I have been working remotely for Confio Software since last June. The past eight months have been an adjustment after having worked in an office for the previous 12 years of my professional career. I’ve learned what works best for me, and what doesn’t work well for others that need to work with me remotely.
Believe me, I *know* that the idea of working from home sounds amazing. But the reality is that it can be harder to get things done from your home office than if you were working out of a cubicle somewhere else. Which means you need to work harder at being successful when working remotely.
The biggest issue I face working remotely is that people can’t see me. I know, that seems to be the point, right? Well, the trouble is that I have a role where people need a few minutes of my time spread throughout the day. If I worked in an office then people could see me if I was on the phone. When I work remotely, no one knows if I am on the phone, so they will try to contact me (email, instant message, even call me) and I won’t be able to respond very quickly.
Now, and here’s where working remotely really bites me in the arse, when I get stretched thin with many tasks, I tend to get very focused. And when that happens I go into ‘coach’ mode, which means I get very short and direct with people. When things are hectic I like to give very brief and direct instructions, and we all know how awful that can be when communicated through text. It is something I need to improve upon and would caution anyone working remotely to be prepared for this as well.
(I suggested that we simply enable my webcam for people to see if I am busy with another customer but my boss quickly told me that using a webcam by default is probably not the best idea I have ever had until I told him that I could UStream it and at certain times of the day charge $6.95 a minute. He then said “no, thank you, but don’t even think about it.”)
In addition to the communication issues there are also the isolation issues. When I am in the office it is easy for me to sit with the developers and review new product features. We can spend an hour and get a lot more done than anything we try to do remotely. Certain things just work better in person, and reviewing code and product features are one of those things. When working remotely it is just harder to develop good working relationships with everyone on the team.
I think the best thing anyone could do is to make certain they spend at least 2 days a month working out of the main office. That would help alleviate a lot of the communication issues that remote workers often face. So, if you are thinking about working remotely, and want to be successful, then you should also realize that your amount of travel may increase as a result.
But the trade off is an amazing experience. It is wonderful for me to be able to walk the kids to school, to have lunch with my wife, to be home to sign for a package, to help make dinner, to get the kids from school at the end of the day, and all the other awesome things that you would never be able to accomplish when working out of an office.
I hit the job jackpot with Confio, and I know that. And after eight months I see opportunities to improve upon the experience for everyone. But for anyone else thinking it is easy I want this post to remind you that it takes hard work to make something like this work well. It doesn’t just happen, and working remotely is not for everyone.
Great post. Comes during my 2nd week of working at home and right after the first little tiff with Mrs. Scary since she’s already used to working at home all by herself & now has to contend with having me around. It’s absolutely a learning experience. Wouldn’t trade it in for anything at this point, but you’re 100% right, it’s not easy.
Grant,
Yeah, I was thnking about you when I hit ‘publish’ and was wondering how you were holding up. Ping me any time you have questions, I am happy to help.
Great post and great tips. I’ve been working remotely for about 4 months now on all but one day of the week. Same concerns that you have.
We use Office Communicator (Actually Lync now) at my company and it is great for a few of your concerns above:
1.) I use it as my phone. Same number wherever I am, just use a headset and my internet connection. Call quality is great.
2.) Folks can get me. They can IM me, initiate a phone call, share their desktop, webcam or my desktop all from one app.
3.) People can see where I am (you can configure it to set presence and remember where you’ve been. So people know if I am at home, in the office or at a client site).
4.) People can see what my status is – If I am on a call it says so, if I am away – it says so (gotta watch that one ;-)) and if I am working on something critical I set the status to Do Not Disturb.
Toughest part for me is with the kids all at home and having to relocate the office location if the baby is sleeping and I have a call (office room is next to the nursery)
Mike,
Yes, having the kids at home is a mixed blessing, no question.
Great post!
I think I would go crazy working remotely full time. I like to have face time with key business people at least weekly.
That’s why I get the best of both worlds 🙂 I work remotely 1-2 days a week and spend the other days in the office.
What about all the productivity advantages of working remotely? Sometimes it can be good to be less accessible if you need to get some uninterrupted “focus time”.
As a tip, I find that booking meetings with myself in Outlook raises my availability visibility so that people will look to contact me only when there is a genuine need to at these times.
John,
Yes, working from home can be productive, no question. I try using Outlook to book myself time for various items, but my schedule also needs to stay fairly flexible in case a customer needs my attention.
Sarcasm is another thing that you have to be very wary of. While that is true for all written communication, I think working from home leads to a lot more of that, so it can creep in without much thought. In person, your tone, facial expressions, and body language can often account for more of the intent behind what you’re saying than the actual words you choose. Sarcasm in print, on the other hand, is much more likely to be misinterpreted.
I agree that it is not for everyone and that it can be difficult to make things work. You have to be motivated and, while I hate the term “work without supervision,” you do have to learn to solve problems and complete tasks without peers (not necessarily supervisors). That in and of itself can be quite an adjustment.
My transition was not overnight, it came in phases… I used to work in an office 5 days a week. Then for three or four years I worked in the office 2 days a week, because the commute to Boston was horrible. Now I am working from home and I’ve already made back all the productivity I used to lose on the train or – when absolutely necessary – sitting in traffic. I have about 8-10 hours a week that I didn’t have before, and that is priceless.
Aaron,
Oh, how I do not miss sitting in traffic. The hours of productivity lost while commuting to and from an office where I would essentially be on the phone all day…how miserable.
I’ve been working from home for about 4 years now, and I agree with your opinions–it’s totally worth it, but it isn’t all double-rainbows.
Going and chatting with someone, even if it’s not related to work, is so much easier in the office. Speaking up in meetings where most of the people are in-person can be difficult (you kind of have to interrupt people sometimes, since you can’t use body language to show you have something to say). Sometimes people just assume you don’t work very hard (although I work harder from home than I have to in the office).
Plus there’s the whole “living at work” side of the coin.
But, as you also add, the more obvious benefits far outweigh the drawbacks.
Jordan,
The first double-rainbow reference this week, thanks! Yes, “living-at-work” can be very difficult to adjust to at times.
I usually work from my office, but what snowpocalypse: redux, I’ve found myself having to work from home almost weekly. In theory, 8 extra hours in bed sounds lovely (like those girls in the University of Phoenix ads–“I go to school in my pjs!”), but in reality it’s much harder for me to focus in what is usually my relaxing, downtime habitat. Though in honor of Telework Week 2011 (so very apropos post topic!) and our poor over carbon dioxided planet, I’m willing to agree that it would be a good thing if everyone in the office worked remotely a few times a month.
Claire,
Thanks for the comment. I agree, we should all have a mixture of working from home and from the collective.
There’s not much to dislike about working remotely. Sleeping later, drinking beer earlier, and saving on gasoline (about a %10 raise in itself) while keeping THOUSANDS of miles off my truck in the past few years makes me scratch my head every time I go into the office and hear, “So, how do you like Work At Home ?”.