Staying Safe When Working From Home

AD | I’ve written a lot of posts around the theme of self-employment, blogging as a job and working from home lately. It’s a big part of my life (well, it IS my life, I rarely do anything else tbh) and something I’m always learning about and will continue to learn about for as long as I’m doing this. From how to improve my diet when the fridge is perilously close all the time, my essentials for working from home and what my ideal home office would be like.

There’s plenty of benefits of working from home. Every day is bring your dog to work day. You don’t have to deal with colleagues who make your tea completely wrong and if you’re not feeling well, you can work from your bed.

But there’s a lot of other, more serious type stuff, to think about as well. Like taxes (ugh), self assessment forms (UGH) and trying to find the motivation to get up and work when you’re having a really bad mental health day (UGHHHH).

But another thing that we probably don’t think about often enough, is safety. Because why would we? We’re at home. It’s the safest place you could possibly be, right? Well just because those who work from home don’t have to worry about the train breaking down, bumping into unfriendly commuters or even pick-pocketing on the tube, doesn’t mean we can let our guards completely down.

Wherever you are and whatever you’re doing, staying safe should be of upmost importance but we can definitely let our guards down at home. One simple thing you can do straight away is ensure you have a great alarm system, like those from Verisure Smart Alarms.

Be careful who you open the door to

Us bloggers… we get a lot of parcels. I’m constantly opening the door to Royal Mail, Hermes and UPS to collect PR parcels and also things I’ve ordered myself. I rarely think about it before I fling the door open. If you’re not expecting anything, you don’t recognize the person or you’re getting bad vibes, shut the door. Or just don’t open it.

Lock the doors and ensure you have proper locks fitted

A couple of years ago, we got a new lock fitted on our front door. The locksmith who did it for us said that our previous door handle and lock could have been opened with a credit card if someone was trying to break in. How terrifying is that? If you work from home, it’s definitely worth investing in decent locks and replacing any that might be old. If you’re in the Doncaster area you might want to hire a Doncaster locksmith for your needs!

Research thoroughly anyone who’s coming into your home to do any work

The good thing about working from home is that it’s less of an inconvenience when something goes wrong within your home and you need to get someone in to fix it. It means that that time doesn’t get eaten up at your weekend or days off and you can re-plan around it. But anyone coming into your home to do any work should be thoroughly researched – or use a family friend that you trust if you can.

Don’t leave your laptop / camera / electronics near a window

You’ve probably heard this one on various home safety leaflets the local police pop through your door every now and again but it definitely applies to those who work from home and especially those who have a lot of “gadgets”. Like me. It doesn’t matter if you’re in or out, make sure you don’t leave your laptop on your windowsill or your expensive camera somewhere that you can see easily through a window if it’s not being used.

Try and avoid sitting at your computer with headphones on

I love to listen to music whilst doing some of my work – especially the tedious things like scheduling tweets and editing photos. But I won’t put my headphones in because I don’t like the thought of not hearing any noises in or around the house. Being alert is never a bad thing.

Close all big windows of rooms you’re not using

And finally, especially in the Summer, it’s worth making sure all windows are shut if you’re not using that particular room. I don’t mean tiny little bathroom windows but if you’re lucky enough to have nice big fancy windows that swing open and let lots of lovely fresh air in, just be wary of leaving them that way if you’re not in the same room.

I guess most of these points apply to everyone, whether you work from home or not. But I know from experience that most of these aren’t something I think about too often. Because I’m in my own home. Why should I be worried? You can never be too safe. So it’s worth taking the proper precautions in whatever job you do.

Do you work from home and take and extra precautions when it comes to safety?

* This is a sponsored post