When you telecommute, you no longer get those face-to-face interactions with your peers for quick exchanges of information. The written word is a much harder medium for getting a point across or making yourself clearly understood. Loss of facial expression, body language, and tone of voice make the possibility for misunderstandings grow exponentially. Poor email habits exacerbate this problem.

So telecommuters need to be expert emailers to achieve what they need without those face-to-face interactions.

There are courses and probably books dedicated to email ettiquette. In fact, I have an entire chapter on making the most of email in my book, “How to Avoid Going to Work Without Quitting your Job” (coming summer 2008 - get on my mailing list to make sure you get the introductory discount). But for now, I will cover a few key items that are important when you replace face-to-face conversations with email.

1. Make sure you clearly state what you need and from whom. Without the face-to-face contact it’s easier for people to miss expectations about what you need from them.
2. Copy those people who could benefit from seeing the conversation. You might as well take advantage of this one advantage that email offers which you don’t get in face-to-face conversations!
3. Be explicit - don’t assume people will understand an implication - spell it out.
4. Be careful about how you joke. People can’t tell as easily over email when you’re kidding or being sarcastic.
5. Don’t type in all capitals. It seems like you’re shouting.
6. Use proper grammar and punctuation. I don’t understand why some people drop things like ‘.’ and proper capitalization in emails, or don’t write in complete sentences. Shorthand like this is more acceptable for IM (Instant Messaging) but over email it simply looks unprofessional.
7. Keep it short. People get a lot of emails and don’t have time to read long messages.

This is just a short list, but hits some of the key tips. There’s many more out there. If you find you encounter a lot of misunderstandings when you send emails, or have difficulty getting responses or getting people to take action based on your emails, you might want to consider getting some further training in this area.

Technorati Tags: telecommuting, telecommute, work from home, email, email ettiquette

You’ve heard the saying “less is more”. Well apparently when it comes to accessibility, less presence (physically) may in some cases mean more.

I read a fascinating article in Network World today. The topic was the increase in telecommuting in the IT industry. This topic in general was very interesting - especially to me as I’m an IT worker myself - and I’ll probably blog about it in more depth soon. But there was one small part that really got my attention:

Ironically, staying in touch can be easier as a teleworker, he has found. As an in-office manager, Bruner spent a lot of time in meetings, and his direct reports tended to touch base only when they could catch him in his office. As a teleworker, Bruner says his reports are able to contact him more quickly when they need to, using instant messaging, e-mail or the phone.

When I started telecommuting I had 10 direct reports. After I had worked remotely for a few months, I asked how things were different for them. They said I was more accessible to them than I had been when I was in the office,” recalls Bruner.

Wow! Can I say that again - WOW! This is really significant. With all the (misguided) fears that telecommuters are harder to reach, harder to work with, etc, this is a great example that shows people’s gut reactions are just plain wrong. We need to get more visibility for examples like this. It shows that if the technology (IM, email, etc) is used as it’s intended, it really can remove the barrier of physical absence - and in some cases, actually beat out presence for accessiblity.

Now if you’re trying to fight the “I want to telecommute but my manager is not thrilled with the idea” battle - show your boss this quote! Show your HR rep this quote! They might realize, with a little openmindedness, that telecommuting might have more benefits for the company than they knew.

Technorati Tags: telecommuting, telecommute, work from home, work at home

One of the biggest challenges to telecommuting is avoiding that nasty Out-of-Sight-Out-of-Mind phenomenon. When you’re not around, and people can’t see you, it’s all too easy to forget about you.

But you don’t need to take that lying down!

There are many things you can do to keep your virtual presence front and center even if your physical presence is absent. I have a whole chapter dedicated to this in my book coming Summer 2008 (make sure you’re on my mailing list to get an introductory discount). But here are just a few things you can try…

1. Make sure you and your coworkers are on an Instant Messenger (IM) program.
2. IM coworkers frequently to address short questions that you would otherwise ask by email. Take the opportunity to ask how they’re doing, what they’re up to, etc.
3. Schedule a weekly or every-other-week meeting with key team members to make sure you touch bases. This replaces the chats by the water cooler.
4. If you live close enough, try to get together with your team for lunch once in a while.
5. Send out a weekly status report to your team members so they know what you’re working on and where you are in your projects.
6. Find out which forms of communication (phone, email, IM) work better with which team-mates and then use them!

These are just a few things you can do. Different techniques will work for different people, but everyone who works from home should be using at least a few of these.

Technorati Tags: telecommuting, virtual presence, IM, Instant Messenger, work from home

When it comes to telecommuting “All or Nothing” is a phrase to avoid. Assuming you are not limited geographically, don’t fall into the trap of thinking that just because you telecommute means you should never have to go into the office.

I have spoken to hard-core telecommuters who live an easy drive from work but don’t want to ever have to go in. And trust me when I say that I understand how much better working from home is - avoiding the commute, saving the gas money, not having to make myself presentable until late in the day when my family is due to come home. I believe the longer you telecommute the more addicting it can become - especially as you hone your skills and start becoming more and more effective at telecommuting successfully (and if you haven’t developed those skills yet, here’s my shameless plug for my book “How to Avoid Going to Work without Quitting your Job” which should be released summer 2008, where you can learn all the skills you will need).

But be aware of the times when coming into the office can be valuable. I recently had a day when I wasn’t planning on going in but my boss and I had an unexpected opportunity to meet with my boss’s boss and one of his right-hand men to discuss some challenges we’re having with a project. I had about 1 hour advance notice and my boss said I could just call in. But I knew all the other members of the meeting would be there face to face. I hopped into the shower, threw on some clothes, dove into my car and got myself into the office.

Sure I could have taken the call from home. But I had two reasons to go in:

1. The issues with the project were complex and intricate. We needed to have a very hard conversation about how to approach them and what my boss’s boss wanted to do. And I had a particular agenda to push. Missing the queues one gets from body language, eye contact (or lack thereof), etc would make the discussion harder.
2. Getting face-time with my boss’s boss is rare. Seeing me in person will increase the likelihood that he will remember me and remember more about my work.

My point here is, be flexible. Try to make it into the office now and then, especially when you see opportunities to have a few face-to-face meetings with a large number of your group or a few key people who can influence your career. Also, when you get caught up in the lull of always working from home day after day, going into the office now and then can actually be refreshing - giving you some extra social interactions and strenghthening your relationship with your peers. It doesn’t have to be frequent, but even an occasional visit is useful.

If you live too far from work to drive in at all, see if you can get your company to fly you in a couple times per year. And when you do come in, make sure you’ve got meetings and lunches lined up with your manager and coworkers so you can maximize your face time.

Technorati Tags: telecommuting, work from home, meetings, face-time

The “Two-Body Problem” is a term often used to describe the challenge when both partners in a relationship have  their own careers. When a husband and wife both work and one of them needs to find a new job, they are often limited to looking in the local area, because moving to a new part of the state/country/world to accept a job now means the spouse has to quit his/her job and find a new job at the new location.

In the past this was a major limitation for one’s career growth. And the alternative of getting your spouse to quit their job, move, and find a new job in a new area, could cause career limitations for your spouse, not to mention resentment and utlimately more pressure on your relationship. As if marriage wasn’t hard enough!

But telecommuting opens up new doors. Now the two-body problem just got easier. If your spouse wants to relocate and you are telecommuting exclusively (or close to exclusively) there’s a good chance that you can keep your job and still pick up and move. I won’t say it’s a sure thing - management may want to see your face once in a while. But you may be able to negotiate. If you’re moving from the immediate area but will still be close enough for a long drive, you can agree to come in once or twice/month, especially if your boss agrees that you can come in early or late to avoid rush hour. Even if you’re moving too far away to drive, your boss may find you valuable enough to let you move anyway - perhaps you’ll fly back a couple times per year for some face-to-face meetings (and you can visit local friends while you’re at it).

I have known people who have lived in parts of the country completely unreachable by car from the closest company office, who worked 100% from their home. Some of these people were great performers, who retained their high rankings and good raises in their company.

Telecommuting doesn’t just solve the problem of long-term location issues. It can also open up other doors. With telecommuting, the opportunity to take a foreign assignment (where your company moves you to a different country for a fixed time, such as a year or two, for a specific project) now gets easiser. Because of telecommuting you have this opportunity to experience a new country and culture, and if you have kids, you can open their world up a little too. Imagine the benefits they’ll get from living in a different country for a year or two, soaking up a new language, getting comfortable in a foreign environment, broadening their horizons about everything from food to to education to living conditions to foreign attitudes!

Telecommuting can make all this possible. So if you see a move or opportunity to go abroad coming up in your future - or just want to have that door open in case it does - establishing your skills and effectiveness as a telecommuter now, ahead of time, can be a great step in the right direction!

Technorati Tags: telecommuting, telecommute, travel, relocation, foreign assignment