What do you consider Work at Home?

Many people say they work at home. But what does that mean? Often I find people are a little evasive about what they actually do, working at home. A lot of moms want to earn money working from home, but it is almost like a little secret what exactly everyone else is doing when they say they do this. Do you know exactly what it means when people say they work at home?

I think when people say they work at home they mean they are doing something online or from home that makes them money. For some people that could mean a home based business. Some people consider working from home completing surveys or earning money from rewards sites. There are many companies that hire people to complete work for them from home. There are so many things you can do from home to earn money. The term working from home will differ for everyone. Some people don't mind sharing what they do from home and some people do.

I too think it can be a pretty wide ranging thing, which is probably why half the time we don't really know what someone else is doing! A few of my friends work for the companies they worked at before they had little ones -- they're able to do their work from home, rather than going into a physical office location, which is nice for them. Other parents I know do things like freelance writing, online surveys, and things like that to generate a bit of income here and there.

This is actually such a helpful topic for me. I am new to the whole work from home thing, and I wasn't sure as to what actually qualifies as working form home. I do some online surveys and tasks for money, so far I haven't really earned a lot, so I don't really know if I can consider myself as working from home.

I also do random things online where I earn pennies here and there, that may add up to an occasional $20 gift card at Amazon. But I don't consider working for pennies to be "working from home". I don't mean to come off snarky (which I probably am) but I just get frustrated when people say they work at home, but won't share what it is. SO many people mention they work at home, so I wonder, are there viable opportunities out there to make a decent hourly wage? Is there something I should be searching for than I'm missing? Or are we just talking about accumulating these pennies out there?

Sorry I know this comes of snarky, it is just my frustration at not personally being able to find work from home that could provide a reasonable salary justifying myself actually saying that I "work".

When someone tells me they work at home, I imagine that they are working for a company that allows their employees to do the work at home but are still earning an hourly wage or they own their own business and can do it from their home. It can be frustrating when they do not want to tell you what they are doing especially if it makes it sound like they do not want to share because it might be something that you would want to do too. Like it takes away their income if you want to be a part of the work at home world.

I have lost my job and am looking for ways to work online so I can work at home. I am finding that you need specialized skills in order to make a decent amount of money. I have a direct sales business that I am trying to build online so that this will help increase my income. But for right now, I am working online making a pitiful amount of money but it is some income versus none.

@Barbiedoll you didn't sound snarky at all - I get what you mean when you say that working for pennies isn't really what you would consider working at home. I do think that for something to be considered as working from home that it needs to be something that would essentially come close to earning what you would earn in a job that you would do outside the home, whether that be a full-time or part time position.

I do a few things like online surveys myself but I don't really look at it as working from home, it's more like a hobby that generates a little bit of spending money for me.

Thanks for your replies. You guys made me feel better, I really felt bad about what I posted. But I just feel a lot of frustration with that term "work at home".

I have been in the workforce all my life and alway got satisfaction from bringing home a paycheck, so it has been hard to adjust to staying at home. I would love to find work from home, but feel I've searched quite a bit and haven't found anything which would generate any sort of half decent yearly income. To me it seems all the opportunities out there require quite a lot of time and effort to bring in an paltry amount of money. But I guess I should keep searching!

Thanks for everyone's input

I have also been researching work at home opportunities. Coming from 15 years in the medical field to a stay at home mom has been quite the transition. Right now I take surveys and read emails on line, no it does not pay much at all. I also signed up with a transcribing company. You have to pass their test which I have failed twice now. They only pay 20 dollars pert unit hour, which can take up to 3 hours to transcribe. It is certainly frustrating. I tried working nights cleaning offices as well. It was cool, but very strenuous and physically wearing.

well it depends, but what I can do for some extra cash is sell stuff online, help with the family business and make candy rose pastillas. Recycling can get you a little bit of pocket change. I also use to have a fascination with making cross stitches. Which takes up alot of time and patience but I enjoy doing it and can also sell it to friends or family or even on a social market. I hope I could give some more but my mind is at a loss of thoughts.

BarbieDoll said:
Many people say they work at home. But what does that mean? Often I find people are a little evasive about what they actually do, working at home. A lot of moms want to earn money working from home, but it is almost like a little secret what exactly everyone else is doing when they say they do this. Do you know exactly what it means when people say they work at home?

I think it actually means different things to different people. Some have a few Internet sites on which they make a few dollars here and there... but others, like myself, manage a career from a home office. Some also telecommute from a brick and mortar job and just do the actual work from home. And some have Ebay or Etsy stores.

In my case, I have been a freelance journalist for quite a while. I have a home office for my article writing, submissions to magazines, work with editors and publishers, etc. I also am co-owner and help to run a music publishing business, and that's from a home office as well.

I don't think anyone has ever sounded "secretive" when I've discussed working from home... it's just that many people have numerous "micro-jobs" they do for various places, and it's difficult to put a label on what exactly to call that kind of work.

Specifically... hmmm.... well, I think telephoning for clients is something that some do... like maybe to do opinion polls or something, not sure. Phone rep for customer service is another. There are various transcription jobs that are done by home workers as well. I wouldn't doubt if some people do more than one type of those jobs... kind of tough to have an answer when "so what do you exactly?" comes up.