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Whether or not an at home worker gets sick or vacation pay will depend largely on what work they are doing. An at home customer service agent or at home call center operator may be considered a full company employee with benefits, or else they may be considered a self employed, sub-contractor with no benefits. For people in this situation, a procedure will be in place to handle absence through illness or planned vacation. However, those who are not part of a larger company, but a business owner or independent self employed person, the answers are not so clear.
How these events are handled will depend upon exactly what it is you do, but there are different approaches that you can take, and a planned vacation will likely be the easiest thing to handle.
If you as a service provider, offering computer repair for instance, the first step is to warn your clients in advance that you will be absent between certain dates. If you make items for sale through a web site, a notice posted on your site warning of your absence should suffice.
Your chosen work may lend itself to being worked in advance so that you clients need never know of your absence, or else may be caught up when you return home if you are not planning on being gone for a long time. For instance, if you work as a freelance writer, you may be able to double your writing efforts and submissions to article directories but if there isn't the need to maintain your income during your absence, then things are far simpler. It may be that all that is needed is that you cease working for that period time.
The unexpected nature of sudden illness is more difficult to provide for but certain things can help. The single most important thing though, is the simplest.
If you never put off work till the last possible moment, then you'll always have a safety buffer. If you always complete any ordered item for sale, or any other piece of work two or three days before it is due then if you were to get sick you can afford to take off two or three days to rest and get well again.
Even with this buffer in place, the first thing that you should do upon getting sick is contact all of your current clients or customers to advise them of the problem. This way, if you are unable to fulfill an order on time they will be expecting any delay that may occur. At this time it is probably also wise to advise them of a new time frame in which you hope to complete the work due to them. All of this takes just a short time to do, and yet can ensure that your relationship with clients remains a good one.
You should also consider the fact that when an at home worker gets sick, they may be able to continue work. Without the physical interaction of an office you are not risking infection others, so removing that as a reason for needing to stay off work. Work can continue at whatever pace is possible, allowing for plenty of rest until you are will again.
We cannot completely avoid getting sick, but some simple forward planning and common courtesy can maintain and keep your customers happy.