work from home, I think you have to really go above and beyond working from home to really prove that it’s going to be a working concept.

He said building trust over a period of time that you’re still able to get your job done while at home is important.

So, if you’d like to work from home three days a week, start by requesting working from home one day a week and once you’ve established a track record you can then request more days.

“When you propose to work from home, say you will start off with one day a week to show that you can do it and then a couple of weeks later go to two days, three days and so on.”

Choosing the right time to work from home is important. Picture: iStock

3. TIMING IS EVERYTHING

Mr Clark said you have to choose the right time to propose your work arrangement.

“It’s almost like a pitch, you have to choose the right time to make your pitch,” he said.

And it’s important to sell the benefits of you working from home to your employer.

“Then you’ve got to say ‘From home, I’m going to save two hours a day. I’m not going to be tired from sitting in traffic or I’m not going to get sick from sitting on the train’ so you’ve got some benefits.”

“You can say, ‘My skills are going to outweigh the downside of working from home and not in the office’.”

But, he said, like many things in life, working from home isn’t a one-way street.

“Showing your management team that you really are going to work and showing a little bit of willingness to be flexible, so working one or two days from home and then the rest in the office.

“Be a little bit open to compromise on the specific things that the management needs from you to work from home and just try and be as flexible as you can.”

Choose the right time to make your pitch. Picture: iStock

4. DON’T TAKE NO FOR AN ANSWER

If your boss refuses to let you to work from home, Mr Clark suggests you keep asking them “until they eventually give in and say yes”.

“I would just nag them and pitch to them saying what you have done,” he said.

He added that a little bit of reverse psychology could also work, by putting the ball in their court and having them explain the benefits of having you in the office.

“You can always put it in reverse and ask what are the benefits of you being in the office.”

And depending on what they say, he suggests counteracting by saying that “you work 20 per cent more efficiently from home.”

‘Nag your boss’ about working from home. Picture: iStock

5. NEGOTIATE

Mr Clark said, however, that his best advice is to negotiate with your boss about working from home.

“If you’re coming down from five days from home, just negotiate it with them,” he said.

“If you’re proving that you can work from home more efficiently, there’s kind of no need to go into the office anyway.

“Just ask them the reasons why they want you in the office and just counter them with whatever you think your benefits are working from home versus theirs.

“Usually they’ll always be somewhere in the middle that you’ll land on.”