Working a Home-Based Phone Job Around Your Kids

The primary problem with phone jobs and working at home is that most of the companies will not tolerate any background noise while you are working.

If you have kids at home, this of course can be a problem and it's one major reason why many of us moms don't even consider working a phone job from home.

But there seems to be a lot of phone jobs out there, and it's frustrating because many of them pay a flat hourly rate and don't require a ton of experience to get started. It would be ideal, wouldn't it, if you could just do something about the background noise issue.

Lots of People With Kids Work Phone Jobs

Working a phone job when you have kids doesn't have to be out of the question. In fact, there are a lot of people that do this every day. But keep in mind that just because it works out for some people doesn't mean it definitely will for you.

A lot comes into play, including the age of your kids, whether or not they are in school/daycare, whether or not you have another adult at home who can help you care for them.

Also, the type of phone job — do you have flexible hours? Can you work third shift? All of these things are important.

Before I begin, I want to say that I understand every child is different regardless of age. It really all comes down to your own kids and whether or not you think you can make it work based on their personalities, habits, schedules, etc.

It may or may not be possible. Some kids are more independent while others require a lot of attention. Just apply the things I say to your own situation and see if you think it could work. Here are some ideas:

Having Another Adult Around

Is there another adult at home who can care for your kids while you work?

If the other adult works set hours daily, perhaps you could find a phone job that would allow you to work when the other adult is scheduled to be at home. Then, lock yourself away in a separate room of your house and work your shift while this other person is in charge.

This could also work out if the other adult is additionally home on the weekends. You could schedule yourself to work some hours on the weekend if the job you took has weekend hours available.

Alternate Child Care

If you don't have another adult around, do you at least know someone that you trust (close friend, family member, neighbor) who might be willing to come over and sit with your kids during your shift?

If you can afford it, you could pay them something to do so.

Working When Your Kids Are Sleeping

If you can find a phone job that will let you schedule yourself during third shift, you may be able to pull off working when your kids are all asleep.

If you have a phone job where you can log on and work mostly at your leisure, you could also put in some hours during nap time if your kids are still taking naps during the day.

Please note that I understand doing it this way is still a bit risky. Kids (especially younger ones) are prone to waking up unexpectedly. But there are a lot of parents with phone jobs from home who manage to make this work.

Work When Your Kids Are At School

Since it's now officially summer break (at least here), this is something to keep in mind for fall. If you have kids who are at school (or even preschool for a few hours), take advantage of this time and try to work then.

If your kids are only in preschool for a few hours a day, this might be more difficult to do with jobs that require you to work eight hour shifts.

What can you do during summer? If your phone job has a third shift available, see if you can switch shifts and work at night during the summer.

Teach Your Older Kids to Be Quiet While You Work

You may not be able to do this at all depending on the personalities of your children, but some people successfully teach their older kids to be quiet while they work, or at least when they are on the phone if they aren't on it non-stop during the shift.

I'm sure there are some people who have managed to do this with younger kids, but my guess is that you'd have the most luck attempting it with kids that are maybe eight and up.

Find a Phone Job That Lets You Work When You Want To

You can apply to companies that don't have any set hours you are required to work, or at the very least will let you set your own hourly schedule. That way, you can either log on and grab some work time when it's convenient, whether this is during nap time, school time, or just for an hour or so when you're kids are out doing something away from the home.

Or if you're allowed to set your own schedule, you can make sure it's during hours when you know your kids will be occupied with something else, sleeping, at school, etc.

Here are some companies like this:

  • Live Ops – Lets you set your own schedule
  • NextWave Advocacy – Make calls when you can provided you put in 20 hours a week (outbound political calling)
  • OnPoint Advocacy – Make calls when you can but you must put in at least 25 hours a week (outbound political calling)
  • Alorica – Set your own schedule
  • ACD Direct – Allows you to set your own schedule, but there is a minimum number of shifts you must put in per month
  • More in this list of flexible phone jobs from home

Find a Phone Job Where You Can Work Third Shift

As mentioned above, third shift might work out great for you so you can work at night while your kids are asleep.

You might want to reconsider though if your kids are known for not sleeping through the night and waking up at odd times. Of course, working a late shift may be really hard on you if you can't find time to sleep some during the day, so for sure keep that in mind.

Here are some companies where working third shift may be a possibility:

Find a Phone Job Where Background Noise Isn't an Issue

There are only a few companies I know of that don't mind background noise, and these are all phone mystery shopping companies.

These companies encourage background noise because, since you are technically posing as a potential shopper, the noise in the background makes it all seem much more authentic.

Note – These jobs are almost always good for extra money only, so you may want to avoid these if you are in search of more than just supplemental income.

Here are some phone mystery shopping companies.

Make Sure You Have a Noise-Canceling Headset

This is just an added security measure for while you are working. Make sure the one you get has a noise-canceling mic so that it blocks out as much background noise from your house as possible.

Here's a list of headset recommendations if you want to make sure you get a quality one.

 When All Else Fails, Try to Find a Non-Phone Job

You might have to accept the fact that a phone job won't work out for whatever reason. When you've come to this realization, you'll have to start looking for non-phone jobs. Here's a list of non-phone options.

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3 thoughts on “Working a Home-Based Phone Job Around Your Kids”

  1. When I began working LiveOps, my daughter was almost 2 years old. I managed to work for 2 years when my husband was home to watch her. This worked really well for us. There was no way a job away from home was going to accommodate his swing shift job and no way I could afford or stand the thought of daycare.

    Hardest problem was getting hours though! LiveOps is flexible but it can be hard to get the committed hours regularly.

    • Thanks for chiming in! I’m glad to hear that you were able to make it work for two years. Sometimes there are ways to make it work even when it seems like taking a phone job would be out of the question.

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