I'm a Unix sysadmin in London, paid about £50k (a pretty middling salary for the job). I need to work from home on an ad-hoc basis, due to a chronically ill par

I'm a Unix sysadmin in London, paid about £50k (a pretty middling salary for the job). I need to work from home on an ad-hoc basis, due to a chronically ill partner and a small child to take care of - typically a day or two a week. Frankly, the ad-hoc WFH is work £10-15k on its own. I've had entire months done from home when it was necessary. This requires a much more organised approach than just staggering along to the office and working on autopilot. Communication is something you need to make damn sure you actively pursue. I have had the disconcertingly strange thought "it's Monday 9am, damn I wish I was at the office right now ..." because Monday is a very effective day to show up around our work and liaise with people in real time. I have a natural tendency to be a surly asshole. So one of the most productive things I've ever done in my job is to treat public relations as about half the job (which it is) and every email like a communication to a friendly but incisive journalist. This has worked out really well. tl;dr If you want your work from home to work out, COMMUNICATE. COMMUNICATE. COMMUNICATE.