Home workers’ woes

Working from home has some serious perks. You make your own hours, you are your own boss, basically, and you get to work from the comfort of your home. But all of this doesn’t come without its problems.

When you work at an office or for any company, there are a lot of things that come attached to the job. Job security and a contract is one thing, but there’s also health insurance and liability insurance. Plus, you take on as much responsibility as your job in entitled to take, and everything else is left for your boss. This means that, for example, although you work on the company’s computer, you’re not responsible for fixing it, updating it or purchasing and maintaining licenses for any piece of software in it. And if things go wrong with any of this, it’s the boss’ insurance that covers and pays for it. 

When you work from home, tables get turned. You pay for your own working material and your expenses. You are responsible for workplace safety and for ensuring all the material. You will be covering all expenses related to updating, fixing and purchasing every piece of hardware or, for that matter, software that you may choose.

To top it all off, normal house or contents insurance may not even apply if you’re working from home. You may need to take on a different insurance policy to make sure that you’re fully covered in case something happens.

For example, a normal house and contents insurance will probably cover for your home computer in case it gets damaged, but if they know that you’re working from home, they may refuse to pay up because you have the wrong kind of policy. Even if they do pay for the damage, by paying the repairs or refunding you for a new computer purchase, they will most likely not cover any piece of software or loss of valuable information in your computer.

The solution?  Along with your house insurance and contents insurance take on a specific insurance to cover your work-related needs. You can take a short insurance policy that covers your work materials, be it tools or your computer and software. You can even insure, for example, your online music library – it can be that specific. This may not the best thing for your pockets in the short term, but in the long run it will save you money from repairs and, best thing, it may be what saves your cushy home job.