You may have noticed I haven’t posted in a while. Where has Nicole been?

Well the answer is I’ve been commuting! Work has gotten really hectic lately and on top of that, I’ve had more meetings lately where I had to attend in person. So I’ve been driving in more than usual.

This morning I was crawling along on the freeway in heavy traffic and heavy rain. I looked at the clock and it occurred to me if I were working at home I’d have already been working for nearly half an hour - and I wasn’t even at work yet.

It just drove home (no pun intended) how much time is wasted commuting. And when work is busy, the reality is we telecommuters don’t take the time saved avoiding the drive for our own personal use. Rather, we use that time to get our overloaded plates a bit more under control.

So, employers, pay attention. Telecommuting really helps you in tough times get more out of your employees!

Technorati Tags: telecommuting advice, telecommute, work from home, work at home moms, remote worker

Many telecommuters like to come into the office occasionally to get a little bit of ‘face-time’ with their peers. But if you go into the office only to find your peers are all working from home that day, it can be a frustrating experience.

Companies that make it possible for many of their employees to telecommute are providing a great benefit to those employees, and also achieving the huge gains that I have written about in previous articles. However, when you find yourself in a team where more of your co-workers are working at home than at the office, it can be hard to find opportunities to get the face-time you’re looking for.

In a very diverse team where there are people working from home, or scattered geographically in different parts of the country or world, there will always be a few people who, for whatever reason, prefer to work in the office than at home. However, when these people come in day after day and find themselves sitting in a sea of empty cubicles, even these die-hard office workers will eventually throw their hands up and join the ranks of the telecommuter.

However, these are the people you count on seeing on the few days you are organized enough to get showered and dressed first thing in the morning (as opposed to at 3pm), fight the commute, and get yourself into the office for some face-time. Eventually you find that even the few people left have stopped coming in and now you’re the one sitting in that sea of empty cubicles.

This can be very frustrating as there truly is benefit to getting occasional direct contact with your team members. It helps strengthen relationships, provides opportunities to discuss work-related topics in a more spur-of-the-moment style, and provides you some social interaction to break up the days of sitting alone in your home office. Don’t get me wrong, there are ways to overcome all these issues – but if you have the opportunity to meet with your team in person now and then, it’s one valuable tool.

A simple way to solve this situation is just a little coordination. Raise the topic in your team meeting if your boss approves. Or just send out an email to your coworkers. Work with your team to pick one or two days per week that people will focus on coming into the office. That doesn’t mean everyone has to come in on the agreed-upon day(s). But rather, if you’re going to try to come in, that these days will be the ones you’ll aim for.

Another option if you only have a few local people on your team is to just coordinate on a weekly basis with them. For instance, each Friday you could exchange email with those folks and ask how their schedule is looking and which days the following week they think they’ll be coming in.

While telecommuting can be a huge boon, a cost and time saver, and a way to balance your personal and work demands, a little face-time can go a long way. So when you do plan to go into the office, make sure there are people there to make your trip worthwhile!

Technorati Tags: telecommuting advice, telecommute, remote work, virtual presence, telework, work from home, work at home

CNN has an article today that may help a lot of people. The title is “Companies that will hire you to work at home“. It gives examples of some large companies that hire people to work from home or offer the option to their existing staff.

And even if you aren’t willing to jump ship and change companies right now, the article includes some talking points to discuss with your own company when trying to convince them of the merits of telecommuting. And having a list at your fingertips of other well-known companies that allow telecommuting is another great piece of info to bring to the conversation!

Technorati Tags: telecommuting advice, telcommute, remote work, work at home, work from home moms