February 8, 2011 Can You Telecommute?

I decided to write this post for a few reasons, first it was my wife's idea to talk about how I telecommute and then after I thought about it, the other reasons started to flow around Telecommuting. The idea of telecommuting or the mobile employee has been around for the last 10 years or so as the Internet became a regular inclusion in the home. The idea is that the employee remotely connects to a business' technical resources via the Internet and can complete their job in the comfort of their home.

Some companies offer this for some types on employees, other fully embrace it and some flat out deny it. I think the companies that are in the latter, do not understand it nor have the experience to measure its success. But if it's offered telecommuting is not for everyone. It all comes down to the type of person you are. Ultimately it comes down to your personal discipline and work ethic.

I have been working in a telecommuting position for close to 10 years. Over the 10 years, I have had many, many different kinds of positions from pager carrying 24x7 production support, programmer, system engineer, sales, team lead. Each one of those take a different type of focus to work in a telecommuting role. Now, I am not talking about working 100% at home. In all the cases, even today, I have an office location that I goto on a regular basis. This is the important aspect about being able to work at home, is that you need to be visible at the office as well.

Why would a company allow their employees telecommute? Well the business world is a global business. Across the country, across the oceans, all times of the day can stretch the employee thin. With telecommuting an employer can offer flexibility under the goal of higher production and return. This is exactly why I work at home as often as I do, especially when I need to think.

Offering telecommuting options gives significant flexibility to the employee. The biggest one is productivity. This is because employees will work more in more stressed scenarios than if they were locked to an office. For an example, I have taken maybe 2 or 3 true sick days where I worked absolutely zero in a day over the last 4 or 5 years. Those days, I was curled up in bed unable to comprehend what a computer was. Outside that, I have worked many, many days where I was not in 'office condition' but still worked and produced. If you have small children you know they get sick more than you do. With the flexibility of working at home, you can keep the child at home with you, and do double duty. Throw the Toy Story series in, let them chill and recover and you can sit next to them with the laptop in your lap working away. In the other mode, you would have to take a sick or holiday day and miss out. I find my self peeking and answering emails up till I goto bed. My tasks are tighter. Calendar is up to date. I make myself very available. As long as I am able to work when and where I need to and most importantly I continue to delivery above and beyond what's expected, then I will extend myself beyond the "9 to 5" barriers. I don't work 24x7, I have a very hard line with work vs. life, but if the boss calls at 9pm to chat about the next day... I'll answer it.

When I work at home, I have a hard target of creation and/or delivery for that day... or I have conference calls the majority of the day and I can sit on the phone easier and more comfortable at home than in the office with an hour of traffic on each end of the day. When I have to do project work and I don't want to be disturbed or distracted I do it at home.

Here's my at home work style. I turn on Pandora to one of my techno channels or I hit the personal collection and I crank the volume. BT, Tiesto, Rammstien, KMFDM, the harder the better. Loud techno calms and focuses my mind. Once I get the house booming with bass, I get to work and I produce. I get up, talk to my self, pace around the house working out the verbiage, diagrams, problems, and get it done. My pace, my way, no one around to bother me.

In the office I could get the same work done but it would take me longer, it may not be as fine tuned in the same timeframe, and I would be bothered with distractions. Cube drop ins. Cube neighbors having side conversations. Phones ringing. Even if I throw on the headphones, it's just not the same. Also, I have been able to work at home for almost all my career and I have gotten used to it and developed my style. But that's me. I know some people who can't do it regularly, they don't have the discipline, they are actually more distracted at home. It's not a vacation, if you are not in the office, you should think about your requirement to produce more. Some old co-workers I used to work with lost the privilege for a while.

Telecommuting can be a good extension of the business. A perk for employees to allow a more interweaving of work and personal life to co-mingle as long as you don't let it dominate you. If you are the personality that will work every minute of every day, you will anyway.

At the end of the day it's all about flexibility as long as you produce. If you can't produce, you need to find a style that enables you to produce. I don't think I could work at a business that does not support and embrace telecommuting. Especially in my line of work where I work and breathe on the Internet with people all over the world in different time zones.

End of Line.
Twitter - @binaryblogger

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Posted in: Internet,Technology