Coaching Illness and Working from Home 

4 Benefits and Strategies

 Do you find yourself feeling too fatigued or weak to remain in a conventional working environment for extended periods?  For many of us, attempting to be productive at our place of work, while suffering from a major illness, is unrealistic. Fortunately, within the last twenty years, working from a virtual office home environment has become a viable option for many of us, because of the internet. Thanks to the Covid-19 pandemic, working virtually has become the norm for many office employees.

A virtual office environment usually requires access to a phone and laptop. Jobs that can be done in a virtual office environment include data entry, project management, call centre, sales, marketing, market research, writing, coaching, programming, and many types of consulting work etc.

Depending on the nature of your illness condition, working from a virtual office environment may include one of the following benefits:

1. No Commute

Commuting to work can be time-consuming and physically draining for many of us. Working from home allows us to avoid this. Depending on the type of commute, it may also put you at greater risk to your health. Working from home can help to alleviate a lot of potential stress and anxiety, as well allowing you to save your energy and time in ways which are more helpful for recuperation.

2. Access to Medications

If you are someone who must regularly take several medications a day for your condition, working from home will provide you with immediate access to them. This is an easier alternative to taking them to work daily, which increases the risk of forgetting to carry them and then missing out on important doses.

3. Comfort

Fluctuations in your strength and energy levels can be hard to predict. Most regular working environments provide you with very few options for adequate rest. Working from will home provides you with easy access to rest, as and when you need it. In most cases working from home is more comfortable as it provides you such options as choosing your furniture, wearing more relaxed clothing, and having the tv or radio on in the background.

4. Flexible Scheduling

Working from a virtual office also means that there is not a supervisor or manager, watching you in person. Consequently, you have greater freedom to take rests and breaks. Hopefully, your employer knows you need to do this already if they already accommodated you with the work-from-home option.

If you decide that virtual office work would be advantageous for you, we recommend exploring the following four options:

1. Talk to Current Employers

If you have been able to keep your job, talking to your direct supervisor and HR about the option of working from your virtual office environment may provide a long-term solution to working from home with chronic illness.

2. Contact Virtual Office Employers

Various companies advertise virtual office positions on the careers page of their website.  I found it effective to formulate a spreadsheet of up to fifty of these companies and contact or apply to them directly.

3. Contract Work

The same approach of building a spreadsheet and reaching out to companies directly can be effective if you wish to work as an independent contractor for them. Contracted employees often work from home.  Companies benefit from using these arrangements, as it can save them on costs.

4. Go Online

Illness support groups provide you with the opportunity to start conversations with group administrators and members, who have the same condition as you. Some of them might be working from home and be able to point you in the direction of similar work-from-home opportunities. Alternatively, simple web searches will bring up a way variety of job sites which specialise in work from home positions.