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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?"
Care to post the company's contact info so I can apply too?
I don't have a family but I work from home. I have a definite line between "work" and "non-work", including a different computer in a different room. This is good for tax purposes (I'm also self-employed). If you're like most computer folks you *need* to keep the "mind spaces" separate.
I also NEVER answer the phone. My clients quickly get the point and use email which I much prefer. I also don't own a cell but I do carry a wireless PDA. So email is more accessible than phone and I usually answer right away.
You'll figure out a routine after a while. If you feel disoriented at first, just set off one room in the house as your "office" and pretend that you have to show up at a certain time, and once you cross the door you are in a workplace and can't just get up and fix yourself a sandwich whenever you feel like, etc. I.e. impose some discipline on yourself.
If I'm correct, you're in the same time zone, so it becomes more of a culture issue than a telecommute issue. If they expect you to work outside of 8am - 6pm, then you can expect calls outside that time range, too. If not, who else would typically be working those hours, anyway? If you are worried, maybe you should get a second phone line (for business calls) and turn off the ringer when you're not working, or have the ringer turned down so you can't hear it outside of your office.
Sure I'm paranoid, but am I paranoid enough?
By all means, get a second phone line or use your Cell phone exclusivly for work. I know HR will require your home phone number, but your work number is all they should have to contact you for work. It is important that you make that clear up front. If you are on call 24x7, then they should contact you using a work line. Of course, the responsibility also falls on your shoulders to be responsible ablut answering and handling the calls. I know that this may be "pie-in-the-sky" thinking, but you are in the driver's seat and can set some boundries early on. What you do with the boundries after that is up to you.
My mom always said, "Jim, you're 1 in a million." Given the current population, there are 7000 of me. God help us all!
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.
If tits were wings it'd be flying around.
I've tried this before, and the only way to get it to work is to start off by killing every single member of your family.
- Definitely get a separate line. In my case, I got a cell phone and that number is the only number I make available in the company directory. (Sometimes, I use our land line for dialing in to phone conferences etc., but I only accept calls on the cell.
- Definitely try to find somewhere to work other than home. I've found that, after a while "these four walls" get depressing -- I need a change of pace. This is part of why I use a cell phone for everything. The biggest challenge is remote Internet access - my work more or less requires me to be constantly connected. Currently, I have access to the Internet at my church. Libraries are also good.
- Your success in this will depend greatly on finding someone "local" at your employer who will make sure you stay connected. I've had the best luck getting help with this from managers/team leads. However, it can be a coworker. This person needs to be someone who will take an interest in making sure you know what you need to know to stay productive.
- Make sure you have more than one way to get remote access to your company. Employers tend to be unsympathetic when you don't work all day because the VPN server was down.
Number 3 is the most important criteria. The rest is just technical details."He who would learn astronomy, and other recondite arts, let him go elsewhere. " -- John Calvin, commenting on Genesis 1
Ok, a few pointers fro working at home, from my limited experience.
1.)Establish boundaries. If you set a place for work, use it for work only, and exclusively. This will help you to keep from getting distracted.
2.)Leave. I may be the only one, but it just drove me NUTS to have to work at home all day, then go outside my office and say, "Honey, I'm home!" I would reccomend, nutty as it sounds, gettingn in your car and driving to the 7-11 for a coffee in the morning, go to starbucks for a break in the afternoon. I would try and arrange errands to bracket my working day, so there would be a fixed beginning and end.
3.)Use a cell phone. Cheaper, faster, easier, to set up thana land line. Off hours just turn it off and say it was charging/batteries dead, whatever.
4.)Count your blessings. New York company willing to let you work from home in this market? You sir, are very good, or very lucky, or both. Kudos!
in all earnestness, you the telecommuting thing is pretty easy, just stay focused and have fun. Good luck.
www.avacal.com -- the home page of pete shaw
pros: You get to work in your underwear.
cons: You have to go put on some underwear.
Best Windows Freeware
In the year that I telecommuted, I learned:
1. Turn off the speakers if you're playing Quake while on a conference call.
2. Mute the volume and turn on subtitles if you're watching t.v. while on a conference call.
3. Don't flush the toilet if you go to the bathroom while on a conference call.
Some simple advice:
Telecommuting is great as long as the distractions are kept to a minimum. There's nothing better than playing my music as loud as I like while coding. I think it makes me much more productive.
I worked for a company that supported telecommuters. The justified it on the grounds of office space savings. In order to qualify you had to have the following:
1. An area of your house dedicated exclusively to business-related work. It had to be one room with a closable door at a minimum. You had to buy a lockable file cabinet for confidential material and sign a document retention policy to insure that you knew what you were expected to back up (and where) and what you were expected to destroy.
2. An exclusive business phone line, which was patched into the company PBX and it effectively became just another extension, as if you were working at the company's office.
3. You were provided with a computer (usually a laptop) with dialup internet service. Some people negotiated various deals for broadband service. The computer was patched into the company's network using a VPN tunnel, and it effectively put you on the company's network just as if you were working at the company office.
4. You were provided with a peronal fax machine, a personal laser printer, an a cheap scanner.
5. Internal IM technology was used for normal chit-chat with people on the company's network to cut down on phone bills. Teleconferencing was used for meetings.
6. You had to be willing to be technically self-sufficent and do more self-tech-help than is normally expected.
7. You were expected to work regular business hours, the specifics of which were negotiable with your manager.
8. The telecommuter option was presented as a privilege that could be revoked at any time, and was automatically revoked if there were problems on your performance reviews.
--
In practice it worked out for about 2/3 of the people that tried it. Many people couldn't keep their equipment properly maintained and pissed off the IT group. When their equipment came back it would be full of porn, spyware, adware, and signs that their kids used it in a wrestling match.
Some other people got canned from the program because every time you called them for something they were either unavailable or trying to talk over their screaming children, which really got annoying.
Dialup was very painful for people who need to access large files. One marketing person (graphics intensive) person was taken off telecommuter status because they didn't have cable or DSL in their area, the company didn't want to spring for a dedicated line, and it was slowing everyone down waiting for them to download and process large images over a dialup line.
Is there a [-1 Way more info than we needed to know] moderation?
Do not read slashdot.
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.
Neck_of_the_Woods
#/usr/local/surf/glassy/overhead
I am a faculty member at an online University who works from home. I also take care of our six-month-old baby during the day, so I have some good experience about juggling familial and professional roles!
Here are some things that I do that help me work more effectively; they may or may not be useful to you.
I) GET A TOLL FREE VOICEMAIL/FAX NUMBER:
I have a toll-free voicemail/fax number from www.ureach.com. This is the number that I publish in the main directory and provide to my students; only the colleagues I work the most closely with have my direct home number.
The uReach account is highly flexible. When a message or fax comes in, I automatically receive an instant messaging notification via instant messaging and the message/fax itself is immediately e-mailed to me. I can also set it up so that voice messages "ring through" to my cell or home phone -- this can be useful when I expect a call from a student.
Using this service as my main source of voice contact means that I am interrupted by few voice calls.
II) USE E-MAIL TOOLS TO HELP YOU STAY ORGANIZED
Since e-mail is likely to be one your primary sources of contact with your employers, you want to be sure that you have the tools you need to use e-mail efficiently. Our institution uses Outlook, so I've got to live with that. There are quite a few utilities that make this easier; the best, by far, is the messaging database program NEO: Nelson Email Organizer (http://www.caelo.com/).
III) DON'T OVERLOOK THE BENEFITS OF INSTANT MESSAGING SOFTWARE
I used to have no patience for the idea of online messaging. However, I've found that it is a great complement to e-mail that allows me to "build community at a distance" with students and colleagues. Students know that they can contact me via IM and get a answer to a question with no e-mail delays. I also frequently use IM to interact professionally with colleagues at work, and I've also gained a lot from informal discussions with colleagues via IM -- it is a way to stay connected, to maintain some sort of "presence" even though you are in a remote location, and, when used properly, can be an efficient way to communicate with work mates. Your employer's "corporate culture" may or may not promote the use of IM, but if it does do not overlook the possibilities of this communication tool.
IV)INVEST IN A HIGH-QUALITY SPEAKERPHONE
At my workplace, we have frequent teleconference calls. A speaker phone makes life easier, but you will be miserable unless you invest in a high-quality unit. You can grab a high-end unit on Ebay for under $100. This will make your life easier and help you to present a more professional face when you interact with colleagues by phone.
V) MAKE USE OF THE FLEXIBILITY THAT WORKING FROM HOME PROVIDES
To the extent that you are allowed to set your own hours and tasks, etc. do so. Instead of reflexively working to imitate an inflexible traditional work schedule, reflect on how you might be able to benefit from the flexibility of working from homes. Doing this might also allow you to navigate conflicts with family responsibilities, etc. more gracefully than by, say, declaring your home office "strictly off limits" while you are "at work" -- that sort of rigid schedule isn't realistic in most cases, I predict.
...and when you get tired of sitting in a boring, gloomy basement office, it's nice to have a secure WLAN so you can take the laptop upstairs to a sunny room or even out on the deck to work for a while.
Karma
- Firstly, you should note that it gets increasingly hard to separate work and play. I've got a separate office room I use for working, and it helps because I can at least close the door - however there are evenings when I just 'pop in' to check email or fix something which has been nagging on my mind. Having a door to close helps, having a separate work computer helps more, having a wife to kick you up the arse helps best. The door also helps with setting a boundary between family and work during the day - if the door's closed, I'm not to be disturbed.
- On a related theme, for a while I used to "go to work" - this involved just walking to the shop to buy the paper, or taking a brief walk round the block. I left home, and I arrived at work. It worked for a while.
- Get ready for the cow-orker backlash. You'll find that most of your peers, if they're not teleworkers, automatically assume you take the piss and hardly work at all - when in actual fact you probably work harder than your office-based counterparts. The way around this is to be visible, at least online - my staff are on IM systems, IRC or MUDs, and we do use it to collaborate, but it also has a nice side-effect in that you can say "morning!" to people.
- Don't take the piss with timekeeping. Seriously. Bosses can tell if you're out at the local store shopping for socks instead of grafting hard at your computer. It might get really tempting to quickly hoover up or watch Jerry Springer for a while, but don't - one bad step and you can really, really fall into bad habits.
- That said, telecommuting has a great advantage in that if you're using a laptop and don't actually need the 'Net, you can go and work anywhere. I've sat in the middle of the park on a sunny day, spent the afternoon nursing the biggest latt Starbucks will sell me, and slobbed in my mother's front room while reading RFCs. A change of scenery can be really beneficial to the ol' psyche.
- You mentioned about getting called out-of-hours. This happens, although a lot of bosses are quite reasonable about it. If it gets out-of-hand, simply unplug the phone at 6pm, and plug it back in at 8am. When we moved into this house we bought a small Lucent PBX which automatically shuts off the office phone at 8pm, and reactivates it at 8am. Works a treat.
I realise I've probably given conflicting advice here - it's a bit of a braindump, and I've just got back from my two days of away-graft (which usually involves evening work too).Good luck!
Smegma.
Possibly unacceptable while on a conference call tho ;)
Smegma.
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.
If you have a significant other or not, results may vary but:
1. Seperate Everything - Seperate Room for the "home office" (don't chill the leather couch in the middle of your den)Seperate computers, DO NOT, I REPEAT, DO NOT use the same computers for work/play/home and all that jazz. (UT2003 is probably one of those apps that someone at a real workplace wouldn't let you have.) Seperate Phone Line / Cell Phone / Paging / Wireless Devices. Don't use your home phone for business calls and vice-versa don't use your business phone for home calls. Do not answer business calls after hours or answer home calls when you are working your local phone service has this dope-ass feature called Voice Messaging, use it in both instances. Establish some ground rules so your colleauges/customers aren't calling you at 2 A.M.
2. Don't alienate your family (some people say "when this door is shut I am at work"). Don't pull that kind of crap, you have been given an opportunity to stay at home and accomplish your day job. Its not solitary. On the other hand: Don't have the kids on your lap during the 9:00am conference call while they are watching "Transformers - Armada". Give them the chance to have some lives too: take them to day care if you can afford it.
3.Take breaks, actually do what those instructional videos told you to do, stand up - take a breather, wander around a bit, say hi to the wife and kids. Get out of the house! If you can take a trip to your local Chevron/Texaco/7-11/Shell/whathaveyou. Drink some Mnt. Dew and have a snack, or if its time - take a lunch. This is the tip: Take lunch outside your house, if you can't go down to the local subway or mcdonalds then eat at your house and go for a drive or a walk or something.
4. Make sure to maintain good contact with your colleagues and your superiors. Ask for more reviews, or more office time if that is what you need. I know that I am always accused of "beating off" while I should be coding. Its probably because no one can actually verify that because I'm not at the local coffee pot talking about who you showed your "oh face" to that weekend. Make sure to set goals with your supervisors. Make sure that those goals are met and are visible to your colleagues.
5. Attend functions if you can. If you are close enough, or can work a deal in - go to the damn barbeque. Don't be a recluse. Definitely attend meetings if it is at all possible. Conference calls are great, but since you are working from home, a little "office time" can work wonders for people.
6. Don't forget that you are a living breathing person in the workforce. Just because you are currently banging away on the keys trying to get that new webapp up, doesn't mean that you can ignore the fact that you sure as f#ck better be looking for some upward movement in your company. Don't let yourself be labeled as worker ID# 100101, you should have some movement in your job functions / job titles every once in a while.
7. The most important tip I can give: Use your head, somehow you got a telecommuting job in this day and age, you probably aren't an idiot. Make sure you make some good decisions. Also give yourself some discipline (no UT2003) or Learning channel while you are on the job.
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.
-I like my women like I like my tea: green-