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

Imagine this… You’re telecommuting. One of your teammates puts together a last-minute face-to-face meeting for an important project that your involved in. You can’t get into the office that day, so you miss the meeting. And important decisions are made without your involvement!

Don’t let this happen to you. There is no reason you can’t attend a meeting virtually even if everyone else is there in person.

Make sure your teammates know how important it is to always send you meeting invitations, even though you are not physically around. Tell them not to worry about whether they think you can or can’t make it - that this is your problem to deal with and not theirs.

When you receive a meeting invitation, contact the meeting coordinator and ask if everyone is meeting face-to-face in a conference room. Then find out if there’s a speaker-phone in that room and ask the meeting coordinator to either call you at your home work line from the conference room or get you the number for that room so you can call in (or perhaps you can look this up yourself or check with an admin rather than slowing down your teammate to look for it).

Being the only person attending a meeting by phone when everyone else is there in a room together face-to-face can have its challenges. I write a lot about how to overcome these challenges (and I will, of course, blog on this topic too) in my book which I will be publishing soon (you can go to http://avoidgoingtowork.com to get on my mailing list for a special introductory price when the book is ready). But attending by phone is certainly better than missing out all together!

Never miss a meeting or discussion because you aren’t physically present. This means helping your teammates get used to the idea of not leaving you out either. You can’t attend a meeting if you don’t know it’s happening!

Technorati Tags: telecommuting, work from home, meetings, telecommute, phone conference