Work At Home Arizona Residents Make The News

Newszap finally recognized the growing trend of people in Arizona working at home…

Rick Smith is up at 5 a.m.

After a cup of coffee and a quiet moment on the patio, he rouses his four sleeping children.

His wife is out the door by 6:15 a.m. to drop the baby off at daycare and heading to work downtown.

Mr. Smith makes breakfast, sorts out glasses of juice and vitamins, does two of the girls’ hair and has everyone ready for school by 8:15 a.m.

By 8:20 a.m. Mr. Smith makes his way to his office and starts work — in the loft of his two-story Anthem home.

Mr. Smith is self-employed, manning an advisory line for human resources and labor relations queries until about 11 a.m. and working as a private criminal investigator in the afternoons.

Between both husband and wife working and raising four children — two are his daughters, one a granddaughter and the infant a foster child — and with seven other foster children who came and went in the last year, life at the Smith household is busy, to say the least.

“Yes, it’s hectic,� Mr. Smith said. “It’s non-stop. We rarely get time to just sit down and do nothing. It’s a busy lifestyle, just plain and simple.�

But working from home makes that lifestyle easier to handle, and saves the family money for daycare before and after school and office space for Mr. Smith’s business.

“I’ve got a full-blown corporate entity working right out of my loft upstairs. … I’m a business,� he said. “If the IRS doesn’t mind, why should I spend the overhead?�

Anthem resident and commercial real estate consultant David Freedman agrees.

Mr. Freedman has an office in Pennsylvania, but runs his Arizona operation out of his home.

“There’s no reason not to,� he said. “It’s more convenient, less expensive and I don’t need to have an office.�

Like Mr. Smith who is home when his children arrive from school, Mr. Freedman’s situation also allows either him or his wife, who is a full-time university student, to be there when their daughter walks through the door.

“I think it unquantifiable that both of her parents are home and available to her more or less every day of her life,� he said.

Home Numbers

U.S. Census data shows the trend of stay-at-home parents is increasing.

In 2003, the first year the Census Bureau tracked such statistics, it estimated there were 5.4 million stay-at-home mothers in the country. The report also revealed 98,000 men said they were stay-at-home parents.

In 2004, the number of stay-at-home moms grew to 5.6 million. The number of stay-at-home dads also increased to 147,000, though U.S. Census spokesman Robert Bernstein said because of the sample data that cannot be considered a measurable increase.

At the same time, the number of people working at home is also increasing.

The U.S. Census Bureau, Arizona Department of Economic Security, Arizona Department of Revenue and Maricopa County do not have any way to track home-based businesses, according to representatives from each agency.

“We know they exist, but they don’t often show up in that data,� said DES researcher Don Wehbey.

But they do show up in some local counts.

Debbie Drotar, liaison between the Chamber of Commerce at Anthem and the Greater Phoenix Chamber of Commerce, said not counting realtors, 50 of the groups approximately 175 members, or about 28 percent, work out of their homes.

She said most stay-at-home businesses are commerce service oriented such as computer technicians or Web site designers, but as corporate America downsizes, many local businessmen enter the field on their own as consultants.

Ms. Drotar said they can easily start a new business at home with low overhead expenses and outsource many tasks to local print and mail shops.

Mr. Smith said if the Census question was changed slightly, the 147,000 count could increase.

“I think that figure probably goes way up in the air if they asked are you working from your home and functioning as a stay-at-home dad,� he said.

Mr. Freedman said he believes the number of home-offices in Anthem is likely higher since many people may not report their businesses or only use a formal office elsewhere for part of their work.

He credited technology improvements over the last decade, and especially the last five years, for allowing more people to telecommute.

“I think Anthem is more suited (for a home business) because it’s farther away from the city core,� he said. “But I think everywhere on the planet … they take their work with them, it’s mobile.�

Goodbye ‘Ozzie and Harriet’

As society moves out of what Mr. Smith called a mentality of the 1930s, 40s and 50s where mom always stayed at home, there are certain challenges.

“I think we’ve got a psychological reversal to the norm on the issue,� Mr. Smith said of being the parent who greets his children after school. “That’s one of the more glaring reversals.�

But he and his wife manage the difference by staying in contact throughout the day either by phone or computer, his wife cooks dinner most nights and the family shares other household responsibilities.

“We don’t really panic as a family, as a couple, on the perfection of the ‘Ozzie and Harriet’ household,� Mr. Smith said. “If it doesn’t get done it doesn’t get done.�

Another hurdle inherent in working at home is leaving the job behind at the end of the day.

“I think you just have to turn it off,� Mr. Freedman said.

Mr. Smith said after years of working from home, he disciplined himself through his clothing.

He dresses for work every morning and if he has a white, button-down shirt on he is at the office. If that shirt is hung up, Mr. Smith is off the clock.

Still, with a cell phone and an emergency answering service, and the occasional call from school or sick child, sometimes it is difficult to draw a line between here and there.

“One of the pitfalls of being a stay-at-home dad and stay-at-home employment is at times you can’t walk away from it — either one,� he said.

But as his oldest daughter, now home from school, sat at a computer upstairs and Mr. Smith still adorned in his trademark white shirt, at least for this day the separation was clear.

“It’s nothing that can’t be dealt with,� he said.