Telecommuters: HELP!!

[Alexandra 55]

A job I held for 15 years is coming available again, seven years after I left. I am seriously considering trying to be re-hired, but the reason I resigned in the first place was the daily commuting. It's in NYC, about a 75 minute commute from my home. Once I had children, that was just a no-go.

But the job is one I loved, and I miss it every day of my life. There is nothing remotely like it near me, not on any level. So I'm trying to figure out a practical way to take the job back, but limit my commuting to 3 days a week. If there are any telecommuters here, I'd really appreciate hearing exactly how it's managed in your company. What do I need to propose to make it happen?

E-mail is no problem, obviously. But how do the phones work? What about a setup where each person has an extension, and my extension would just ring in both places, home and the office. Is that possible?

What does your job involve? How does your office reach you? What kind of accommodations did they or do they make for your physical absence in the office, if that was an issue?

Thanks for any insights, and I hope I'll think of more questions when you share your stories with me. If this works out, I will be the HAPPIEST bandster in the WORLD!!!

[StrawartS 2]

Alex - as far as the phones, I imagine you could just transfer your office phone to your home or cell when you weren't there. My mom does this with her business. Most phone companies have a really easy code, like *72, and the line gets transferred to whatever number you put in.

If you go the transferring route, you might consider getting a separate business extension at your home. If you had the phones transferred over the weekend, you probably don't want them to ring on your main line.

This is so exciting! I hope you can find a way to make it work.

[Mikey 0]

Now I work for myself, but I have had several jobs where I telecommuted for someone else. As StrawartS said, I had them transfer calls to a separate business line I had at my home. Back then, one of the reasons for the separate line was for ease of accounting regarding my long distance charges... but with all the phone companies going to flat-rates for all calls, that's not as important anymore (unless you make international calls)... but if so, you might volunteer to pay for the additional line to be installed as long as the company foots the monthly bill for the line.

You're right - email could be easy - but it might be a pain too. If the company has their own internal network system, you may have to convince their IT folks to configure your computer to remotely access their network. It's not difficult from a technical standpoint - but it may be difficult to convince a non-technical manager that it's easy to do.

It is a different life - there are different expectations set on you. For example, when you are working at an office, there are plenty of times where someone might not find you at your desk: restroom or smoke break, out for lunch, talking with a colleague in their cube/office, filing, copying, etc. So they expect to leave you a note, or a message, or just drop by later. But when they don't find you at your desk at home, they just assume that you're lounging on the couch in front of the TV, or something equally silly. In other words, you might end up needing to be even more available than you are at an office.

Conference calls, mobile phone text messages, emails, instant messaging... it's easy to get caught up in 3 or 4 conversations at the same time - but if you're even a little bit organized, telecommuting is a beautiful thing.

The part that was hardest for me was setting boundaries. It's very easy to work too many hours... You're sitting on the couch, and a thought pops into your mind: "I forgot to do X!" So you think, "No sweat - I'll just hop over there and do it." And before you know it, it's 10:30 and you've worked a 12, 13, 14 hour day without realizing it.

I hope it works out for you!! I've always wanted to meeet the HAPPIEST bandster in the world!

[Alexandra 55]

Thanks, guys. I know that in this day and age the technical arrangements should be a piece of cake. The challenge is that this office has a two-person staff, so on days that I would be home there'd be a big hole in the office. But as long as I can carry the telecommunications burden equally no matter where I am, I really don't think that should be an issue. And the other staffer might appreciate some more freedom, as well. But communication between the two staffers is paramount, so we'd both have to be very comfortable with whatever arrangement is found.

My biggest problem is likely to be delegating; I'm so much more efficient than most people I've ever worked with that it's usually just easier to do it myself. (My long tenure there is one of the reasons they can manage with only two employees, in fact, and when I left they kept me on freelance to do the books. They had to replace me with 1.5 people, in other words. :eekB: I'm thinking that would be one of the attractions of taking me back--they could fire their bookkeeper!)

[Wheetsin 714]

If there are any telecommuters here, I'd really appreciate hearing exactly how it's managed in your company. What do I need to propose to make it happen?

E-mail is no problem, obviously. But how do the phones work? What about a setup where each person has an extension, and my extension would just ring in both places, home and the office. Is that possible?

What does your job involve? How does your office reach you? What kind of accommodations did they or do they make for your physical absence in the office, if that was an issue?

Thanks for any insights, and I hope I'll think of more questions when you share your stories with me. If this works out, I will be the HAPPIEST bandster in the WORLD!!!

We have the option to telecommute. I don't do it officially, but work from home whenever I need/want to. With my company, there's a formal process for people who want to become "scheduled telecommuters" (the opposite of what I am -- informal -- these people will have it on their calendar that "M, W, F - work from home." Mine is as needed/wanted) download a form and submit it to their manager. Managers review and make a determination.

Our telecommuters use their regular phone line b/c they're required to have broadband access, which the company pays for... so no worries about the home phone being busy due to work. Just about everyone in the entire org. uses a laptop, so they're provided with monitor, kayboard, mouse, printer, fax, etc. at home.

My job is more desk than outward, I develop learning systems and distance-based e-learning programs. I don't do "traditional" training (e.g. standing up in front of a class) so my absence doesn't really matter... plus there are two of us in our office, and my peer does most of the on-site stuff while I do more enterprise-wide... so the only time I'm needed in the office really is if she has something she can't make and I need to cover for her.

As for reaching me, I will send a note to anyone I'm working with directly letting them know when I am working from home. I will dial in to my work phone from home and change my message to reflect that I'm at home and leave my home number. I will also usually set my Out of Office on indicating I'm working from home with contact info. We also use an IM client, so I indicate whether or not I will be available through IM, and also what hours approx. I plan to work.

On the larger scale, we have training programs for managers of virtual teams, how to build a virtual team, teambuilding with telecommuters, EPSS for being able to manage a telecommuter, how to evaluate their performance, etc. There has to be a decent backbone & cultural support in place before a telecommuting arrangement can really work.

Feel free to PM me if you have any specific questions. :eekB:

[Alexandra 55]

Wheetsin, thanks for the detailed response! Sounds like a great gig you have there. Working from home is usually production-oriented (you get paid only for the number of XXs you can YY in ZZ hours), so there's lots of incentive to be productive. Do you find you work better or worse at home? Do you take advantage of the home days to do things like go to the dentist or get your car inspected?

My goal would be to make it undetectable to the caller that I'm not in the NYC office. I already have broadband at home, so I think all I'll need to add is a separate phone line and get a laptop so I can work while commuting if I have to.

Right now I'm waiting to hear from the organization if they have any interest whatsoever in exploring this with me, or if the door is closed completely. If they say let's talk, I will be over the moon!!

[Wheetsin 714]

Most of our telecommuting jobs are not production-oriented, they are phone-based customer service jobs (still no requirements of number of calls handled tho). Jobs like account reps, underwriters, etc. Their productivity can be tracked, because their managers know about how many calls should be handled, and because they have a given turnaround time to resolve issues, but there is no direct "X per hour" type goal.

My job is typically NOT one that is allowed to be done at home, in other companies, mainly for political reasons. Everyone already thinks "training" departments do nothing, so if we don't even have the face time... Fortunately a lot of work has been done at my employer to change the culture around "training" and to build good partnerships with the business, so we don't have this same concern. In my case, the building where I'm located is my official customer, but not the customer I usually do work for, so it's an even better prospect for telecommuting. My entire team is a virtual team. My boss is in Chicago, me and my onsite co-worker are here (we're in the same dept. but report to different managers), we have some people in FL, some in CO, some in NJ... I've worked here about a year and have only seen my boss twice.

I do like the flexibility of working from home, and I do use the time to run errands. It's easy. In the office I typically work 7:30 - 3:30, with no lunch break (eat while working at my desk). When I work from home I might work off and on from 6am - 6pm, and take care of personal errands during the day. MOST of the time when I call a work from home day it's because I have a Dr. appt, or a delivery I have to sign for, or something that has it make more sense to stay home rather than do a lot of extra driving. Or, if I'm not feeling well, it's a way to "stay home" without having to take PTO... As long as I'm at my critical meetings (generally conference calls, which I can do from home), it doesn't matter when I work... since I'm mostly building courses, as long as my course deadline is met, I'm good... I don't have "daily" deliverables.

I am a lot more productive at home because I don't have the "drive by" traffic... people wanting to stop and chat, people asking me questions b/c I'm the only one there, and then I have to go find someone who can help them, etc. The worst I have is the dog needing to go potty. I also end up working longer hours, actually, because I can start my day sooner, and end it later.

[barbara465 2]

I'm a project manager and work from home whenever I can. I can do most of my scheduling, status reports, financial analysis, from my home office. I use phone conferencing and I-conferencing when required. The technology now allows for net meetings where I can share my desktop with attendees. They can view the same documents as I am displaying. I can also do Powerpoint presentations. I use this when in the office as well as some of my clients are dispersed around the country and in Europe. Working from home is especially nice when dealing with Europe and Asia. Getting up early for meetings for their afternoons is easier from home.

I do take breaks for Doctor's appointments, etc., but tend to work more hours when home. I work the hours I would usually be commuting so that is at least 2 hours extra a day. I can schedule my time so noone is really "looking" for me in other hours.

Good luck and hope you can work this out.

[Marimaru 7]

For the phone thing, I would recommend just having a cell phone. I don't know what kind of business it is, or what kind of calls you would be getting, but they can probably wire it so that you extension would just transfer to your cell phone at all times (in office, at home, wherever). There are lots of plans where incoming calls are free, etc. The only problem with that is that when people find out they can reach you at any time... they reach you at any time.