Home Office Safety and Security

What do a nun, a freelance writer and a Securities and Exchange Commission consultant have in common? All three are winners of America’s Safest Home Office Contest. The contest asked about the safety practices of today’s more than 30 million at-home workers. The variety of ideas submitted from the entrants – as well as the winners – reveal that many Americans protect their home offices from threats virtual, real and potential. The three winners’ examples show how creating a “blanket” of protection can make a home office – and the home itself – a safer place to work and live.

Grand Prize Winner Tom Starner, a writer from Philadelphia, continually updates his computer anti-virus protection, works from a home with an alarm system – and a home office with a locking office door. He carries insurance on his laptop, and stores all his important papers in a fireproof box. Because he has young daughter ambling about, Starner’s workspace also is childproofed.

Hal Meyer, a corporate financial consultant in Cameron Park, Calif., and contest Runner-Up, uses many of the same safety procedures as Starner. He also uses safe design measures – like an ergonomic chair with rollers, a floor mat for safe and easy mobility, an air purifier, and cooling fans for his laptop and monitors.

Along with battery back-up for the computer, wires and cables tucked or taped to prevent tripping or entanglement, and double-locked storm windows to prevent break in, possibly the best protection in the Minneapolis home office of Runner-Up Sister Vida Barr is the location of her office. Based on the third floor, the workspace cannot be viewed from the outside. Barr, who runs a virtual assistant service, has an intercom to screen anyone who knocks at her door (call this an efficiency tool as well). And all her office equipment is insured with a rider on her residential policy.

Home officers must take their security seriously. It doesn’t have to be costly or difficult to be effective. The winners proved that a little inspiration and thought can make a home office a safe office. The three winners each received a computer lock from Kryptonite Corporation, a battery back-up unit from American Power Conversion Corp., a copy of Symantec’s Norton Internet Security, and a copy of my latest book, Safe@Home: Seven Keys to Home Office Security. Grand Prize Winner Starner also received a Sentry Fire-Safe Data Storage Chest, model 1710, from Sentry Group to store his important electronic data.

Why is home office safety and security important? Two out of three U.S. businesses start in the home. More than 10 million Americans are self-employed from home, and almost 27 million people telecommute – or work from home for a boss somewhere else. Millions more heads of household handle confidential family finances from home. By 2004, the U.S. should have some 46.3 million home offices, reports IDC.

Here’s to working safely from home.

Jeff Zbar, the ChiefHomeOfficer.com, is a speaker, writer and expert on alternative officing. He is the author of Teleworking & Telecommuting: Strategies for Remote Workers and Their Managers (Made E-Z Products, 2002); Safe@Home: Seven Keys to Home Office Security (FirstPublish 2001) and Your Profitable Home Business (on CD-ROM from Made E-Z Products). Visit his Web site to subscribe to Home Office Success Stories, his free electronic magazine on home business and teleworking.