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Ask Slashdot: What Are Your Tips For Working From Home?
ichard writes "In a couple of months I'm going to start working from home full-time. I've been thinking about the obvious things like workspace ergonomics, but I'm sure there are more subtle considerations involved in a zero-minute commute. What are other Slashdot readers' experiences and recommendations for working from home? How do you stay focused and motivated?"
For me, the most important thing was to still have a morning routine. I still showered, had breakfast, got dressed, etc. Casual business attire isn't necessary, but you need something more than pajamas to work in all day. When your morning routine is done, you know it's time to work. It still gives your brain a launching-point for the day.
You need something to make you get out of the house and walk 20 minutes at least twice a day. Get a little dog. I've 2 Bichon Frieze and without them I would need surgery to get off my computer chair.
1000s Warcraft Gold while you sleep
Absolutely, you beat me to it.
Working from home is nigh on impossible unless you have a door to close.
If I had an Ass, I'd call it Fanny Bottom, then I could slap my Ass; Fanny Bottom, on the Arse.
(been working from home for 6 years...)
You don't realize how much you walk during the day until your office is 20 feet from your bedroom. I find it helps immensely to take a quick walk in the morning, lunchtime, and after work to clear my head. Also... you don't realize how much "de briefing" you go through on your drive home. You still need to do that instead of jumping right into family/kid/dinner time. Maybe not as long, but something to detox...
And lastly, if you've got wife/kids at home, it will be an adjustment for *everyone* and can take a long (6mo - 1yr) to get used to.
Make sure you know what you're going to do when your VPN or phone line or cell phone fails. It doesn't happen to me too often (thankfully I've got two different ways of connecting to my companies VPN) but when it does it's a PITA. You need a plan for whether you phone in and take the rest of the day off or drive in to the local branch office and use the backbone network there.
You also need a very reliable ISP. My lovely ISP in Aberdeen, Scotland are fantastic, when BT make my ADSL break Internet for Business are straight on to them. I get a nice warm body to speak to that speaks English and addresses me by first name - I don't get some random call centre in the Sub-Continent.
Sigs. We don't need no steenking sigs.
Don't have children.
If you don't have an office in your home, get a different job. Close the door and make sure your spouse/family knows that between XX:XX and XX:XX hours, you're working, you're not home.
It takes some getting used to...but they'll get it eventually. Just keep the door closed.
THIS! X 100! This is the single biggest problem those with a family will run into and the real negative is not the impact to your job, but the impact (hurt feelings) to your family if they don't understand. You'd better have some very well understood ground rules in place.
Here's the first few things that spring to mind from my experience, working from home about 50% of the time:
1) Construct a sturdy firewall your work time and personal time. Don't allow family and friends to treat your work hours as "free time," and don't allow your workplace to say "since your workplace is your home, you're always at work!" Honestly for me, the hardest part was telling family and friends, "yeah, I'm working from home, but that doesn't mean I'm not working," and getting them to accept that they can't just pop by whenever.
2) Video- and/or voice- chatting can be super helpful, if you can get your coworkers used to communicating that way. Also, a consistent & constant instant message presence allowing people to reach out and get in touch with you quickly and easily can be helpful. You won't be in the office, but availability via other methods will help dilute the "out of sight, out of mind" phenomenon.
3) If you like a little social interaction during your day, investigate co-working setups - with people you work with, or at commercial/public co-working spaces. Or, find a coffee shop/library etc. that might allow you to set up camp for the day. A day like that now and then I find to be fairly energizing. Your mileage may vary.
Not only will there be endless distractions, but your significant other may resent you being present but not helping around the house. Even a very intelligent and rational significant other can fall into this resentment, and probably will. I don't recommend it.
I've been telecommuting for ~20 months now. For me, the key things to do to stay focused and productive are: separate work from the rest of your life, have a plan of what you are going to do next, and have a plan for dealing with the inevitable times when you become unfocused.
To keep life and work separate, you can have an office that is only for work (no gaming/web surfing), or, if that isnt in the cards, have a different computer. I really like having the work computer run a different OS. Linux is for work. Windows is for play. That way I am not tempted, and I have that sense of 'being' at work/
Having a plan is crucial to keeping going. If you finish something and think 'what should I do now' youll be reading slashdot within seconds. I try to do my planning at the end of the day, so I have a nice list of bite sized tasks for the next day already waiting for me.
Despite my best efforts, sometimes I realize I am not focusing on work. When that happens, I have a few things I can do to get refocused. The first is to change desks. A change of scenery and position (sitting vs standing) is nice sometimes. Next, I can make coffee. It takes a few minutes, so it gives me a chance to psych myself up, knowing that when the coffee is ready it is time to get back to worrk. Finally, I have ear protection, usually used while chainsawing etc. When I put it on, I cant hear anything but my own breathing, and focusing on your breathing is a common meditation technique, so maybe tat is why it works. Anyway, it really quiets the mind and gets me back to focusing on work.
You need to be very careful or you will soon be "out of sight, out of mind". I worked from home for more than 15 years (recently involuntarily retired), and except for the people who had to deal with me, it was as if I did not exist. This may be fine with you, but if you are at a place where you need to schmooze to get ahead, it's bad. Also, you need to have the company finely delimit what is *their* IP and what is your own. My former company's attitude was that if I thought of it, it was their idea. Working from home blurs the lines. On the bright side, I was *much* more productive as a programmer/ software designer at home than in the office.
Note that I live by myself in a small apartment, so YMMV. Some things I do:
1. Always wear pants while on the phone. I like to imagine everyone else is wearing pants while I'm talking to them, so I do so myself.
2. Find some noise maker, because silence will make you go a little nutty. I used to do music, and still do sometimes, but I've found sports talk radio is best. Doesn't matter if you like sports, It sounds like there are people talking, which will make it not seem so lonely. I don't mean lonely like "I'm so sad", I mean "fuck, there's no one here all day". lonely.
3. Go out to lunch fairly regularly. You need to remember to leave your home sometimes, and interact with people (especially outside your normal comfort zone, like your family). Otherwise you fairly quickly forget how to interact in a group.
4. Work hours change a lot. I find myself working in the middle of the night a lot, and taking the afternoons off. Don't forget to take advantage of the perks, it's not just a 0 minute commute. You can go grocery shopping in the middle of the day now. Banks are open just for you. Same with post offices. Just make sure your workmates vaguely know your schedule, and how to get ahold of you. Communication is key.
5. More perks. Those times where you just can't get past a mental block, you can go to your home PC, or to your musical instrument, or to your TV, and just blow off some steam. It's OK! Don't feel bad about it, just don't spend too much time away, and don't let your IMer show you as "Away" for too long. I always come running back if I get an IM or an Email.
6. Work hard. Make your managers feel like you're an integral part of your team, even when you're not in the office. In my case it's helpful because everyone works from home, but you can do it even if that's not the case.
It takes some getting used to...but they'll get it eventually. Just keep the door closed.
I don't have a family, but the last time I looked for an apartment (in San Francisco, where everything is expensive) I made sure to look for one where at least the bedroom has a door, for pretty much the same reason. Then I don't keep anything that resembles a workspace in the bedroom. The idea being that once I'm up and at 'em, I've transitioned into "work mode."
There's another reason to keep one specific area of your home reserved as an office, too: Taxes. You can often write off that portion of your rent.
Breakfast served all day!
Communicate 10 times more than you think necessary. Out of sight, out of mind. Everyone will forget you are there. So you'll be passed over for bonuses and promotions, and if there's any conflict with someone working in the office, they'll bad mouth you 1000 times and you'll never hear about it.
I did it for a year, and it was great the first 6 months, but then my boss changed, and it was all downhill from there.
Learn to love Alaska
Not me. I'm most productive immediately after I wake-up until I eat lunch. It makes no difference how I'm dressed. (Though I do need breakfast.)
I'm not sure why working from home is such a "big deal". Our farming ancestors (or tailers, bakers, storeowners, etc) did it for 5000+ years. It's normal.
My AC stalker: " I personally agree with your posts most of the time, but that won't keep me from modding you troll"
3) Make your place of work (study, wherever) comfortable and pleasant to work in. You're going to be in there for many hours, so make it habitable.
4) Arrange for whatever level of activity logging you need. At some stage, a PHB is going to ask why all these slackers work from home, how do we know they're working, etc etc ad nauseam; so you're going to have to be able to print off logs or a summary or something to show when you started and stopped throughout the day (I find regular commits and the svn log useful: YMMV).
I see this type of post every time, and after a decade of telecommuting myself, I can tell you it's pretty much bunk with a few provisos. Unless you are easily distracted buy any sound, then you don't need a work cave to work in. Your first few weeks at home will seem like a holiday. Enjoy them while they last, because while every noise will initially be distracting, movies on TV, tunes on the radio, eventually reality sets in and your deadlines start looming and all of that will become background noise.
If you are concerned initially you can invest in an office and then work your way out of it to a more comfortable setting. if you are typical worker, then you already face typical distractions at work and being at home is no different. Depending on your tolerance level you may need to abstain from things like a TV in the background. Test your limits.
Communication is key. Is is very easy to become isolated at home. Avoid doing everything by email. Odd as it sounds, that becomes more attractive the longer you work from home.
Take breaks. Although it's common to take breaks while in an office, it's much more difficult to do at home oddly enough. You tend to be 'on' for your full 8 hours, even when eating. Stop every so often, get out for lunch. Make yourself do so at least a time or two a week.
Avoid scheduling service calls while working if possible, especially with dogs (of applicable). It tends to throw your day into havoc with dogs barking, door bells ringing, maine people in your home asking questions, all while trying to do 'business'.
Ensure you have a phone with a mute button. You will be surprised how often it becomes necessary when a family member or a pet is making noise while on conference calls
Get the necessary gear for an IP Phone. Your cell bill will thank you.
Ensure you have local admin on your workstation. This isn't always necessary for an office user, it can be very necessary for a home user with a need to tweak a setting without driving into the office to get some desktop person to 'fix' something you could easily do yourself.
Organize everything in your calendar for both home and work. It is unavoidable that you will start scheduling things during your work day. Make absolutely certain you give yourself plenty of warning when there are possible conflicts. Also ensure that your work-mates will know when you are avail or not. IM is ideal for for presence. Make sure you use it. Ensure people honor your availability. It becomes VERY easy for people to assume you are always available since you are at home. Be polite but firm.
Last but not least, enjoy it a little. Work in your PJ's, or even naked often, but be prepared for a video call at a moments notice if so equipped.
Lastly, Avoid touching yourself while on conference or video calls. That's just creepy.
Also, make sure you go in the office or at least video call them. They need to see your face in order to remember you are on the team.
Peter predicted that you would "deliberately forget" creation 2000 years ago...
Where work-from-home at my place of work has become highly scrutinized because of people using it as a free vacation day, I've never ever had a problem with it at all. I think there's some prerequisites to this advice, though. Firstly, if you haven't proven yourself at work already as a reliable person that doesn't have to be micro-managed, or managers have an wishy-washy feeling about your 'work' character, then ignore my advice, because it's just going to be an epic fail or a bit harder when you start out.
1) Be available when you're suppose to: For shit's sake, I see so many of my co-workers who are 'suppose' to be available during core hours, who, when they WFH, cannot be reached by inner-office instant message, e-mail or phone, don't call into the meetings they are suppose to. I repeat, you do not want to be one of those people. It makes you look bad and it will catch up with you sooner than you think.
2) Set realistic daily work goals: Myself, I accomplish more at home because I'm not being fucked with or getting cube drive-by's, but that doesn't mean I don't kill myself in the process because I am more productive. Test the waters for the first day and see what you get done. At times, I've gotten what I needed to get accomplished in 5-6 hours and I called it a day. There's nothing wrong with that if you're showing production and results.
3) Have what you need to succeed: I have a very nice VPN solution, so I can rely on my own personal computing environment that I'm comfortable with (and also mirrors what I have at work with my desktop). But if you are issued a work laptop that they only allow you to connect into 'their' network with, then get what you need to 'feel' that comfortable productivity. I've never been at a place that wouldn't pay for a wireless keyboard/mouse set or get me a decent enough laptop to take home. Also, if you have books, paperwork, materials, bring that shit home. Don't think that you can get to everything 'digitally' because rarely does that play in your favor.
4) DONT abuse it: I always laughed in my younger, insubordinate and rebellious years when I'd hear "WFH is a privilege, not a right" and now that I'm a bit wiser, that's 110% the truth. I'm just like any other person, I have the TV on sometimes or stereo going, or use my lunch break to go to the hardware store quick for something. See it as your work trusting you do be independent but still a very reliable asset that they depend on. There's no reason to be uptight, you're at home, but don't be a douche and not do a thing get paid for it. It makes you complacent and lazy, and IMHO, that'll see you right out the door in time.
I can't speak for the Mac guy, but there are some of us who actually spend our own money on nice equipment. I don't have Thunderbolt displays per se, but I do have the exact same high-end panels in my Dell monitors and they weren't cheap. I didn't buy them with "company money", I bought them because they're kickass LCDs and I wanted them. Then I bought a calibration puck and tweaked them to perfection. The funniest bit ? I don't do any precision graphics work, I'm a coder/sysadmin. But boy, do these things look nice, and they're brighter than a thousand suns so glare is a non-issue (my retinas, they burn!)
Some of us, especially when working from home, feel the need to invest in higher quality equipment. It's a comfort thing. I spend 16 hours a day in front of this thing, I want it to be the most pleasant experience it can be. Nice screens, nice speakers, a fancy mouse and a very comfy club chair make my working hours enjoyable. I don't know about your career, but if it helps me log those billable hours without losing my marbles, that's a couple thousand dollars well spent.
-Billco, Fnarg.com
How is that any more alienating than being physically away from home for work?
It takes some getting used to...but they'll get it eventually.
You presume much. I love my wife dearly, but after nearly a decade of frequent telecommuting, she'd still think nothing of asking me to run some long-and-involved errand in the middle of the workday:
Her: If you're going to be at home, would you run up to Home Depot and look at paints for the hallway? They might have some nice colors at Sherwin-Williams, too. See which one you like best.
Me: You remember that I have to do that project today, right? The one that I was telling you about last night when you asked why I looked stressed?
Her: But you're at home today.
Me: [bangs head on desk]
A lot of it probably came from her father, who I sincerely believe thought that I was literally unemployed. He went to work every weekday of his life, by God, and that's how business works and that's all there is to it.
Dewey, what part of this looks like authorities should be involved?
I disagree completely. Having my cat patiently and quietly sitting (or sleeping) next to me on top of my printer is one of the nicest things about working at home. The rest is correct though.
Oh I don't know. The instant commute. The ability to set which hours you lock the door. Meeting up in the kitchen for lunch or a snack. The ability to unlock the door if you're really needed. The ability to break your day up into smaller sections so you can garden with your kids from 3-4 and then work after dinner when it's dark. I could go on. +5 insightful is a bit of stretch for a question that deliberately obtuse.
Operator, give me the number for 911!
"tell that PHB that gas is to high and if you want us to come in then give us a raise"
Quite a good way for the PHB to think (he is a PHB after all) "well, if I don't see their faces nor usually hear their voices, what's the difference with those indian guys they talk me about? -and they don't ask a raise!"