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101 Tips For Telecommuters




Telecommute! Going To Work Without Leaving Home




The Telecommuting Advisor: Real World Solutions For Remote Workers

Here are five steps you can take to explore the possibilities of telework in your present place of employment and then get yourself started telecommuting:

1. Determine whether or not you want to telecommute. just dreaming about telecommuting is not enough. Take a few minutes and care- fully consider what impact it may or may not have on your life. Try to anticipate how the switch to telecommuting will impact:

• Your ability to accomplish your assignments.

• Your relationships and acceptance in the work group.

• Your career opportunities.

• Your financial situation.

• Your job satisfaction.

• Your quality of life and work-life.

• Your relationships at home.

Only if you feel certain that telecommuting will bring you a net benefit should you go ahead with the remaining steps.

2. Develop a plan for telecommuting. Come up with concrete answers to the following questions your immediate supervisor and higher-level managers are likely to consider:

• Why will you telecommute? What advantages will this working style offer you? Your company? Your co-workers?

• Where will you work when telecommuting? Is there sufficient space in that location? What about special services and facilities you need to do your job? How will you prevent unwanted interruptions?

• When will you telecommute? How frequently? Which day or days of the week? What hours will you work as a telecommuter? How soon will you start? Do you envision an end to telecommuting, or will you want to continue indefinitely?

• How will you telecommute? What materials and resources will you have at your off-site workplace? What communications technology and other equipment will you require? How frequently will you "check-in" with people in the office? How will people contact you when you're needed? How will you attend meetings held at the office while you're telecommuting? If you can't or won't attend, how will you compensate for these absences?

3. Broach the subject. Once you've got these questions answered, start talking to your immediate supervisor about telecommuting. Try to convince him or her that telecommuting is a proven, practical approach to working. Remember to:

• Sell the company on the benefits of telecommuting. Your immediate supervisor and higher-level managers may be willing to let you telecommute just because you want to. But if you're not irre- placeable, they'll want to know what's in it for the company, and for them. So have a shopping list of benefits in mind and sell these people on the positive value of letting you begin to tele- commute.

Here's a brief list with which to start:

• Improved access to qualified labor through a wider geographical area and reduced impact from logistical problems that would prevent people from taking jobs requiring physical commutes every day.

• Improved productivity. A ten or 20 percent increase in quantity and/or quality of results is not uncommon among people who shift to telecommuting, and telecommuters can work on days they're too sick to come into the office.

• Lower turnover. Telecommuting reduces any need for people to quit their jobs because of logistical problems.

• Focus your talks on developing an agreement with your immediate supervisor, and with other decision-makers who may become involved. It's one thing to talk in general terms, it's more persuasive and productive to talk about telecommuting in concrete terms.

4. Get needed training and equipment. Telecommuting is at first a bit difficult for some people. It's a working pattern that goes against all the years of training and habit that make it seem normal to leave home in order to work, and to stop working in order to return home. Training can be valuable when it helps a new telecommuter learn the skills and adopt the mental attitudes that increase his or her chances of success. The right training for new telecommuters should include such topics as:

• Organizing work to do while telecommuting

• Separating work responsibilities at home from family and friends.

• Providing a suitable workplace, equipment, and supplies--at home or somewhere close by.

• How to maintain lines of communication to and from your usual office.

• How to operate any special equipment needed while telecommuting

5. Start telecommuting. At a certain point, you've completed all the appropriate advance preparation. There's nothing to do but start telecommuting. This may lead to some problems you didn't antici- pate, but with millions of telecommuters already successful at this way of working, there's a very good probability you can solve whatever problems confront you and continue telecommuting for as long as you like.

Take Steps To Assure Success

Most people who begin telecommuting eventually make a success of it. Only a relatively small percentage of people remain unhappy with some aspect of telecommuting, such as working in isolation, working in an uncomfortable situation at home, losing contact with ongoing events at the office, or having to provide near total self-direction while tele- commuting. A very large proportion of telecommuters, however, go through an adjustment phase that causes an uncomfortable level of un- certainty and anxiety.

You can minimize the discomfort of your adjustment period, and at the same time help to assure your success at telecommuting, by taking time to follow a few simple guidelines:

• Plan your work carefully: When you work in the office, with all the people, information, and office machines readily available on short notice, it's possible to maintain a high level of accomplishment with a relatively low level of planning. But when you work as a telecommuter at a distance from the office, you usually can't do things on the spur of the moment. For example, you can't button-hole someone in the hallway and instantly get their advice on how to proceed, or look through voluminous reference materials at a moment's notice to find the answer to an important question, or make copies whenever you need to. So to maintain a good level of productivity while telecommuting, you must do a little more planning.

Among the things to plan are:

• What work will you do each telecommuting day, and what resources will you need to do that work?

• When will you need to contact various people, and can you arrange your workday so you will need each one only when he or she is readily available?

• When will you need to contact various people, and can you arrange your workday so you will need each one only when he or she is readily available?

Concentrate on maintaining communications: When you work in the office, where everyone spends most of their time within fairly easy reach, it's possible to stay in contact with office information (and the grapevine) almost without effort. But when you work as a telecommuter, your distance from the office lets you be forgotten, or otherwise left out of important briefings on office information. So you must make two special efforts: first, to maintain contact with people at the office who will keep you thoroughly informed, and second to ask enough ques- tions about events that take place when you are absent.

Take your responsibilities seriously: The shift from office-bound work to a telecommuting pattern is a liberating one. But while it gives you extra freedom to plan and schedule your daily activities, it doesn't relieve you of the responsibility to accomplish your work-goals and perform to an acceptable level of excellence. Too often, telecommuters grow giddy with their new-found freedom and temporarily allow their performance to decline. If you want to avoid these problems, pay special attention to these matters from your very first day of tele- commuting.

Solve your practical problems: Most people tend to be very flexible, and do their best to soldier on despite poor lighting, a squeaky chair, a work surface that's too-low or too-high, or inadequate venti- lation. They can also tolerate inadequate phone service, lack of needed equipment or reference materials, and so forth. But don't tolerate adversity too quickly. When you begin telecommuting, you make a commitment to maintain your productivity while working at home (or at a nearby location) over a relatively long period of time. So don't make honoring that commitment more difficult by compromising on day- to-day details. Instead, try hard to eliminate any practical problems that might lessen your ability to deliver top-notch performance.

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This complimentary resource is (c) 1995 by Robert Moskowitz, who is
available for consulting, speaking and strategic planning on a wide
variety of white-collar productivity and technology issues. You can
reach him via fax (818) 224-4343, email: robertam@knowledgetree.com
or by mail to Box 6375, Woodland Hills, CA 91365.

Visit his website at: American Telecommuting Association: http://www.knowledgetree.com/ata.html

Important: Individuals are licensed to store this file on their
computers, or print this file on paper for reference or reading.
Duplication or distribution of the information in any form, whether
free or for payment, is prohibited without explicit written
authorization in advance from the author.

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