More telework Stories

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Laptop Outside

New scientific evidence is emerging about the benefits of telework, supporting workers’ desire to work out of the office. Stowe Boyd discusses the implications involved in the increasingly popular post-industrial adoption of telecommuting, and explains why coworking may be the missing link. Read more »

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What lessons has Chuck Robbins, a senior VP running Cisco’s sales team for the Americas, learned from his experience at a company that was not only an early adopter of flexible working, but also builds a number of remote work solutions? Read more »

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problems with telecommuting expansion

Stephen Ruth, a professor of public policy at George Mason University, has argued that telecommuting cannot keep expanding without creating significant issues. We called him up and asked him why he is less optimistic than some about the expansion of telecommuting. Read more »

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bootcamp

At WebWorkerDaily we’ve suggested previously that the reason that adoption of telecommuting is stalling may be resistant middle managers, and proposed sending them off to web work boot camp. Now there’s new evidence that we may have been on to something. Read more »

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telecommuting for elite only

Not everyone can work via the web due to the requirements of their jobs. But are there other more subtle limitations to who can work at a distance? A recent study from The Telework Research Network sheds some light on this question. Read more »

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overcoming creative block

If you work on your own and get creatively blocked, you’re equally on your own to try and unstick yourself and get productive again. Programmer, designer, copywriter — whatever your field of work, it’s the same dilemma: How do you prod your unresponsive brain to deliver the goods? Read more »

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remote work training for middle managers

With technology advancing, there are fewer practical restrictions to act as a barrier to increased uptake of virtual working. So what is holding organizations back from broader adoption of the practice? Perhaps, in part, middle managers and their lack of training. Read more »

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Telework Enhancement Act and business

The Telework Enhancement Act is designed to increase telework opportunities for federal employees. Agencies are now winding up the process of complying with its requirements. What lessons do their efforts hold for businesses interested in starting their own web work programs? Read more »

Subscriber Content

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toolbox

The enterprise collaboration space has entered an exciting new phase of collaboration. New software and applications are coming to market, as are new concepts for how to work and communicate in the knowledge age. From consumer-grade apps like those from Box.net and Huddle to software from long-established players like Microsoft and Oracle, these tools are taking collaboration technology past the traditional IT decision-making process and changing the way we approach the workday. Additional companies in this report include Skype, Huddle, Jive, Moxie and Yammer. For a full list of companies, and to read the full report, sign up for a free trial. Read more at GigaOM Pro »

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723865_times_slipping_away_1

I’ve been working on site one day a week, and I’ve noticed something that differentiates the way I operate compared to my “in-office” colleagues: I see my time differently than they do. And, to be honest, I think it makes me more productive than they are. Read more »

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wfh

One of the key topics that we’ll be discussing at our Net:Work conference is how to manage workers remotely. As the workforce becomes more mobile and distributed, with people working on projects on an ad-hoc basis, it’s a problem that more businesses will need to tackle. Read more »

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One thing that struck me while reading this interesting Guardian article by Phil Daoust about the rise in the number of people working from home were the figures claimed for the increases in productivity of organizations with telecommuting employees. Read more »

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I’ve recently been thinking about how Google Voice, Google Wave, and Google Buzz joining the full Google Apps lineup would make it a budget-friendly teleworking platform. Organizations can literally purchase themselves a “telework in a box” solution. Read more »

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After you put your first corporate telework program in place, you’ll find that the actions and inactions of management, workers staying in the office, and teleworkers all have an impact on the success of the program. Managing these stakeholders and the politics they bring into play is integral to the success of teleworking in your organization. Read more »

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In planning to work from home, we consider in detail the technicalities, the home office setup, and all the fun, exciting things we’ll do to fill in all that extra time we’ll have. This is, after all, a lifestyle change, and there’s a lot to think […] Read more »

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Editor’s note: This is a guest post from Nicole Goluboff. Goluboff, a lawyer and Advisory Board Member of the Telework Coalition, is the author of “The Law of Telecommuting,” “Telecommuting for Lawyers” and numerous articles on telework. The reasons for employers to decentralize workers are becoming harder […] Read more »

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We’ve all read the news stories that identify social implications of a world increasingly conducted electronically, rather than in person. It seems that in an environment where individuals and organizations can manufacture themselves new personas, and nothing’s real until we broadcast it across a network of […] Read more »

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In the age of continuous connectivity, many a web worker may feel a sense of wry irony in the fact that often, when we need answers on something, the person we need those answers from is uncontactable. We all diligently plan ahead, so we allow plenty […] Read more »

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Adding a new team member to a project or a company can take some work, but when that team is virtual, the process can be even more complex. I routinely work with other web workers on projects and every time we need to bring in someone […] Read more »

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Video conferencing is hot, and as such, companies are jockeying for position in the space. The latest to do so is Cisco, which as Stacey reported over at GigaOM, today offered $3 billion — in cash — for Norwegian video conferencing equipment manufacturer Tandberg. As Stacey […] Read more »

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I’ve been working on the web — in one form or another — since 1994, and on the Internet since 1987, so I’ve had a number of years to learn some very tough lessons along the way. In trying to summarize my best advice to someone […] Read more »

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I use public transport a lot. And where I live, public transport is notoriously unreliable. This was getting to be quite annoying, since waiting for trains and trams meant wasting precious work time. Or so I thought. But then one day, standing on a deserted platform […] Read more »

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If you’ve ever been robbed in a public place, you’ll know all too well the feeling of horror that ensues. For the remote worker on the road, that horror increases exponentially with the realization that you’ve lost your work, your colleagues’ details and data, your stored […] Read more »

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It doesn’t matter how focused you are, working from your remote office likely entails more than a few distractions. For each of us those distractions will be different (I just had to break my morning’s work to move my goat to a new patch of grass; […] Read more »

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When a friend of mine heard that I was teleworking, she said “I can’t imagine doing my work without my boss watching my back. What motivates you to get anything done?” I paused for a second, then replied, “I love doing it.” Fast forward to a […] Read more »

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It’s Monday morning — time to get back into the swing of things for another week. When I worked on-site I used to use this time to slide back into office culture and catch up with friends. But if I wasn’t careful, I’d have trouble getting […] Read more »

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Creative block affects us all — not just novelists or artists. Most web working roles involve some sort of creativity. Perhaps we don’t know where to start when we’re commencing a new project (I call this “blank page syndrome”). Or maybe you’re faced with a challenge […] Read more »

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Have you had a break today? It sounds simple enough, but we all know how difficult it can be to drag ourselves away from our desks during the work day. Since we’re not surrounded by colleagues heading out for lunch or coffee, and we all have […] Read more »

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Which days of the week are the most productive for you? We all know that we have different ways of working, and that for each of us, a week (or given work period) represents a cycle, as Angus Kidman reminded us this week. That cycle has […] Read more »

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When was the last time you stepped outside your working comfort zone? Amber’s recent post about business success mentioned having to “do things we’re uncomfortable doing, like … ‘putting ourselves out there.’” Her post reminded us how often we deny ourselves certain possibilities simply because we’re […] Read more »

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It’s become almost commonplace to consider teleworking as a career move. From companies wanting to reduce costs to individuals looking for alternative income streams, there’s no shortage of people interested in this option. But no matter how easy it looks on paper, successful teleworking takes time […] Read more »

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Many large corporations, and even Federal government agencies, are increasingly interested in launching telecommuting programs as a tool for reducing overhead and for employee retention. However, such programs aren’t turnkey affairs. They require infrastructure, planning and strategy in order to be successful. This post is going […] Read more »

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While some employers will pay for the equipment expenses of their teleworking employees, there’s only so much they can cover. Freelancers like myself have it in even tougher — they need to provide their own gear from the beginning. I guess the price of location independence […] Read more »

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I’ve just experienced the worst phone conference of my career. It was a complete shambles, which certainly didn’t inspire any confidence in me about the project the “team” is supposed to be working on.

I’d prepped detailed questions about the project, set a timer on my computer so I was ready to expect the call, and had my project notes handy. I was all ready to go. Unfortunately, the team wasn’t, and the meeting was a failure — almost!

Here’s a quick refresher on the ingredients for a successful phone conference. Read more »

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When I started working remotely, I had the nice — if misguided — idea that I’d spend my days working away in the home office with a pot of tea at my elbow. But in the last couple of weeks I’ve done more work out of my office than in. In fact, I’m writing this post on a public bus, in the dark, at 8.40pm.

Working quite literally on the road has some serious limitations, and I’m not just talking about technicalities like power supplies and web access. It can be extremely difficult to focus if you’re in a public or unfamiliar space, or if you’re not in one place for more than an hour at a time. But as they say, necessity is the mother of invention, and over these last few weeks, I’ve developed a few tricks to help myself concentrate and be productive in the least conducive, and highly pressured circumstances. Here are my top five. Read more »

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Web workers, especially those of us who are self-employed, will sometimes encounter people who, it seems, take us less seriously because we don’t have a corporate cube to work in. There are two ways to deal with this. Some web workers go to great lengths to […] Read more »

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It seems so alluring — you, your computer, your home office, and all the silence/Bach/Led Zeppelin you can handle. This is the home office ideal, right? Right.

But what happens when you put someone else in the picture? What if, right next to the potted palm in your home office, your partner or work-from-home housemate materialized?

With more and more people working remotely at least some of the time, this is a very real question that many of us face. What should you consider if you’re about to embark on a multi-person home workplace? Read more »

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Like most people, I’ve worked on both sides of the remote working fence — as a remote worker, and as an office-bound staffer working with remote colleagues. From the latter perspective, there are three things that I really found difficult about working with remote colleagues. If you can overcome these in your day-to-day work, you’ll likely make life easier for yourself, as well as your on-site colleagues. Read more »

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Today, I received a CD of images from another remote contractor, who included a blank with compliments slip in the envelope, but nothing else. As someone who works remotely, I can’t believe people are still doing this stuff! Are you? If so, stop it!

Think about it: as a remote worker, your contact is limited. You need to see each point of contact as an opportunity to build rapport. I promise: this is what makes the difference between remote workers who are fun to work with and really part of the team, and remote workers you’d happily never work with again. Read more »

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