Comments on: Web Work 101: Telecommuting – Out of Sight Doesn't Have to Mean Out of Mind

By: hsoi

hsoi — Wed, 25 Feb 2009 12:57:15 +0000

I gotta agree with Telesaur (I allude to this in here: http://hsoiblog.wordpress.com/2009/02/25/isolation/ ). Plus the fact we don’t have a commute helps us manage our time a lot better, yielding better productivity both for the job and in our personal lives.

By: Trina Hoefling

Trina Hoefling — Wed, 25 Feb 2009 02:53:06 +0000

thanks for the VoIP article. And Telesaur’s comments? Home-based workers set the bar for productivity. Maybe we should capture that data somehow? If easy, wouldn’t that be fun. Put down the myth and worry, “Are they really working?” once and for all. Whether virtual entrepreneur or virtual employee or just home-based in a sea of commuters, we are the antithesis of the myth. Good thread of comments….. I’m new,and enjoying it.

By: X3

X3 — Tue, 24 Feb 2009 22:28:53 +0000

Picking a good and cheap telephony package is a good way to keep home/office expenses low. I ran across an interesting article titled "Talk Is Cheap" reviewing top VoIP programs at DealDogs.net. This is the article link here to read a description and see videos about top webchat programs.

By: Telesaur

Telesaur — Tue, 24 Feb 2009 21:40:17 +0000

My favorite part of the article: “don’t expect the culture to change to suit you.” In fact, there’s not much room to slack as a teleworker— it’s all on your shoulders. But that’s not necessarily a bad thing. Telework forces you to be proactive about your responsibilities and your career. And that makes teleworkers more productive and efficient!

By: lotterygambling

lotterygambling — Tue, 24 Feb 2009 19:12:40 +0000

Right now I moved to my house to keep my job, no rent to pay

By: Trina Hoefling

Trina Hoefling — Tue, 24 Feb 2009 15:37:25 +0000

Yes, it will! Other financial crises have been the driving force behind virtual work expansion, and this will be no different. The worry comes in for career pathing for cultures not used to it. It will be a great ride.

By: Simon Mackie

Simon Mackie — Tue, 24 Feb 2009 10:28:11 +0000

@Trina Agreed that this is very much a transition time. The next few years will be very interesting. The economy at the moment is going to accelerate these changes to the way that we work, IMO.

By: Trina Hoefling

Trina Hoefling — Tue, 24 Feb 2009 05:12:38 +0000

Transition time in the way we work across boundaries of time and space, I think. Technology is the enabler, making virtual work possible, but people are still the key. Company cultures range from the occasional day to work from home and catch up on performance reviews, to virtual companies that may actually be an alliance of multiple virtual companies.
In a few years when the collaborative technologies truly are ubiquitous, often also across generations, I’ll be still amazed in what a short time technology, people, and work have transformed one another.
Trina Hoefling
author, Working Virtually
chapter author, The Handbook of High Performance Virtual Teams.

By: Judi Sohn

Judi Sohn — Tue, 24 Feb 2009 00:54:15 +0000

@JD, Absolutely. In fact, sometimes there’s no substitute for Real Life which is why once or twice a month I wake up at 4 am to catch a 6 am train out of Philly to DC, work the day and then catch a 6 pm train home, walking in at around 9 pm.

But the reality is that 80-90% of the time my communication with my coworkers is electronic. While phone calls are often necessary, it’s just not realistic or practical to spend hours a day on the phone.

By: JD

JD — Tue, 24 Feb 2009 00:45:19 +0000

If you’ve been successful being remote, you will know that there’s no substitute for occasionally picking up the phone. For as much as electronic communication can be informative, sometimes you really need to talk to people in Real Life.

By: Pete Johnson

Pete Johnson — Mon, 23 Feb 2009 23:49:25 +0000

Nice work Judi!

I’ve been a telecommuter for more than 10 years and completely agree with everything you’ve written here. In particular, being comfortable with written communication is absolutely essential. The ability to set context with words since body language isn’t there to help do it for you and avoiding ambiguity in the written form are both critical.

I’m a big GTD fan and practice Inbox Zero myself. People have to feel like they get more out of you remotely than they do face-to-face peers and responding promptly is a great way to do that.

The other advice I have if you are starting out remotely is to build in some virtual water cooler time when you can. Calling someone up and asking them about their weekend or that vacation they just took shows that you are trying. When you are the one with the privilege of working at home, the impetus is on you to build strong relationships with those who aren’t as lucky.

Pete Johnson
Hewlett-Packard Company
Marketing and Internet Platform Services IT
Portals and Applications Chief Architect
Personal Blog: http://nerdguru.net