Working Hints for a New Telecommuter?

McPierce asks: "This week I accepted an offer to work for a company in a different state (I'm located in NC, USA, and the company's located in NY,USA). As part of my employment, the company's going to give me a laptop, a PDA (Blackberry 6510) for email/development and will fly me to NY every 6-8 weeks for meetings. My question is to those who telecommute for a living and who have families at home. How do you do your work at home? Do you go out (bookstore/library/coffee shop) to get things done, or do you have a home office and boundaries setup with your family to keep them from distracting your during working hours? How about accepting phone calls from your employer? In my case, I'm concerned about getting calls outside of the normal business hours (8am-6pm) since the philosophy might be 'we'll call when we need to since you're working remotely'? Any ideas or suggestions?"

Comments

foo

[PD]

Just a couple tips:

Don't watch TV, and don't multitask. When you get up and start working, close the door. That's the commute to work and back. That means that you can't open the door until you go out to get some lunch. Then you've got to close the door until it's time to commute through the door to your home.

And you've got to get a second phone line to your office. When you leave the office for the day, turn the ringer off, and turn the answering machine on. You'll get the messages in the morning. If you train your colleagues right, they'll know that you're not available after you've commuted through the door to your home.

Re:foo

[kootch]

The reverse applies as well for the rest of the family:

just because you're in your home doesn't mean you're "at home". You are not available to do the dishes, do the laundry, go get groceries, etc. during business hours.

While this might make sense to you, make sure you explain this to the rest of your family early on and stick to it.

Here we go.

[Neck_of_the_Woods]

1. Get Vonage. VoIP that will let you have a local area code to new york and you can use over your broadband connection in any state. If you don't have broadband you can just forward it to you home phone. This allows you to "turn" off there access to you at a given time by stoping to forward which forces them into voicemail. Also I might add you can do this all on the web and soon the messages will be mail to you.

2. Divide your rooms. Don't work in the living room with the TV or anywhere else that has traffic.

3. Work computer, your computer. Keep them apart at all costs.

4. You are not at the office...politics are not fun when you are not around. Print everything in your e-mail so you have a "hard" record for that day you need it.

5. Don't keep drinks, or food at the ready. I know this sounds strange but people at your office take breaks. You should take them as well. Get out to the 7-11, take your hour lunch, and turn off the damn work computer when your done. Nothing like someone at work seeing you online in IM at 1am while you are playing Quake and needing a hand with a problem.

6. Get an exercise tape, tredmill, or something of this nature. I find that when I get pissed off, or stuck that getting a little work out in clears my mind and gives me a nice break in the middle of the day without having to leave. Some of the best ideas you will have will be when your not thinking about your problem.

Good luck.

Re:my experience

[nelsonal]

For tax puroposes you will want to devote a portion of you home for the office, with its own equipment. Also, keep meticulous records of your work related driving and other expenses. This will help to lower your tax bills significantly.

Out of sight, out of mind

[sobiloff]

You weren't clear on what kind of work you'd be doing with your new company, but you should take concrete steps to make sure your boss and colleagues are aware of what you're working on and how you're positively contributing. When you're not physically present and visibly working hard, human nature will tend to discount your efforts, targeting you as the first to be let go during tough times.

With an RCS or trouble ticket system, it's pretty easy to track your successes. Keep a work blog, if that excites you; it doesn't matter what method you use, just that you consistently track everything you've done. Show, on a daily basis, what you've accomplished--not just what you've worked on. Focus on achievements ("Completed module foo.pm per project plan."), not work in progress.

This way, if anyone ever asks (and they will!), you can quickly reference exactly what you did, and when. Just having this information puts you greatly ahead of everyone else and makes a big, positive impression on your management.

My experience of 10 years

[aminorex]

I've been telecommuting since 1991. (I took a 2 year stint
in an office during '95,'96.) A quiet personal space and a
second phone line are essential. That can just mean your
office is in the bedroom, and it is off-limits (with occasional
exceptions) when you shut the door. The second line might be
a vonage account -- I can't imagine many people would tolerate
telecommuting without stable broadband in this era.

I've never had an employer who called out-of-hours more than
very rarely, and when I did get those calls, I was always more
than pleased to do so. I've always been able to run on my
own schedule.

The real down side has been working for large organizations
where office politics are the key factor in upward career
mobility. The best telecommuting environment of all is
clearly the virtual organization, where the technical staff
are sufficiently distributed so that nobody has a water-cooler
advantage, and politics are of diminished importance compared
to technical excellence and business competence. That's what
my current employer is like, so I'm a pig in the muck right
now, happy as can be -- well, modulo the fact that about half
of my work content sucks, but that's not a bad average in this
industry.

Being able to actually participate in your children's
developmental years is priceless. Watch out for creeping
workaholism. I can't seem to escape it entirely. Partly
that comes from the inherent uncertainty of being unable to
*see* your boss' body language day-by-day. If you're more
secure, psychologically, than I am, you shouldn't have such
a problem.

One cool thing is, if you are a coder or architect, you will
get 2-4x as much work done. Just make sure that you PICK UP
THAT PHONE often. IRC is a great way to collaborate too, but
email and chat just don't have the bandwidth of a voice
conversation. Be especially careful not to let the desire
to get things done lend a nasty tone to your email (it took
me years to learn how to express myself without offending
others inadvertently in email) -- or to let a hyperbolic
humor diminish your respect and credibility. These are
pitfalls which are more easily avoided in face-to-face
relationships.

Remember that when you do travel to meet co-workers, much of
the value is in extra-curricular social time. It's at least
as important as the agenda-based meetings.