Your Career: Telecommuting Productively

Your Career: Telecommuting productively
By: The Associated Press | 25 Jan 2010 | 03:32 PM ET Text Size CHARLOTTE, N.C. - Call it the workplace of the future: your home.

One way that companies are downsizing is to have employees work at home. When staffers telecommute, businesses can save money by moving to smaller quarters or consolidating separate locations into one.

Many workers are glad to have the opportunity. They join the people who have been telecommuting by choice ever since computers and high-speed Internet connections made working at home easier. Telecommuting can give employees a better work-life balance, and they save time and money when they're not traveling to work and buying coffee and lunch.

Still, workplace consultants and company executives say telecommuting can take some, well, work for someone who needs to adjust after years in an office. Some tips for making the transition:

BECOMING A TELECOMMUTER

It can take discipline to work at home. A telecommuter needs to be able to schedule realistically, prioritize and be able to stay focused on work despite distractions like children, pets, even the refrigerator.

"You can't be a person who thrives on boss-imposed deadlines and a boss looking over your shoulder," said Alexandra Levit, author of "New Job, New You," and an adviser to the Obama administration on workplace issues.

A brand-new telecommuter also has some logistics to work out. That means talking to the boss about what you'll need, and who's going to pay for it. Will you be using your own personal computer? If so, will you need to upgrade it to handle your workload? Will you need other equipment, like a fax machine or Web cam? What about an extra phone line?

If you have a family, you'll have to integrate the changes in your job into your children's routine. But remember that your work needs to be a priority. For example, if your kids want you to stop working when they come home from school so they can tell you how their day went, they need to know you can't always listen.

Leslie Truex, author of "The Work at Home Success Bible," said a boss may not care about a telecommuter's child-care issues.

"He will care if it saves him or the company money, or if makes his job easier," she said.

Some companies, however, may be flexible about working hours, so telecommuters can pick up their children from school or take them to soccer games. In return, an employee may be working earlier in the morning or later at night to get the work done.

ESTABLISHING A ROUTINE

Many telecommuters find working at home isn't quite as easy as they expected.

When Tory Patrick's public relations firm gave her the option to telecommute two years ago so she could move to Washington, D.C., from Orlando, Fla. with her husband, she took it.

"At first I was like, 'Wow, I can work from home in my pajamas,'" Patrick said. "I quickly learned it you can't work like that."

Experts say establishing a routine — getting dressed, going to a set work place in your home, taking a lunch break — is key.

It's also a good idea to check in with managers just as workers would do if they were still in the office. Patrick sets aside time to talk to her boss, sometimes scheduling a weekly meeting.

While it's a good idea to maintain a daily schedule so you can stay productive, Jayne Nanavaty-Dahl, manager of IBM Corp.'s group for work-at-home employees, said it's easy to overwork when you're telecommuting. When you don't have to leave the office to catch a train or make the drive home, it can be tempting to stay in front of the PC for just a few minutes more, and then find you've worked an extra hour or two.

"We make sure our employees know that at the end of their scheduled work day, they can stop working," Nanavaty-Dahl said.

Last year, InCharge Institute of America Inc., a large, nonprofit credit counseling organization based in Orlando, Fla., made a commitment to telecommuting. They asked 100 employees, including counselor Mary Jones to work from home.

"Time management was scary," Jones said. "I was afraid I wasn't going to be able to do it."

But she figured it out. Now, she said, "if I had to go back into the office, I'd quit.

BEING VISIBLE

When you work away from a traditional office, your colleagues and managers can't see or interact with you in the usual way. There's no stopping by a co-worker's desk or chatting with the boss in the break room. It can be harder to communicate and establish necessary working relationships.

IBM offers social networking tools to help employees discuss workplace matters. And telecommuters should be sure they stay in touch via phone, Internet chats and social media Web sites.

It's also a good idea to show up in the office from time to time, especially if you supervise other people. Make sure people see your face.

"Being there in person, that's how relationships are established," Truex said. "Sometimes if those relationships lapse, you are not being effective, or productive, anymore."

BEING EVALUATED

When employees work remotely, managers may question if those staffers actually working. The telecommuter can easily put those questions to rest.

Jones, the credit counselor, said that if she's not logged onto her home computer or queued up on the phone lines, she's not doing her job. "My job is still a call center, but I'm not in a call center environment," she said. So when she's connected online with her company, her boss can see that she is indeed working.

Patrick, the public relations account manager, is evaluated by her output.

"If there is a press release that needs to be done by Tuesday, I've got to do it whether I'm in the office or working at home," she said.

Truex said that when a worker is not in the office they are held much more accountable than those who are onsite.

"My advice: Work," she said.

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