When you telecommute, your phone conversations are probably the closest direct communications you’ll have with your boss, co-workers, etc. You’ll not only have direct phone conversations, but all your meetings will be by phone too.

So it’s important these phone calls stay completely professional.

Now imagine how it looks if you’re in the middle of talking through your latest presentation to a large group by phone and suddenly your wife/husband/room-mate/teenage-daughter picks up the home phone and starts dialing. Then, still not realizing you are on the phone and hearing voices they start saying “Hello? Hello? Is someone there?”

The only plus side about being on the phone at this point is no-one in the meeting can see how red your face has just turned!

If you share a house with anyone, a separate phone line for frequent telecommuting is an absolute must! And even if you live alone, remember you will be forwarding your work phone in one way or another to your home work line (see my previous blog on this subject). So unless you’re willing to change your answering machine message to something sounding very business-like, you still should consider other options.

But this does not mean you need to spend a lot of money. There are options out there to keep the costs down. Often your phone company will offer a package deal for getting a second line. Or you can get a second number attached to you cellphone plan which is quite inexpensive.

Or you can look into VOIP (Voice Over IP) options which basically gives you a phone line over your internet. Skype is the most well-known of these. Skype allows you to make free calls to other people’s computers who have Skype. You can also use it to make and receive calls to/from phones, for a fee, but depending on how many calls you make, it may be a cost-effectives solution for you. 

If you’re looking for ‘free’, here’s another idea. You can use your cell phone as your home work line as long as you are willing to answer it all the time in a business-like manner (which may take a few of your friends by surprise at first, but they’ll adjust).

Surf around on the internet and find an option that works best for you!

Technorati Tags: telecommuting,  home office, communications, phone

If you’re telecommuting, having a private, quiet place to get your work done is absolutely critical. You cannot take phone calls with your boss or attend phone-based meetings with kids yelling in the background. And you do need a space that stays consistent so you have room to store your papers, can keep an adjustable height-chair set to the right settings, etc.

But please note, I said a private, quiet place to work is critical. I did not say having a home office is critical.

If you’re lucky, you live in a part of the country (or world) where house prices are low and you can afford something big enough to have your own office, with a door that you can close and block out the rest of the household. If that’s you, you can ignore the rest of this post.

I however live in Silicon Valley, where the downpayment on an average house is the same as the entire price of a house twice the size in many other parts of the country! As such, having enough rooms in your house to have your own office is quite a luxury. That said, there are other ways to find the space you need.

If you have other people at home during the daytime (especially kids) you really need your desk in a room where you can close the door. But if you don’t have an office, you could put the desk in your bedroom, for instance. And if you don’t have kids or other family at home, you can put your desk in a corner of the living room. Or perhaps you can work at one end of the kitchen table - just make sure you can keep your ‘office’ chair in the kitchen, and have a place nearby to store your papers (otherwise you’ll end up with spaghetti sauce stains on them).

 Think creatively. I’ve even known someone who put her desk in a closet that had a window in it. Is there anywhere in your house where you can squeeze out a little extra room?   

Technorati Tags: telecommuting, home office, work from home

Never let the subject of this post be a questioned aimed at you just because you’re telecommuting. The out-of-sight-out-of-mind phenomenon is one you must work extra hard to thwart when you are working from home. If your boss has a question about your product or project and he needs to get an answer quickly - just because you’re not there physically is no excuse for not being there virtually.

If your boss can’t track you down he’s going to have to start going to someone else.  If the question is very specific to your area of responsibilities it should be obvious why this is bad for your career. But even if he has a general question that your coworker can answer just as easily as you can, you don’t want your boss only coming to you as a last resort. You don’t want to be the last person your boss (or peers for that matter) goes to because you’re not as easy to find. This is the beginning of a slow, gradual decline of your involvement in the team. You will no longer be as involved in the interconnections between your projects/products and your teammmates. You will no longer be given the good assignments. You will no longer be at the top of your boss’s mind when he’s thinking who to promote or give an expanded role to.

Since people can’t talk to you face-to-face, one of their best options is to talk to you by phone. But they need to be able to find you by phone. Does your company have a corporate directory in which people can look up each other’s phone number? If so one option is to list your home work phone line in that (if you have the ability to change it). If not, does your work phone have the ability to be forwarded? If so, forward it to you home work line. In other words, make it effortless for people to find you.

If you go back and forth between telecommuting and coming into the office, then change the number in the corporate directory or turn the call forwarding on and off each day. Sure, this may take a minute of your time. But the last thing you want to do is give your home work number out to your boss and coworkers and tell them that on Tuesdays, Thursdays, and every other Friday they should use that instead of your office number. Do you think with everything else they have to worry about that they’ll remember these instructions? And what happens every time you modify your schedule?

No, don’t let yourself be hard to reach. When it comes to your boss and coworkers you do not want to make your telecommuting arrangement cause extra effort for them.

Technorati Tags: telecommuting, home office, work from home