I finally convinced my boss to let me work from home a couple days a week. I've been driving 1.5 -2 hours each way for 3 years now and I'm just fried from it. So, it was either this or look for a new job.
Does anyone else work from home? How has it worked out? Any suggestions (other than the obvious like actually doing the work) on how to make sure it is a beneficial arrangement for both of us? Any pitfalls to watch out for?
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On Krista mistressing the chin-up, "It's amazing", said one gym source, "considering that for months she just hung there like a dead fish."
Set aside a separate space entirely. Make it your work spot. Make it different, if you can, from your home/play area, even computer-wise if you can. The potential dangers of telecommuting, if your boss is a dick, is that it can be much longer than 9-5. Otto was working 12-12 for ibm, with midnight status reports. Don't take that kind of crap.
Otherwise, remember that you CAN flush on the conference call, so long as you remember to mute first. And if you're video conferencing, all you have to do is wear the shirt, not the pants.
interestingly enough, I'm writing my term paper arguing for telecommuting.
My intial advice - know when to walk away from it. It becomes very easy at first just to check email, then look into something, and before you know it, it's 10-12 hour days. It's great if you're lucky enough to be able to do it though. No traffic, more time with family, reduced costs for your car(s). Good stuff.
IMO, you need to treat it like a job. To me, that means have a routine, get up, get dressed, have breakfast, go to work, have lunch, go back to work, go home, change clothes, change to your "after work" mode. Just because the commute is "downstairs" or "into the spare room" - I think you still have to separate work mode and home mode to be good at it. At least at first.
Don't do laundry while you're working; don't work in the evening when you are relaxing and doing laundry.
Also, do what you can to be as accessible to your co-workers (and your boss) as you would be if you were in the office. Email, phone & especially IM can work really well for keeping in touch. Since no one can just walk over and ask you something if they can feel like they get the same responsiveness things will go better. They can't see that you're in your office but they can "see" that you are on IM and presumeably working - especially if you respond.
Mrs. Egham has been telecommuting for over 10 years. She's an economist; one of the very few working air, renewable energy, and climate issues among electric utilities. Her company was planning to replace her after she moved to NC shortly after we married, and even hired someone to take over her responsibilities. It quickly became clear to them that they did indeed need her to do most of what she was already doing and they soon asked her to continue telecommuting as a permanent employee.
Her office is in a spare bedroom that she uses for very little else. Her company provides the computer and filing cabinets, and reimburses her for the dedicated phone and cable lines, supplies, etc.
She goes about her workdays as if she worked in a corporate office...She dresses (somewhat more casually than if she went into the corporate office), starts work at a regularly scheduled time after eating breakfast, takes a lunch break and leaves her office at the regularly scheduled time (whenever she can).
She's very disciplined about it. As an independent consultant, I work at home too. My office is on the lower floor at the opposite corner of the house and I see very little of her during the work day except when we run across each other in the kitchen (our break room) or (since our job focus is quite similar) she wants to discuss some aspect of the issues she's dealing with.
The only downside is that she is not a candidate for promotion into a supervisory position. About 5 years ago, her supervisor retired and her VP told her that she would have been the obvious replacement if she wasn't telecommuting.
__________________ "May you live every day of your life." - Jonathan Swift
Luckily, I have no kids, just a cat who likes to be right in front of my face when I’m on the computer.
One of the bedrooms is set up as my office with all the amenities including a door which I can close. My worst enemy, I think, will be my own fabricated distractions, like doing the laundry in between answering emails or taking phone calls. So, I may have to set some rules to thwart that sort of thing. I know I’ll have to create a schedule for myself and stick to it.
It’s funny that working too many hours seems to be a common theme. I think the easiest thing for me to do will be punching out after 8 hours. I know there will definitely be some down sides to not physically being in the office, and I’ll miss the social part of it. It’s kind of nice having some place to go every day. But, I’ll still be going into the office three days a week, so I think it will be a nice balance. I’m just happy my boss believes in it. I thought it would be a much harder sell.
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On Krista mistressing the chin-up, "It's amazing", said one gym source, "considering that for months she just hung there like a dead fish."
I downloaded firefox for personal use and removed all my personal bookmarks from Explorer (work requires IE to access some things).
While I can manually type the urls, it makes me aware of it and keeps it to a minimum.
I have to get showered and into somewhat decent clothes to get much done.
My biggest issue is the kitchen. Doesn't effect my work, but it effects my cravings.
Oh, I work in the field. I don't have to ever go to the office unless I need access to a production speed printer for testing, a customer demo, a team meeting, etc. So, I start each day at home, then head out at some point. Some days are at home the whole day.
I don't know that I'd be able to work from home, in terms of self-discipline. Since I'm a programmer, I'm in front of the computer anyway, but since it'd be *my* computer, I'd think "well, a quick video game break couldn't hurt...."
Conversely, my respect for those with the discipline to do it.
I work from home too and visit office once a week. The office is way away from the city and I have a baby whom I don't want to leave behind while I work.
I have a separate room from where I work. I do the usual routine stuff like breakfast, bathing myself and the kiddos, getting lunch box ready before I start work sharp at 8:00. I have a Nanny who looks after my 11 month old while I work.
But I feel, since I am out of sight, I have to put in more effort than what I used to when I was working from office to be visible to my peers and manager. Also, I feel sometimes I get out of synch from company matters. But these are some minor prices to pay for the benefit of being closer to my baby both during day and night.
I feel sometimes I get out of synch from company matters. But these are some minor prices to pay for the benefit of being closer to my baby both during day and night.
I'm afraid of not being in the office and missing something. But, anything would be minor compared to the benefits I know I would get from working at home at this point. Of course, my Vista crap isn't compatable with most of our software or the remote network access hook-up. But, that's for the IT guy to figure out!
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On Krista mistressing the chin-up, "It's amazing", said one gym source, "considering that for months she just hung there like a dead fish."
Any telecommuters?
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