So what makes telecommuting so challenging to implement for the individual and the company? To find out, think tank The Workforce Institute at Kronos asked two board members and veteran work-from-homers, Sue Meisinger and John Hollon, to discuss their on-the-ground experience with remote work and managing telecommuters. This interesting podcast is the result. It covers:

• The outsized impact of “the technology gods” on web workers’ existence
• The remote work adjustment period and the danger of driving your spouse crazy
• Community v. flexibility tradeoffs and the benefits of growing and meeting with your local network
• The importance of face-to-face meetings and realistic travel budgets
• How to remind office-based staff of the existence of remote workers and how to keep remote staff in the loop about other divisions of the company
• The current limitations of videoconferencing
• How remote work can enrich your talent pool

Image courtesy of Flickr user Plutor.

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The challenge in corporate web working is to be able to consistently prove that you can accomplish just as much, if not more, while working remotely as you could in a traditional office setting. You’re also fighting the perception some people have that “working from home” is really a euphemism for goofing off.

As a result, you need to work extra hard to make sure that people know you are productive, and there are so many things you can do to ruin your chances of being a successful. There are also plenty of things that your company can do that will make it difficult for you to be successful, but I want to focus on how avoid the many things that you can do to limit your chances of being a successful corporate web worker based on your behavior when working remotely.

Here are just a few examples of ways to make sure that you’re never allowed to work remotely again.

1. Refer to working from home as a “day off.”
2. Brag about how little you accomplish while telecommuting.
3. Spend all day on Twitter and Facebook talking about everything except work. Make sure that your co-workers and/or your boss is connected to you on those networks so they can see your bragging.
4. Start a side business and spend all day working on your personal projects, instead of work.
5. Don’t bother to set any goals or figure out what materials you need to do your work from home.
6. Better yet, make sure that you leave some important documents or technology at the office to make sure that you can’t do much work.
7. Make sure that you don’t have the infrastructure you need for working at home (such as a phone headset or solid Internet connection).
8. Squeeze in as many household chores as possible and plan to do big piles of laundry, dishes and home improvement tasks while you are at home.
9. Ignore all of your email and don’t respond to any messages.
10. Don’t answer the phone or return voicemails.
11. Make sure that you set your IM status to offline and ignore any incoming IM.
12. Take long naps. Bonus points for sleeping through scheduled meetings.
13. Fall asleep during your conference calls. Snoring is optional.
14. Refuse to speak during conference calls, especially if someone asks you a question.
15. Don’t bother to mute the phone line on conference calls when your kids or pets come tearing through the room.
16. Spend all day catching up on your soap operas, cartoons or other television shows.
17. Take conference calls or other business calls with the television on in the background.
18. Don’t bother to change out of your pajamas when you have video conferences over your webcam.
19. Don’t accomplish anything tangible or complete any deliverables.
20. When your boss asks what you did when you were working from home, just shrug and say “not much of anything.”

Some of these are obviously a bit tongue-in-cheek, but they do represent real things that people sometimes try to get away with when telecommuting. This isn’t to say that you can never to a load of laundry while working from home, but any of these activities can get in the way of being productive or prevent you from coming across as a responsible professional. We need to think carefully about how our actions might be perceived by our managers, co-workers, customers or other business people that we interact with on a regular basis. At the end of the day, most people are measured by their output. If you consistently get a lot of great quality work accomplished, your chances of success are much higher, but you don’t want a few bad habits to reflect poorly on your work.

What are your favorite examples of what not to do as a corporate web worker?

Photo by Flickr user Ryan Vaarsi used under Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license.

One major benefit of coworking is escaping the things in our home offices that make it difficult to work and be productive. The home environment, of course, is full of distractions and interruptions. We’re pulled by unfinished personal projects, interrupted by personal phone calls and knocks on the door, and tempted by many enjoyable ways to procrastinate.

But more than anywhere else, our most vulnerable moments occur at home. It’s where we worry that we aren’t doing the right things for our kids, and where we stare in the mirror and call ourselves ugly. It is where we open ourselves up the most. Consequently, home isn’t just where we live. It’s where our insecurities live, too.

Working from home often means not having someone right there with us to validate decisions or keep us and our business pointed in the right direction. We have to keep going, doing things while being confident from within ourselves that we are on the right path. That confidence, I’m finding, can be difficult to maintain when you work in a home office surrounded by reminders of your personal insecurities.

Leaving my home office to work seems to have the effect of putting away those insecurities. I literally just leave them at home. Putting on decent clothes to go to my coworking space is like putting on armor that keeps the insecurities at bay and lets me be at my professional best. Being around other people who treat me like the professional that I am reminds me to focus on my accomplishments, not my inner critic. In an outside office, I’m not surrounded by reminders that I’m a terrible housekeeper or of all my unfinished projects. Decisions are made faster and with more confidence. I can be more productive, and what I produce feels like better quality to me.

As Celine wrote a few months ago, some home office workers put on business clothes to work in their home offices to get a similar effect on their productivity. While I do find that dressing better to work at home helps a little, nothing has been as effective for me as getting out of my home office and seeking a new environment entirely.

We are all our own worst critics. When your only office mate is that critic, it’s easy to listen to that criticism and let it get to you.

Have you found any unexpected benefits from coworking?

Photo by iClipart.

Related GigaOM Pro content (sub. req.): Enabling the Web Work Revolution

But working from home and having your home repaired can be a chaotic mix. It tends to destroy your routine, concentration and even the quality of your work. So what can we home office workers do to prevent that from happening?

Use noise canceling headphones or other protective gear. This is the most straightforward approach, particularly if noise is your biggest problem. In a previous post, WWD reader Mau recommended the earmuff hearing protectors typically found in shooting ranges. If the noise isn’t too loud, maybe ever a pair of earplugs is enough.

Play some music or other non-distracting background noise. I’ve also tried drowning out the noise with music, preferably something instrumental or with foreign language vocals so that I’m not distracted when I write. If you’re solving the noise issue this way, just stick to whatever kind of music allows you to work. Alternatively, you can play white noise or soothing nature sounds. (Here’s a good collection of nature sounds. The menu on the left also points to ambient sound downloads, including white noise.)

Watch out for more than just the noise. Apart from auditory distractions, there are a lot of other things you need to look out for to stay safe. It may depend on the types of repairs you’re having, but there’s usually a lot of dust particles flying around, especially if you’re working with wood. There may also be materials, tools and other equipment lying around your house during this time.

Change your location. The great thing about being a web worker is that we can take our work with us wherever we go. As much as possible, I would look for a room or area that won’t be repaired for that day. That room then becomes my temporary office.

But sometimes, this approach isn’t enough. If you can leave someone you trust to monitor the repairs, you can work outside your home. This is an important move if you need to be available via voice chatting or conference calls. Just make sure you can be easily contacted if you need to make certain decisions regarding the repairs.

Change your work hours. Another strategy that’s been successful for me is to change my working hours around the repair schedule. I take advantage of the handyman’s rest days by working more hours on those days. Also, during his workdays, I get up very early and start work before he does. Alternatively, you can work during the evenings.

Make the effort to do routine home maintenance tasks. It might also help to take preventive measures by performing home maintenance tasks regularly. This may help you spot most potential problems along the way rather than force you to deal with one big problem that requires several noisy days or weeks to fix.

Have you ever worked from home during extensive repairs? What did you to do make sure your work got done despite the distractions?

Image by mihow from sxc.hu

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Some web workers go to great lengths to mask that our office and home are one and the same. We can use P.O. box or mailbox suite addresses, and install separate phone lines that we can always answer with a business salutation. We might keep rigidly to business hours and avoid any reference in conversation that would reveal our office/home marriage.

Of course, there is another option. We can let it all hang out, so to speak, and freely acknowledge our home office location and its attendant benefits (and disadvantages) to the people we do business with.

Which of these options is best to use is somewhat a function of the industry that each of us works in and our own personal comfort level. Personally, I have chosen the second option — complete openness. There are several reasons why:

It’s cheaper. All those additional services, like a mailbox suite and additional phone line, cost money that I would much rather spend on other things like a new computer gadget.

It’s too much work to pretend. Keeping up a pretense about where my office is just takes energy I’d rather put into my actual work. And besides, I know I’d eventually make a mistake anyway and let the secret out, so why make the effort to keep it a secret at all?

It tells me what people respect. If someone dismisses me because I work from a home office, I probably didn’t want to work with them anyway. People who respect me and the quality of my work will want to work with me, no matter where my office is located. Being upfront about where I work helps sort out who respects me, and not just the office they think I have.

It makes it easier for the next web worker. Having a good experience dealing with someone that they know is working from home will hopefully lay the groundwork with people to have a better attitude towards the next web worker they encounter.

It’s my life. The bottom line is that I work from my home office because it allows me to blend my work and my personal life in a way that works for me. Pretending otherwise would defeat the purpose of that. It would remove some of the very flexibility that I have sought in being a web worker, such as the ability to be able to care after school for my autistic 6-year-old daughter while I work.

Everyone has to do what works for them, but I have chosen to be open with my web worker status. Yes, it can occasionally be awkward or get me dismissed by a few people who don’t understand the new world of web work. But I make no apologies and find that my candor serves me well in more situations than it hurts me.

How open are you with people you do business with about where your office is? Does this help or hinder you?

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Ever heard the phrase “Spend less than you earn?” Personally, I like to take it a notch higher and spend much, much less than I earn. I can’t help it. I think I’m frugal by nature and that contributes a lot to my feeling of security with online work.

Frugality and web working go hand in hand, especially in a tough economy. Even if you find your business thriving, the cost of commodities tends to go up and some clients might unexpectedly close up shop. I also find that frugality comes with freedom — any extra money I can set aside goes to fund new opportunities or allows me to take some time off.

So whether the economy is struggling or thriving, it’s still a good idea to keep your expenses as low as possible, without sacrificing the quality of your work or your life. Here are some things you can do to keep the cost of web working as low as possible:

Tap your network to get deals and advice. Have many friends and contacts on social networks? Great! Ask them for advice whenever you’re looking to purchase a new item for your office or computer. Sometimes, you might be lucky enough to get some coupons or freebies.

Take advantage of garage sales and second-hand stores. Rather than buying new items from the store, it often makes sense to buy second-hand furniture.

Watch your electricity and phone bills. Nothing gives me a headache like an unexpected spike in my bills. Because of this, I tend to be mindful of overconsumption. Here are some ways to keep bills low:

• If you’re using a laptop, be mindful of when it’s completely charged, then unplug it from the socket.
• When an electrical gadget is broken and can’t be fixed, find energy-efficient replacements.
• Use VoIP rather than a landline for international calls.
• For home offices with closets and cabinets, be sure to keep them closed to lessen the area that needs cooling/heating.

Know how to balance free and paid web apps. The cost of web apps can add up to a lot. If you can’t afford to subscribe to every app you want, you need to better evaluate your needs.

Get your office space as a tax deduction. Talk to an accountant to see the possibility of making your home office tax deductible. If you live in the U.S., you can visit this page from the IRS for more information.

Upgrade rather than replace old equipment. Instead of buying a new computer why not find cheaper ways to boost its performance? Sometimes, just purchasing additional memory can make an old computer work as smoothly as a brand new one.

Have a work-related emergency fund. Why is this frugal? Well, having cash ready means that you won’t have to get into credit card debt for emergency work expenses. I often save 2 percent of my income for work-related emergencies like replacing irreparable computer components. That may seem like a small amount, but it adds up to quite a lot over a few months.

Use your computer as your entertainment system. The only reason why my house has cable TV subscription — and the only reason why we have a TV at all — is my housemates. They aren’t very computer-savvy. If I lived alone, I’d do away with both the TV and the cable subscription. I can easily replace it with something like Hulu or iTunes. Most of the downloads from iTunes are paid, so you might be wondering what makes it frugal. For me, ordering entertainment “à la carte” can often be cheaper, especially since I’ll be careful about where both my time and my money go.

Since needs and experiences vary from person to person, I suggest that you take the advice you can use and forget the rest. After all, there’s no such thing as the right way to save money — there’s only what’s right for you.

Do you think you’re frugal? How do you keep your work expenses low?

Image by scol22 from sxc.hu

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I don’t let my family mess with my home office. Sure, they can borrow my stapler and tape as long as they promise to bring it back: one sneak held on to my stapler for a week! At least it’s not a red Swingline stapler (I wish). But no leaving toys and backpacks behind. It’s also the tidiest place in the house, something important to the neat freak I am.

The home office also sets aside a working space that sends a message to the family that I’m working. Moms and Dads can keep dreaming that their office space will keep out children. However, kids will disrupt your work less often in a dedicated office than if you work in a bedroom or living room.

Though a small space, the setup works well. Let’s just say the master bathroom has more room than the office. Every web worker’s office space requirements differ based on their jobs and space available.

Before I became a full-time web worker, I had my “office” in the family room. This let me keep an eye on the baby — now five-years-old — and the other kids. I moved into my current home office when the youngest was two and I switched to full-time freelancing.

This post lists things I have that make me feel “at home” in my home office. Maybe they’ll inspire yours. For more inspiration, see 5 Inspirational Workspaces.

Desk. Not just any desk. The desk housing the computer, keyboard and mouse must feel comfortable. This includes the right height for the mouse, keyboard and monitors. Ergonomics do matter: I’ve worked on someone else’s desk for a while and my wrist and arm ached. That signaled to me that my desk setup was right for me. A good setup makes a real difference. If you feel pain within an hour, keep adjusting. My desk is a cheap one with wheels (leftovers from working in the family room), and it works. The fancier L-shaped desk facing the wall sits to my right and behind me. It holds supplies, files, paperwork, laser and color printers, stationery and décor.

Shelves. I only need one bookshelf because the L-shaped desk contains the needed shelves (see in image below) for supplies, papers, folders and other knickknacks. I used to have two bookshelves (the other sat below the picture you see in the above image), which made the office space a tad uncomfortable and tight. After rearranging things, I moved my lesser important books upstairs where most of the books live.

Supplies. As much as I limit paper use, I’ll always need staplers, tape, rubber bands, scissors and stamps. I don’t waste time hunting down for these little items because they wait for me in the right spots. A little container holding pens, pencils, highlighters and scissors sits to the left of my keyboard (proud southpaw here) for easy access. The tape and stapler sit on a shelf behind me because I don’t use them as much as the writing tools. Next to the pencil holder is a small three-drawer container that holds the checkbook, sticky notes and little items needing to be within reach without turning around. It prevents clutter — muy importante!

Equipment. An all-in-one printer saves space. I have two printers: a laser printer and an all-in-one that includes a scanner, copier and color printer. I also have a fax machine. Two monitors sit on my desk side-by-side and I’d make room for a third. Having items on two screens at the same time makes me more efficient. Since I don’t want to turn up the heat or air conditioner just for me, I keep a portable fan and heater in the office. That’s one advantage of a small office — it’s easier to control the temperature. An ergonomic chair makes a difference and is well worth the investment. That and a footstool support my ergonomic setup. Also a lamp ensures I have the right lighting when it’s a rainy day or nighttime.

Books. As a writer, I rely on many reference books even though many web sites provide similar references.

Personal items. My walls hold my college diploma, several career certificates, my skydiving certificate from my first skydive, my spouse’s military awards and two art works, one of which contains famous Fort Worth buildings — where I was born and raised. While my spouse doesn’t work in this office, I like having his awards here because it’s his home, too. Besides, his awards don’t have a logical place anywhere else in the house.

The L-shaped desk contains photos of the kids, little toys, a Donald Duck clock that belonged to my father and other mementos. Not all employees like to have personal items in their cubicles or offices and that’s OK. I hardly look at these items, but they provide a personal touch and the occasional smile.

A home office provides the right environment to ensure productivity. The colors, the windows, lighting and décor create the atmosphere. The desk, equipment and supplies support daily work activities.

What do you have in your home office? How does it make a difference in your work?

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Except for my new neighbors, of course.  They moved in last week and, since then, it’s been one loud evening after another.

The first thing I attempted was to talk to them.  When they opened their door, it became evident that there were no serious adults to talk to.  The people spread out in the living room looked at most 20 years old, and there were a few beer bottles lying around.  The karaoke machine was on at full blast, blaring out “Close to You” by The Carpenters.  I asked for the owner of the house and a young woman, I’m guessing she was 17, came up to me.  I said the little speech that I’ve been practicing in my head:

“Listen, I don’t want to cramp on your fun, but I usually work at around this time and the rest of the neighbors are asleep.  I know parties are fun and everything, but this has been going on all week.  Do you mind toning it down a little so I can get some work done and everyone else can sleep peacefully?”

She gave me a blank look and said “Why don’t you just work in the morning?”

“I would, but it’s noisier in the morning because the neighborhood kids are running around, all my pets are awake…Uhm, where are your parents?”

At around this time their little party starts quieting down a bit and the others start looking at me.  Then she agreed to lessen the noise.   As I walked away, I overheard one of her guests making a quip about how I was overreacting.

The following night, it became evident that our little conversation didn’t work.  In the Philippines, calling the police because of neighborhood noise won’t be taken seriously, so that option is out.  This time, I resort to headphones and Puccini.

It works out well – at first.  Then I realized that the music was too powerful for the piece I was writing, so I played some acoustic jazz.  But as the hours wore on, I realized that I was spending too much time rearranging my MP3 files to complement whatever it was I was working on.

Here’s what didn’t work: my first solution was to try and get my neighbor to change.  This left my peace of mind in their hands. The trouble with this approach was that I still had no control over how to fix the problem, and they don’t care about my problem even if they are the ones causing it.  After all, I’m not giving them any inconvenience.

My second attempt was to fight fire with fire.  I was hoping that by playing my own music directly into my ears, I would cancel out the neighbor’s karaoke machine and loud voices. What I actually ended up doing was creating more distractions for myself, giving myself more stimuli to fight.

Today I’m trying something new.  I remembered that on a recent trip, I got a pair of complimentary earplugs from an airline.  I took those out of the drawer and placed them on my ears.  While I can still hear a slight murmur from the neighbor’s karaoke machine, it’s not too distracting.

This solution is the simplest, since all it involves is the earplugs, which I can take out of my drawer anytime I want.  I’m letting the neighbors go on with their lives, while I go on with my work.  I basically found a solution that is within my control, no matter what the outside world does.

In “The Art of Learning”, Josh Waitzkin introduced a chapter with this quote: “To walk a thorny road, we may cover its every inch with leather or we can make sandals.”  I guess that’s what I’m doing by wearing earplugs.  I’m making sandals.

How do you cope with noisy neighbors as a web worker?  Are they understanding of the fact that you work from home?  Do you have any suggestions for other web workers with noisy neighbors?

Image by Peter Suneson from Sxc.hu

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But it’s not always advantageous that your clients hear background noise during calls or voice chat sessions.  Especially if you have a rooster.

Schedule your client calls.

I mentioned my pet rooster again because he produces the loudest noise here at home.  I used to have an absolute look of terror when I’m on Skype with a client and he would start crowing.  I wrote in a previous post here at WWD that I worked around this problem by scheduling my work tasks around the time when my pets are asleep. This allows me to call up clients without worrying about any noises the neighbors or pets might make.

Scheduling is also beneficial if your clients are the ones initiating calls. This tends to make both parties more productive. Clients can batch requests or comments rather than calling you every time they think of something new. You can also spend more time on the work itself, rather than answering the phone all day.

After you’ve determined your schedule, don’t forget to notify the other people in your house. Let them know the hours where interruptions and noises are discouraged. If you have a designated home office space, you can also put up signs outside your door to tell others that you are not to be disturbed.

Minimize calls

Another technique that seems to work is to minimize client calls in the first place. Web workers who have a noisy work environment will benefit from this approach.

Of course, some clients need more ‘phone time’ than others. These are the clients that you should call more often. Those clients who are heavy tech users might prefer daily email reports that they can check and read whenever they want. These people tend to be minimalist in their communication style. I have one client that I’ve worked with for years, and I’ve never had to call him. He sees calls as a waste of time and judges me solely based on the quality of my work. (But this doesn’t excuse him from receiving greeting cards from me once in a while!)

Think outside the office

Just because you have a home office, it doesn’t mean you have to stay there all the time. A colleague of mine lived near a construction site, which made it impossible for him to make calls during the day. Since talking to clients at night wasn’t an option for him, he would head to a quiet coffee shop during less busy hours and receive/make client calls from there. If going out isn’t an option either, find another room in the house where you can communicate with your clients without noisy interruptions.

How about creating background noise?

InventorSpot recently reviewed two CDs containing busy office background noise. The idea is that you should play the CDs when you’re on the phone with a client, so that they’ll think you’re working in a busy office rather than a home office.

While the concept behind these CDs is interesting, I feel that they are a bit misleading. First of all, unless I’m communicating with a client on behalf of my content writing team, I make them aware that I am working alone.

Admitting this never seemed detrimental to the client’s perception of me. The benefits of this arrangement must always be mentioned upfront, even indirectly. Don’t say that you are “just” a freelance worker who “only” works at a home office. Using phrasing like this shows the client the low esteem you have for your style of working. Let them know that because you do the work by yourself, you give them the personal, one-on-one customer service they need. This means they don’t waste time being passed around from manager to manager until they get the answers or action they want.

Presenting yourself as a fully staffed company rather than a solo contractor can also raise different expectations. They might demand more work than you can deliver, with a turnaround time that seems impossible. If they absolutely need this type of delivery, you can call or hire other freelancers and work as a team. This is where your network of independent contractors may come in handy.

Is it hard for you to talk to clients over the phone when you’re in your home office? Do you think it makes you seem unprofessional?

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