On Telecommuting

Telecommuting as everything in life has its pros and cons.
See pros here.

For employees, the most important cons are:

• Lack of face to face human interaction - interaction with your peers, with your boss, with the world.
  The more days a week you telelcommute, the less, with time, you will relate to alive people.

  Imagine yourself sitting in front of your pc every day for the next three years, five years, ten years.

  Yup, you get more IMing, maybe more calls, certainly more calls if you are a call center rep working from home. You, however, in a bigger schema of things, do not need to dress up, especially if you live alone, you do not need to learn how to read emotions of others. is not an emotion, it has become a dot at the end of a sentence. If people were laughing in life as often as they add “:)” to their written communications, the world would’ve been a better place.
  You rarely need to master your speech making and how to impress others. Then, when you really need to impress (whether just one person or a public), you suddenly hear yourself talking and not recognizing your own voice.

• Lack of response to your ideas and to that cool thing you “just did!”
  Your co-workers and boss on the other side of IM are working on their “cool things” and your IMing to them soon can be taken as annoyance or interruption.

• Lack of professional development and keeping up with ‘industry’
  While you can learn a lot from blogs and Google, the real news and knowledge you often get only when learning from/with your peers and exchanging ideas in a conversation, or brainstorming where everything goes.

• Lack of recognition
  If you are the one who thrives on recognition (and there is nothing wrong with that), you will find yourself in a weird place of silence. No matter what you have accomplished today, your spouse will appear more tired than you are (because he/she went to work!) (like you didn’t) and too tired to truly appreciate what you have done. Your boss will get to your report when he gets to your report and by that time it might be an old news and not as “recognizable”.

• Need to discipline yourself
  Easy to say, not that easy to accomplish.
  First you learn to fight the urge to eat more from a friendly (or not friendly) fridge, in parallel, you learn that the TV is your work time sucker, then that laundry and cooking really have to be done in non-work time. You will have to learn to wake up early regardless of the fact that there is no one to time you. At the end, it is only with yourself.

Telecommuting as everything in life has its pros and cons.
For employees, the most important pros are:

• You do save your commute time –
  two hours a day that you save (depending on how long your commute is and how long it takes you to put make-up on every morning) can take you a long way. This adds up to three months saved over a year — that is a whole year saved over four years! Just think what you could do if you had a whole year to use up.

• You save your grief over getting out in a cold morning, shuffling snow, warming your car up (if you live in cold enough areas) and having three mugs of coffee at work just to get yourself together after your early morning experience, and that is day after day, after day.

• You save your nerves and do not have to waste your life on “that idiot” on the road (he/she, by the way, may be thinking the same about you).

• You can use the time you saved to:
  • get more work done
  • give more time to your loved ones
  • give more time to yourself
  • start doing something you have always been dreaming about and never had time to do
  • volunteer and make the world a better place.

For now, let’s say it varies whether you save money or not. Theoretically you do — less gas, less $5 coffee in your life, less ‘casual clothing’ from Nordstrom. But then, often you start making less money, and often your utility expenses go up significantly — to heat up your “home office” in the winter in New England (that is where I am) with ever rising oil prices is not a joke. You can not always deduct your increased “work related” expenses. We will talk about different cases on whether “your dog can be a tax deductible expense” in the next posts.

Also see
How you can become a telecommuter # 2

How you can become a telecommuter #1

How you can become a telecommuter

(6) Become your own boss

I left this option for the very end because this option has most of the risks, but also can bring many rewards. Being your own boss is not just about “bossing around” (yup, only around yourself), it is about making lots of decisions, planning, executing, and so on.

… So you grew not to stand your boss, your job does not motivate you any more, let alone you have to drive every morning tens of miles to be greeted by your boss again and again…

One day you wake up with either “can’t do this any more” or “I have got an awesome idea — am going to build a killer Web 2.0. technology, or am going to sell stuff on EBay, or to prepare tax returns for sufferers before they suffer too much, or am going to become a free lance programmer, or am going to start a cleaning business AND get MY OWN web site, or”… you name it. .

This is all nice and dandy.

Before you declare to your boss, you can not stand him/her any more, I would suggest to consider doing a number of things:

• Go Google what you plan to do and your zip code — see who is out there
  Find them, talk with them, see how it is working out.
  People are often willing to share if nicely asked, and if you happen to bump into a ‘not nice one’, forget about him/her and keep exploring
• Think through business basics — yup, again we have heard it all…
  Oh well, at the very least, take a peace of paper and answer a few “basic” questions”
  Q: Do I need an initial capital?
  Maybe it is to buy a better pc, maybe it is to buy a better mob,
  whatever tools you may need, list them down and price them out, add that all up.
  Q: Do I have that capital or do I need external infusions
  If you have enough, all the luck to you.
  If you need capital, however large or little the sum can be,
  the two way to get it are:
  – debt - loan from a bank, from kind relatives, from a stranger on the street
  – equity - you have a really cool idea and you part of the ownership out to a kind neighbor, to an angel investor who may not have wings, or to a VC (venture capital companies), they often are not holly either.
  There is a third way — you may be able to get a grant, how long that may take and how large the grant may be depends on a lot of variables.
  Q: If it is a loan, how long may it take to pay it back
  Q: If I am shooting for a VC, do I actually know any?
  (A friendly note: VC do not give money to strangers)
• Think about your niche (yes, same old, same old)
  How others are going to know that you are better than A or B, especially if they have already ‘got burned’ with A or B.
  Or, if you are going to sell hm… shoes… or any other stuff on EBay — Go EBay that stuff and see what comes up. most probably there will be hundreds of entries; for starters read EBay’s manual on how you can come to the top of that list — that may give you an idea if you have stamina to sell shoes… .or that other stuff.

• Think who your first clients are going to be
  A good, a first sale are important in your “I am my own boss” business career.
  Think of your neighbors, friends, relatives that might be interested in the product or services you are going to provide (read: you are going to sell). See what their response is.
  If they are naggers, do not get discouraged, keep searching, they just might be envious of or oblivious to your “new idea”.
• Explore what licenses, federal and state registrations, and business insurances you may need to get for your business. There might be a Small Business Association office that may be helpful. In my experience, this type of organizations are less helpful than they sound by their name. Also, do not forget about finding out how much health insurance may cost you unless you are covered by your spouse or very healthy.

If those steps still keep your dream alive, then take a vacation and try what you want to do. Literally, play a role of your own boss for two weeks. Start develop relationships — your potential virtual online customers, or your neighbors, or potential freelance work providers, or start searching for those magic VCs and angels.

If after two weeks it seems like it is working out, and you have what you need or are on your way to what you need, then, ta da... You can show up in your office in jeans or without and declare your independence. I would suggest to show up nicely dressed, give a two week notice, help your boss find your successor and train him or her, and leave with good memories about you. Remember your boss may become your first client.

Now you are on your own. Working in jammies, enjoying life. Well, if it is a cleaning business, then the only thing you will get do in jammies, is taking orders from your site, if, of course you have a site and your clients know how to find it.

Just remember, ‘Leaders never quit, quitters never lead’. And, if it does not work out, you always have a choice to go back to the “corporate world”.

(2) Start looking for a job at a big company that provides telelcommuting (working from home) as an option

Many large corporations have embraced telecommuting practices and allow their employees work from homes or satellite offices. Working for a big company often may mean more security unless they are not doing too well and downsizing vs. telecommuting is they rhyme. Big companies often provide more support to their telecommuting employees than small companies, simply because ‘biggies’ have more means and often they save on telecommuters, so why not share some of that to make their telecommuting bees feel better.

Sun Microsystems — Work where you hang your coat
SBC / AT&T — Promoting telecommuting since 1992
Intel — Intel even had a telecommuting CEO
Cisco — Smart Valley Telecommuting Guide
Microsoft — Telcommuting Confessions of Microsoft’s Staffing Manager

(3) Start working for a small (more liberal) business

This option, as anything else in life, may/will take time to find. Often this will be a business in your area, so you can meet up with your other co-workers not only over IM (Instant Messenger), but also in person. If you would rather work with a team of people rather than purely on your own and for yourself, start looking for this type of businesses around, ask your friends, let everyone on the earth know you are looking for a telecommuting job, join local business associations and networks, keep asking.

Very important: update your resume and make it clear you are looking for a telecommuting position. Have your resume available in different formats — text, word doc, pdf, an post it online, you never know what your potential employee may pump up and or what they may have for resume submission requirements.

If you do get a call for an interview, dress nicely, be nice. These are people you will be working with, you want them to imagine you looking nice behind your computer screen. You will have a chance to relax later on — wearing jammies and so on.

Examples of small business with distributed teams of people working mostly from homes — my company TnR Global, 37 Signals, IR3W, and many others. Just keep looking and be open to options.

(4) Government agencies offer telecommuting opportunities

Government agencies have gotten a mandate to introduce and promote telecommuting.
I have little experience of working with/at government agencies and can not help you there yet.

Most of the answer you can find at Telework America and then discuss with your supervisor.

5) Find a job at a virtual call center or become a virtual assistant

Virtual call center provide services for companies to handle customer support — inbound and outbound calls. They often hire people to work from home. Willow is one of such options and is promoted by the Telework Coalition. A few more options for virtual call centers from the Telework Coalition site. An average pay is $10 to $14 per hour.

The concept of a virtual assistant (VA) has become a reality in today’s world. Virtual Assistants provide administrative support to busy professionals. They often help search for info, prepare power point presentations, organize contacts, type documents. The International Virtual Assistants Association will give you some answer as to how to become a VA.

(1) Start from where you are, see if your current employer offers telecommuting options

You might have gotten lucky and your management is ahead of the curve. Look around, ask your HR department if telecommuting options are being offered.

If telelcommuting is offered, but not for your position, see what you can do to get a position where at least a few days a week you can work from home. Find out how your company supports telelcommuters — like who pays for phone bills, who maintains equipment if it breaks, will they reimburse for your home office furniture and alike.

If it is not offered, gently discuss this with your boss… Start from “what do you think about telelcommuting” and if she is thinking about it, there is your chance to promote the practice and help set it up. If she is not fond of it and would rather see you in the office, well then start looking for other options… more below.

As one of my friends says “my boss wants to see my alive body in the office everyday”.

I actually thought I would write how you can become a telecommuter. In this post I showed a picture (that is worth thousand words) of different ‘types’ of telecommuters. Let’s add a few words to it.

To start telecommuting, which often translates to working from home, you have a number of options. But before we get to options…

Let’s just agree that working from home still means working vs. sleeping and watching TV for the whole day, gardening, cooking, doing laundry. If you get to do those things (vs. work) and they pay your bills, email me and let me know of your magic. You certainly can make gardening and cooking for others to be your work, that is an option… Ok, let’s get to tecommuting options:

(1) Start from where you are, see if your current employer offers telecommuting options

(2) Start looking for a job at a big company that that provides telelcommuting (working from home) as an option

(3) Start working for a small (more liberal) business

(4) Government agencies offer telecommuting opportunities

(5) Find a job at a virtual call center or become a virtual assistant

(6) Become your own boss

See my next posts…

Found this great commercial from BT Group — Enable your people to actually work from home.

(YouTube does not allow posting videos in WordPress yet, only Blogger and LiveJournal.)

Robert Scoble argued with Peter Davis (and 60+ commenters) about whether podcasts are useful and have future or they do not. Since I am a constant ‘content absorber’ and value my time while absorbing it, here is my take on podcasting.

To me, ‘podcast’ is no more than a new word and new buzz. Educate me on what I am missing. — Podcast is a bit of shortened version of content-rich-sound options that have been out there for years.

Audio books have existed for years, first on tapes, then as digital files. For three or more years, Audible.com has been offering WSJ news every morning for those who want to listen to news while commuting. When I used to commute (drive) to work, news stream in the morning was useful, still audio books worked better than news. Burning news on CD or downloading to a sound device every morning was quite a bit of a task and the next morning it is old news anyway. There is also choice of radio for news and interviews. (Soon available on mobile devices too.) (Aka, competition.)

It has taken many ups and downs for Audible to start making it, and they are subscription based. With podcasting being positioned as free content en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Podcast, and with audience becoming more and more ad and promotions averse, it would be very interesting to see viable business models for businesses offering podcasts.

Since I started telecommuting, I have not found podcasts helpful in delivering information either. Glancing over content on-line is much more efficient. Rarely there is an engaging speaker (in a video file) that would make it through all other content out there.

I guess in the areas where there is no connection, like one of the commenters commented, podcasts can help, but then again, one has to have connection to download them often enough, otherwise it is old news, or it is a timeless audio book.

When jogging outside, podcasts, or any content-rich-sound for that matter, do not work for me either, music does. Music is ‘content free’, it has rhythm and can either add to speed or take from it. With any ‘content rich’ sound, I find myself concentrating on what that last sentence was and miss the next one; at the end I do not get much info, and missed an enjoyable run too.

If my iPod happens to be out of juice (and there is not time to charge it up), TVs in the gym work ok, but then, there is more visual to that rather than just sound, and even if I miss something, not a big deal.

Where I do find ‘podcasts’ helpful – record your own speeches, listen to your voice and see if you like the sound of it. Master your speech making that way.

Good luck to Robert with his new endeavor and to prove all naggers wrong. It is worth trying even if only for the experience of building his own thing.

This list of collaboration technologies providers I will be analyzing in my next posts. There are many, often with no clear differentiation — at least on the front end functionality.

It would be interesting to see how all these companies will be able to sell to fairly the same market with the only significant difference - some are more for small businesses, some target enterprise level customers.

Stayed tuned and we will walk the road together!

Yesterday my colleague Jade and I went to “Collaborative Technologies Conference” in Boston. This was the most educational and the best organized event out of hundreds I have been to. Too expensive to my liking, but they were very much worth the price; we did use free passes. Presentations are available here (for free!). Very valuable for telecommuters and companies promoting telecommuting and collaboration.

If you are still at the very start of the road to collaboration and telecommuting, and wonder what this is all about, do glance at this one: Virtual Team Spaces. Slide 14 will tell you the story. People are Important. Technology is only the means.

We ‘interviewed’ every stand in the pavilion about what products they were offering and at what price points. In the next post I will write about those that impressed us, and I guess those that did not.

Lessons learned or reinforced:

1) Lots of very similar collaboration technologies and products are mushrooming all over.

Just glance at this list of vendors. Forty or so. Notice GoToMeeting and WebEx are not even there. Needless to say, many more are not on the list but are out there.

2) The choice is overwhelming, differentiation is undervelming.

3) It is going to be very hard for organizations to make “the right choice”. As often in a saturated market, buyers will be choosing based more on emotions than rational. Only those sales people that will listen and that are sharp in knowing their product may have a chance.

4) Switching from one vendor to another will continue to be costly for big companies. As such, once settled, most probably, they will continue with the choice, even if the choice is “not that right”.

5) Switching from one solution to another is inexpensive for small businesses where there is less concern about infrastructure, compatibility, security. Pricing and simplicity (’usability’ in web 2.0 terms) will make a difference.

Example: Webex, GoToMeeting, Convenos — All three let you meet virtually, share docs, exchange opinions. So far, we found Convenos to be the best one — less expensive ($30 vs. $50 a month as in the other two cases), cleaner interface, combined with VOIP to let you talk vs. to make you add Skype to your presentation.

6) Most important lesson:

People matter. Develop and employ technology to empower them, but take the focus off technology and do listen to those who work for you, who you work with. At the end, they are the ones who do the work and can make it or break it.