Working Life > Forms of Work > Home Work

Homework: Doing Home Work Business

Definition, Explanation

What is conceived of as a home worker is originally someone who is economically dependent on one single client, while he can schedule his work to his taste, as well as decides on the extent of his work (no employer’s managerial authority) and whose workplace is within his own residence or in a place of his own choice. Due to those characteristics, home workers are employee-like self-employed who are under legal protection of the home work act (Heimarbeitsgesetz). The employer provides required material and owns the product. Remuneration is based on minimum amounts per hour or per unit. Compliance with working condition limits is supervised by trade supervisory centers.

Besides that group of employed home workers, there are the self-employed home workers. They offer their products and services as entrepreneurs, e.g. as liberal-professionals. That includes home traders. Remuneration is an honorarium, per hours or per unit.

The term “home worker” is increasingly used to refer to employees working in a home office, or who have got a teleworkplace built.

Activities typically done in home work are the assembling of ball pens, customer acquisition by phone, programming, writing and translating services. That collection shows that there is a trend to the more complex tasks being done in home work due to modern technology development, whereas formerly, home work was nothing but the simplest jobs.

Who looks out for home work jobs:

• School and university students
• Parents, especially women and lone parents
• Unemployed
• Disabled, severely disabled
• Pensioner
• Everyone who
  • does not like travelling to work
  • likes working flexibly
  • likes working at home rather than in a company’s facilities or a cube farm

Home work can be done as a side-line job or mini-job to earn additional income, but is suited as a main occupation as well.

Advantages of home work:

• No travelling to work
• A home worker can be work and care for children or family members in need of nursing care, at the same time
• Saving rent expenses, since no office room is required
• Freedom of scheduling for the worker
• Communication with the client and/or supplier by email or phone

Home work, with today’s technology, is feasible in the most various occupations. It can be services like telephone customer acquisition, bookkeeping, journalism, translation service, programming, or the running of one’s own business being a barbershop or day nanny service, or a distribution service e.g. as an eBay-shop.

Depending on what the nature of your home work is, i.e. whether you are employed or self-employed, you must manage the legal form of your work, social insurance, contracts, tax, etc. If you are employed, you work under the same rules as standard employees do, being dismissal protection, maternity protection, health-and-safety regulations, and you are entitled to the same vacation, income, social benefits. If the home worker is not self-employed, the employer is obliged to register the home work at the trade supervisory center.

Entitlements of an employed home worker:

• Remuneration
• Holiday and holiday pay according to § 12 BUrlG
• Maternity protection according to § 1 MuSchG
• Home work additional payment § 10 EFZG
• Continued remuneration on holidays according to § 11 EFZG
• Additional benefit during sick benefit

Tips, Checklist

• Arrange yourself a place to work in
• Get the required equipment, as
  • desk
  • PC and internet connection
  • telephone with answering machine
  • store room
  • writing utensils (stationary, note paper, pens, storage baskets)
• Work disciplined
  • Schedule yourself fixed working hours, in advance
  • Do not give in to any interruption, except for absolute emergency cases
  • Sort out priorities and make to-do lists
• Think whether you wish to work at home basically, or as well in other places like internet cafés, rented rooms. If so, you may require a laptop
• Manage your time optimally, consistently
• Involve your family in your home working by delegating certain tasks to them
• Define yourself goals and partial goals and pursue those consequently
• Do not only look for home work jobs, but also consider the possibility of self-employment
• When you look through job offers of home work jobs, you should be twice as sceptical as to the reliability of the advertiser. Especially those offers in which people promise convincing commissions, require advance investment, sell information material or demand you to dial expensive hotline numbers, you should read the offered contract with the greatest attentiveness and involve a person you trust. Especially home job offers are prone to be for the sole purpose of making you a client of the offering company. Be sceptical, particularly if soon high profit is dangled

Last update: 08/10/2010