GET TELEWORKING TODAY!
STRATEGIES FOR TELECOMMUTERS, REMOTE WORKERS, THEIR MANAGERS & THEIR FAMILIES
BY JEFF ZBAR The Chief Home Officer.com
Teleworkers – and their managers, coworkers, clients and even their families – aren’t born. They’re created and nurtured over time. Using best practices, the insights of others and even their own failures, companies and their employees have learned how to create effective telework programs that leave all involved with a positive impression of this alternative work initiative.
In Get Teleworking Today!, you’ll learn how to: • Select the best workers for a telework program • Use a variety of virtual officing techniques, such as home officing, hoteling and telecenters • Keep remote teams connected across time and distance • Ensure the telework program maintains camaraderie • Launch a program in times of emergency or crisis
1 • Create a safe and secure home-based workplace • Avoid pitfalls – guilt, suspicion, motivation, distraction and overworking – commonly associated with home-based work • Convince managers, peers and coworkers that telework is a valuable option for your company or organization
Gleaned from more than three year’s worth of Jeff Zbar’s articles and columns on the subject, the articles in Telework Tactics represent the latest thinking in alternative officing strategies.
About the Author: Jeff Zbar, the ChiefHomeOfficer.com, is a journalist, author and speaker specializing in Small Or Home Office (SOHO), business strategy and teleworking issues. He is or has been as a columnist and contributing editor to Network World’s Net.Worker Web site, Home Office Computing, Entrepreneur’s Home Office and Writer’s Digest. In May 2001, he was named the U.S. Small Business Administration’s 2001 Journalist of the Year. His books include Safe @ Home: Seven Keys to Home Office Security, Your Profitable Home Business Made E-Z, and Home Office Know-How. Zbar lives and works amid his family from their home in suburban Fort Lauderdale, Fla.
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
INTRODUCTION
CHAPTER I SET-UP & START-UP * Today’s focus: Five Traits of Highly Successful Teleworkers * Are You a Typical Teleworker? * Furnishing for Home Office Success * Ergonomics Blends Mind & Body in Function * Ten Ways to Boost Teleworking & Lifestyle * Ten Tips to a Formal Telework Program Launch * Ten Tips to a Quick Telework Launch * 2001: What a Year for Telework * Remote Workers Strive to Stay Plugged In Sidebar: Stay in the Loop: Work Out, Don’t Drop Out * Creating a Home Office Haven: A Far Cry From the Cube * Balancing Act: One Couple, Two Offices, One Home * Rules Help Make Work-at-Home Parents Successful * Do Parents Get All the Perks? * Mine, Mine, Mine: Hoteling Needs Personal Touches * Teleworkers & the Hotel: Not Some Motor Lodge * Business Centers: Another Way to Cut the Commute * Telework Centers Get Mixed Reviews
CHAPTER II SAVVY STRATEGIES & SMART HABITS * When the Manager Says ‘No’ * Turning a Manager’s ‘No’ Into ‘Yes’ * How to Convince the Boss to Adopt New Workstyles * Loyal Worker Makes Telework Trade-Off
3 * Maintain a Presence When You’re Nowhere to be Seen * Savvy teleworkers Avoid Peers’ Backlash * Teleworkers: Got Guilt? * Vacationing Teleworkers Get Away From It All * Teleworkers Make a Seamless Home Office Move * Who Pays to Telework? * Footing the Bill: When Telework Means Out of Pocket * Insurance: Are You Sure You’re Covered? * Of Telework and Taxes * Deduction Debate – Is Your Home Office an IRS Red Flag?
CHAPTER III TECHNOLOGY & TOOLS * Instant Messaging: Tool, Toy or Menace? * Controlling the Cost of Remote IT Support * SIDEBAR: Six Habits for System Support * Fickle Storm Highlights Broadband’s Reliability * Teleworkers Brace for DSL Shut Downs * Safe @ Home: Seven Tips to Keeping the SOHO Safe * Childproofing: Protection from the Littlest Intruders * Teleworkers Must Wear Home Office Security Hat * OSHA Got At-Home Workers to Review Safety Sidebar: Become Your own OSHA Inspector * Home office Safety Downplayed by Employers * Backup Lapses Lead to Bad Business * Power Up: Battery Backup, Surge Protection Save Data & PC * Lessons in Laptop Security * Surviving Crises and Natural Disasters
CHAPTER IV MANAGERS’ & WORKERS’ BEST PRACTICES * Who is That Manager in the Mirror? * Cracking the Telemanagement Mystery * Managers Set Goals to Achieve Success
4 * Avoiding Remote Manager Mistakes * Company Gleans Best Practices From Teleworkers * Keeping Track of Teleworkers * Spotting the Early Signs of Failure * Nipping Failure in the Bud * When Teleworkers Won’t Call In Sick * Crisis Creates Need for Officing Alternatives * Launching in a Crunch: Ad Hoc Offices Get a Second Look * New Telemanagers Had Better Learn Fast * Post-Crisis: Getting Back to Normal * Amid Layoffs, Teleworkers Flock to the HQ * How Telework Softens the Blow of Layoff Woes * Company Shutters Shop in Favor of Virtual Office * ‘Virtual’ Move Requires Real Training * Secrets of a Virtual Company’s CEO * More Secrets of a Virtual Company’s CEO * Virtual Magna Carta: A ‘Great Charter’ for the Virtual Age * Good Communication Cuts Both Ways
CHAPTER V BUILDING FOR THE FUTURE * Turning Dispersed Workers into a Team * Company Programs Help Teleworkers Stave off Isolation * Play With a Purpose * Building Remote Team Spirit * Staying Managed While the Manager is Away * To Increase Your Productivity, Look Within * Effective Home Officing for the Holidays – Or Any Day * Beating the Holiday Blues * Resolving to Plan and Perform Better Next Year
Appendix A Teleworker Aptitude Test
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Appendix B Telework Web Sites
Appendix C Sample Telework Agreement
Appendix D Sample Telework Agreement
Appendix E Sample Telework Contact Form
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS:
This book is the result of more than three years’ worth of research, reporting and writing on the concept of home, remote and virtual officing. The writing is my own, but the input and ideas come from scores of teleworking professionals who have helped change the way America is working.
I want to thank Gil Gordon, John Edwards, Michael Dziak, Debra Dinnocenzo and James Lush, five telework experts who have shared their thoughts with me about how telework works in today’s corporate workplace. Also, I greatly appreciate the scores of interviewees out there who discussed their telework experiences – good and bad – and laid bare the essence of what today’s mobile and remote workplace and workforce is all about.
I also thank Toni Kistner, my editor at Network World’s Net.Worker Web site. She first gave me the assignment back in 2000 to write a weekly column on telework, and along the way has massaged many of the articles and columns included in this book from unpolished articles-filed- in-haste-upon-deadline to columns worthy of publication.
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7 INTRODUCTION
What do “telework” and “telecommute” mean?
Not to be confused with telemarketing, the practice whose moniker often is used synonymously – and erroneously – with teleworking, Merriam-Webster Online offered the following definition:
Main Entry: tele·com·mute
Pronunciation: ‘te-li-ka-”myüt
Function: intransitive verb Date: 1974 : to work at home by the use of an electronic linkup with a central office - tele·com·mut·er noun
Almost three decades after the phrase was first coined by remote work pioneer Jack Nilles when – so the story goes – he was stuck in freeway traffic while a sign overhead advised he “Maintain Your Speed,” telecommuting, or teleworking, didn’t hit the mainstream in America until the mid- to late-1990s. It emerged, or evolved, as employees started placing an emphasis on “quality of life” issues, and employers faced with hiring and retaining the best talent were forced to offer alternative work solutions – or risk losing their best workers.
As a result, telework has grown dramatically in recent years. Numbers from the International Telework Association and Council (ITAC) in Washington, D.C., put the number of American employees who work remotely at least one day a week at some 28.8 million in 2001. That’s up from 11.1 million in 1997 and around 4 million in 1995. Of the current numbers, roughly 9.1 million are teleworkers whose remote office is primarily in the home, and 21.8 million are “corporate after-hours” workers who bring work home from the office on nights and weekends, notes research consultancy IDC.
What caused such significant growth of telework? Just as the Internet, the personal computer, and a plethora of powerful peripheral devices – printers, scanners, hand-held devices and remote access technology – have empowered the small or home office (SOHO) workplace, they also have turned the home office and remote work location into a powerful alternative office for the erstwhile corporate office-based worker.
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This certainly has been an employee-driven phenomenon. Employees were and are demanding greater flexibility and control in work-life balance, and employers realized that not serving this desire resulted in greater turnover and absenteeism and decreased satisfaction and productivity. A William Mercer study of 800 employers noted that work-life initiatives and flexible work arrangements cut absenteeism by 50%, boosted morale 64% and improved productivity by 47%.
The events of September 11 and their impact on telework cannot be ignored. Millions of square feet of Lower Manhattan office space was destroyed or rendered unusable, leaving companies and their workers to find an alternative workplace. Home, for many, became – and remains – the answer.
As of 2002, some 46% of all workers are employed by companies that allow flexible work schedules, and some 63% of those workers work a flexible schedule at least once a week, notes research firm Yankelovich. Some 23% of employees work for companies that allow telework, with 18% working from home occasionally, and 11% doing so at least one day a week.
Growth and apparent success may be wide spread, but it’s not universal. Many companies and managers delve into telework with little more than a verbal OK to send someone home to work – and a need to learn the process on their own. Except for a few notable exceptions, training historically has been rare. Even today, companies continue to send people home to work – laptop in tow and broadband connection enabled – but with little understanding of how teleworkers, coworkers and managers will get along in this still-new environment.
In Telework Tactics: 70 Strategies for Telecommuters, Remote Workers & Their Managers, we identify and highlight the best strategies, tips, tools and practices for companies, managers and workers looking to participate in a telework program. From technology to people skills, home office set-up to insurance and finance, we’ll look at how some of the most experienced teleworking and remote officing companies are handling their efforts to successfully disperse workers beyond the traditional corporate workplace.
This new workplace initiative called telework has been an exciting experiment for those who welcome change, and a threatening endeavor for those who fear it. Most of all, telework has proven itself as a way to lure the best and brightest employees, help them achieve balance in their
9 professional and personal lives, make them more productive and loyal to the company, and turn the organization into an employer of choice.
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CHAPTER I SET UP AND START UP
FIVE TRAITS OF HIGHLY SUCCESSFUL TELEWORKERS
TELEWORK TAKEAWAY: Before exploring or agreeing to telework, closely examine yourself – your attitudes, work habits, communication skills, independence and need for camaraderie. If you can operate as a soloist in the corporate office, chances are you can from a remote office, too.
So, you think you’re ready to telework?
Not so fast. Before you count yourself among the legions of successful home and remote workers, take a good long look at yourself. Some people are convinced they’ll make ideal teleworkers but find after only a few months they’ve underestimated the challenge. They couldn’t stay motivated, missed the office camaraderie, and found virtually communicating with colleagues difficult and frustrating.
The individual who works best as a telecommuter is a confident knowledge worker who is willing to thrive in the new workplace, says Michael Dziak, president of InteleWorks, an Atlanta telework consultancy and the author of the telework implementation manual, The RemoteControl System Pro.
In Dziak’s book, Telecommuting Success: A Practical Guide for Staying in the Loop While Working Away from the Office (JIST Publishing, 2001), he says prospective teleworkers must identify and fully develop their “telecommuting persona.”
Certain character traits are best matched to the telework environment. To get a better idea whether you possess them, take our telework character assessment. Answer “agree” or “disagree” to each of these five statements:
11 • I have a willingness and ability to adapt to change.
• I am an adept information manager.
• I am an entrepreneur at heart.
• I am a team player.
• I am an excellent communicator.
How did you answer? You may say “I’m all of these,” or “I’m some of these.” Most important is that you recognize and build on your strengths as well as perceived weaknesses. Read on to learn why these traits are vital to successful teleworking.
I hope you welcome change, because telework will deliver plenty of it. For those who’ve never worked from home, a telework center, or even outside the corporate office, telework will present a new, unique and challenging model. Adapt or become extinct (or at least permanently office- bound). Look at your personality and honestly ask yourself how you could handle the workplace change that comes with telework. Pick the brains of proven teleworker colleagues and ask how they’ve made the adjustment from corporate- to remote-based life. Consider committing to a several week telework trial just to make sure you’re right about yourself.
With an accumulation of paper, e-mail, voicemail, pages, cellular phones and other messaging devices, expect to be inundated with inbound information (and a near-equal flow of responding correspondence). In fact, at the outset, you could receive more information (given people’s need to keep in touch with the teleworker), but only the same amount of time to deal with it. OK, maybe a little more, because you won’t be commuting. But savvy data managers will be able to select and use the right tools and media to complete their mission and maximize efficiency. Do you need a cellular phone or an e-mail pager to facilitate better contact between your clients or team members? An improved, faster or always-on Internet connection so you can respond instantly to any messages sent your way? Often teleworkers, especially those who work from home once a week, rely on slow dial-up connections on shared telephone lines. If an improved connection would improve your link with the team, make the investment. The company even may split the bill – especially if you can prove increased productivity.
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Your paycheck, bonuses and even your assignments still may come from the corporation. But you closely will resemble the entrepreneur, the soloist, the lone eagle working on the frontier. If your organization doesn’t yet widely embrace telework, you may be identified as unique, perhaps a rogue, or an individualist. In fact, you likely will tag yourself as such as you head home to work. You will need to be self-sufficient, tackling tasks once left to others within the company, such as IT troubleshooting and remote team management.
Entrepreneurial as they may sometimes seem, teleworkers must remain the quintessential team players. A contradiction? Maybe. But you will be a team player as well as an individual. Team members – remote- and office-based – still will rely on you for the unique expertise you were hired to deliver. Work to give them what they need, and retain for yourself a central – if remote – place on the team. Learn to perfect both roles. Keep in constant touch to let team members know you’re there for them. Offer information and input, not just on your piece of a project but with elements you may have discovered through your work.
All these qualities offer no value without your ability to communicate. Whether it’s electronically, via telephone or fax, or even in face-to-face settings with the team, you will need to know how to get your point across to others – especially when you’re not sitting with them. Welcome communication from the team. Invite colleagues to contact you with their queries, or point out shortcomings if you’ve been perceived as being difficult to reach. Remind them that your home office is an office, and they are welcome to contact you.
“These challenges stand before anyone who wishes to thrive, not merely survive, in the new workplace,” author Dziak says. “These thriving traits are key traits of the power telecommuter.”
TELEWORK TACTICS • Do these five attributes fit you: An ability to adapt to change; deft information management; self-styled entrepreneur; a team player; and an excellent communicator? • Continuously strengthen those skills you consider weak, and perfect those already strong. Make your telework persona a work-in-progress. • If your company doesn’t wholly embrace telework, you could be viewed as a rogue. Beware damaging typecasting.
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ARE YOU A TYPICAL TELEWORKER?
TELEWORK TACTIC Today’s teleworker is a creature of evolution. Still a college-educated, white collar professional, many have kids at home. Others simply want to achieve greater professional-personal balance. Either way, they’re committed – to the organization and themselves.
At 42, Manisha Padhye is the age of the average U.S. teleworker. But as a woman, she’s in the minority.
Statistics released in 2001 from research firm IDC paint a vivid picture of today’s teleworker. Like many, Padhye (and her husband of 20 years) is there for her kids; 41.4 percent of teleworkers have children under 18 at home, according to the IDC’s survey of 2,500 U.S. households.
When asked why she works from her Cranbury, N.J., home several days a week, Padhye sounds like the epitome of her peers: improved quality of life. On the days she drives in – 40 miles to Schering-Plough’s Kenilworth, N.J., offices – she struggles to get herself and her two adolescent boys up and out by 7:30 a.m.
“It’s a madhouse in the morning,” admits Padhye, Schering’s manager of regulatory affairs. “I’m more in control and feel less stress when I’m working in the house.”
Although Padhye’s age is consistent with that of the average teleworker, some 65 percent of teleworkers are male, notes Ray Boggs, vice president of small business and home office research with IDC. “We’re still looking at the AWGs – or average white guys – as comprising the teleworker universe,” he says.
Today’s teleworkers are educated. Sixty percent have some college education, and 31 percent have completed some graduate work. Teleworkers are also “upmarket,” Boggs says. About half
14 of teleworker households make $50,000 a year or more, and 17.9 percent make more than $100,000.
To qualify as a teleworker in IDC’s survey, respondents had to work regularly from home at least three days each month. Telework once was seen as nirvana, but that’s changing, and for most it isn’t viewed as a long-term arrangement, Boggs says.
Padhye is committed to teleworking nine-hour days, so long as she has children in the home, but most see telework as a waypoint on a career path. The churn, or number of employees who return to the office, remains high. “It’s just one stage in a continuing series of stages in professional development,” Boggs says.
Like her peers, Padhye is a practical employee who seeks ways to get the work done remotely. She juggles her schedule with her manager and coworkers to make meetings and other in-office functions, and uses an arsenal of hardware to make her home office fully functional.
“Ten years ago, you didn’t have e-mail, and you needed to be handy with your technology. Now it’s no longer necessary to be a pioneer,” Boggs says. Padhye’s home office is tech-laden. She has an ISDN connection, business and fax lines, a laptop computer, printer, fax, a desk and a chair - all provided by Shering.
Today’s teleworker is “assignment-driven, understands the organization and its needs, as well as his own personal needs,” Boggs adds. “Telework is the fusion of the personal and professional. This is the worker of the 21st century.”
TELEWORK TACTICS • No longer pioneers, teleworkers are savvy and comfortable home office workers. • Some 41% of teleworkers have children at home, 31% have completed graduate work and 17.9% make household incomes of more than $100,000. • Churn remains, with many teleworkers heading back to the corporate office full-time as situations change.
FURNISHING FOR HOME OFFICE SUCCESS
15 TELEWORK TAKEAWAY The right workspace, featuring comfortable furniture, good lighting, and adequate distance from the hustle from the family, can make all the difference in success and failure in the home office.
To some, the kitchen table and chairs are the foundation upon which to build a home office. The table’s big, the room’s well lighted, and a phone usually hangs close by.
But the drawbacks can outweigh the attributes. Who can spend a day in a kitchen chair without suffering aches and stiffness? And who wants to clean up his or her workspace when the day is through and it’s time to feed the family?
The home office needs the appropriate eye for detail, comfort and ergonomics, (the interaction between worker and workspace).
Start with the basics. Workers need a work surface, a secure and user-friendly environment for the computer, filing space and most important, a comfortable chair. In fact, the chair can be the most important item in the home office. The chair should have adjustable armrests, back and seat, and five legs for support. Cloth fabric, as opposed to leather, can make long periods seated more comfortable.
The ideal desk depends upon the sort of work to be accomplished. Accountants need surface area to spread out papers. Computer programmers need a computer workstation and less surface area. Surface areas range from secretarial 30-by-60-inch work top to an executive 36-by-72-inch model. Typical height is 29 inches. Some desks have matching hutches for books and papers.
Speaking of papers, plan to shuffle any in the office? Then you’ll need some filing cabinets. Most experts recommend four drawers -- for current, recent and archival filing needs. Quality cabinets can be purchased for around $75; bought used, they can cost half that much -- or even less.
Which brings up an important issue for many at-home workers: finances. Here are some ideas how to furnish an effective home office -- without spending a lot of money:
16 • Many used office furniture stores or office equipment leasing companies have desks and filing cabinets to choose from. Shop around for price and quality.
• Visit the local thrift or consignment shop for used furniture and equipment.
• Read the classified ads for corporate furniture or equipment sales or auctions.
• Call the facilities manager or a friend who runs a business Sometimes companies preparing to upgrade their furnishings would part with existing equipment cheaply or free just to unload it from storage.
• Visit a local retailer going through a remodeling. Such firms often throw away well-built displays that would work well storing magazines, books and other goods in a home office.
• Visit the local office superstore. Why buy used when you can get new sometimes just as inexpensively. Be sure to look for scratch-and-dent products. Although marred or damaged, the equipment usually works as good as new – and performance often is more important than aesthetics.
TELEWORK TACTICS • Furniture selection should be based on your comfort, style, and professional needs. • Spend some time figuring out your own workstyle and habits before investing in new or used home office furniture. • Superstores, consignment shops, bankruptcy sales, classified ads, and even corporate planned furniture replacement programs can be ideal places to get home office furniture.
ERGONOMICS BLENDS MIND & BODY IN FUNCTION
TELEWORK TAKEAWAY Poor ergonomic design and function costs American businesses billions each year in worker injury and lost productivity. Home officers are not immune. A little attention to detail can ensure your home office is ergonomically sound.
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A funny thing happened on the way to the modern office: People forgot how to use their bodies correctly.
They’ll sit like statues for hours on end, taking no breaks other than to hit the bathroom or kitchen. And stretching the body? That’s for the gym – whose membership they haven’t used in months because they’ve been working too much.
This is not good. Talk to almost any certified professional ergonomist and central to his or her mantra is training designed to create a smarter worker. A smarter worker, the pros say, is a healthier – and less expensive – worker.
From at-home worker to road warrior, ergonomics – which matches workplace to worker – has a place in every business environment.
Think about the graphic designer who works the mouse like a maniac – but never breaks to stretch the wrists. Or consider the keyboard junkie who easily taps out 10,000 key strokes an hour. Without stretching the arms, wrists and hands, his or her muscles will teem with stress.
Ergonomics seeks to increase productivity and promote overall worker satisfaction by minimizing discomfort and cumulative workplace injuries – which , incidentally, cost American companies almost $200 billion a year in lost time and insurance benefits paid.
If you bemoan an achy back, shoulders or neck, painful wrists, headaches or eye strain, maybe you could use some ergonomic intervention. Here’s how. Ergonomically designed chairs – with adjustable armrests, seats and backs – ease stress on the arms, shoulders and back. Footrests raise and comfort legs, and take weight off the lower back. “Ergonomic” computer keyboards angle a typist’s hands toward each other in a more natural alignment, and wrist rests and mouse pads – or left-handed mice for southpaws – help ease lower arm pain. Telephone headsets reduce neck strain.
Monitor screens cut distracting glare, and full-spectrum lighting overhead casts a soothing, sun- like glow on the entire workplace.
18 And this doesn’t have to be expensive: Some estimate that about 20 percent of all ergonomic changes cost nothing to implement. Create a footrest by stacking two telephone books beneath the feet. Use another directory to create the proper angle for the computer monitor. Dust the monitor and desktop to get a better view and reduce allergens.
Don’t skimp on the chair, though. A quality ergonomic chair will run from $100 to more than $1,000. If you do buy a new chair, read the instructions on how to use all those knobs and levers. Don’t have the dough right now? Create temporary lumbar (lower back) support with a rolled up towel, pillow or inexpensive lower back pad.
Some things, however, that help keep the person healthy can’t be bought at the office supply store. Common sense is about the best tool in the ergonomically designed office.
TELEWORK TACTICS • “Ergonomics” doesn’t mean “expensive.” Remedies – like using phonebooks to raise the monitor or as a footrest, or keeping a feather duster around to clean the desk and monitor screen - don’t have to be costly, just effective. • Think comfort. If your body is uncomfortable, or a reach for any item on your desk feels awkward, adjust your workplace to eliminate the feeling. • Make ergonomics a work in progress. From readjusting the chair every day or two, to angling the monitor, to opening and closing the window shade, to even buying a new angled keyboard to making typing more comfortable, ergonomics should be addressed not once – but constantly, to ensure continued comfort.
GOIN’ ERGO (for a sidebar box) Ergonomics isn’t just for the Corporate Tower downtown. Implement these ideas in any SOHO office setting and physical conditions – and productivity – could improve.
• Think healthy. In any work setting, having the right mindset is essential to feeling good. Next, survey your surroundings to identify any area that could be improved to deliver more comfort, whether it’s emotional or physical. These include chair, computer and desk, or the
19 placement of pictures and personal items around the office to enliven it and boost your morale while there.
• Sit well. Always adjust chairs after sitting. Readjust your own chair daily. Try to attain a neutral posture, with 90-degree angles in the elbows and knees. Buy chairs with armrests, five legs on castors for wide support, and which promote a natural “lazy S” curve in the back.
• Change your posture. Shift the legs, arms and back frequently to help break up the accumulation of lactic acid that can cause muscle pain.
• Stretch that body. While seated, stretch the arms skyward, or lock the fingers behind the back and straighten the arms. Rotate your waist in your seat, stretch the neck in all directions, arch the back - always trying to gently loosen your joints, flex your muscles and ultimately attain full range of motion.
• Type much? Stretch the fingers and arms. With one arm outstretched and the hand palm up, gently pull down on the fingers with the other hand. Then pull the thumb back toward the wrist.
• Change your view. Frequently look away from the monitor or desktop. Refocus on a distant object. Occasionally take a break from the desk. Get up, walk around, and come back recharged.
• See it clearly. Computer monitors should be positioned between 18 and 30 inches from the eyes, and from 7 to 15 degrees below eye level. Also, dust the monitor and desktop frequently to create a better view and reduce allergens.
• Cut the glare. If light from windows casts a glare on computer monitors, install shades - and use them. If lamps or overhead lights create glare, change the angle of the light or monitor. Still, at cooler moments of the day, take advantage of open shades to bathe the office in natural light.
20 10 WAYS TO BOOST TELEWORKING & LIFESTYLE
Telecommuting starts at your desk. Here are 10 ways to be proactive and help implement, expand or promote a successful teleworking program that can benefit the you and your organization.
1. Be proactive. If your company doesn’t have a teleworking program, create a task force of interested employees and managers.
2. Gather information. Study companies that have successful teleworking programs to create a trial that best suits your company’s specific needs. Write a proposal, then present it to middle and senior management. (Be especially mindful to help middle managers understand the benefits; often a prospective teleworker’s immediate supervisor is the most resistant to subordinates teleworking).
3. Start small. Target a single division of your company or a few selected people to try teleworking one day a week for a month. Or create a Telecommuting Try-Out day.
4. Track it. Have teleworkers and telemanagers report on their experiences -- good and bad -- making sure to specify things that worked and areas that need more work. If it’s a success, expand the days; if not, find out why.
5. Admit failure. When teleworking doesn’t work for certain employees or an entire company, acknowledge defeat, retreat, and replan.
6. Task it. Successful teleworking programs use “results-based” performance guidelines. In other words, designate a specific project or task to be completed or worked on while at the home office. Completing it means the tele-day was a success.
7. Communicate. Establish a minimum amount of contact to be maintained between teleworker and telemanager -- either by phone or electronic mail.
8. Get it in writing. Consultants advise that teleworkers and their managers sign an informal “contract” outlining points 4, 6 & 7, ensuring that all know what’s expected of them.
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9. Promote it. If your company already has a teleworking program, strive to expand it (maybe have teleworkers speak to other employees and managers). Promote it externally to local media, especially during Telecommute America Week in October each year.
10. Log on to learn more. Visit the International Telework Association’s Web site (http://telecommute.org).
TEN TIPS TO A QUICK TELEWORK LAUNCH
For some, September 11 changed everything in the workplace.
And for others, it changed very little.
Some companies have known for years that telework is an effective trump card against natural disasters or other calamities – a way to keep workers working. But these days, everybody’s getting it. Even so, don’t wait for a calamity to create a telework program: We found that companies with some previous telework experience were quicker to find ways to get their employees working again – whether at home or in some shared space – in the weeks after the terrorist attacks.
Although you’ll find a wealth of advice from us and others on how to launch a formal remote work program, much of it assumes you have several months in which to work. Instead, we’ve pulled together 10 essential tips that could have your employees teleworking in weeks, if not days.
1. Make your first call to IT. Computer, network and telephone systems work in concert to make remote officing work. From IT and computer and software procurement, to cellular, local, broadband and long-distance telephone providers, the sooner IT knows what remote workers need, the sooner it can get them up and running.
2. List your resources. If the company never has instituted a formal telework program, spend time listing some of the resources – telework consultants, Web sites, even internal
22 employees and managers familiar with telework best practices who can be turned to provide the critical insights needed
3. Be flexible in space selection. In ideal circumstances, workers have the time to plan and equip a home office. In a bind, that time, let alone an appropriate workspace, might not be available. In a pinch, combine remote and alternative officing strategies. Call on strategic partners who might have space available to sublet, and find resources and allies with space to spare. Long-term solutions will come eventually, but being creative at the outset can go a long way in getting your business back to normal.
4. Know the organizational chart. By knowing the interactions and relationships of your company’s workers, teams, departments and critical adjacencies (or how team members need to be placed to maximize efficiency and performance), managers can help facilities and human resources colleagues place workers in appropriate settings – whether it’s a shared space or home office.
5. Pick the right people. If possible, put only top performers in home offices – those who work well with the team or alone, consistently meet their deadlines and are easily managed from near or far. If this isn’t an option, make sure team members are monitored closely to ensure they’re performing to expectations.
6. Forget the polish. Under ideal circumstances, a telework pilot program is afforded time for thoughtful planning, testing and implementation. During a crisis, some of the planning can be forgone to get workers back to work. Productivity and performance reviews can be accelerated or held more frequently to ensure that new teleworkers are meeting their deliverables and working well remotely.
7. Identify the best workspace. Once you’ve established which staffers will work from home, help them pick the most appropriate place to set up their home offices. The ideal place for a home office is in a dedicated room with a door. In a pinch, any quiet space secluded from the bustle of home life will do. At minimum, ensure it has a desk, computer, ergonomic chair, proper lighting, an Internet connection (preferably high- speed) and a business phone line. In the days after the terror attacks, many resourceful
23 teleworkers used their cell phones for business and their home phone lines for Web access.
8. Keep the team spirit alive. Realize that remoteness is a state of mind. Whether they’re down the hall or across the country, workers rely on e-mail, instant messaging and the phone to connect. Even so, expect the sudden loss of physical contact and water cooler banter to exacerbate feelings of isolation. One way to maintain contact with the team is for members to start each day by sending an “I’m open for business” e-mail that includes the day’s schedule and tasks to be accomplished. Make time for friendly chatter, so long as it doesn’t interrupt workflow.
9. Exchange personal information. A good practice in the best and worst of times: If the network goes down, private e-mail and cell, personal and home-office telephone numbers can be invaluable for getting people back in touch. If appropriate, create and maintain a company site where people can exchange such information. Many first-time teleworkers reported that the lack of access to colleagues’ personal information hampered recovery efforts.
10. Reach out and communicate. Disaster response requires corporate leadership and a support network to calm employees and answer questions. “Reach out as proactively as you can,” recommends one executive thrust into first-time telework following the events of September 11. “Over-communication makes people know we’re there, and they have the information they need to succeed in this new environment.”
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WHAT A YEAR FOR TELEWORK
Telework and home-officing technology saw substantial growth in 2001, but much of it was caused by events no one could predict.
With an eye to cutting costs – as well as improving employee productivity, satisfaction, retention and recruitment – firms everywhere experimented with, launched and stepped up telework programs, and have reaped the benefits. As of August 2001, one in five U.S. workers (28.8 million) occasionally teleworked, up 17 percent from 2000, according to the annual study conducted by the International Telework Association and Council.
Then came September 11.
The terrorist attacks left thousands of workers with no office to commute to, or prevented them from entering their offices indefinitely. Countless spent weeks and months traumatized and afraid to leave their homes, let alone travel for business. Companies intent on keeping workers productive entertained never-before-considered workplace options. Whether telework, shared space, or use of business and telework centers, companies brainstormed, approved and quickly implemented ad hoc programs.
As a result, employees had to work in new locations and learn new workstyles. So, too, did their managers, colleagues, clients and others accustomed to very different ways of working. And work they did. Affected companies bounced back quickly and rebuilt effectively, due in part to flexible work.
But even before September 11, the home office was proving itself a viable stand-in. Many remember how the blizzard of March 2001 stranded thousands of northeastern workers at home, some for a week. But this time, instead of braving treacherous roads, many stayed safe and simply worked from home by accessing office networks via the Web. And they made impromptu telework work.
25 Sure, not everyone liked the results, and many longed to get back into the office. Those accustomed to corporate offices’ high-speed connections were frustrated by at-home dial-up speeds and, “I’m gonna get broadband” became a battle cry of the frustrated masses.
And sign up they did. U.S. DSL subscribership topped 3.82 million by third quarter 2001 - and included a 15 percent jump over the previous quarter subscriptions, notes research firm TeleChoice.
In some of the most important news of 2001, while DSL’s residential installed base continued to grow, cable also carved out a substantial space in the broadband sector – that is, until Excite@Home’s much-heralded failure spoiled the party. Some 4 million @Home subscribers faced disconnection, as the company wends its way through bankruptcy, echoing the troubles of DSL wholesalers NorthPoint and Rhythms earlier in the year.
So what’s the takeaway from 2001?
Telework works best when planned, piloted and rolled out thoughtfully. But in a bind, it’s proven itself an effective workplace alternative. And managers hoping to recreate the efficiency of the corporate office in the home need to give teleworkers the tools. Whether that’s a laptop computer, remote access technology or broadband connectivity, the more teleworkers feel at work in the home office, the more productive they’ll be.
REMOTE WORKERS STRIVE TO STAY PLUGGED
On the days Cheryl Waybright teleworks, she practices “touch-base.”
She’ll schedule lunch with coworkers, managers and even contractors, and have a little personal- life chat to feed the grapevine, she says. She’ll have a five-minute phone call with key peers, supervisors and subordinates – with a brief agenda for each call to make sure it’s productive professionally as well as socially. And when she heads in for on-site meetings, Waybright, manager of Georgia facility operations for BellSouth Corp. will arrive an hour early to walk
26 around and mingle, she says. Once the meeting’s through, she’ll hang out to catch up with those she didn’t see before the meeting.
These practices help “make it clear that you are working hard and are a contributing member of the team by your actions, your involvement and your efforts to connect with others,” Waybright says. “It takes a bit of extra time and planning at first but, in the long run, is worth it.”
Left unchecked, teleworking can disconnect remote workers from the social and professional network of the corporate hive. Although establishing contact standards among teleworkers, peers and managers is wise, it’s also good practice to go beyond those minimums to ensure that the teleworker stays a part of the corporate social culture.
Remote workers face unique challenges when their telework days border the weekend. If a telework works remotely on Monday and Friday, for example, not only is he or she not around in the company offices to discuss plans for the weekend, they’re also not there on Monday to catch up. Disconnection becomes a significant concern. To boost opportunities to schmooze, some teleworkers will suggests their manager schedule meetings on the days they’re in the office – as opposed to participating in conference calls from the home office. Teleworkers also need to be flexible if the meeting has to be on one of their telework days.
Being a full-time teleworker managing two other remote workers can leave Rick Middleton disconnected from his 10-person team at World Relief Corp. in Wheaton, Ill. And the six days a month he’s in the corporate office aren’t enough to make him feel plugged in. What’s worse, his managers were so comfortable with Middleton’s work arrangement they would drop out of the loop themselves. Coworkers would leave the company or projects would be killed and Middleton would be the last to know.
“They would go days or weeks without calling at all,” he says of his managers. “That’s one of the bummers, because in the office you would have heard it immediately.”
How did this director of marketing and copy development solve the problem? He asked his coworkers to keep him informed on projects and gossip. He spends more time mingling when he travels to Wheaton. And he will make a phone call – instead of sending an email – to help stimulate conversation.
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“You can’t do that enough,” he says. “You have to be nice, but persistent.”
STAYING IN THE LOOP: WORK OUT, DON’T DROP OUT Want to work remotely – without dropping out of the professional or social loop at the corporate office? Here are some tips:
• Touch base. Call in and send email. Plan to spend five minutes each week talking with each team member – about business and life – to stay informed and in touch.
• Schedule deliberately. Arrange extra time before and after in-office meetings, and spend time with coworkers. Schedule lunch meetings, and discuss personal topics when and where appropriate.
• Do a walk-about. When in the office, walk around, say “Hi,” and otherwise schmooze with coworkers, managers and peers.
• Perform. Nothing indicates your desire to be a part of the team more than your ability to deliver results. Set an example by being productive.
CREATING A HOME OFFICE HAVEN: A FAR CRY FROM THE CUBE TELEWORK TAKEAWAY This isn’t your office cube. Your home office can be an efficient workspace that sports the tools of efficient work, and the spice of accessories, sounds and items that you only wish could be a part of your corporate office. Creativity could come alive.
When Ryan Roth set up her home office in 1999, she made sure it was outfitted with all the right stuff. Her desk has plenty of space for her laptop, printer, fax machine, and her business and personal phones. A cordless phone also stands ready nearby, letting her conduct business from anywhere in the home. In short, she wanted it to perform like any corporate office she ever had worked in - and then some.
28 "When I work from home, people can't know that it's home I'm working from," says Roth, a partner and part-time teleworker with L&L Communications, a public relations firm an hour's drive south in Deerfield Beach, Fla. "I have all the tools, supplies and furniture to make this as functional as my other office."
Roth knew exactly what she wanted. In her mind's eye, she snapped a shot of those amenities and accessories that make the corporate office function smoothly, and recreated them - with some additional touches - in her home office. A door closes off the rest of the house during the day, and Roth from the office after hours. A storage closet is packed with such office supplies as paper, pads, pens and the like.
Roth's list of home office must-haves include:
· An L-shaped desk: At roughly 7 feet by 4 feet, it provides ample space for her equipment, and the hutch has storage space and built-in lights for her work. The finished pine beauty keeps her home office home-like. At first, she balked at the $1,800 price, "but I'm glad I did it," she says. "The room is not makeshift, it's my home office. The desk has to be more than functional."
· Four phone lines: One line each for personal, business, fax and the Internet, as well as a cordless phone extension, totaling $80 a month before long-distance charges. Luckily, Roth's local carrier let her order residential service that totals only $80 a month (before long-distance charges). Once DSL hits is available, she plans to ditch a line and order broadband service. With all this twisted copper, Roth is able to log on to her company Web site and access files remotely while talking with clients, partners or employees.
· The laptop: Along with her printer, fax machine, and ZIP drive for moving large files to and from the corporate office, Roth's' PowerBook G3 laptop makes her office wired for speed and efficiency.
· Desk chair: Roth dropped less than $200 on a high-back chair that matched her décor. She admits it's no ergonomic wonder, but Roth's executive chair is her home office throne. She picked it for color, comfort and ease of motion. Perched at her workstation, "I can just swivel around and do pretty much anything," Roth enthuses.
29 Then there are the little touches that Roth's home office needs - the can of Diet Coke she's constantly sipping from, or the magnet on the front door. In her own writing, it says, "Please knock. Don't ring bell."
"Everybody thinks it's for a baby," says Roth, who's only baby is her 6-month-old Labrador retriever, Cash. "If I'm doing a dog-and-pony-show presentation on the phone, some guy I'm trying to pitch for $15,000 per month may not understand why my office has a doorbell. And I don't want to blow it."
Roth's home office isn't all about business furniture and connectivity, though. Especially important are the knickknacks and personal items that make her home office a great place to work.
"This isn't just an office; it's a room in my home," says Roth, whose home office came about as part of the renovation of her 3,000-square-foot Palm Beach Gardens, Fla., home in 1999. "It's important that it be comfortable and productive so my efficiency is consistent. This way, my home office presence is invisible to clients."
When working from home, to each his own. How home officers set up their space can be a uniquely personal experience. With no facilities managers to dictate style or bosses to nix flashy personal accouterments, teleworkers can get feeling funky with their décor.
When Roth and her husband, Rich, were overseeing the home's renovation, Roth wanted to be sure her home office met her taste. She installed the largest window that would fit her office wall. Today, sunlight shines through the 75-inch-wide window, bathing her space in natural light. Roth also has a view of the home's front entrance, so she can spot visitors as they arrive.
When she arrives each morning, Roth lights three aromatherapy candles to create a relaxing atmosphere. "I light them before I turn on the computer," she says. "It's like turning the light on." Family pictures are scattered about. Three plants bring life to the space, and a replica of a 90- pound sailfish she caught in 1994 hangs on the wall.
30 A crate for Cash sits nearby. When Roth is working, Cash is in his crate. This way, he can keep Roth company while she works without Roth worrying that he's getting into trouble in another part of the house.
One of the essential touches Roth added to her home office was a love seat. From this upholstered, tropically printed perch, she can read corporate documents, review files or proofread press releases she's preparing for her clients.
"This is a place I enjoy working in," Roth says. "If you took out the fax and phones, it would be a really nice room."
KEY TELEWORK TACTICS • Look at your corporate office and decide what furniture, tools and technology need to follow you home. • Look around your home to see what accessories – candles, lamps, pictures – should follow you into your home office to make it a more comfortable workspace. • Combine the two to create a workspace you enjoy working from.
BALANCING ACT: ONE COUPLE, TWO OFFICES, ONE HOME
TELEWORK TAKEAWAY Two workers in the same home or home office can cause chaos and conflicts in workstyles. Highlight your strengths, preferences and habits, and work to smooth out the kinks.
For more than three years, Ed Gilhuly was sitting pretty as a full-time teleworker. He had his own home office all to himself. His schedule, phone line, Internet access and personal idiosyncrasies were his to control.
Then everything changed when his wife, Maricel Cigales, quit her job and launched a behavioral analysis practice from the same Miami home office. She brought with her occasional meetings
31 with her business partner, employee and clients, and a penchant for National Public Radio in the morning and television in the afternoon.
“It’s added some complications,” Gilhuly admits.
With more than 23 million teleworkers and 10 million home business owners and free agents working from home, the number of two-worker home office households is on the rise. The way couples share the same space can cause conflicts over territory and routines, or serve as a lesson in cooperation. For Gilhuly, it meant integrating his wife’s workstyle and space needs with his own.
From the beginning, they realized Cigales’ arrival wouldn’t create a space crunch. The 10-by-20- foot home office is in an efficiency apartment that had been converted from a garage more than 40 years earlier. But making space for both workers and their storage needs required an upgrade. So they hired a local carpenter and spent $1,500 to build an L-shaped desk with cabinets and storage units.
Because they didn’t want to invest in separate Internet connections or peripherals, Gilhuly installed an Ethernet network so they could share the BellSouth DSL service, the printer and Gilhuly’s ZIP drive to store and retrieve client files.
But matching workstyles was a bigger issue. When Cigales was working on her Ph.D. in the 1990s, she studied and ran her private practice from home alone – with the din of the TV or radio in the background to keep her company. Once Cigales joined her husband in the home office, that habit was cured – with her blessing, Gilhuly says. If she’s already in the office when Gilhuly arrives at his desk in the morning, his first stop is to shut off the electronic noise.
“She’s very accommodating,” he says. “She understands that I just can’t concentrate with a TV or radio on.”
When Cigales hosts business meetings at home, she’ll grab the cordless phone and head for the kitchen or the terrace, so she doesn’t disturb the peace in the home office. Gilhuly works for RBB Public Relations, most of his meetings are held offsite, and at the company’s Coral Gables offices or client locations.
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Even with all this understanding, some things just remain thorny between the two. When Ilan, their 3-year-old daughter, gets home from preschool, Cigales is strict about keeping her out of the office. Gilhuly sees things differently. “I’ve got far more relaxed standards about letting her come in and play or draw,” he says.
And then there’s the neatness issue. When he worked alone, Gilhuly would arrive each morning with the office looking the same way he left it the night before – typically a mess, he admits. Cigales keeps her space neat. “I’m the Oscar Madison,” he says, “she’s the Felix Unger,” describing their “Odd Couple” tendencies.
Now, they compromise. Gilhuly can keep his workspace messy without getting an earful during the day. But he cleans the space each day before leaving the office.
“For this to work,” he says, “we both have to be understanding.”
KEY TELEWORK TACTICS • Discuss with your fellow home officer what their likes, dislikes and workplace needs are to better design a space that meets both your needs. • Also discuss your workstyle preferences – music or the TV on in the background, windows open, wind chimes hanging near a fan – and see what fits, and what has to go. • Nuances can hurt a working relationship. Are meetings, conference calls, and other noisy events held on site? It might be wise to find an alternative – or set your schedules to accommodate each others’ needs and tolerances.
Rules Help Make Work-at-Home Parents Successful
Telework Takeaway Rules, rules, rules. Kids dislike them. But as occasional work-at-home parents, teleworkers need rules and guidelines to help create a successful professional working environment in the home-based workplace
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Success for many work-at-home parents comes by mastering the art of home and home office balance.
While telework program guidelines often prohibit having children or dependent seniors in the home when the employee is working, sometimes it can’t be avoided. The child could be home sick or on vacation from school, or the primary day-time caregiver or nanny could be absent.
That leaves the teleworker to manage work and family, if only for a few hours or days.
The cost can be dramatic and detrimental. Office-based coworkers, upon hearing the sounds of children in the teleworker’s office, may dismissed at-home workers as parents first – and corporate peers second.
Technology, like phones with mute buttons and computers that boost work-at-home productivity, can help at-home workers better control or mask the distractions of their home offices. But real success in any home office with dependents, spouses or roommates about starts with setting a few simple rules.
• Set rules. From “business” hours to respecting a closed office door, kids, spouses, roommates – and you – need boundaries. Use tools like “Do Not Enter” door hangers, an electric red light to turn on when you’re not to be disturbed, or even a fake stoplight with Red (do not enter), yellow (enter quietly) and Green (come on in).
• Set business hours. Whether it’s nine to five or eight to six, setting up a home office work schedule creates regularity in the family routine and lets everyone know when the office is off limits. Include breaks during the day when the kids get home from school. You’ll stay involved in their lives, and it will diminish their need to bug you.
• Get help. Whether it’s a nanny or preschool for an infant or toddler, or a mother’s helper for when older kids get home from school each day, supplemental help lets a work-at-home parent focus on work – at least a few uninterrupted hours each workday. Otherwise, work is a frustrating and emotionally draining task – and
34 becomes a waste of valuable time. Use this time to do project work that can’t be interrupted; reserve rote tasks of business (i.e. administrative, paperwork, filing, etc.) for when interruptions can be tolerated. • Power down. On weekends, at dinner time and other traditionally “non-work” times, shut down the computer, turn off the phone’s ringer and leave the office. The spouse and kids will appreciate your time spent with them; you will, too. You can always warm the computer back up later.
• Hold regular family “business meetings.” Like any manager, a work-at-home parent needs to be on the same page with the rest of the team, monitoring progress and brainstorming new directions. This also helps the family stay focused on what the home office is (a place of business), and is not (a playroom, a children’s grievance room, or a retreat for the family).
• Involve your kids. Whether it’s stuffing envelopes, collating papers, or just talking about what mommy or daddy do for a living, occasionally get the kids into the office. They’ll enjoy seeing what you do, and they’ll get a better appreciation for what “work” is all about.
• Celebrate business achievements with the family. It helps the spouse understand there’s reward in supporting your efforts, and it tells the kids they reap some benefit from being understanding of mom or dad’s needs for cooperation. This can go a long way in a healthy work-family life balance.
• Listen. If your spouse, partner or kids hint – or outright complain – that you’re working too much, take heed. A home office can become a magnet for the at-home worker. And while the kids could just be bored, both camps could be displaying disillusionment regarding your work habits.
DO PARENTS GET ALL THE PERKS? TELEWORK TAKEAWAY Want avoid resentment in your flexible work arrangement? Include single or childless couples in the program’s design, and make sure you don’t favor parents over any one else.
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Several years ago, human resources executives at Baptist Health South Florida in Miami decided to launch a telework program. Among their concerns was how childless employees would perceive the company's treatment of work-at-home parents.
Would benefits such as flextime, compressed work weeks and telework appear to benefit employees with kids more than those without? Would dissention, resentment and claims of favoritism erupt?
To head off the problem, executives paired single, childless and parent employees on a task force to write the program's guidelines, says Anne Streeter, assistant vice president for work-life programs.
The resulting guidelines helped forge a policy that met the needs of the entire group and avoid complaints about a program that favored parents or caregivers.
"Our guidelines define 'family' more broadly than just employees with kids," Streeter says. "You have to address employees' personal lives, too, not just whether they have kids or family."
Proponents of equal pay for equal work complain of inequality in corporate family-friendly policies - including those that offer compressed work weeks, leaves of absence, telework and flextime to working parents. Most of today's workforce has no young children, so such family- friendly policies are seen by some as favoring employees with kids.
What's more, teleworking parents spend less time in the office and might be seen as forcing their in-office peers to carry more of the load. But this is often just a misunderstanding between in- office workers and their remote peers. While some employees might work in the office less, they often make up the time working outside traditional office hours as well – a point managers should bring to the fore.
When selecting teleworkers, the best way managers can avoid claims of favoritism is to evaluate each candidate based only on performance criteria, ability to work from home and whether their tasks can be performed outside the office, says Jane Anderson, director with nonprofit telework consultancy Midwest Institute for Telecommuting Education (http://www.mite.org) in
36 Minneapolis.
Managers cannot ask whether the worker has children at home who could be distracting, according to Equal Employment Opportunity law. Instead, Anderson recommends they pose the question: Is there anything in your home office environment that could distract you from performing your job?
"You have to realize that single people have distractions at home, too," she says. "And managers should never have to weigh which employee has the better reason to telework."
MINE, MINE, MINE: HOTELING NEEDS PERSONAL TOUCHES
TELEWORK TAKEAWAY
Hotels aren’t just for travelers. Remote workers who need an occasional corporate office easily can utilize corporate space – as long as they get along with the other workers who share that space. Etiquette is essential, because this isn’t your private home office.
It seemed like such a good idea at the time.
Faced with growing business and a commercial space crunch, executives with Chiat Day Advertising in Los Angeles decided to eliminate private offices and cubes in 1995. The 300 or so full-time employees would be stripped of their permanent, dedicated space, and instead work from wherever they wanted. If they came into the office, they would report to the concierge to receive a desk assignment, phone and laptop.
“People were encouraged to work from wherever they thought they’d do their best work, home, a client’s office, a bar or the beach,” recalls Carol Madonna, now director of office services with TBWA Chiat Day, and formerly head concierge.
37 But workers snubbed the virtual office idea and kept coming into the office, which in turn created a space and resource crisis. “If you got to work after nine in the morning, there was a good chance there was nowhere to sit, there was not a phone and there was not a computer,” Madonna remembers.
The experiment also brought out workers’ primal instincts. Since Chiat workers rarely had the same laptop – if any – two days in a row, they began hoarding equipment. “Because if you gave it back, tomorrow it might not be there,” she says.
While there may be no “I” in team, alternative officing requires more attention to individual’s needs than once thought. Facilities managers and real estate executives correctly realize hoteling benefits exist. Organizations facing office space constraints can take advantage of the remote nature of some worker’s schedules – sales people who are frequently out of the office, existing teleworkers who don’t need fulltime in-office space, or other remote workers who are more often out of than in the office – in order to minimize or reduce the company’s need for dedicated offices. The resulting space reductions can eliminate costs that accompany them: rent, insurance, utilities, furnishings, technology and support staff.
Still, hoteling is not right for every company, and was wrong for Chiat. Ad shops and many consultancies thrive on ideas borne of collaboration and proximity. Hoteling sapped the creativity and spirit from some workers who formerly had found energy in traditional space and the impromptu brainstorming it encourages.
“We thought people would want to be at home, but they ended up wanting to be at work. People love to be together,” Madonna says. “If you spread them out so they don’t see each other, you lose that. Morale really slipped.”
In September 1998, Chiat learned its lesson and abandoned the virtual workplace in favor of a 125,000-square-foot warehouse-turned-office it dubbed “Advertising City.” There, each worker has dedicated space – even the 10 media buyers and half-dozen advertising planners who primarily work remotely or from home with their PowerBooks.
While the virtual office is gone, some tools and benefits remain. Today, Madonna makes and takes her calls on an Ericsson cordless phone from anywhere in the office. Whether she’s working from the office, the road or her Malibu home office, the company’s Xtend Communications phone system will forward calls to any location.
38 “Everyone wants their own desk. I need a staple remover to do my job,” Madonna says. “Everyone has their own stapler and a picture of their own car, kids, whatever.”
KEY TELEWORK TACTICS • Research and use the best technology, from locking desks or portable cabinets, to phone systems that will transfer remote workers’ calls, to personnel capable of working in this unique environment. • Study best practices. From financial services to marketing communications, companies in a variety of industries have successfully used hoteling. • Design an out. Don’t make hoteling mandatory for those workers – or organizations – incapable of working in a highly flexible environment.
TELEWORKERS & THE HOTEL: NOT SOME MOTOR LODGE
At a recent telework managers workshop at a large healthcare company, attendees lamented the condition of the shared space - and the behavior of its occupants.
The 200 remote workers treated the company's 20-seat hotel space like a run-down motor lodge. At day's end, cubicle garbage cans brimmed, docking stations were left propped upright against the wall (to free up desk space), phones laid disconnected after contractors used the their jacks to access data lines. Worse, in the morning, new occupants would call the IT helpdesk to restore phone service before realizing the cause.
"It's like preschool. People don't leave things the way they found them," complains the company's telework program manager, who asked not to be identified.
The corporate hotel office – space designated for remote and home-based workers who occasionally work in the office – can be beneficial to the organization. But it also can be tough to manage. After all, while most consider their home office a haven, shared offices garner little respect and take lots of abuse.
While unkempt workspaces don't necessarily lessen morale, they can lessen productivity - both
39 for the manager who has to stay atop the situation, as well as for workers seeking remedies. The telework program manager describes herself as part manager, part cop, lurking the halls, spot checking equipment, looking for inappropriate behavior and hinting at better habits. She's posted signs around the office and pantry asking people to be respectful of others. A 2000 New York Times article on hoteling etiquette hangs nearby as well- not the best use of her time, she admits. The effects of noise, food, smells, general respect and consideration and the loss of privacy and personal turf can't be dismissed, writes telework consultant Gil Gordon in his essay, "Telephone Rings, Onion Rings and Other Annoying Things: Getting Along in Shared Cubicles and Offices Without Tearing Out Your Hair."
Next time you check into the office hotel or shared space, Gordon says consider potentially disruptive behavior or habits that irk others:
• Noise. Whether it’s humming or singing over the boom box or clock radio you break out to make you feel at home, the phone ringer or speaker phone, noises from the PC’s multimedia, prairie dog conversations across cubes or in halls, or even habits like rapping your fingers on the desk or tapping your foot, or just talking to yourself during the creative process, watch your volume. • Food. Wipe up crumbs and spills, and put wrappers and other waste in the pantry or lunchroom garbage to avoid attracting pests. • Smells. Food, personal hygiene, air fresheners, nail polish or remover and perfumes may cause allergic reactions – or general annoyance – in others. • Personal space. Make space in drawers, file cabinets or bookshelves for your own personal belongings, and those of your space-mates. Ensure privacy by closing active files or sensitive docs, or enabling your screen saver when you leave. • Whereabouts. Your cube mate isn’t a social secretary, Gordon notes. Don’t make them take messages. Leave paper and pens on your desk for others to leave their own notes, forward your calls appropriately, and leave word where you are with those who need to know.
"There's no way that working in an office - any office - affords you the same kind of privacy you have at home," Gordon says, "and the smaller the office space and the more it is shared, the worse it gets."
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BUSINESS CENTERS: ANOTHER WAY TO CUT THE COMMUTE
TELEWORK TAKEAWAY The commute is a drain, but the home office isn’t a viable place to work? The Business Center or Executive Suite may be the answer. With support staffs, full technology and locations close to residential areas, business suites can be ideal remote worksites.
Rosemary Gama had come to lament her daily commute.
And who could blame her? Regional sales manager for a national magazine, she spent three hours in her car each day commuting from her Pembroke Pines, Fla., home to her employer’s offices in Coral Gables.
In 1999, after three years of commuting, Gama had enough. But where could she find suitable workspace near her home? With family in the house, she wasn’t keen on a home office. She still had to drive to Miami to visit clients, but Gama didn’t want to waste her time stuck in traffic.
So that year, she left the corporate office and relocated to Stratis Business Center, an executive suite in Plantation, Fla. From there, she’s 20 minutes from home, 20 minutes from the airport or downtown Fort Lauderdale, and less than an hour’s drive to Miami.
Not only did she cut her commute by 75 percent, she also gained an office she could leave at the end of the workday and not become a slave to over the weekend.
“My clients didn’t even know I moved from Coral Gables,” she recalls of her early days in the new office.
Across the country, some 4,000 business centers offer flexible space – from cubicles to private offices – at costs ranging from $500 to $2,500 a month, according to the Executive Suite Association, a trade group in Columbus, Ohio. Facilities typically are housed in high-end office space with conference rooms, making them a suitable placed to meet clients, vendors or
41 coworkers. The centers also house other tenants, providing those residents a safer location to meet or work than the traditional home office.
Business centers often include conference facilities, high-speed Internet access, and receptionists or automated attendants and voicemail to answer calls in the tenant’s or company name.
The office suite proved to be a boon to Gama’s career as well. When her employer decided to relocate its regional office to New York, potentially displacing or relocating Gama and some of her 29 coworkers, she didn’t flinch. Three coworkers moved with the company and the rest resigned, but Gama convinced her boss – who had recommended she telework to eliminate the commute in the first place – that, as a regional manager, she effectively could stay put in her alternative office and continue to do her job 1,000 miles from the company’s New York offices.
And why not? Gama has all the tools of the corporate office. She has the camaraderie of 40 other teleworkers and entrepreneurs who work from the facility. And her company enjoyed significant cost savings by avoiding relocating Gama to New York – or worse, losing her if she quit.
After two years, Gama still called the space her office. She continues to make frequent trips into Miami to visit clients, but she routinely avoids the morning rush by stopping by her office first, then heading into the city later post-rush hour. And she’s typically out of Miami before the afternoon rush begins.
“I am still able to service my Miami clients as if I were there,” she says. “That’s the important thing.”
KEY TELEWORK TACTICS • Search the telephone directory or online resources (www.equite.com, www.execsuites.org, www.officequest.com) for local, regional or national providers of office space. • Sublet to cut costs. Subletting office space from a business or office near a remote worker’s home can provide discounted space – often with added benefits of a receptionist, business equipment, and even office camaraderie. • Share space. Several employees can share the space on different remote work days to reduce costs, or employees from allied or sister companies can do the same.
42
TELEWORK CENTERS GET MIXED REVIEWS
TELEWORK TAKEAWAY As the federal government looks to boost its number of teleworkers, federally-subsidized telework centers have emerged as viable remote office locations. Executives have discovered, though, that location, proximity to mass transit and social, education or cultural venues, and camaraderie between workers helps build the centers’ viability.
For the 47 tenant workers who make the Bowie Community Network Telecommuting Center their office, it’s better than home.
The telework center provides 30 private workstations, 23 of which provide both T-1 Internet connections and dial-up modems to access employer networks. There’s remote access voicemail, printers, scanners and photocopiers, and corporate tenant Electronic Data Systems installed video conferencing for use by all tenants.
“We even serve coffee,” says Joyce Larrick, the center’s director.
But overall, such centers have received mixed reviews from the telework community. Like most in the Washington, D.C., area, the Bowie center hosts a mix of private industry and government tenants. It is funded in part by the General Services Administration, and 80 percent of its tenants work for a dozen government departments, including the GSA, the Federal Aviation Administration, U.S. Customs, the Department of Justice and the Department of Transportation. Each pays $50 a day in rent and works there anywhere from two days a month to full time, Larrick says.
Housed at Bowie State University in Bowie, Maryland, the Bowie Center is part of the GSA- funded Washington Metro Telework Association. Although the GSA has discussed closure of such centers for lack of use, Larrick scoffs. Her facility delivers benefits provided by few other
43 centers, which often are in office buildings or storefront locations. On the university campus, users can conduct research in the library, mingle in a campus setting or use the athletic facilities. A student has been hired for part-time tech support for the center’s users. Some tenants take classes, and others teach. “And we’re hitting about 85 percent capacity,” Larrick brags.
Originally envisioned to provide alternative offices closer to an otherwise long-commuting employee’s home, “they are potentially a duplication of overhead unless the employer seriously commits to a hoteling scenario with flexible officing,” argues John Edwards, president of consultancy Telework Network, Inc., in suburban Washington, D.C.
Moreover, some managers are no less wary of a telework center than they are of employees working from home. And costing upward of $500 a week in rent per employee, such centers can present no real cost savings to corporations or government, Edwards adds.
But Larrick counters, for first-time teleworkers, the centers provide a professional setting that can help them stay motivated and focused on work. Eventually, teleworkers with bona fide home offices can migrate home once they’ve developed remote officing work skills, Edwards admits.
“Ultimately, it has an impact on their own personal lifestyle, and you’re putting people back in their own communities,” Larrick says. “The benefits are far-reaching.”
44 CHAPTER II SAVVY STRATEGIES & SMART HABITS
WHEN THE MANAGER SAYS ‘NO’
TELEWORK TAKEAWAY In some companies, telework policy starts at the top. But in most organizations, a manager must approve any given employee’s move to remote work. Does the buck really stop at the manager’s desk? If not, dissention and failure could emerge.
Since 1997, The Boeing Company has had a formal telework program. Almost 4,000 of the company’s 180,000 employees participate worldwide. But what happens when a Boeing employee asks to telework but his manager says no?
It all falls back on the telework policy, says John Uhrich, program manager for Boeing’s Virtual Office Program.
“Each organization [within Boeing] implements telework in a way that makes sense to them,” Uhrich explains. “Our telework policy puts the ball back in the manager’s court, and allows the local team to use telework as a tool for flexibility.”
The language of the company’s policy is broad enough in terms of participation requirements to allow managers the freedom and flexibility to decide which of their people can become a teleworker. Telework is not an entitlement at the company, and selection criteria is based on employee job performance.
The decision of a Boeing manager is golden as far as approving – or not approving – a candidate for telework. But denying an employee’s request to telework based on job performance should be seen as an opportunity to explain the denial, and outline performance issues that led to it. For example, if the worker’s performance has been inconsistent in the office setting or projects have
45 been delivered late, and the manager believes work won’t improve in a remote environment, that’s just cause.
Other legitimate reasons are based on the ways telework will affect the team’s productivity. Will remote work negatively affect the worker’s participation or involvement with the team, other employees, or internal or external customers? If an upcoming project will require a lot of face time, that could be a good reason to forestall a department telework initiative, Uhrich says.
Before requesting telework, Boeing employees are encouraged to visit the company intranet site to conduct a self-assessment. Is the job conducive to telework? Has the employee demonstrated a track record and personal and professional traits that would make the manager comfortable with a less-supervised arrangement?
Managers also are encouraged to be open-minded about the benefits of telework, and to visit the site’s “If it’s not working…” page to learn about handling telework gone bad.
“Address the issue head-on,” Uhrich says. “Bottom line: If you’re not comfortable with an employee teleworking for any reason, be honest about the reason. Make it a positive way to bring out performance issues, and give the employee a chance to regain your trust.”
TELEWORK TACTICS • Make managers responsible for their reports’ telework request approval – based on corporate-approved qualifications and conditions. • Policy and parameters should be in writing and available to all prospective and current teleworkers. This way, they’ll be aware of company policy or any changes to it. • If a manager denies a request, he or she should provide the reasons to the report - and use the denial as a chance to discuss and improve sub-par performance issues.
TURNING A MANAGER’S ‘NO’ INTO A ‘YES’
TELEWORK TAKEAWAY
46 So, the manager said “No” to your telework request. How can you change his or her mind? A proposal should include research, statistics, a summary of the team’s strengths that make it amenable to remote officing – and the selection of a worker who can play “telework pioneer.”
Rob Mitchell had long wanted to telework, but he was meeting with resistance from his supervisor.
A fellow worker in Mitchell's department also wanted to telework, but she assumed that management's "No" to Mitchell would amount to a "No" to her as well.
Then an interesting thing happened. Mitchell, a senior systems programmer in the Wyoming Information Technology Division in Cheyenne, got job offers from a private company and even another government office – both agreeing up front to let him telework from what was to become his new home in Gillette, Wyoming.
"At that point, I told my boss that I was moving to Gillette and that I could either continue to work for him or work for someone else," he recalls. "He agreed to let me telework from Gillette."
Then, instead of forcing her hand, Mitchell's coworker, a graphic designer who could do her job from home, chose to lay low and wait to see how Mitchell's telework arrangement worked out.
How do you convince a reluctant manager to try telework? More importantly, how do you present your case effectively? Sure, Mitchell and his coworker could have pulled out reams of research on the benefits of telework, offered information about successful telework initiatives, planned a pilot program and implementation schedule. Still, those might not be enough.
As Mitchell and his colleague (who didn't comment for this story) learned, letting one person play a pioneering role could ease a manager's anxiety over telework and increase the likelihood others will get the opportunity. Here, the two workers acknowledged that any future requests for a telework arrangement would be tied to Mitchell’s success or failure.
“She was on my case pretty heavily to make sure mine works so she could use that as justification for hers,” Mitchell recalls.
47 Between remote work, monthly travel to Cheyenne for team meetings and training, and ample phone calls with his manager, Mitchell's remote work seemed to be working out. In fact, his relationship with his manager improved with the telework. The two spent more time talking about work and catching up on personal matters.
“And I spend a lot of time on the phone with my coworkers so we stay current on the things that affect the network and us,” he says. “Communication was the main bug, but that was just a matter of making slight adjustments and getting on the phone quite a bit more. Instead of yelling over a partition, it's a greeting on the phone.”
Four months later, with the manager's concerns seemingly smoothed over, the coworker decided to make her move. Armed with Mitchell's success and improved relations between him and his team members, she presented her idea. She would work in the state office Monday and Friday, and work from home Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday. She already had a full workstation and access to the company network, so her workflow wouldn't be impeded.
In short order, the manager agreed.
"I think my example helped her out quite a bit," Mitchell admits. "I forced [management] to let me do it. So, when no problems arose, they said, 'We can't say no to you either.' "
TELEWORK TACTICS • To change a reluctant manager’s mind about telework, get the team on board, collect your data, create a pilot program and offer a small-scale initiative to start. • Choose a worker whose job best fits telework – a self-starter who can work alone without hindering team productivity – to serve as the guinea pig. • After several months, study the findings and report successes – and shortcomings – to the manager. Most of all, be honest and keep the manager informed about the project.
HOW TO CONVINCE THE BOSS TO ADOPT NEW WORKSTYLES
TELEWORK TAKEAWAY
48 What does it take to change a century-old company’s way of doing things? Study, plan, pilot and benchmark. Then hope for an open mind.
What does it take to steer a 99-year-old car company with more than 350,000 employees worldwide toward progressive work arrangements?
You'd better have a road map. If you don't, better plot your own.
That was the case at Ford Motor Company. In the mid-1990s, when the firm's human resources managers sought to implement friendlier work arrangements such as telework and reduced-time scheduling options, the company needed convincing, recalls Anne Marie Gattari, Ford's corporate news manager.
Ford faced a challenge: Existing employees and recruits alike were requesting new ways to work. But no new programs find their way into the workings of established "old economy" employers without proof they'll work, Gattari admits.
So, Ford managers and executives did what they always do with any new initiative: They studied, planned, piloted and benchmarked the programs "to show a business case for them."
The result was a Transitional Work Arrangement program – managed by Ford's Diversity and Worklife Planning Office – that allows workers to scale back their hours to pursue advanced education, increased time with family, etc. Then in 1998, the Diversity and Worklife Office launched a year-long telework pilot program, driven by a grass roots steering committee that sought support from managers and team members. Ultimately, 58 workers participated.
The research tracked employee performance, and employee, manager, team member and client satisfaction. Ford found 97 percent of the teleworkers reported a productivity increase, 82 percent a boost in the timeliness of their work, and 77 percent improved the quality of their work. Some 79 percent of managers reported no change in their ability to manage on-site and remote employees, and 67 percent of the teleworkers' work group members reported that the overall advantages of telework outweighed the disadvantages.
49 "Results from the pilot were fabulous," Diversity and Worklife Office spokeswoman Cheryl Brautigan says. "They surprised everybody, even the people who really believed in telework."
When the results were shown to senior management, a formal program was approved quickly.
All three – telework, flextime and transitional work – are part of Ford's company culture. Only about 800 of the company's salaried staff in the U.S. telework, but the number is growing. In September 2001, the company held its second annual Diversity & Worklife Summit – a week- long series of events and activities designed to let employees and managers worldwide educate their groups on work-life issues.
The programs continue to change. Traditionally, workers had to explain why they wanted to participate in the transitional work program. That is no longer the case. “The reason is not important as long as the quality of performance and results are maintained,” Brautigan says.
"Our upper management recognizes there are different ways to get work done than the traditional 9-to-5 in the office," Gattari adds. In fact, a new program of alternative work schedules was recently approved. "Now the focus is not on the means to the end but the end, the objective."
TELEWORK TACTICS • Before proposing a telework initiative, create a steering committee to study the initiative, and include people from all aspects of the company – HR, IT, facilities management and the divisions who will telework. • Continually update and improve the program as the company, personnel – and personal – needs change. Telework policies should be dynamic and fluid – open to discussion and alteration as situations evolve.
LOYAL WORKER MAKES TELEWORK TRADE-OFF
TELEWORK TAKEAWAY Telework isn’t for everyone. But for some employees, it represents a way to keep the job when geography would otherwise make that impossible. Flexibility – by the employee and the employer – is key to a successful new remote officing program.
50
Teleworking isn’t Carla Richards’ ideal work arrangement.
In 1999, Richards didn’t want to move 1,600 miles from her job as a media relations specialist with Federal Express in Memphis to her new home in Dana Point, Calif. She didn’t want to leave her coworkers and the corporate environment she had worked in for more than a year.
But she also didn’t want to lose her fiancé, Mike, who works in sales and marketing for Ford, a job that calls for him to relocate every two or three years.
“If you told me five years ago I’d be putting my career in jeopardy for a man, I would have thought you were insane,” Richards says. “If I had my choice, I would rather be in that office with my colleagues, without a doubt.”
In short, Richards is a reluctant teleworker. She endures isolation and dislocation from the corporate team, and sometimes wonders what might have been.
Before she married Mike in November 1999, Carla Boyd had been the quintessential corporate citizen: a ladder-climber who thrived amid the often frenetic pace of the headquarters. Then Mike Richards came along.
“I wanted to marry this guy, but I knew it would impact my career,” she says.
When he proposed back in 1999, Boyd knew that, to keep her job with FedEx, she’d have to telework. Even though she broke ground as the first teleworker on her 12-person team, she didn’t want to be perceived as some pioneer on the telework frontier.
“I made it clear to the people at FedEx early on: I didn’t want to work from home, I just wanted to keep my job,” she says.
Despite Richards’ reluctance, FedEx embraced the concept of telework. She frequently hops Memphis-bound FedEx planes so she can meet with her team. And Richards’ managers appreciated that they now had a local presence in the Los Angeles media market.
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But although FedEx has given Richards no indication that telework will curtail her career advancement, she’s convinced it will. “As a teleworker, I’ll never be able to manage a large staff or climb the ladder within the media relations department,” she says.
“That was a hard part about doing this,” she adds. “I know this is the highest I can go. I knew that going in, but it still gives me cause for pause.”
However, Richards sees the bright side, too. “To be able to have a career, be taken seriously and not have to quit my job every two years, this could not have worked out better for me,” she notes.
Better yet, Mike’s future transfers won’t harm her job – FedEx has offices in 220 countries.
TELEWORK TACTICS • When telework is a strategy for a loyal employee to keep a job when a relocation makes staying onsite impossible, let the manager know this is a fall-back position. • Be open and ready to travel back frequently to the corporate office. Especially in the beginning, seeing a new remote worker around the office every few weeks can ease the transition. • Working for a company with multiple cities – including any you may relocate to – can help ease the transition to telework, for you, your manager and coworkers.
MAINTAIN A PRESENCE WHEN YOU’RE NOWHERE TO BE SEEN Telework Takeaway Are you a ghost when you’re teleworking? Do coworkers forget you exist when you’re not in the corporate office? Get smart about staying visible on your remote or telework days.
Out of sight, out of mind.
The phrase was almost custom-made for teleworkers.
52 You toil from home or a remote work center, keeping touch with co-workers, peers and managers by email and telephone. For all they know, you could be hitting the gym, relaxing or generally being derelict in your obligations to the team back at the corporate hive.
Maybe you’re the hardest worker on in the group. Regardless, their suspicions could place you in the hot-seat to account for your time and activities outside the office, and justify the continuation of the telework program.
To avoid all this, you must not only maintain your relationship with co-workers, but improve those relations to buttress against their worst fears. It’s imperative that you take the initiative, lead where appropriate, and prove your worth by example.
You also must keep yourself front-of-mind, both on the days you telework and the days you’re in the office, by staying in touch. Here’s a few ways to keep a high-profile – even when your physical profile is miles from the corporate office.
• On the days before your telework days, remind people that you’ll be teleworking. In fact, if it’s a flexible schedule, give them as much advance notice as possible, so team members can work around your schedule. Provide them with all your appropriate contact information (phone and email). This will help reassure them that you’re just a phone call or email away.
• On the mornings of your telework days, sign on to the network, and alert your team that you’re open for business.
• Reiterate that just because you’re working from home, they should treat it like a traditional work location. They must not hesitate to contact you during work hours, and if an urgent matter that requires a meeting comes up, remind then that you will attend.
• Take full advantage of the days you’re in the corporate office. Schedule meetings, lunch and chats with your managers and peers. Stay informed about company events or team members’ important milestone events. Sometimes no matter how hard you try, as a teleworker you may fall out of the loop for information. Strive to stay in the loop.
53 • Perform. The best way to allay your peers’ fears about your role as a teleworker and improve your relationship with them is to insist on management by results, and then achieve or surpass their – and your manager’s – job performance expectations. This will go a long way in building bridges between your home office and the corporate office, and keeping you front of mind as a valuable – albeit remote – worker.
SAVVY TELEWORKERS AVOID PEERS’ BACKLASH
TELEWORK TAKEAWAY If in-office peers doubt you’re working on your telework days, staying in touch, focusing on your deliverables and otherwise rebutting their concerns can allay their fears and help the team work better.
Two or three days a week, Gail Smith avoids the 18-mile commute to Schering-Plough’s Kenilworth, N.J., offices and works from her home in Secaucus, N.J.
If peers back in the corporate office can’t get in touch with Smith while she’s teleworking, do they fester with suspicion that she’s not working when she’s on duty at home? They might, if only Smith didn’t make it so easy to get in touch with her.
Backlash often stems from not knowing what the teleworker is doing, right now. The better the communication practices and the more the remote worker chats with office workers, the more likely skepticism will be minimized.
For example, if someone calls Smith’s corporate office when she’s working from home, the call is automatically and seamlessly forwarded to her home office phone. If they walk by her office, they’ll see her weekly telework schedule, and her phone number. If she’s in the kitchen or walking around the home on a lunch break, Smith often has her cordless at hand. If she’s at the desk in her home office, Smith responds to e-mail immediately.
54 “I want people to know I am not out on the terrace sipping frosty beverages,” jokes Smith, a project manager with the company.
Backlash can be the bane of any teleworker’s otherwise productive workstyle. Peers, managers and coworkers sometimes can’t help wondering what’s going on back at the home office while they’re toiling at the corporate office. Combating the stigma of telework can be an almost daily affair. Smart teleworkers know that success comes from proving by example; by being visible, even when they’re not around; by indoctrinating office workers with the positives of telework; and by delivering results on time or even early.
“No one can argue with results,” Smith says. “The whole focus is supposed to be on deliverables. If you are doing your job and doing it well, any backlash that does come has no basis and is easily refutable.”
Some people suffer backlash to their teleworking with regularity. Not Smith. Before she began teleworking in late 1999, Smith – like all Schering-Plough teleworkers and their managers – received mandatory half-day training on, among other topics, backlash: how to recognize it, deal with it and rebut it.
“This seems to always generate a lot of discussion and interest from both sides,” she says. “I think it’s a big concern.”
How can you thwart the stereotype and stigma of the slacking teleworker? Early on, Smith began a regimen of keeping her manager, her direct-reporting staff, and her 8-person team informed on the days she’s out. When she’s in the office, Smith is there for the team’s biweekly project meetings, although on a few occasions of bad weather, rather than coming into the office, Smith simply gathers her team on a conference call and conducts the meeting virtually. Because she has no opportunity for “hallway management” or other on-the-fly communication, Smith often is in touch daily with the crew when she’s working remotely. If she’s at home cranking on a project and she hasn’t forwarded calls from the corporate office, she leaves a greeting telling people to e- mail her for a faster response. Then she checks her voice mail hourly.
55 Even when she recently took a sick day and could have gotten by without checking in with the office, Smith checked e-mail and voice mail several times during the day. “My management doesn’t ever expect that,” she says, “but I felt up to it.”
TELEWORK TACTICS • Mandatory training by teleworkers and their in-office coworkers can help prevent coworkers backlash to the teleworker’s new arrangement. • Maintain constant contact at levels even surpassing your in-office habits – regularly checking and returning voice mail and email messages, for example – to convince others you’re on the clock when working from home. • Some coworkers will never get over their doubts that teleworkers don’t actually work from home. If you’ve tried to change their minds to no avail, focus on doing your job.
TELEWORKERS: GOT GUILT?
TELEWORK TAKEAWAY Try as they might, some teleworkers can’t avoid feeling guilty when working from home. Still, here are some ways to assuage that nagging emotion.
When a communications manager with a major software manufacturer decided in 2000 to leave Cupertino, Calif., where his employer was based, he was filled with melancholy.
He enjoyed his five years with the company, and he liked his coworkers, his managers and his job. Hoping to ease any transition, he gave his managers two months notice of his plans to move back east to Pennsylvalia. He also offered to remain on staff as a teleworker.
When his manager accepted his offer, the employee was elated. But soon he was racked with anxiety and guilt. Could he perform outside the corporate offices? Would he pull his weight? Worse yet, would the worker, who commonly logged 50-hour weeks in the office, continue to be perceived as working just as hard?
“I thought being out of sight meant being out of mind,” he explains.
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Two months into his successful telework gig, he still couldn’t escape his curious emotions. The worker, who didn’t want his name used, still plies 50-hour weeks and says he’s 30 percent more productive without office life distractions. Still, try as he might, he can’t escape the gnawing guilt, and the feeling that he has to continually prove his performance.
Some people see telework as a requisite perk of the modern workplace. Others are grateful to have the chance to work from home. The guilt-ridden worker falls into the second category, rarely losing sight of the fact that he’s working almost 3,000 miles from the corporate office, and worried about how his output and efforts are perceived by teammates in Cupertino. Sure, he has several other teleworkers on his team, and he’s never felt any animosity or resentment from the non-teleworking staff. Maybe it’s a character trait, always needing to track performance to make sure those around him know he’s delivering his share.
Actually, this is no new emotion. Before he left Cupertino, the employee called, e-mailed and met with other company teleworkers to ask how they coped. He learned that by staying front-of-mind and delivering the goods on time and on budget, he could create positive impressions about his workstyle. Since his telework program started, he even has taken on additional projects to ensure he stays active and visible with multiple groups, he says.
Most important, though, he tracks and documents everything he does and delivers. Before his weekly conference call with his manager, the worker e-mails a Word document outlining what projects he’s completed or advanced in the past week – and what’s on deck for the coming week.
When he makes the cross-country flight to headquarters once or twice a quarter, he also presents his manager with a Lotus Notes database that lists details on almost 100 projects he’s completed for the company since he started teleworking. His boss continues to manage by results, but he says this helps him track his own performance.
When he’s back in the home office, he tracks his assignments on a 3-by-4-foot white board mounted on the office wall in front of his workspace. Each completed assignment gets crossed off.
57 Sure, all this performance tracking is probably overkill, but few have questioned his performance as a teleworker, and he feels productive.
“If I’m not pulling my weight, I feel very uncomfortable and feel like I’m letting them down. It’s just my personality, being very conscious of how I’m being perceived from a service standpoint,” he says. “If it doesn’t work out [with me] as a remote employee, it wasn’t a result of me not giving my all.”
TELEWORK TACTICS • Prove you’re pulling your weight by meeting timetables for deliverables, participating in regular meetings (in person or via conference call), and making sure coworkers know you’ve done your part. • Track your performance – on a spreadsheet, a white board or a simple Word document that you enter deadlines and dates projects were delivered. This will help you realize you’ve done your share. • If you’ve done all you can, and you still feel “guilty” that you’re working from home and your coworkers are in the office, don’t sweat it. Maybe it’s just your personality to feel that way.
VACATIONING TELEWORKERS GET AWAY FROM IT ALL
TELEWORK TAKEAWAY When you vacation, do you take a break from the office? A majority of executives don’t. Learn how to control your urge to stay in tough when getting away.
David Archer was walking down a street in Cabo San Lucas, Mexico, with a friend, when the two happened upon a cyber café.
“I said, ‘Let me pop in here for a quick second.’ It ended up being about 45 minutes,” recalls Archer, general manager with AccessLine Communications, Bellevue, Wash. The friend must have known what she would face, Archer suggests, when Archer arrived at the Seattle Airport with his laptop in tow for their five-day vacation.
58 Does this sound familiar? You’re planning a vacation, but the first thing you do is charge the cellular phone, make sure the batteries in your pager, Palm or Blackberry are working, and pack the laptop. Heaven forbid you should take a break – and not break away from the office.
Many teleworkers admit to working longer hours from home than from the office, and even more hours while on vacation. A 1999 report by Andersen Consulting found that 83 percent of 300 surveyed workers who vacationed seven or more days since April that year remained in contact with their office. Sixty percent brought along mobile technology (cell phone, laptop or pager), 61 percent checked email while traveling, and 54 percent said they checked voicemail daily – and 62 percent of those responded. In all, some 20 percent said they spent more time in 1999 than 1998 staying in touch with the office.
“Staying connected is increasingly becoming a fact of life in the new economy,” says Thomas H. Davenport, director of Andersen’s Institute for Strategic Change.
This borderline addiction is based on workers’ expectations for themselves – or the perceived expectations of their managers, says Gil Gordon, president of telework consulting firm Gil Gordon Associates and author of Turn It Off: How to Unplug from the Anytime-Anywhere Office Without Disconnecting Your Career.
To be sure, today’s “do it all, do it faster” corporate mind-set is partly to blame, Gordon says. Few workers likely feel the company will grind to a halt should they let communications slide, he says, and few employers mandate contact while traveling. Although some employers even say the inability to connect remotely would make some feel they cannot vacation at all, self-proscribed balance is essential, he says.
“Nobody actually tells you you have to check email, but after you listen to coworkers mention about how they checked email while on vacation, you sort of get the hint,” Gordon says. “It’s only a downside if that person, or significant others, feels that doing this work interferes with enjoyment of vacation time. And there are many spouses who probably are glad to have half a partner on vacation than no vacation at all.”
Instead of lugging all that hardware, Gordon suggests a little pre-vacation reality testing. Play “What if…” and insert such questions as “What if I don’t check email or voicemail for a week?”
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Career sabotage is not required here. Before disappearing for a week, Gordon recommends you:
• Let important colleagues, managers and clients know you will be away, and urge them to bring up important issues before you depart;
• Change your outgoing voicemail and email travel reply to let people know you will be vacationing, whether you will be checking your messages;
• Provide alternative contacts whom others can reach in your absence.
Some fear returning from a few days away only to find some 200 messages in the inbox – one of which might have been a plum assignment or a new contract. Gordon suggests instead filtering your inbound email to reduce the spam, or unsubscribing from unnecessary mailing lists.
“Maybe the counterargument is that sifting through those 200 messages is a small price to pay for being unplugged and disconnected from work,” he says, “and thus having been able to truly enjoy and benefit from the vacation.”
KEY TELEWORK TACTICS • When you’re in the office or traveling on business, do you trust your team to handle crises? If so, then when on vacation have the same trust. • Before vacations, work ahead, alert team members or clients about your departure, and tell them to get requests in early. • Relax. Work will be waiting for you when you return.
TELEWORKERS MAKE A SEAMLESS HOME OFFICE MOVE
TELEWORK TAKEAWAY
60 Moving the home office is like moving two unique spaces – home and office. Between technology, hardware, files and even changing contact information and alerting clients, customers and business associates about the new location, details abound. Plan well.
If only Dave Cassidy had worked in a traditional corporate office 2000 when he moved his home – and home office …
The corporate movers would have boxed his files, crated his PC and peripherals, and wheeled away his desk, chair and filing cabinet. His phone and broadband connections would have been arranged, and Cassidy would have arrived at work one fine Monday morning with all his belongings in place.
Instead, because he was – and is – a full-time teleworker, Cassidy’s move from an apartment in Arlington, Va., to a house in nearby Fairfax, was his own to pull off. In retrospect, he says he believes he pulled it off quite nicely.
Moving the home office without disrupting workflow is an exercise in planning and execution. Well-planned, a move can keep the worker productive, and clients and coworkers connected.
For Cassidy, director of business development with IT consultancy Turner Consulting Group in Washington, D.C., a smooth move began with lists. His wife made a master list of tasks – to close on the house, vacate the apartment and move into the new residence. Cassidy concentrated on a list of tasks required to move the home office, including companies to call for new phone and broadband service. He also made a list of people who would need his new contact information.
The move 25 miles from his former residence left Cassidy with the same area code but with a new phone and fax number. And though he made arrangements for the new service early on, Cassidy didn’t get his new number for a week before the move. Once he knew his new numbers, Cassidy e-mailed his new contact information to his 15 project administrators and a half-dozen clients, and then followed up with phone calls.
As an added contact measure, Cassidy’s business card provides Turner Consulting’s corporate office address and main telephone number in Washington. He arranged for the phone company to
61 maintain the number change notification for six months. Another option for workers who don’t have corporate phone extensions forwarded to their home offices is a “Mailbox in the Sky,” where callers can hear all the new information and leave a message for the teleworker.
Before moving in, Cassidy visited the new home to measure the bedroom that would become his office. He noted and measured the location of telephone outlets and phone jacks. This way, he would know how to set up his desk to best accommodate his fax machine, printer and other peripherals.
The moving company packed the house and its furniture, but Cassidy purchased sturdy packing boxes from U-Haul and packed his office and the home’s fragile belongings himself. Office supplies were packed according to the importance of the items enclosed, and the contents were written on each box.
“Not just ‘Files,’ but which files,” he adds. This way, when he arrived at his new home office, Cassidy could open boxes containing diskettes, files and other frequently used contents first, leaving less-important items to be unpacked once his office was in shape.
Cassidy packed and moved sensitive equipment – printer, fax, PC and monitor, and digital camera – himself. His kept his laptop containing critical client files with him.
Also helpful – Cassidy closed on his new house three weeks before he had to vacate his apartment. During the interim, he moved some of his equipment to the new location and set it up. “We were able to bring things over piece by piece,” he says.
Switching broadband access wasn’t so easy. His apartment had Verizon DSL. His new home would have a Cox Cable modem. When Verizon switched his service off a week before his move- out date, Cassidy contacted Cox and arranged to accelerate the switch-on. He then worked from his new residence until moving. Because his e-mail address is through Turner, Cassidy had no disruption in e-mail service.
“My error there was putting any kind of faith in the provider,” Cassidy recalls. “If I were to do it again, I would expect to pay for an extra month’s service as a cost of leaving.”
62 Once Cassidy was in his new neighborhood, he spent a day driving around scouting the public transportation system, as well as restaurants, cafes and other locations that would be good for team and client meetings.
By planning his move, Cassidy’s suffered no performance downtime.
“My office was the last room packed and first room unpacked,” he says. “As a consequence, it’s undecorated. But I immediately was surrounded by everything I needed to work. And the move was completely invisible to outsiders.”
KEY TELEWORK TACTICS • Plan ahead. Get your new contact information as far in advance as possible, and begin distributing it on all out-bound correspondence as early as you can. • Pack and label well. Pack items together – based on where they are located in the office or how they’re used – and use a felt-tip marker to list contents. Details save the day. • Scout your new neighborhood and community to find good places for business lunches, alternative work locations, copy centers, etc.
WHO PAYS TO TELEWORK? TELEWORK TAKEAWAY Companies can see real cost savings with telework programs, but some employers still are hesitant about footing the bill to send a worker to a well-equipped home office. Teleworker and manager should negotiate the costs and agree on responsibilities before the worker heads home.
Executives have heard for years how telework can cut a company’s expenses. Real estate and infrastructure costs drop as the need for offices, phone lines, utilities and even support staff is diminished as workers are sent home to work.
But does that mean the company can send teleworkers home to fend for themselves? Siemens Enterprise Networks realized early on that dispatching its workforce to home offices required a sizeable investment to make sure the workers were productive and professional – even when not in a corporate environment.
63
Several years ago, when Siemens sent 100 of its employees home to telework full time, the company bankrolled much of the cost. It provided a Dell Latitude laptop computer, a Hewlett- Packard multifunction fax, printer, scanner and copier, a shredder for security, and a Siemens Gigaset desktop phone with accompanying cordless phone.
Teleworkers got an allowance for a desk of each worker’s choosing, and Siemens shipped to each residence an ergonomic chair, says Janice Serendi, quality systems representative for Vista (or Virtual Implementation Support Team Advantage), a group of project managers and software designers who remotely manage projects.
If they needed light in the workspace, employees could purchase at company expense a work lamp. Teleworkers are repaid for any supplies they need, and they receive a monthly allowance for utilities such as electric and heating fuel added onto their paychecks, Serendi says.
Employees are reimbursed for the cost of a dedicated business line as well as any long-distance business calls made on the private line, and their Internet connection – whether it’s a dial-up, ISDN, DSL or cable modem. If they need a cellular phone, they get a company discount through a contracted provider. Again, costs are paid by the company, when approved by management, and the amount is added to the teleworker’s paycheck.
To ensure that the computer and network access remain safe, employees receive firewalls and antivirus software, and can visit corporate offices for courses on a variety of software applications. Every two years, teleworkers receive new laptops as part of a company-wide technology replacement program.
In most instances, the employer provides the tools for telework, says telework consultant Gil Gordon. They’re no different from traditional office hardware; they’re just in a worker’s home office. In some cases, employers can let workers take furniture scheduled for replacement, or computer hardware from the office itself – especially if the employee is headed home to work fulltime and will no longer need an in-office PC.
“It’s viewed as providing the tools of the workplace wherever it happens to be,” Gordon says.
64 Anything else is up to the employee, Serendi says. Family members are not permitted to use the Siemens network, Internet connection or laptop. Serendi’s husband, for example, has another computer in the home equipped with its own Internet access.
The benefits to Siemens come from the professionalism of its workers, Serendi says. Having the company pay the cost for telework tools helps the workers believe that the company takes the arrangement seriously. Workers can concentrate on serving their clients and customers, without the concerns of an entrepreneur or business owner who must justify expenses that usually are the employer’s responsibility.
“Most [employees] feel this is a very fair allowance,” says Serendi, who used this largess to equip her home office in Connecticut. “I don’t see anything else that the company could do for us.”
KEY TELEWORK TACTICS • List expected expenses. No one likes surprises. The teleworker should create a list of costs to be negotiated. • Split the cost. If the desk will be used as a place to do home finances and record keeping, as well as business purposes, maybe the teleworker can foot some of the bill. Agree up front. • Managers or employers can provide a one-time allowance or a recurring reimbursement program for expenses to keep costs in check and avoid surprises.
FOOTING THE BILL: WHEN TELEWORK MEANS OUT OF POCKET
TELEWORK TAKEAWAY How much does the chance to work from home mean to you as a teleworker? Enough to cough up the costs of creating and maintaining a home office? Simple negotiations and officing savvy can keep costs in check.
When Karla Swatek decided to telework for a San Francisco publisher, there was one caveat: She had to pay her own way.
65 “It was made clear that where I lived and worked was my choice,” says Swatek, who wanted to telework from La Jolla, Calif. “If I stayed in the Bay area, the company would have provided me an office. But since I wanted to live in Southern California, it was my decision and my own dime, which meant I’d be paying for everything from office set-up to travel.”
Even though the arrangement meant money out of her pocket, Swatek didn’t take long to decide. In 1997, she began working from her home office in La Jolla and commuted several days each month to the company’s offices 450 miles away in Northern California.
Although telework is gaining momentum among some employers, it’s not without cost to them – and sometimes the workers. Some employers aren’t willing to pay the bills to set up their teleworkers’ home offices – especially considering what the employer already paid to set up the corporate offices.
Swatek’s employer, a business book publisher, even offered her $500 as a moving allowance – but only if she moved north from La Jolla to San Francisco. She tried to negotiate the moving allowance as a home office set-up stipend but was unsuccessful.
For Swatek, the decision to telework amounted to several thousand dollars in expenses. Because the company was on a Macintosh platform, Swatek paid $1,400 for her iMac and an additional $2,100 for a Compaq Presario laptop she used for travel and personal use. She paid about $100 for a pair of Ikea file cabinets, a bit more for a chair, and $20 for a used desk she later refinished.
As are other teleworkers with the company, Swatek was permitted to charge office supplies from the local Office Depot and had a corporate FedEx account number. The company reimbursed her for long-distance calls made on the only item it did provide, an old phone it no longer used.
An added benefit to paying her way was not having to return pricey furniture or computer hardware when she quit. When Swatek left in 1999 to launch Swatek & Davidson, a business book publicity and promotion firm, she left her firm a “very short list” of returnable items, including some stationery, the phone and a used printer. In the end, the company told her to keep it.
“Having my own setup really did uncomplicate the letting go,” she says.
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KET TELEWORK TACTICS * As a teleworker, try to negotiate a stipend to cover office set up. If it doesn’t come… * Decide what you need (desk, chair, phone, etc.), see if the office has extra, and if not, buy your own. * Buying your own equipment makes for a clean break. If you leave, there will be no need to return computers, furniture or other hard goods.
INSURANCE: ARE YOU SURE YOU’RE COVERED?
TELEWORK TAKEAWAY Are your teleworkers covered in case of accident while working during the company’s bona fide corporate telework program? Better make sure. The costs and liabilities can be staggering.
When any of the Maryland Department of Transportation’s 200-plus teleworkers heads home to work, they’re on their own for most insurance coverage.
According to MDOT telework coordinator Gil Weidenfeld, if workers are injured during traditional work hours or in the course of supervisor-approved overtime, they're covered by the Maryland Worker’s Compensation Law. But if they're injured while putting in unapproved overtime or their company-issued laptop or desktop computer is stolen or damaged outside state offices, they may not be covered by MDOT.
“We assume it’s insured by the teleworker’s homeowner’s insurance,” adds Weidenfeld, who oversees the 4-year-old program.
If a company is dispatching workers en masse to telework or remote work locations, they should discuss coverage issues with company insurance carriers and employees. Managers or their teleworkers should check coverage issues with the employer’s personal property, general liability and workers’ compensation insurance carriers, advises the e-Work Guide, a telecommuting planning and implementation manual from the International Telework Association & Council
67 (http://www.telecommute.org). Employees should inquire with their own insurance providers whether they can add employers as an additional insured on their homeowner’s policy, especially when the company installs expensive equipment in the home office, the guide advises.
If employees can’t add employers to their policies, they should inquire about additional coverage – or a rider – that would expand the categories and value of contents covered under the policy.
If the teleworker will be meeting clients or coworkers in the home office, additional liability coverage should be secured to protect the worker and employer if the visitor is injured. In the course of the half-day training session, new MDOT teleworkers were advised that department policy prohibits them from holding meetings at the home office. Having appropriate health and property insurance also was discussed.
Although teleworkers sign telework agreements, they’re not required to sign an affidavit claiming they have sufficient insurance coverage. In the case of the MDOT, the agency assumes that the workers carry adequate homeowner’s and automobile insurance, Weidenfeld says. Auto insurance would cover theft of personal or department-issued equipment from the car.
“We don’t inquire as to their insurance coverage,” he says. “We mention that it may be a good idea to add a rider onto their homeowners’.”
Weidenfeld considers teleworkers among a company’s most “savvy and sophisticated” employees. He puts faith in their decisions regarding telework and insurance coverage.
“There’s a certain amount of common sense that goes along with teleworking,” he says.
KEY TELEWORK TACTICS • Check with the company’s property and liability insurance carrier to ensure the existing policies cover employees who work from home. • Have employees check their home owner’s policies to see if business-use equipment is covered • Rewrite the company’s telework manual or program guide to outline those places or times that employees are covered while teleworking.
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OF TELEWORK AND TAXES
TELEWORK TAKEAWAY Think home office tax deductions are for the self-employed? Think again. Certain teleworkers are allowed to deduct their home offices under certain circumstances.
A pop quiz: Your employer has no dedicated office space for you at any of its locations, so you telework. Is your home office tax-deductible?
The short answer is yes, says Doug Stives, CPA, a partner specializing in individual and small business taxes with Wiss & Co., a Red Bank, N.J.-based accounting firm.
“It’s one of the best-kept secrets in business,” he adds.
Long thought to be the bastion of the home-based entrepreneur, the home office deduction presents possible tax savings for select teleworkers as well, says Stives, who prepares teleworkers’ tax returns each year.
Whether you telework fulltime or just a few days a month, your home office space can be deductible under certain circumstances. If your employer doesn’t provide a customary, dedicated workplace available each day, then your home office is deductible. Even hoteling, a practice in which workers receive a different workspace each time they visit the corporate office, may qualify the worker for the home office deduction, Stives says.
On the other hand, a home office is not deductible if the worker has a dedicated corporate office available and still the employee chooses to telework for personal convenience. Even cubicle space that has become available with layoffs could be viewed as suitable space, thereby disallowing any deductions for the teleworker’s home office. And if you telework just because you don’t want to commute three hours each way each day? That won’t fly with the persnickety IRS.
69 “The word we use is it may be ‘fatal,’” warns Stives.
The math involved with deducting your home office space is similar to that used by the home business owner. It is calculated based on the percentage the office and dedicated storage area make up of the entire home. For example, in a 2,000-square-foot residence, a 200-square-foot office would allow deductions of 10 percent. That 10 percent is applied to mortgage interest or rent payments, property taxes, insurance and utilities.
To deduct a home office, no door is required. Although previously the law required the space to be “dedicated and exclusive,” Congress’s 1997 changes to the U.S. Tax Code clarified what “exclusive” means. Since 1999, when the changes went into effect, the deduction also can be applied to workspaces not in dedicated rooms. The workspace can be the corner of the den, bedroom or basement, but that space must be used exclusively for business. To compute the percentage of a home applicable to business use, square footage can be used.
Regardless of whether you qualify for or take the home office deduction, or even if you telework from home part time, office furniture and equipment may be tax-deductible business expenses if the expense exceeds 2 percent of the employee’s adjusted gross income, Stives adds. Business telephone and fax/data lines and the bona fide business calls made on them often are completely deductible, providing another reason to invest in dedicated telephone or broadband connections.
Just remember: Though the deduction will possibly reduce the amount of income the home business or employee is liable to pay taxes on, by depreciating part of the home, the home officer will have to recapture, or pay taxes on the depreciation’s financial benefit to the home owner, when the home is sold. Stives notes that generally, a home office must be placed out of use for two years prior to the sale of a home to avoid making part of the house sale profit taxable.
Keep your receipts, track your work-at-home days and ensure that your home office passes muster with your accountant. Stives advises that a well-considered strategy will help “chip away” at IRS arguments against teleworkers’ taking the home office deduction.
“If you’re taking the deduction correctly, you will prevail,” he advises.
KEY TELEWORK TACTICS
70 • If your employer has no dedicated office space for you as an employee who teleworks or works remotely, then your home office likely would be deductible. • If your employer has an office for you to use, but you telework for convenience – that is, you don’t want to drive into the office every Friday, for example – then your home office likely would not be deductible. • Even if you don’t qualify for the home office deduction, your furnishings and equipment may be deductible – if those costs exceed 2% of your adjusted gross income. Always consult your tax advisor.
DEDUCTION DEBATE – IS YOUR HOME OFFICE AN IRS RED FLAG?
TELEWORK TAKEAWAY Does attaching Form 8829 to your tax return raise a red flag telling the IRS to audit you? Some accountants say yes, while others say no. Most, though, say take all the legally allowable deductions you have coming to you.
As a teleworker, you may be wholly entitled to the home office deduction. Even so, many tax preparers are leery of advising their clients to make the claim.
Some cite residential tax issues. By deducting your home office, you’re reducing the cost basis used to compute capital gains liability when you sell your home. That means at the time of resale, you’ll owe taxes on the amount of depreciation you’ve claimed, explains Stives of Wiss & Co.
Other tax advisers and preparers fear that, by attaching the required Form 8829 to your tax return, you’re in essence goading the IRS to audit you. Stives, who is on the Tax Executive Committee of the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants, says that’s not the case. Even so, if you take the deduction, be prepared to substantiate that your company “expects and encourages” you to work from home.
Create a supporting file that includes:
71 • A signed letter from your manager or employer verifying employment, and stating that the company does not provide customary office space for you.
• Photographs of your home office.
• Receipts, check stubs and bank statements that prove the company reimburses you for office equipment, as well as voice and data lines and service.
Most important, don’t procrastinate. If you wait and the company you work for fails or is sold, the original owner or manager may no longer be around to sign the letter or even acknowledge the validity of your telework arrangement.
To learn more, visit the IRS Web site (http://www.irs.gov) and download Publication 587 on “Business Use of Your Home.” Then use IRS Form 8829 to compute your deductible expenses for business use of the home.
Under current tax law, filers can amend returns filed within the past three years. But before you go amending back returns, find a tax adviser who understands and appreciates the value of the home office deduction. Many do not, Stives says: “But if you’re following the rules and get audited, you’re not going to lose.”
KEY TELEWORK TACTICS
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• Compute your taxes using information from the Internal Revenue Service Web site (www.irs.gov), the booklet Business Use of Your Home (Publication 587) and Form 8829. • Keep photographs, receipts, agreements between you and your employer allowing you to telework, and any other documentation to help substantiate that you actually worked from a home office. • Keep all records related to your tax return, including notes and evidence about your telework arrangement, for at least seven years.
CHAPTER III
TECHNOLOGY AND TOOLS
INSTANT MESSAGING: TOOL, TOY OR MENACE?
TELEWORK TAKEAWAY Instant Messaging: Some workers use it constantly, others cloak their presence hoping never to be pinged. Opinion is split on the power of IM in the teleworking workplace.
In cartoon office drone Dilbert’s world, creator Scott Adams defines a “camper” as someone who stops by a worker’s cube or office and just won’t leave.
In some teleworkers’ worlds, a camper is someone who logs on to a company’s instant messaging (IM) software and just won’t log off. He sits online, messaging people as they come and go, begging attention – and becomes a distraction.
“You just get far too much messaging going on,” says one remote worker, an application services manager who’s charge of a half-dozen remote workers.
73 Such can be the bane of instant messaging. Used smartly, it allows team members to send and receive messages in near real-time – faster than traditional e-mail and less distracting than using a telephone. But used poorly, IM can become host to chatroom-like banter, lost productivity – and annoyance from workers who feel compelled to respond to every message that passes by.
“These systems are a solution in search of a problem,” says telework consultant Gil Gordon, whose clients have been asking about the usefulness of IM. “They’re useful only when the value of the interruption is higher than the value of the work being interrupted, and if the need for an instant response is strong enough to make e-mail unsatisfactory.”
But some teleworkers know the benefits of IM for connecting remote workgroups – first hand. Disparate teams use IM to link disparate workgroups. Workers in multiple locations can share quick-hit information – especially if they’re working on an application installation and phoning or e-mailing a coworker would be too cumbersome or take too long.
Some IM products even work with PCs, mobile phones and personal digital assistants like Palm, Compaq iPaq and other devices. This calls for some IM best practices. Among them are:
• Don’t use IM to replace e-mail. IM should be used as a short message service for quick queries that require equally quick-hit responses.
• Don’t use IM to request or order projects from a worker or workgroup. Even with the IM’s Audit Trail function turned on, any significant job request should be done through a more formal channel, such as email. Such a request can easily get lost.
• Learn IM-etiquette. Senders must learn to ask whether they’re intruding; recipients must learn to say “Yes” or “Stop” to a barrage of inquiries.
• Don’t cloak or mask your presence. If you’re on, be visible. If the service has alerts or icons denoting your availability (“Busy” or “Do Not Disturb” mode or “Online” or “Available” mode), use them. Smart coworkers will respect your status.
74 • Avoid the “Big Brother” syndrome. A worker’s presence online often is perceived as a way for a manager to track a worker’s activity. Besides, just because a worker isn’t on IM doesn’t mean he or she is (or isn’t) working.
• Just say no. If a constant barrage of messages comes your way, learn to determine which require your attention (which can wait). Whether you tell people you’ll get back to them or you don’t answer until you’ve completed what you’ve been concentrating on, avoiding the slippery slope of IM can help keep you on task.
As with teleworking in general, best use of the new tools of the workplace takes learning. Workers will learn they can send a quick query, “Want to do lunch?” and the recipient can simply reply, without opening a floodgate of chat. People can control their own communications, both outbound and inbound. They just have to learn how to master IM.
KEY TELEWORK TACTICS • Use IM sparingly, or at least how your team and others your correspond with prefer to use the application. • KISS. Keep it simple, silly. IM is for instant messages, not long missives, instructions, product orders or anything else that takes too long to write or respond to, or any correspondence that will be needed down the road. • Brainstorm with your team on how the majority prefers to use IM.
CONTROLLING THE COST OF REMOTE IT SUPPORT
TELEWORK TAKEAWAY Many teleworkers are not IT professionals. Many IT professionals, though, wish their teleworking customers would know a little more about IT self-help. Knowing how to master the PC makes for better relationships and more savvy personal computing.
When Sprint's 1,000 teleworkers head home to work for the first time, they're given a computer preloaded with applications, multiple access methods to the corporate network - and ample
75 instructions on how to troubleshoot problems. They're also provided online training and downloadable PDF files on telework tips and procedures.
But try as he might, Zach Lawrence, a Sprint systems integrator and telework specialist, can't stop trouble from finding its way to the help desk.
"[Some] users create their own problems by either loading software themselves or cowboying their own solution," Lawrence says.
While technology has made telework easier than ever, most home workers aren't technicians. Unless trained to handle simple problems, teleworkers can put a big strain on the IT help desk, decrease their own productivity and cost their individual departments plenty in IT support charges.
While a help desk can guide home workers through sticky situations, it should serve as the second line of defense, advises Joshua Feinberg, a small business technology expert in West Palm Beach, Fla. Feinberg should know: He spent two years as a PC support specialist with Merrill Lynch in New York, helping 500 local and teleworking financial analysts.
"Telecommuters are exploring the frontier. They can't be afraid to get their hands dirty," says Feinberg, now the editor of SmallBizTechTalk.com, a business IT support Web site. "They need to become self-sufficient."
That means teaching teleworkers when not to pick up the phone and to follow some simple rules: If the monitor appears fried, switch it with another in the home. If you break the mouse or spill a drink on the keyboard, buy a new one and expense it. If your company lacks a remote data back- up regimen, create your own, and update antivirus software regularly.
"These things even non-tech people can handle," Feinberg says. "IT people don't like grunt work and dealing with what they consider computer-literacy training."
If your teleworkers must call the help desk, ask them to avoid peak periods - such as Monday mornings, lunchtime or late Friday. "It's extremely important to help them know when to draw the line and say, 'I'm beyond what I know and I've got to stop before I make the problem worse,'"
76 Feinberg says. "But often the best call teleworkers place to tech support is the one they didn't end up needing to make."
Last, it's important for teleworkers to foster a relationship with the help desk. "It's really a partnership," Feinberg says. "You have to take care of your IT folks and have a good rapport. It's very important to have a friend on the inside."
SIDEBAR Share the knowledge: Teach teleworkers these six good habits for system maintenance.
* When in doubt, reboot. From software glitches to frozen screens or applications, a reboot - of the PC or the modem - often does the trick.
* Don't install unauthorized software. The IT help desk knows how to handle the applications on your system. Loading new applications can stump them and leave you hanging without answers.
* Know your back-up tools. If your data is stored locally on the PC, back up regularly. Occasionally attempt to fetch data from the back-up media. (Don't wait for a crisis to master this.) Install and use a battery backup.
* Keep your defenses up. The laptop likely was outfitted with antivirus software. Update it and keep the firewall up. Introducing a virus or hacker into the company network is a sure way to blemish or kill an entire telework initiative.
* Log on and learn. Whether it's built-in help features, read-me files, help wizards or online help, seek out assistance for individual software applications. Visit newsgroups for free advice from others who know the products. Type the error message into a major search engine. Take notes from what you learn.
Teach teleworkers these tips to optimize the remote support experience.
* Know what you've got. Tech support will need to know the type of PC on which you work, the operating system, application versions, how much RAM, what peripherals you have running, etc.
77 Get a spiral notebook, write these down, and keep them handy.
* Reproduce the error. Reboot the PC and try to re-create the problem. If it happens again, write down the error message - and the steps you took that caused the problem. If the error doesn't freeze the computer, hit the "Print Screen" button, open a blank document in Word and Paste (Edit, Paste) the picture into the document. This will help you explain the problem to tech support.
*Take notes. Before calling, put on your headset (this will free up your hands to take notes and execute commands). Then, in your spiral notebook, write down the date, start time and duration of your call. Noting the start time will help alleviate any aggravation you may otherwise feel from believing you've been on hold forever. Also, get the tech support staffer's name and write down what he or she tells you to do - and the result.
* Get help. If someone in the office can help solve the problem faster or help explain the situation, conference them into the call. If the help desk staffer is a rookie – or "Tier 1" support – and isn't getting anywhere, politely ask that the call be escalated to a more experienced support representative or engineer.
FICKLE STORM HIGHLIGHTS BROADBAND’S RELIABILITY
TELEWORK TAKEAWAY While DSL and cable modem service providers tout their high-speed, always-on connections, powerful storms, powerline outages and telephone service interruptions can wreak havoc on broadband connections. Learn back-up measures to ensure you stay connected.
It wasn’t the storm of the century, but the wintry blast that hit the Northeast in March 2001 sent countless numbers of poor-weather teleworkers dialing into their company servers while stranded at home.
Calling volumes for some regional Bell operating companies averaged 30 percent higher than normal, with 70 percent-above-average peaks not uncommon, a Verizon spokesman says.
78 Unfortunately, the double whammy of inclement weather and increased call volume meant many workers got busy signals and spotty service when connecting to their ISPs.
Intimately involved in action that March was James Lush, the project manager with Telecommute Connecticut!, a statewide telecommuting initiative in New Haven. But as the snow piled up, Lush read more about connectivity problems than he experienced. His dial-up service was unaffected, although he reports hearing that “waves of teleworkers suffered connectivity dilemmas.”
What proved an equal challenge was gaining access to the corporate LAN, Lush says. Many employers’ servers were besieged with the number of people dialing in over remote connections.
“While a company may have 10 percent of its workforce teleworking, it’s not prepared for 50 percent trying to sign on at the same time,” Lush explains. “This is like the devil and the deep blue sea. Which do you prepare for? The thing that happens all the time or the thing that happens once in awhile?”
What can you do to prevent outages and “All circuits busy now ...” messages? Don’t dialup, says a spokesman with Verizon, which serves 42 million New England households – 500,000-plus with DSL service.
Your best bet for ensuring a consistent phone connection in bad weather is an always-on connection. Although the reliability of dial-up connections is subject to call volume, DSL users are taken off the public switch on the phone network. Not only does that help ensure more reliable connectivity for the DSL user, it lessens demand on the telephone network. “That helps other people in a storm,” the spokesman says. “You ease congestion on the network and you’re going to be sitting just fine and dandy.”
He also recommends logging off. LAN managers probably would prefer you to log on, get what you need, and log off, he says, adding, “Give priority to others.”
KEY TELEWORK TACTICS • Always have back-up measures – dial-up or even wireless modem connections – in case your primary broadband connection goes down.
79 • Test your back-up services frequently to ensure they’re working and that you know how to access them in a pinch. • Be a good broadband citizen. If poor weather has kept many people home, spend less time online to ease online traffic and ensure others get good service.
TELEWORKERS BRACE FOR DSL SHUT DOWNS
TELEWORK TAKEAWAY Broadband is a powertool in the home office – but only if it works. Bankruptcies and closures have left thousands of providers without service. Picking your provider wisely can help ensure your service stays on.
The call came in early December.
The chief information officer of a Boston bank was frantic. Not long after he’d contracted with a DSL firm to provide service to 200 of his bank’s teleworkers, the company was leaving the DSL market, and leaving this CIO 30 days to find a new provider.
Worse yet, the call came in the midst of the bank’s 2,000-person telework rollout, which was brought to a halt by the news. Not only would timetables be thrown off, but the young program’s image would be tarnished as workers and managers alike wondered whether a telework program of such scope was such a great idea after all.
“When you go through the pain and expense to get deployed, [DSL] is a big issue,” says Stephen Schilling, CEO of Netifice Communications, the Atlanta network service provider that helped the Boston bank get its program back on schedule. “Even now, we’re still 30 days from ground zero,” Schilling reports. “They lost 90 days and some credibility.”
It’s happening all over. Jato Communications and Vitts Networks in 2001 went under, and NorthPoint Communications filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection after a merger deal with Verizon went sour. Companies won’t comment on the number of teleworkers left stranded, but a recent report from the International Telework Association & Council
80 (http://www.telecommute.org) puts the percentage of home-based teleworkers who rely on DSL at about 9 percent. No doubt, some were left in telecom limbo.
Predicting which companies will fail is, of course, impossible, but by following these tips, you’ll reduce your risk and survive any DSL stormy weather.
• What’s your DSL provider’s back-up plan? Find out whom your DSL provider is partnering with, and the amount of redundancy they have in coverage areas. Because Netifice partnered with Covad and Rhythms, it was able to create both stopgap and long- term solutions for the Boston bank.
• What’s your teleworkers’ back-up plan? “It’s prudent to think of alternatives ahead of time so you have some contingency plans in place,” Schilling says. Should service cease, can your teleworkers turn to personal services and equipment as a temporary solution? If so, make sure to address security issues introduced by mixing business and personal resources.
• Don’t count out dial-up. Don’t forget: Although DSL may speed up teleworking, in most cases, workers can still get the job done using a dial-up connection. The ITAC study also found that almost 75 percent of at-home teleworkers still rely on dial-up service to connect to the Internet.
• Can you move the team? To stay on the safe side, contact a local executive suite or telework center and ask about renting short-term (and short notice) office space. Forging a relationship beforehand will put your team more at ease and ensure they won’t have to scramble to alternative places to work.
• Build and keep your database. Make sure your company keeps the paperwork, bids, contacts and Web links of all the DSL providers you considered contracting with. That way, should the worst happen, you can smoothly reopen discussions with the runners-up.
• Keep your perspective. Don’t let the DSL services shakeout rattle your confidence in your telework initiative. “There is a certain amount of change and turmoil in the telecommunications industry,” Schilling admits.
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• Follow the market – and the money. Keep track of your providers and their partners by reading industry news. And when possible, watch their financial stability, keeping abreast of news and deals that could affect your service.
SAFE @ HOME: SEVEN TIPS TO KEEPING THE SOHO SAFE
TELEWORK TAKEAWAY Safe home offices are no accident. Create a protective haven for home officing with planning, design and tools that make your home-based workspace a bastion of safety and security.
Telecommuters often work in solitude surrounded by expensive computer equipment and with new contacts whose intentions are unknown. Working late hours with the glow of technology could attract unsavory characters – unless precautions are taken.
From personal security to property protection to keeping viruses and hackers outside the computer, at-home workers must assess their vulnerabilities and set up defenses. It’s not being paranoid, just smart. Here are seven areas that frequently can be bolstered for additional protection in the SOHO (small or home office) environment:
• Outdoor lighting and foliage that discourage intruders. Lighting can bathe the property in a safe glow, and thorny foliage can keep prowlers from first-floor windows. Also make sure foliage doesn’t grow so thick as to provide refuge for criminals or nuisance critters.
• Door locks that keep the home – and home office – safe. Checked or changed your home’s deadbolts lately? Does the home office door have a lock? These simple devices can keep the home safe, and keep guests, kids, the friends of roommates or even burglars out of the home office when the worker is not around.
• Anti-virus software, firewalls and other technology that protects the computer. Email attachments can carry nasty viruses, and the advent of the always-on Internet
82 connection has made the home-based computer a vulnerable target to hackers. Install easy-to-use software and hardware devices to make sure your computer is protected.
• Office design and ergonomics that keep you healthy. Gone ergonomic lately? From a comfortable and stable office chair, to a telephone headset, to positioning all your everyday tools within arm’s reach, how you set up your workspace can ensure that you stay healthy in body and mind.
• Homeowner’s and business insurance can replace lost or stolen equipment. What if a storm hit, lightning struck or your computer was stolen – at home or on the road? Are you protected against loss, damage or theft? Check with your insurance agent – or your company insurance provider – to be sure you’re insured appropriately.
• Childproofing the home office to promote family safety. Glowing lights on the CPU, a clutch of wires under the desk, electrical outlets begging to be fiddled with, the home office can be a child’s playroom, or an accident waiting to happen. House the computer in a tower enclosure, snake wires through a wire chase, and hide plugs and outlets whenever possible. Also, instruct the little ones that the home office is off limits when the parent is not around. (Read more about Childproofing in the next section)
• Natural disaster planning. If a storm hit today, could your home office be back up and running tomorrow? Establish a pre-storm protocol to protect the business and its equipment; a call list of important clients, partners and vendors to keep informed; and contingency plans to get the business operating after a storm has passed.
CHILDPROOFING: PROTECTION FROM THE LITTLEST INTRUDERS
Telework Tactic If you are a work-at-home parent, any good home office protection protocol should include childproofing. Without such measures, data, equipment – and even your telework program – could be in jeopardy.
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If children live in your home, then your office should be childproofed. Without intending to, children can cause much havoc by pulling plugs and wires, ferreting through files, playing with the computer keyboard or CPU, and even eating or drinking in the home office when the home officer is not around.
Such innocent events can lead to severe risk to the business, its data and company operations. Simple childproofing measures can help ensure your home office is protected from the little ones.
Consider these effective tools and practices to keep kids out of your expensive or sensitive areas – and in turn keep the youngsters themselves protected:
• Tower enclosure and wire chases: A computer tower enclosure should include a door that can help keep little fingers from exploring the CPU, its colorful buttons and the nest of wires in the back. A lock may not be required; with the door closed, some children will look no farther. If a simple lock is needed, a strap of Velcro ® could suffice. If more is needed, visit a hardware store for a simple latch and lock. Wire chases similarly can hide otherwise alluring wires. This can help keep children from pulling on wires, and prevent pets and children from becoming entangled in them.
• Locking desk drawers: A single locking drawer can be used to store important contents, such as the company checkbook, backed-up data, even the wallet or cash that otherwise would be lying around on the desktop.
• Locking file cabinet: Some locking file cabinets secure only one drawer; some secure them all. Decide how many files you need protected (the more drawers that lock generally the more expensive the unit will be). You may need only one drawer’s worth of files protected.
• Closet door locks: Many home office closets are among the most important spaces in the enterprise – and the most alluring for a young explorer. Whether the doors are accordion doors that fold open, or bypass doors on tracks, a simple latch affixed high on the door can help keep young children away. For added protection, a hasp with a key or combination lock can further secure the closet.
84 • Store-bought plastic children’s locks. Cabinet, closet and drawer locks designed by such companies as Safety 1st and others are available at children is and toy stores and are effective in childproofing and keeping toddlers out of a variety of cabinetry. Also consider electrical outlet covers.
• Locking the office door: Whether you have a deadbolt or use the handle knob lock, preventing access is one way to prevent disaster. This may seem extreme. To parents of active children, a locked office door would help avoid snooping, rummaging through files, or even accidental damage to computers (“What’s the green button on daddy’s computer do?”). Parents can leave the home office with peace of mind knowing they won’t return to chaos perpetrated by their kids – or their kids’ visiting friends.
• No surfing zone. If the computer is for business, decide whether older children should be allowed to surf the Internet, receive email or download files to the system. Not only will they become accustomed to surfing on the computer – even when the parent would like to be working, and thereby creating potential conflicts – the possibility of downloading a virus is increased.
• Review the rules: Depending on the child, even young kids can be told what’s on and off limits. Starting sometime when they are between two and three years of age, sit down and discuss what mommy or daddy do from this room called the home office. Tell the children why they must listen to and follow the rules. Sometimes telling children that what parents do from the home office helps buy toys, videos, snacks or clothes helps them comprehend the importance of listening to these rules.
TELEWORK TAKEAWAY • Childproofing is essential to protect equipment, data – and even the telework program itself. • Regularly revisit your childproofing measures to ensure it meets the current needs of your growing family. • As your children mature, relax certain restrictions (like cabinet locks and Do Not Disturb signs) and enforce others (like door locks for the office and anti-virus protection on the home network).
TELEWORKERS MUST WEAR HOME OFFICE SECURITY HAT
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TELEWORK TACTIC With no security guard or chief security officer at the home office, protecting the space – and your company or client’s information is important. Promote work-safe strategies to ensure the home office remains a secure place to work.
Work from home alone? What’s your security protocol?
Do you have a security guard checking visitors at the door, someone signing for parcels, or a lighted parking lot when you venture outside after hours, like you do back at the corporate office?
Probably not. Even if your home is your castle, you don’t have a protective moat, so just how fortified is your home-based workplace? The best home-office security measures start with a Security Action Plan. This document outlines your vulnerabilities, security needs and the actions you’ll have to take to ensure you’re running a safe home office.
Start from the outside in. Look at your home office from the street, and think like a crook: “Fool leaves his window shades wide open for me to scope the scene? Wow, this joint would be cake to break into and swipe that sweet laptop off his desk. No outdoor lights, so there’s plenty of cover, and no prickly plants to keep me from jimmyin’ the window and getting inside.”
You can learn a lot from a crook. Thorny plants, such as cacti, blackberry or bougainvillea, outside your window will both hide your home office from view, and stick it to anyone who tries to get to your window. What’s more, you’ll be able to watch passersby without their seeing in. When you’re not in the office, make sure the windows are locked and the shades are drawn. Flood lamps with motion detectors will bathe the property in bright light when anyone comes near. Two-key, deadbolt locks on all doors will help protect your entrances, and locked gates on the fence surrounding the backyard will dissuade potential intruders there.
If you answer the door, can you look out through a wide-angle peephole to see the delivery truck and uniformed carrier with parcel in hand? You need to know who’s there before opening the door.
86 Also consider an alarm system for the home. Yes, you can get a system for $99, but that won’t provide the protection and peace of mind you really want. Shop for an alarm with sensors for each window and door, glass breakage detectors in case someone smashes a window, and motion and smoke detectors throughout the house. A good system should run around $1 a square foot; monitoring will cost around $20 a month. Test the system each month, just to see how long the monitoring service takes to respond. Replace the batteries in the smoke detectors and alarm system itself at least every three years.
Once inside your home office, what would a perpetrator discover? Ideally that all your valuables – including a back-up of your proprietary data – have been stashed in a safe, and that the door to your home office itself has a deadbolt protecting it from criminals, roommates or even little children who might inadvertently cause some damage.
As you sit at your desk reading this, imagine a criminal walked in your office door. Are you prepared to fight back? Depending on local laws, a can of Mace® or pepper spray, and a noise- emitting personal audible alarm or other deterrent kept nearby might help you fend off an attack. A flashlight could be handy. And keeping your cellular phone on hand will provide a lifeline to the outside world if your phone lines are cut.
Just because you gave up the security of the corporate office doesn’t mean you have to be insecure when working from home. In fact, you can make you home office your own castle – with or without a moat.
TELEWORK TAKEAWAY • Create a blanket of protection by layering several defenses upon each other. • Revisit your security measures frequently, testing alarms and fire extinguishers, making sure door locks still work, and generally ensuring your home office remains safe. • Promote home office security within your company. One teleworker’s failure could jeopardize the entire program.
OSHA GOT AT-HOME WORKERS TO REVIEW SAFETY
TELEWORK TACTIC
87 Ensuring the safety of your employees’ home offices may not be required by law, but a safety lapse could cost the company big money. Promote safe home offices, and tie home office safety into a the company’s permission for its employees to telework.
The OSHA maelstrom is over, but for many the message lingers.
The debate – ignited with the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration’s “letter of interpretation” issued January 2000, telling employers to ensure that teleworkers have safe at- home workplaces – didn’t end with its speedy retraction a day later. The issue didn’t die weeks later when the U.S. Department of Labor said it would not hold companies responsible for the safety of telecommuting employees’ home offices.
In principle, the issue remains – for all at-home workers.
“Home office safety is a critical issue to everyone who works from home,” says Debra A. Dinnocenzo, president of telework consultancy ALLearnatives and author of 101 Tips for Telecommuters (http://www.tipsfortelecommuters.com). One tip, not coincidentally: “Be Your Own OSHA Inspector.”
“Utilizing basic home office safety guidelines can prevent injury, productivity losses and property damage – all of which have significant payoff to the individual home office worker whether or not OSHA mandates it,” she says.
Although the message targeted what at the time were 19.6 million American teleworkers, workplace safety – including home businesses with employees – is covered by OSHA and various state regulations, adds Elizabeth Lewis, a labor and employment attorney with Greenberg Traurig in Tysons Corner, Va.
“The employer has an interest in preventing the employee from being injured while working at home,” Lewis says.
The debate also revived the sensitive issue of how intrusive corporations can become in their teleworkers’ home offices, Lewis notes. As a work-at-home-after-hours (WAHAH) corporate employee, should Lewis let her firm inspect her site, mandate use of certain equipment or require
88 her to comply with company policy while working from home? After all, if OSHA and state regulations extend to the home office, employers have a right to ensure that employees are working in a safe environment – ranging from the office space to ingress and egress to and from the home office – and thereby diminish any potential liability from an accident, she says.
The answer is to strike a compromise between employer control and employee responsibility. Teleworkers should participate in company-sponsored telework training and safety courses. Employers should create company telework guidelines. “Employees would prefer a class and guidelines, rather than an employer quizzing or inspecting,” Lewis says.
What’s more, if employees want even greater privacy in the home office, the company can request that the employee agree to hold the employer not liable in the event of a home-office mishap – beyond what is covered by workmen’s compensation, which would cover most employee-related incidents.
Managers should demonstrate best efforts and thorough planning for safe alternative workspaces, including home offices, cars and other sites, says John Girard, a vice president and research director in telecommuting and remote work strategies with research firm Gartner Group in Stamford, Conn. Along with reviewing personnel and legal policies and definitions that cover workers outside the traditional office, employers also should ensure workers have basic safety equipment on site, including a first-aid kit, fire extinguisher, escape ladders if appropriate, and emergency medical contacts, Girard says.
Although retracted by OSHA, the issue of safety likely will be revisited in the coming years as telework becomes even more mainstream, Girard suspects. Retraction aside, he called the debate a “win for awareness” – for all at-home workers.
“This is just the beginning of things,” says Girard, who first wrote in 1996 that OSHA guidelines extended to such off-site workplaces as teleworker’s home offices. “A lot of them are common sense issues that have to be reviewed at a higher profile. Preparation and counseling are the best thing you can do.”
TELEWORK TAKEAWAY
89 • Require pictures, affidavits and other guarantees from at-home workers that their home offices are safe workplaces. • Require annually updated acknowledgements from teleworkers that their home offices remain safe. • Host seminars on the latest home office safety and ergonomic benefits to keep employees skilled on the topic.
SIDEBAR: BECOME YOUR OWN OSHA INSPECTOR How safe is your home office? Have you conducted a safety survey of the worksite lately? Use this home office safety checklist to help ensure the workplace is a safe place:
• Does the home office have safe electrical facilities, with reasonable use of extension cords and power strips, wire chases or limited exposed wiring to help prevent children or pets from getting tangled or shocked?
• Does the home office have a fire extinguisher (often required as part of a city or county occupational license), a first-aid kit, escape ladders where needed, and a handy list of emergency medical contacts?
• Does the office use the latest ergonomic tools, from adjustable chairs to desks suited to the individual worker to telephone headsets?
• Has the worker reviewed the home’s approach to make sure no misplaced stepping stones will trip the residents or visitors?
• Have the employer and employee reviewed both personal and corporate medical, liability and property insurance policies to determine whether they cover employees working from home, office equipment and liability damages that may arise from an employee or client mishap?
• Does the company have a telework policy and agreement – signed by worker and manager – covering these issues?
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Courtesy: 101 Tips for Telecommuters by © Debra Dinnocenzo (http://www.tipsfortelecommuters.com)
HOME OFFICE SAFETY DOWNPLAYED BY EMPLOYERS
TELEWORK TAKEAWAY Home office safety is both the employer and employees’ responsibility. Work together to ensure employees, any guests and their equipment and data are protected.
Michael Dziak says he’s astonished at how little thought teleworkers and their employers give to home office safety and security.
Legions of IT staff protect the network from viruses, worms and hack attacks. Teleworkers are armed with the latest firewalls and antivirus software, and taught to practice safe remote computing. But physical safety – protecting the home and home office from break-in, theft and the chaos that often results – just isn’t a priority.
A sign in the yard of Dziak’s Atlanta home office warns of an alarm system. Lush and thorny holly bushes grow outside the locked ground floor windows, and deadbolt locks protect all the doors.
“It’s a lot easier to prevent theft than to try to recover after it’s occurred. The possibility is always there, and everyone should have a contingency plan in place,” says Dziak, president of telework consultancy InteliWorks and author of Telecommuting Success.
Inside Dziak’s office, the bookcases are balanced to prevent tipping, circuits and outlets aren’t overloaded, and boxes and supplies are kept neat. Dziak won’t even open two file drawers at once, fearing the unit’s toppling.
91 Responsibility for securing the corporate teleworker’s home office falls somewhere between employer and employee. Because telework is considered a privilege in most cases, most of the burden of safety and security measures falls to the employee. Moreover, when the U.S. Occupational Safety & Health Administration stated publicly in 2000 that telework offices don’t fall under federal safety guidelines, many employers assumed they were absolved of liability.
Although some companies expect teleworkers to maintain a home office as safe as the corporate HQ, all contacted for this article leave home office safety to the teleworker. Many expressed concern that, if they snooped around employees’ homes, they’d come off as “Big Brother.”
Gil Weidenfeld, telework coordinator for the Maryland Department of Transportation (MDOT), says, “If we do it for teleworkers, then we should do it for everybody, and that can be intrusive and impossible to police.”
Not so. All MDOT teleworkers sign a Remote Workplace Self-Certification Checklist that ensures that their home offices are safe. The list covers ergonomics, lighting, safe use of extension cords, and the presence of fire extinguishers and smoke detectors.
In fact, creating and maintaining a safe home-based workplace should be the joint concern of the teleworker and the employer, adds Elizabeth Lewis, a labor and employment lawyer with the Tysons Corner, Va., office of law firm Greenberg Traurig. Whether you use a checklist, booklets or ongoing training, implementing a continuum of safety and security measures can keep the worker motivated, safe and productive.
If a company has a corporate security regimen, its telework program should as well. Some experts advise making safety and security a mandatory part of teleworker deployment, and the creation, maintenance and photographic proof of a safe workplace just part of the approval process. This can help guarantee that at-home workers follow the corporate guidelines for safety, address and limit potential safety and security breaches, and foster a healthy work environment.
It also can boost worker peace of mind and productivity – before a robbery or theft forces an at- home worker to react.
“It’s going to take some bad news to motivate people to make security a priority,” Dziak says.
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KEY TELEWORK TACTICS • Have the corporate security officer, the telework program manager or both device a corporate home office safety and security program. • Ensuring safety of teleworkers is a multi-departmental responsibility. From human resources to facilities management to telework managers and their teleworkers, keep everyone involved. • Regularly revisit the concept to ensure technology and protocol stays up to date.
BACKUP LAPSES LEAD TO BAD BUSINESS
TELEWORK TAKEAWAY Companies lose billions of dollars each year in data and productivity lost because files weren’t backed up. Provide employees with the tools and policies required to ensure all data is protected.
Backed up your computer lately?
Fewer than 4 percent of computer users report that they perform regular data backups, notes ManagedStorage.com, an online digital document storage service. The cost of not backing up can be daunting: upward of $1,000 per megabyte for data recovery service, the company says.
Among computer experts, an old wives’ tale rings true. There are only two kinds of small businesses: those that have lost data and those that will, says Joshua Feinberg, a computer expert in West Palm Beach, Fla. That’s even true for teleworkers – especially those who work from home full-time and those who aren’t connected to the company via a VPN, thus relying on their own safety and backup efforts to be sure data aren’t lost.
Having backup hardware and a system in place to ensure that data backup is carried out is often an overlooked element of small business computing. Not only are companies susceptible to data lost to crashes, fires, floods and other calamities, but also with layoffs growing, some companies have been the target of employees’ deliberate sabotage, he says.
93 “The only difference is how you’re prepared to deal with the inevitable ‘File Not Found’ type of error, or when the disgruntled former employee decides to be malicious,” Feinberg says.
Today’s backup options vary by available media. Businesses with smaller amounts of data to be backed up can use high-capacity diskettes, such as Iomega Zip or Jaz drives, which can hold up to 250 megabytes of content. Users with writeable CD-ROM drives can “burn” up to 600 megabytes of content to a CD-ROM. Workers with large-volume backup needs can use tapes, with capacity of 40 gigabytes or more – easily backing up most content and even some programs, says Michael Spinka, an owner of Network Rescue Inc., a Boca Raton, Fla.-based computer consultancy.
Another option includes online backup over the Internet. With prices starting at around $6 a month for 100 megabytes of content, users can upload their files to a Web-based storage facility, like Connected.com, ManagedStorage.com or @Backup (http://[email protected]).
Any good backup system should have several key features, Feinberg adds. It needs to run automatically without intervention by the user, and the user should test the system regularly to ensure it’s running properly, preferably by scheduling a reminder in a calendar program. Multiple disks, tapes or other back-up media should be rotated to limit data lost in case any one medium fails, and the most recent backup should be removed from the premises to make sure fire or theft doesn’t result in loss of the backup and the computer itself. The company also should do a monthly permanent archive backup to be stored off-site as a supplement the daily backup.
Custom-designed computers, such as those available online from IBM, Dell Computers or Gateway, can be ordered with tape, Zip, writeable CD-ROM burners and other drives. The devices also can be purchased later as “peripherals” to be plugged into the computers, Spinka says. Prices range from around $100 for a Zip drive to more than $1,000 for an internal tape drive. Tapes can top $50 each, which can get costly. Pitched well, the employer could be convinced to buy the appropriate backup hardware.
“It may seem pricey when you first get it,” Spinka says, “but it’s something you have to have.”
TELEWORK TACTICS • Choose the technology – online backup, tape, CD-ROM or high-capacity diskette – that works best for your team.
94 • The low cost and simplicity of an online back-up service can help the company justify the investment and encourage employees to use the service. • Revisit the policy and technology to ensure it keeps up with the company’s changing needs.
POWER UP: BATTERY BACKUP, SURGE PROTECTION SAVE DATA & PC
TELEWORK TAKEAWAY Surges, spikes and other power inconsistencies can damage computer hardware and destroy or erase software and data. Electrical power protection and back-up devices help stave off costly losses.
The typical computer user is hit by 120 power disturbances and losses a month, ranging from imperceptible power fluctuations to blackouts. Users working amid thunderstorms, near construction sites, where power comes via above-ground lines (as opposed to underground utilities), or where buildings have older wiring are more susceptible to power loss, according to American Power Conversions, the maker of the APC battery backup device.
Spikes, surges and losses can lead to lost or unsaved data and damage to computer hardware and software. This can lower productivity and destroy hours or even weeks of work.
Uninterruptible power supply units or battery backup devices provide a constant flow of power to computers or other devices that would lose unsaved data in a power loss. In addition to supplying power, most current devices have built-in surge suppressors to protect computer hardware from damaging electrical surges carried over electrical or telephone connections, says Patrick Donovan, product manager for consumer network solutions for American Power Conversions in West Kingston, R.I.
Rather than just a backup power source, today’s models protect against a variety of problems. Many provide protection from power loss and surges fed over electrical and telephone lines. Models with automatic voltage regulation will boost power during a low-voltage brownout and
95 suppress spikes. For computers left on around the clock, in a power black-out APC’s PowerChute software automatically shuts down the computer if the user isn’t there to do it manually.
“The bottom line is, a battery backup is very cheap insurance,” Donovan says. “Not only for the cost of the hardware but for the data protection.”
Battery backup units are not recommended to keep power flowing to all computer or office equipment – only that hardware that is data-sensitive, such as the CPU, external hard drives or tape backups. Power hogs, such as printers, scanners, copiers and fax machines, which won’t lose irreplaceable data if power is lost, often quickly drain the available power if plugged into the backup, he says.
To protect against power spikes, plug those devices instead into a dedicated surge suppressor or into the surge suppression plugs in the battery unit, he says. The suppressor should have a circuit breaker that can be reset in case of a spike.
Test the battery backup devices every few months to be sure they’re working properly. To do so, save all open files on the computer, and unplug the battery from the wall to mimic a power blackout. The alarm should sound to alert the user that power has been lost, but the computer should be kept running – with no visible sign of disruption of power.
TELEWORK TACTICS • Provide back-up devices to teleworkers, or instruct them about the company’s expectation that a back-up or anti-surge device should be used when handling company equipment or data. • Make back-up device usage part of the company’s telework program manual. • Require that UPS and anti-surge devices are checked regularly, and replaced as needed.
LESSONS IN LAPTOP SECURITY
TELEWORK TAKEAWAY
96 The laptop is not only a teleworker’s power tool. It’s a thief magnet. Securing confidential or proprietary data when you’re on the road or whenever you work beyond the enterprise is a pressing issue.
Think laptop theft is someone else’s problem? Think again. In the United States in 1999, 319,000 notebook computers and 27,000 desktop computers valued at close to $1 billion were stolen, according to Safeware, the Columbus, Ohio, computer insurance agency (http://www.safeware.com). Laptops are cheap, compared to lost or pilfered data. That same year, Fortune 1,000 companies experienced losses of more than $45 billion from thefts of proprietary information, according to the American Society for Industrial Security.
Want to protect your proprietary content? Protect your laptop and network connection. Low-tech tools for the home office include permanently mounted hardware, such as Kryptonite’s KryptoVault. Three steel “arms” wrap around the laptop, securing it to the desk. The unit can’t be stolen, and because the arms cover most floppy or CD-ROM drives, data are safe too. Secure-It’s The Notepad also secures the laptop beneath a crossbar cabled to the workstation.
For the business traveler, Kryptonite’s Cable lock, Kensington Technology Group’s (http://www.kensington.com) MicroSaver, and Secure-It Inc.’s (http://www.secure-it.com) Kablit, X-Lock and iBook cable locks or Vanguard II, which attach to the nine-pin adapter on the back of the PC, can tether the laptop to any immovable object.
The Targus (http://www.targus.com) DEFCON 1 Notebook Computer Security System motion sensor alarm transmits a 45-second 110 dB audible alarm whenever the cable is severed or the unit is moved. With the Trackit key-chain transmitter, the laptop owner can monitor the computer from up to 40 feet away. Get separated from your case, and a 110 dB siren sounds.
If the thief absconds with the hardware, any laptop armed with Absolute Software’s CompuTrace can be tracked by CompuTrace’s online service the next time the PC logs on to the Internet. Call- blocking features can’t hide it, and hard-drive reformatting and disk partitioning won’t erase the hidden software, the company says.
97 Caveo Technology’s Caveo Anti-Theft is a combination software/hardware device that creates a unique form of biometric-like security. By installing a tilt-motion sensor on a PC card or motherboard, the software application disables the laptop if it is stolen. The owner or user creates a physical “motion password” that consists of two or more angled or tilting motions of the computer. The motion is designed to engage or disengage the software alarm, creating “location awareness” in the computer. Once this is engaged, the computer “knows” it should be stationary; the motion of someone’s lifting or walking with the laptop – but not idly bumping or brushing against it – will set off the alarm. The system also locks down access to data so outsiders cannot review or download content from the computer.
Still, the best defense against theft is low-tech: common sense. Here are some specifics:
• Keep the laptop close at hand when in public. Stay especially alert when passing through airport security or while manning a trade show booth.
• Use a nondescript briefcase or attaché to carry your laptop, instead of a dedicated laptop carrying case.
• Download sensitive corporate content remotely, upload finished documents back onto the company server, and delete files from the laptop. This prevents the possibility of files on lost or stolen laptop computers falling into someone else’s possession. When necessary, backup key data onto floppy disks, networks or Web-based data storage and retrieval services. Carry diskettes separately from the laptop.
• Engrave the company name, or the teleworker’s name or state driver license number – including the two-letter state abbreviation – in a conspicuous place. NEVER use a Social Security number.
• Regularly change access passwords. Never use network access default “save password” features.
• Turn off the computer, close the Web browser or disconnect the Internet connection, when not working for long periods. If connecting from a home DSL or other broadband
98 connection, use a firewall to prevent hackers from getting into your computer or your company’s network.
TELEWORK TACTICS • Instruct employees to protect laptop computers when in and out of the corporate and home offices. Laptops are especially vulnerable while in transit. • Hide or conceal the laptop by using a non-descript carry case, as opposed to a laptop bag. • Layer the protective measures – engraving, use of locks, logging off the network and not carrying essential data with the laptop – to minimize vulnerabilities.
SURVIVING CRISES AND NATURAL DISASTERS
TELEWORK TAKEAWAY Home office safety includes protection from natural disasters. Though corporate offices have staff to batten down the hatches, it’s up to home officers to secure their own workspaces – and client relations – in the event of a storm.
Each year, from June through November, many American homeowners in Atlantic and Gulf Coast states share one common emotion: angst.
Ditto for folks living in Tornado Alley in early spring, Northeasterners in the dead of winter, and probably anyone along an earthquake fault line any time of year.
Hurricanes, tornadoes, nor’easters, earthquakes, wildfires and other natural disasters can be hazardous to life and property. But when you run a writing business from home, they’re bad for business, too.
Realizing that this vulnerability exists – and planning for contingencies and recovery beforehand – can help any business limit downtime if a catastrophic event occurs.
These episodes also highlight just how alone people who work from home can be. When a storm or other natural disaster threatens the traditional corporate office, people band together to prepare.
99 Vendors are hired to put up shutters, while the workers inside help one another prepare. After the disaster, people in corporate settings work together to recover.
Home officers are on their own, left to do the double-duty of battening down the home and office. What’s worse, home workers have to set it all back up again when the threat subsides, without suffering too much downtime, if possible.
Preparation is essential to keeping the business operational. Here are a few pointers to help prepare the home office for any disaster.
• Regularly make duplicates of all important paper and computer files, and pack them in plastic or place them in a fireproof safe, locked filing cabinet or bank safe deposit box. Photograph or videotape the office interior to catalog equipment for future insurance claims.
• Back up all computer data. Either create a tape backup of the hard drive or copy data files to floppy disks, wrap them in plastic and place them in a safe or secure place. Backups also should be taken frequently to an off-site location, such as a friend or neighbor’s home or office or a bank’s safe-deposit box. Consider an online back-up service, like ManagedStorage.com or @back-up, to perform frequent, scheduled backups of computer data.
• Move cabinets and computers to a safe or central room or closet in the home.
• Buy and use uninterrupted power supply units, which protect electrical and telephone connections, and surge suppressors. During severe thunderstorms, unplug computers, printers and fax machines from outlets and telephone jacks.
• Wrap computers in plastic or garbage bags, and move the equipment away from windows to prevent water or moisture damage.
• Charge up the laptop and cellular phone. If you’re displaced, having an operational laptop – plus any current project data you downloaded from the main PC before breaking it
100 down – will help keep the business running more smoothly. And often cellular phones are operational, even when land lines are dead.
• Change outgoing messages on answering service or machine to note the approaching storm, and assure customers you will return their calls as soon as possible.
• Send emails and broadcast faxes to customers before the storm hits to alert them of your situation. Note your expected downtime, a cell phone number where you can be reached, and the fact that you will contact them as soon as you are able. Instill confidence and assurance that you are prepared.
• Contingency plans also should include a list of peers, friends or associates you can call on in case your office is hit by a storm or disaster. For example, when Hurricane Andrew struck Miami in 1992, areas just 30 miles to the north were only lightly affected. Many companies and independent workers temporarily moved and resumed their operations in an unaffected area.
• Each year, call your insurance agent and contact the corporate facilities and human resources or telework program manager to review your policies, content limits and business coverage. Inquire about increasing coverage on business equipment. The typical homeowner’s policy covers dwelling contents as a percentage of the appraised value of the home. Often this excludes or caps business computers or electronic equipment. An inexpensive business insurance rider may increase equipment coverage – and add to your peace of mind.
• Maintain a PMA, or a positive mental attitude. Disasters befall even the best of us, often shattering our best-laid plans. How we persevere and thrive amid chaos and challenges can help define whom we are as professionals – and people. At the very least, a hurricane warning can be a good character-builder.
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CHAPTER IV MANAGERS’ & WORKERS’ BEST PRACTICES
WHO IS THAT MANAGER IN THE MIRROR?
TELEWORK TAKEAWAY Telemanagement isn’t taught in business school. It’s learned in the field. Managing remote work teams – and how they get along with internal teams – is essential to having a successful telework program.
How do telemanagers and traditional managers each judge their ability to manage? Do traditional managers assume they’ll make fine telemanagers? How do teleworkers and traditional workers view their bosses’ ability to lead?
These are some of the questions that Bill Morgenstern asked more than 400 teleworkers and 200 managers as part of his doctoral dissertation in management at California Coast University in Santa Ana, Calif.
The results show “a chasm between how managers and workers view managerial style,” says Morgenstern, the vice president of human resources with Fortel, a performance management software company in Fremont, Calif.
Good managers – whether they manage on-site or remote employees – often are perceived as such by their workers and view themselves that way, too. In contrast, poor managers are equally bad at managing on-site and remote workers. And worse, they typically perceive themselves as good managers, reporting that they communicate, acknowledge and reward their employees well, when their employees reported otherwise, Morgenstern says.
The key issue of poor, weak management in general is the inability to communicate effectively. How can telemanagers in particular improve their skills and help teleworkers feel part of the team?
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Often, it’s simply a matter of improving their communication skills, Morgenstern says. A telework policy may recommend that the two correspond by phone or e-mail several times a day. But it’s not just the frequency but the quality of those phone conversations that makes the difference. Beyond talking shop, good managers strive to replicate the water cooler chat in-house employees rely on to build relationships and team spirit.
“When remote workers are cut off from this type of soft communication, their anxiety increases,” Morgenstern adds. “Communications have to take a different tone and scope. A manager may think he’s doing a great job communicating on assignments, projects or personnel issues in those three daily e-mails and the regular Tuesday phone call, but that’s not enough.”
Companies hoping to launch a telework program should enroll managers in a skills training program that teaches them to be attuned with their remote and in-office workers’ needs. The result will be improved productivity, efficiency and teamwork between on-site and remote workers – and the manager, of course.
KEY TELEWORK TAKEAWAY • Managers should hone their communications skills, and those of their remote and in- office teams – to ensure all are in synch. • Establish a policy for minimum daily communications between workers, managers, coworkers and clients or customers. • Engage a remote management training organization to teach managers how to oversee telework teams.
CRACKING THE TELEMANAGEMENT MYSTERY
TELEWORK TAKEAWAY Forget gauging a remote workers accomplishments by hours logged and visibility. Managing teleworkers is about productivity, deliverables, client satisfaction – and trusting that the work is getting done.
103 In four years spent managing teleworkers for a major multinational corporation, Patricia N. Smith never figured out the best way to manage teleworker productivity.
Do you track output instead of hours-put, positive vs. negative client or coworker feedback, or availability during work hours vs. teleworkers who go AWOL while working remotely?
“It’s a combination of everything that affects the team or client,” says Smith, who wrote a master’s thesis on measuring teleworker productivity for a degree in organizational corporate communications at New Jersey’s Fairleigh Dickinson University. “The main point I’m focusing on is the relationship between the telecommuter and the manager to determine productivity.”
Although she was busy crunching numbers from the 80 surveys on the subject she received back from telework managers, one thing is sure: Measurement of teleworker productivity is an amorphous and enigmatic thing. It’s part output, part trust and part adherence to policies that make the teleworker toe the corporate line when working outside the office.
Measuring delivery is based first on written guidelines and expectations. Leave nothing to interpretation or misunderstanding, Smith advises. Every segment of the project – from the timetable, to the quality to the budget – must be quantifiable. Whether it’s by email, project outline or discussions followed up by written correspondence, provide to all workers – and their own team members – firm deadlines on when work is due. This should include dates for intermediate steps or project waypoints and deadlines for project completion.
Then, most important, seek feedback from peers, whether coworkers or clients. Ask how the teleworker performed with fellow workers and whether any complaints were reported.
Be open, she says. Don’t snoop around behind the teleworker’s back; it likely will be viewed as subversive and underhanded, and foster animosity and resentment from the teleworker. Instead, let the worker know upfront that all telework results and relationships are subject to interviews or updates from others involved. This likely will motivate teleworkers to produce and let them know the program is important to management.
If she could, Smith would glean much of her research from her own experience. Smith, who requested anonymity for her employer, manages 30 workers, five of whom telework several days
104 a week. A failed experiment managing a former teleworker led Smith to pursue this thesis topic – and learn how to measure her own team’s performance.
The worker, who lived about two hours away, was consistently hard to reach by coworkers and clients. Voice and e-mail messages went unreturned. Not only did his work slip, so too did that of his colleagues who relied on him for critical portions of their work. “He would take off and people wouldn’t know where he was,” Smith recalls.
When Smith approached the worker about the issue, he denied there was a problem and refused to cut back his telework days – something Smith all along has considered a benefit and not a requisite job perk. Instead, he left the company.
“As a manager you have to be willing to make the hard decisions, but you have to base them in reality and on information,” she says. “Having the right information and measurement, I make it extremely clear. If it’s not working out, they come back in.”
KEY TELEWORK TACTICS • Judge teleworker productivity by measurable results, not visibility and communication. After all, by its nature, remote work will keep the worker out of sight. • Productivity remains amorphous unless some results-based scale is implemented using past performance, guidelines and expectations. • Revisit policies to ensure workers are adhering to reasonable standards.
MANAGERS SET GOALS TO ACHIEVE SUCCESS
TELEWORK TAKEAWAY Whether it’s New Years or any other time of year, revisiting a telework program and assessing goals can help ensure it’s operating to expectations and meeting the organization’s needs.
Braden Allenby isn’t one for New Year’s resolutions.
105 But if he were, his resolutions as a telework manager would be simple and pragmatic: Communicate, control costs, tap IT, highlight success, build trust – and learn.
As vice president of environmental health and safety with AT&T, Allenby has 45 reports – all of whom either telework part-time or are “virtual workers” employed full-time from home offices scattered across New Jersey and as far away as Arkansas and Ohio. Allenby himself is a virtual worker; his only office is in his Annandale, N.J., home.
To maintain contact, foster success and make sure workers remain a cohesive team, Allenby constantly hones his soft skills of people and workplace management. Here are his top points for a successful manager:
• Improve communication skills. Whether it’s a new worker on the team or staff veterans who’ve been around for years, Allenby strives to keep in touch with workers – and make sure they stay in touch with one another. For example, Allenby and his team rarely use AT&T’s instant messaging product, instead relying on phone calls and email. In fact, his virtual workers use email as a “psychological” tool to replace water cooler chat. “It becomes more chatty, and that’s not bad,” he says. “That should be encouraged.”
• Control costs and reap savings found with telework. Reporting financial gains helps promote telework. Not only did AT&T’s telework program save the company $25 million in infrastructure costs (rent, utilities, insurance and other facilities costs) last year, the company reaped $100 million in increased productivity, he says. Allenby makes sure senior managers know about the company’s success with telework.
• Highlight IT’s involvement – and don’t be afraid to make procurement requests. Whether it’s hardware, software or the improving company intranet, setting up and serving remote workers’ IT needs “puts a significant focus on the IT function,” he says – but only if senior management knows what’s needed. So if the company intranet, network security or individual computer hardware needs are lacking or need improvement to make workers more effective or efficient, Allenby will make the recommendation. “You have to go back to the company and say ‘Here’s what I need,’” he says. “We’re evolving a different model of employment on the intranet.”
106 • Build and reinforce trust. Whether it’s managers fearing a loss of control as workers adopt remote work, or employees feeling managers are keeping them on a tight leash while working outside the corporate office, Allenby says AT&T’s research has shown that a lack of trust is a “major barrier” to program success. “The idea that you control a worker you’ve hired to produce knowledge for you is ludicrous. That’s clearly a manufacturing mentality,” he says. “Trust requires continuous attention, so it should always be a [priority] for a manager. In a face-to-face snit, you can sit down and work something out. In a telework-manager relationship, it can fester. If you don’t trust each other, it’s not going to work.”
• Give and welcome feedback. Managing expectations is essential to remote work success. With each worker’s twice-yearly performance review, Allenby discusses how workers are performing – as employees and teleworkers. Similarly, Allenby says his team feels comfortable approaching him with concerns or issues regarding his management – and other workers’ performance. “You’ve got to be open and seek out criticism. People are inherently delicate about telling you what they think. You’ve got to break that down.”
Although he doesn’t set first-of-the-year goals or resolutions for himself, Allenby constantly evaluates his own performance.
“That’s the most important thing of being a manager in this brave new world,” he says. “You have to have an attitude of continual learning. My resolution would be to seek out and destroy anything that prevented me from learning as I go along. It’s a time of experimentation in a new world.”
KEY TELEWORK TACTICS • Set a timetable to reassess the telework program and worker’s achievements. That could be monthly, quarterly, semi-annually or yearly. • Review communications, IT, cost centers, and how teams and coworkers are operating with peers in the remote work environment. • Welcome feedback – even critical input.
107 AVOIDING REMOTE MANAGER MISTAKES TELEWORK TAKEAWAY First-time, remote-working managers don’t have to have it hard. Build your team, strengthen relationships and maintain them with ongoing contact to ensure the team respects the remote manager’s authority – and partnership.
As a manager, Mike Wolf rarely teleworked. But in May 2000, when he and his wife decided to move from Scottsdale, Ariz., to Redmond, Wash., the network research director at In-Stat/MDR knew he'd have to sell the idea of remote management to the firm.
How did Wolf convince them he'd make a good remote manager and that he'd keep his team motivated and productive?
He tapped, and built upon, his existing well of trust. He'd been with the company for two years, rising through the ranks. He had close working relationships with his boss and six reports, most of whom already teleworked a day or more each week. Moreover, Wolf was an independent worker, one who didn't need the corporate environment to stay productive.
But even with Wolf's reputation and achievements to draw on, he faced "a high-risk situation," says Charlie Grantham, with the Institute for the Study of Distributed Work, a consultancy in Windsor, Calif. "Change must be nourished."
If the remote manager is new to the company, the risk of failure is much greater.
"The newbie [must] spend some face-to-face time with key folks in the new company," Grantham says. "Trust is the social glue that holds the work team together, and trust comes out of those interactions."
Before the new manager heads home, he should designate an in-office liaison to keep him updated on social events happening in the office. Use these conversations to learn the firm's corporate culture and organizational values. These could be technical expertise, efficiency, interaction among teams or earning kudos from clients. Mastering the firm's subtle workings helps foster key relationships, build additional trust and ensure a good fit.
108 "You need to spend 20% more time just doing this," Grantham says. "It won't just happen by itself."
Wolf says teleworking has its highs and lows. Two years in, he enjoys the solitude to work productively, and spending more time with his wife and infant son. But he misses the impromptu chats with co-workers and feels awkward during conference calls. "It's hard when you're the only one not there," he says.
But it's a feeling Wolf's come to live with. He knows the team respects him, and they work well with him away from the office.
"Things were already clicking, and then I moved," he says. "We're autonomous. I call myself the Seattle office."
TELEWORK TACTICS • Make time to nourish relationships. If you’re a first-time telemanager, or a new hire who will be working remotely a majority of the time, invest a few weeks in the office to get to know the team. • As time goes by, make sure to make it back to the office regularly. Set a visitation schedule – as needed to determined by your team, client, co-manager or even your own needs for face-time – and stick to it. • Recruit an in-office liaison to keep you informed of any office buzz – from new hires and fires, to social events or gatherings.
COMPANY GLEANS BEST PRACTICES FROM TELEWORKERS
TELEWORK TAKEAWAY Want to know how your telework program is working? Just pool your participants and ask. You’ll get insights and tips on successes, failures and ways to improve your initiative.
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Say you have a handful or hundreds of teleworkers and remote managers in the field. How would know whether a problem was brewing, or a policy needed enhancement?
How? Easy, just get the remote workers together and ask.
That’s what they do at Nortel Networks, which has thousands of teleworkers throughout the country. Telework program managers there know their best insights often come from those who telework daily. So they frequently gather groups of teleworkers to learn their own best practices – and implement what they glean from the group.
When one product development manager for teleworking solutions in the company’s Raleigh, N.C., offices, stages quarterly meetings for herself and about 20 other teleworkers, she invites new teleworkers and old pros alike to the informal breakfast meeting. This ensures she’ll get the widest possible array of opinions.
Once they’re gathered, the executive asks teleworkers how the program is working for them, how training can be improved, the work conditions or technology enhanced, and the program grown. Since she started holding these voluntary focus groups in 1996, the executive has learned how people deal with global time zones, how they get along with their peers, and how they network amongst themselves to improve their own experiences.
In one meeting, a teleworker explained how sending a weekly update with bulleted points helped keep her manager current on her workflow – and improved the manager’s acceptance of telework. Another recommended using CD-writers instead of Jazz drives to boost speed, capacity and efficiency of backups – and at a lower cost.
And a third described how using a simulated “stoplight” outside his home office door helped his children recognize when daddy was working. Red meant no interruptions; yellow meant knock first, and green meant entering was OK. “This reinforced to other teleworkers that they need to communicate with the family on rules, that they are working and not available to play or take care of family issues except when their job permits,” she says.
110 The meetings also encourage teleworkers to share insights among themselves. The need to share ideas starts early in the Nortel teleworkers’ tenure – sometimes as early as the day of the company’s formal telework training program. All of the 20,000 participants who have been through the one-day training session come away with a mandate to turn to peers for insight, and share their knowledge among themselves and the larger group, the exec says.
“Sometimes we don’t even have to encourage it,” she says. “They write down each other’s names. They’ll share ideas back and forth between each other.”
More than just a way for the teleworkers to share their insights, Nortel’s meetings and networking build a sense of community. “They bring the teleworkers together and get them talking. Sometimes teleworkers feel they’re not a part of the group anymore; they’re kind of on their own. Now they’re actually part of a new organization of teleworkers.”
KEY TELEWORK TACTICS • Whether by email, conference call or group meeting, regularly keep in touch with teleworkers to find out what’s working with the telework program. • Don’t limit your inquiries or their responses. Ask about personal tips, best ways to boost productivity, how to stay motivated and stimulated when working outside the corporate office. These are especially important insights for new teleworkers to learn. • Ask for honest responses, and be prepared to learn how the program can be improved – and then implement the suggestions.
KEEPING TRACK OF TELEWORKERS
TELEWORK TAKEAWAY Remote workers can be hard to track – by coworkers, managers and clients. Simplify contact by putting the team’s telework schedules and information in one place.
It’s Monday. Do you know where your teleworkers are?
111 Yvonne Caudillo’s colleagues know she’s working from home today, and will be again Wednesday, too.
They know she works from 7:30 a.m. until 4 p.m., and takes an hour lunch at noon. They know her work and home e-mail addresses and home office phone number.
How do they know all this? Because it’s all right there on the “Natural Gas Regulatory Team Flexiplace Schedule.”
Caudillo’s team created the schedule several years ago as a way to help coworkers, managers and others within the U.S. Department of Energy keep track of Caudillo and her colleagues. Other offices within the DOE since have adopted it.
“It can be difficult to track people’s telework days,” says Caudillo, a natural gas analyst and acting case manager within the Natural Gas Regulatory Team. “This way, we each know who’s where working from home or in the office on what days.”
Also as important, the schedule helps the team make sure no gaps are created by multiple workers teleworking the same days. As part of its creation, a buddy system also was instituted. By joining three coworkers, two cover the third when one is teleworking or is otherwise out of the office.
“Since it’s a regulatory office, people make filings, and we have to have coverage here,” Caudillo says.
The schedule, a simple paper document that’s updated regularly, also includes the team’s “Policies and Procedures for Flexiplace Participants.” Created with the input and consensus of all team workers, its rules include letting coworkers know current home office contact information and schedule information, changing voicemail greetings to provide home office contact information on work-at-home days, and submitting weekly reports on work completed.
“This is an excellent tool for keeping people well informed on what’s going on,” says Bruce Murray, Worklife Program administrator with the DOE.
112 “This helped get us organized and keep us that way,” says Caudillo, who keeps the document at home in a file with her DOE phone list, log-on instructions for the DOE computer network and other important office documents. “Having all this information in one place keeps you from having to run around, and it keeps you straight on who’s where what day.”
KEY TELEWORK TACTICS • A Flexiplace Schedule doesn’t have to be beautifully designed to be effective. Created in a word processing program, it should include key information, like workers’ office hours, contact information (email, phone, home office phone, etc.), and team members in case the worker cannot be reached. • Distribute it to team members, customers, clients, peers and other teams that work with the teleworkers. If appropriate, post it to the company or department intranet site. • Update it regularly as schedules or contact information changes.
SPOTTING THE EARLY SIGNS OF FAILURE
TELEWORK TAKEAWAY Success is not guaranteed in a telework program. It’s up to the manager to spot and correct weaknesses, or scale back or terminate a program if it’s not working or causing conflicts and disruption in service. Here’s how to spot signs of failure.
As a teleworker and manager of a telework program, Debra McKenzie knows that a telework program is only as good as its teleworkers. Trouble is, not all teleworkers are destined to succeed.
McKenzie’s seen some teleworkers become unfocused, careless and lost, others who overwork until they burn out. Along the way, McKenzie has developed a keen sense for spotting the signs of potential telework failure – before they manifest in failure itself.
“We’ve been able to keep the numbers down of people who don’t work out,” says McKenzie, senior director of Alternate Work Solutions and a seven-year veteran teleworker with LexisNexis
113 Inc., in Dayton, Ohio. Some 2,200 of LexisNexis’s 8,000 worldwide employees participate in some form of telework.
Spotting failure in a telework program is essential to ensuring its long-term success. Just as not everyone is cut out to telework, not everyone knows he or she isn’t cut out – until they’re settled into the home office.
Warning signs of an impending teleworker failure might include:
• Performance objectives aren’t being met. Each teleworker and manager should be in agreement on what the baseline performance output should be on telework days – or at least be able to measure output for a time period that includes telework.
• Call volumes to coworkers rise. If a worker starts calling the manager or coworkers more frequently than specified in the telework agreement, or if call content shifts primarily to non-work issues, the worker could be suffering isolation. Of course, the worker could be seeking simple peer interaction, which is acceptable. “You have to be careful what you’re tagging as a warning sign,” McKenzie says. If productivity slips or calls are followed up with additional calls to flesh out details that should have been covered originally, that could be a warning sign of unproductive telephone time.
• Teleworkers are AWOL. If a manager or coworkers call the teleworker, and he or she frequently isn’t around to receive the call, this could be a sign of distractions at work. Outline minimum work hours in the telework agreement, and make certain in-office coworkers know those hours. Teleworkers going AWOL could foster resentment among the troops. Telework is a three-way street: the teleworker, the manager and the coworkers have to respect one another and feel the others are carrying their respective loads. If office-based coworkers feel the teleworker is slacking, that could lead to backlash and caustic team chemistry and performance reductions – and even threaten the entire telework program. Worse yet, company morale could plummet and good in-office workers could quit rather than work with peers they feel aren’t carrying their load.
• Look for signs of burnout. What time are those e-mails coming in from high-performing remote workers? After midnight? Before sunrise? Does the teleworker rarely break for
114 lunch, consistently work through the weekend – even when it’s clearly not expected? Are teleworkers always accessible, and seem to work early and late? Do they shun the corporate hive and the bonding of peers? Workaholism in the remote workplace can be as detrimental to teleworker success as nonperformance, McKenzie warns. Overwork can lead to burnout, which can strip the team of valuable members.
• Know your team. As a manager, know your teleworkers and in-office workers. Know their workstyles, their personalities, and be alert for slippage in productivity or morale.
“It takes a manager who can notice something’s different about workers’ performance or habits,” says McKenzie, who manages 50 people on her team. “I need to ask questions to see what’s going on.”
KEY TELEWORK TACTICS • Be alert to your team’s habits and signs of who is working well as a telework – and who is slipping. Senior management relies on the telemanager to maintain a functioning telework program. • Don’t be afraid to suggest or implement adjustments, to reel in poor performers, or curtail the program if results or morale are slipping. • Be diligent in reviewing the program. Many factors can affect a telework initiative – positively and negatively – at any time.
NIPPING FAILURE IN THE BUD
TELEWORK TAKEAWAY Telework success and failure are closely related. Some workers can burn themselves out working long hours from home. Others will get lost outside the corporate office. Managers need the wisdom and fortitude to steer the program in the right direction to ensure continued success.
So, you have an over-performer on the verge of burnout, a teleworker’s output has slipped, or your in-house staff is frustrated because a teleworker colleague is unreachable during business hours. What can you do to patch cracks in the telework program?
115 Train, contract, track – and retract, if necessary.
As noted in the previous article, identifying flaws in a telework program is essential to ensuring its long-term success. Recognizing the warning signs of personal or program failure is important to staving off an impending teleworker collapse.
Long ago, Debra McKenzie learned that training is essential to the program’s success.
“We do a lot of upfront work, mandatory training, make sure the teleworker and manager sign an agreement, then train the teammates to work on communication,” says McKenzie, a senior director of Alternate Work Solutions with LexisNexis, the Dayton, Ohio, information provider to the legal, business, government and academic markets. Some 2,200 of the company’s 8,000 employees worldwide participate in telework or full-time home-based work programs.
At the outset of a telework program, teleworkers, managers and support personnel are trained in their respective roles – whether it’s how to work remotely, interact with a remote worker, or to support them. Duration ranges from several hours for experienced teleworkers, managers and company veterans, to several days for first-time teleworkers or new hires, McKenzie says. Workers are trained in time management, handling home-office maladies, such as distractions and overworking, coworker interaction and other skills.
Managers are taught how to identify and select personnel who are most likely to succeed in the home office environment. Before workers head home, a telework agreement has laid out interaction, performance and other guidelines that the teleworker and team will follow. In-office peers will know the teleworker’s working hours. Minimum daily contact standards will be established. And there will be an out-clause for either party in case the plan doesn’t work out.
Here are some ways to remedy problem areas that may arise with the telework program:
• Make sure the right tools are available. If new teleworkers are accustomed to high- speed network connections in the corporate office – but only have dial-up modems at home, will they come to loathe logging on, and then become more remote and disconnected from the team? Where available, make certain that workers have the technology they need. Investigate a broadband connection for the worker. Ensure their
116 take-home computers are comparable to what they use in the office. And give them access to the network, so they can replicate their in-office functions from their home office.
• Choose wisely. Has a manager selected a worker for a mandatory telework program, even though the worker has pre-existing performance issues? Address and fix the problem before dispatching the worker home. Performance issues often come to light three times faster with remote workers than with those in the corporate office, McKenzie says, because in-office workers can appear busy, but remote workers have little more than their output to be measured by.
• Scale back the telework days. Too much telework can be more than the team is ready to handle. Limit telework days to those days staffers have projects that require solitude, such as conducting research, writing a proposal or preparing a document. They might be more productive working from home on those days anyway, and the need to check in or interact with the team will be minimized.
• Foster camaraderie among the troops. If you sense teleworkers drifting away from the team, invite them in for a group lunch, after work get-together or other outing. Keep them engaged.
• Pull the plug. If telework just isn’t working out for an individual, and the manager, the team and the worker have tried to remedy the situation, don’t be afraid to recall the worker. If your telework agreement was written correctly, the manager can curtail telework or ask the teleworker to return to the office environment. Of course, this is a case-by-case situation, and no telework program should be tainted by one worker’s inability to succeed.
With any failed exercise, honesty is the best approach to either rectifying the problem or eliminating the cause.
“Just tell people the truth,” McKenzie says. “Just like any other team issue, tell the worker why it’s not working. The goal is to coach to correct performance issues.”
117 KEY TELEWORK TACTICS • Create a list of ominous or negative signs to look for in judging the telework program, including email regularly sent outside traditional office hours, workers becoming more distant from the team, and work that’s slipping in quality. • If signs point toward a failing program, huddle the team for a discussion. Then, scale back the telework days or times, if needed. • If reduced telework doesn’t solve the program and work quality and morale continue to slide, discontinue the program – possibly to replan and resurrect it at a later date.
WHEN TELEWORKERS WON’T CALL IN SICK
TELEWORK TAKEAWAY Teleworkers pride themselves on working long hours – even when they’re under the weather. But should a manager make a teleworker take a sick day if continued work could jeopardize the worker, the team and its client work?
Every morning, the members of Todd’s remote team check in by phone. Recently, a worker reported he was sick but wanted to work through the day anyway. Todd agree.
The next day, the employee said the same thing. Again, Todd, who didn’t want his last name – or his company name – used, agreed.
On the third day, Todd suggested the worker take a sick day and visit the doctor. Two days later, after a round of medication and some much-needed bed-rest, the employee was back at his desk.
"If I had let it linger, he could have been out a week," says Todd, a professional development manager with a large insurance company. "I had to make a judgment call - to tell him to stop working and take a paid sick day."
Sick days are nothing to sneeze at. According to CCH, a provider of tax and business law information for businesses, absenteeism cost firms $755 per employee in 2001. To combat it,
118 firms have turned to telecommuting, compressed work weeks and flex-time to help employees stay productive even on days they're too sick to commute to the office.
But what about when the office is at home? Members of Todd's team are often reluctant to call in sick, concerned colleagues might think they're slacking off. While Todd doesn't want to force his remote workers to take a sick day, he still needs to ensure they do their best work while on the job, managing projects or dealing with clients.
"Sometimes you have to read your people and know how to handle it," he says.
Unfortunately, most companies don't address teleworker sick days in their employee manuals, says Lori Rosen, a workplace expert and labor law attorney with CCH.
Rosen recommends companies add such policies to their manuals, and promote discussion between teleworkers and managers about what constitutes a sick day. "But it's important to treat teleworkers no differently than in-office workers," she adds.
But ultimately, the manager has to trust the worker to know when they're pushing the limits - and could be endangering work quality or client relations.
"Common sense really comes in here. There's always that question as to what the quality of your work would be if you really belong in bed," Rosen says. "There has to be a real strong sense of trust that employees know what's right for the job. Part of the responsibility of being remote is taking responsibility on your own to protect the company."
KEY TELEWORK TACTICS • If you’re a manager, stay attuned to your teleworkers’ health. If they’re sick during touch-base calls on successive days, it may be time to make them relax or visit a doctor. • If you’re a teleworker, working through illness can jeopardize your health, your team’s work efforts, and your client results. • Neither teleworker nor manager should be afraid to take a day off – or insist the worker do so. The alternative could be bad for the worker and the company.
CRISIS CREATES NEED FOR OFFICING ALTERNATIVES
119 TELEWORK TAKEAWAY If a disaster – natural or man-made – destroyed your office or made getting there impossible, does your company have an officing alternative? A variety of workplace alternatives – aside from the home – have emerged that make remote work possible.
In 1992, Hurricane Andrew damaged or destroyed thousands of square feet of office space throughout South Florida. In 1995, the Oklahoma City bombing did the same to the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building and surrounding properties.
In September 2001, the terrorist attacks in New York City and the Pentagon not only destroyed more than 10 million square feet of office space, but also much of southern Manhattan was left without power and water – or street access to even undamaged buildings.
Once the time comes to get back to work following the immediate aftermath of a disaster, the question becomes: Where is work? Trends in alternative officing have opened the options to workers who find they have no office to return to. Hence, the concept of telework is broadening to mean decentralized work.
Options can include the use of:
• Telework centers. These alternative office locations, often funded by the government, include private workstations, computers, broadband Internet access and dial-up modems, as well as an array of standard office technology – like copiers, printers, scanners, voicemail and a shared receptionist who can sign for packages and receive mail. Prices commonly start at around $50 a day, depending on the location and services offered.
• Private business centers. Similar to telework centers, executive suites commonly are used by private businesses as satellite offices for salespeople or the primary office for a small entrepreneur who cannot afford traditional space or who doesn’t want to work from home. These offices feature the same equipment, technology and services as telework centers, and often are centrally situated in business districts.
120 • Hoteling. Merrill Lynch and other companies have used the “hoteling” concept for years. Here, offices or cubicles are set up for use as needed by remote workers. The workers call several days in advance to book a space. By the time they arrive, their phone extension has been transferred to the office; in some more formal instances, a rolling cart with their personal office belongings has been wheeled to the space as well.
• Space sharing. Many larger companies have multiple facilities where workers who were left without offices can work. This may require doubling up workers in other staffers’ offices or cubicles, but as a temporary measure it should be a temporary inconvenience. More desks and chairs will have to be purchased or leased, and telephone systems and wiring may have to be installed to accommodate additional workers.
• Home officing. This is the most common remote office of the teleworker. With many homes now featuring some form of workspace, whether it’s for the entrepreneur, teleworker or even just handling the family finances, it’s not as much about creating the space as it is becoming accustomed to working there.
In the aftermath of the terrorist attacks, facilities managers and personnel managers will have to learn to juggle space and reorganize schedules efficiently to accommodate more workers, most notably in instances of hoteling and space sharing. For all involved, especially those organizations that haven’t embraced telework in the past, alternative officing and telework can provide solutions to a space crunch, at least until more permanent arrangement are made.
KEY TELEWORK TACTICS • Plan now for future emergencies. Gather a list of telework centers, executive business suites or other alternative office locations. Include locations near the corporate office, as well as in outlying areas where employees live. (See Web Resources section for links to organizations). • Distribute the list to all workers – including non-teleworkers and remote workers, as well as facilities and human resources managers. • Keep the list updated with facility numbers, contact information and new locations.
121 LAUNCHING IN A CRUNCH: AD HOC OFFICES GET A SECOND LOOK
TELEWORK TAKEAWAY If events made your corporate office inaccessible, how quickly could the company launch a telework program? Even if such a program already exists, is it even prepared to ramp up and include new recruits on short notice? Recent events have shown how important telework can be for business continuity.
Working from home wasn’t supposed to work this way.
Ideally, teleworkers have the luxury of planning every detail for their entry into the home-based workspace – a dedicated office (with a door) that would house a big desk, ergonomic chair and a corporate laptop with a high-speed Internet connection.
Instead, after the events of September 11, many workers have been thrust into makeshift home offices. The kitchen table and a hardwood chair or the all-too-small family desk serve as a workstation; a store-bought telephone wire connects the weak family PC to a phone jack. Lighting is abysmal, and distractions are abundant.
Of course, such workers have been relatively productive – and might argue that conditions are better than suffering a long commute to some other facility. But that doesn’t mean such setups don’t deserve attention. To bring your ad hoc home office up to code, follow these suggestions.
• Pick the best space. If dedicated space with a door that closes is unavailable, choose some out-of-the-way corner of a den or other room, as removed as possible from family bustle. To shield the workspace from the rest of the home, consider a row of potted plants or a Japanese shoji screen. This will create seclusion both during work hours and after, when the temptation to return to the office may strike.
• Select the right desk. Whether it’s store-bought, a hand-me-down or a consignment shop special, select a desk that best suits your work needs and size constraints. If your job is paperwork-intensive, select a desk with a large work surface. If you spend your day typing on a laptop computer, a smaller secretarial desk could suffice.
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• Sit well. It doesn’t have to cost much, but an ergonomic chair promotes healthy posture and more comfortable, long-term seating. Look for one with adjustable armrests, seat and back, a wheeled base with five arms to prevent tipping and cloth instead of leather to allow the fabric to breathe. Add a footrest – or a stack of phonebooks – to elevate the feet and alleviate pressure on the legs and lower back.
• Develop phone etiquette. If you haven’t yet, get a dedicated voice line for business and ask your company to pay for it, along with broadband service, if available. Purchase a full-featured phone that accommodates two lines (for homes that have personal and business lines), and includes speakerphone, hold, conference calling, a built-in message waiting light and headset capabilities. In fact, a headset can help reduce that neck strain that comes from cradling a phone between the head and shoulder.
• Light it up. Face it: You may say you’ll stick to your 9-to-5 office hours, but there will be times when you’re working before dawn or after dusk to meet a deadline. Create ample illumination by coupling an overhead or broad light source – perhaps a corner lamp or ceiling fan with a light fixture – with a desktop task lamp.
• Create a soothing environment. Plants, a fish bowl or aquarium, wind chimes, a small waterfall, artwork and some light music all can help soothe the soul and create a personalized workspace. This isn’t the cubicle back at the office but your home. Make it a place where you enjoy working.
• Secure your data. Use a battery backup and surge suppressor for your computer and peripherals. Back up important files, and avoid downloading sensitive or confidential documents at the office to carry home. Instead, download files once in the home office, and upload completed files back into the corporate server before returning to work. Be sure to remove them from the laptop; if the computer is lost or stolen, the data won’t fall into the wrong hands.
• Secure your space. Make sure all your doors and windows have secure locks. When you’re not in the office, close the curtains or blinds so outsiders cannot peer in and see
123 your computer and other electronic equipment. Discuss equipment insurance needs with your employer or homeowner’s policy agent.
• Set the right tone. Educate family members, roommates and friends to respect your home office. (And remind them that if you don’t work, you won’t get paid.) As for kids, they’re distracting, disruptive to the workflow and present an unprofessional appearance. Do your best to arrange for out-of-home child care. In the late afternoon, when kids return from school, make sure they know to be quiet or arrange for a “mother’s helper” to watch them.
KEY TELEWORK TACTICS • Telework launched in a hurry can bypass some of the planning. But make sure policies about remote or home office features, information and communications technologies, and team interaction are considered early on to aid in success. • Hire a consultant for fast training, or assign an employee to scour the Internet for self- help resources, to help get new teleworkers working quickly. • Once workers are back to work – albeit from home, massage the program to improve results.
NEW TELEMANAGERS HAD BETTER LEARN FAST
TELEWORK TAKEAWAY The September 11 terrorist attacks not only thrust thousands of first-time teleworkers into the remote workplace, but their managers followed in kind. Managing remote workers – while managing one’s own work habits – is essential to success.
Talk about a trial by fire. Not only had Julie Gerdeman never managed teleworkers before September 11, she’d never even teleworked. Worse, none of her 30-person New York staff ever had teleworked, either.
So when American Express bumped Gerdeman’s team from its 40 Wall Street offices to make room for headquarters staff previously working in the World Financial Center, she had to think
124 fast and learn fast. As a manager, she was worried about how her team would deal with being separated and isolated, and how they would communicate and ultimately perform.
Gerdeman wasn’t shy about asking for help. She called experienced teleworkers within the company, as well as senior leadership who have participated in the company’s work-at-home programs. They recommended a three-step approach: First, reach out to team members to answer questions and quell concerns; next, create a support network among the team and other teleworkers in American Express; third, they advised Gerdeman to “over-communicate” with the team.
Armed with new insight and information, Gerdeman set to work transitioning her in-office team to a virtual one. She initiated a buddy system, teaming her first-time teleworkers with employees in the Corporate Services Group who had some telework experience. Gerdeman encouraged her virtual rookies to reach out with questions and for the experts to offer up insights without being asked.
A week after they began teleworking, the team met for lunch to compare notes and share experiences. Now, they meet for a weekly conference call to discuss business as well as the transition to telework. Gerdeman invites seasoned teleworkers to provide insight and advice on finding balance between professional and personal life. She’s also taking a strong lead by encouraging team members to set up their own workstyles and schedules, and to share funny tales or such home office insights as finding the right room, furniture or work schedule. Sharing this information gives valuable understanding of each others’ schedules and work patterns, she says.
Gerdeman reinforced team-building by gathering her group together for monthly meetings and was planning a team charity event for year-end holidays and other special events. “People have reached out to each other,” she says. “Some positives have come out of this.”
KEY TELEWORK TACTICS • Don’t be bashful or too proud to ask for help. First-time telemanagers should find experienced managers to help them learn how to manage remote workers, and veteran teleworkers to guide the team. • Keep communication between team members strong early on to ensure camaraderie, focus and production stays high.
125 • Encourage sharing of humorous and light-hearted experiences that can help teleworkers realize that some of the issues they’re facing in the home office are not unique.
POST-CRISIS: GETTING BACK TO NORMAL
TELEWORK TAKEAWAY Working remotely removes the teleworker from the office community. In times of national or shared crisis, this isolation can be unsettling on the worker. How can a teleworker find solace and comfort when working alone?
For Christine de la Huerta, the events of September 11 taxed her psyche as a teleworker.
The vice president for a Coral Gables, Fla., public relations firm, de la Huerta has a home office that’s 45 minutes from her corporate offices, where coworkers had gathered in a conference room to watch events unfold on TV that Tuesday morning.
But as a full-time teleworker, she might as well been somewhere across the country.
“I wanted to be in the office commiserating. But then again I felt safer in my own little home, where nothing could hurt me,” de la Huerta recalls.
So, instead she spent the day of the attacks calling friends and following the developments on TV. Any effort to work was a lost cause. On Wednesday, work seemed trivial in light of the disaster.
The ability of teleworkers to stay positive and focused on work when tragedy strikes is not an easy task. News anchors become informants; the phone and e-mail become lifelines to voices outside. Isolated, teleworkers crave any morsel of information or human contact to help them feel connected.
How did de la Huerta pull herself back up? She admits it was difficult. After a day of fragmented time in her home office, she returned to corporate headquarters to work amid her coworkers. The
126 group went to lunch, shared their feelings and unloaded their frustrations. She e-mailed countless friends and called many more.
De la Huerta also spent time with her husband, neighbors and extended family throughout Miami. She considered taking in a movie but thought “fun” would be inappropriate. Finally, when a girlfriend suggested the two blow off their twice-weekly trip to the gym, de la Huerta reconsidered. Working out would help her vent and reorganize her emotions.
All told, her time with family, friends, in the gym and working from home helped de la Huerta get through the crises’ fall-out, and emerge with a different perspective.
“People say this has given them a stop-and-smell-the-roses mentality,” she adds. “Now, more than ever, that’s what I’m trying to do.”
KEY TELEWORK TACTICS • If a crisis erupts, call the office. Talk with coworkers. If it’s close enough, drive in. Bonds between peers grow tighter in times of tragedy and need. • Call on friends, family, fellow teleworkers or neighborhood home officers to spend time together as events unfold. • Don’t force work. Some events, like national conflict or the terrorist attacks in Oklahoma City or the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, consumed people’s attention for days. If you can’t focus on work, take some time for yourself to reflect.
AMID LAYOFFS, SOME TELEWORKERS FLOCK TO THE HQ
TELEWORK TAKEAWAY Word of layoffs often draws worried teleworkers back to the office. Instead of trying to raise their profile in times of job cutting, teleworkers instead should focus on delivering quality product and maintaining a reasonable work profile.
A strange thing happened at Ericsson in the summer of 2001. Many of the company’s 200 teleworkers began making frequent trips to different headquarter locations to meet with managers
127 and colleagues. And in-office employees who’d inquired about joining the telework program withdrew their requests.
What caused the ripple? Ericsson had announced plans to lay off thousands of employees worldwide by year’s end. Low on the radar screen, teleworkers felt like natural targets, recalls Doug Lockwood, former manager of Ericsson’s U.S. telework program. (Lockwood wasn’t laid off but transferred to customer relations.)
“Teleworkers always feel they have to prove they’re working,” he says. “A few decided to come back into the office, just to be more visible.”
In September 2001, corporate America slashed its workforce by 199,000 jobs, according to the U.S. Department of Labor. Workers in the technology, airline, financial services and other sectors worried whether they’d be next. It was especially perplexing for teleworkers, who worried that out of sight really is out of mind.
Lockwood isn’t certain how Ericsson determined whom would be laid off – whether low performers, redundant positions or unnecessary departments were targeted – he says good teleworkers’ proven performance and reporting acumen may have helped spare some positions.
Productive teleworkers prove their worth by delivering on their assignments and adhering to established reporting practices, Lockwood says, adding, “If you don’t have good communications in place, now is a good time to establish it.”
If your company is mulling layoffs, increase your worth by working harder, delivering more and heading into training – even if you have to pay for it yourself. Enroll in programs that boost your technical skills – and result in value to the company.
“Also, perform in such a way that the company stands up and takes notice, and be up to date on industry technology,” says another telework manager. “Then you can be fairly confident that you’ll have a position when others are laid off.”
128 Finally, don’t fall victim to fear and paranoia, Lockwood warns. You might want to offer a little more updating and progress reports, but don’t deluge your manager with pointless messages and waves of calls to show you’re working. “Just keep doing what works.”
Ultimately, the issue at Ericsson resolved itself. Post-layoff numbers revealed that teleworkers fared no worse than their in-office peers. Teleworkers were returning to their normal schedules, and requests to join the program were resuming.
“Seeing that it didn’t happen that way helps dispel the myths,” Lockwood adds.
KEY TELEWORK TACTICS • Fearful of losing jobs in times of layoffs? Maintain high work standards, communicate with your managers and coworkers, and make occasional trips into the office. • Keep your skills, education and importance in the organization at peak levels. Make yourself invaluable to the team and company. • Don’t act paranoid. Too many calls, emails, visits or other correspondence can become an annoyance to managers and in-office workers, and make them wonder if telework isn’t suitable for you.
HOW TELEWORK SOFTENS THE BLOW OF LAYOFF WOES
TELEWORK TAKEAWAY When employees are laid off, teleworkers often fare better than their corporate-based peers. Already comfortable in the home office, the learning curve is short and they’re ready to work from home to launch a new enterprise – or to find another teleworking assignment.
When word came down in early October 2001 that Valerie McCarty was being laid off by an international television company in Miami Beach, like any loyal worker, she was floored. “You could have knocked me down with a feather,” she says.
129 After all, she had been there for five years, most recently as vice president of marketing and communications. She had built relationships. She grew the company’s profits, and popularized its brand. She enjoyed her work.
But, by the next day, McCarty was bullish about her future. Sure, her husband had a good job, and they were not strapped by debt. More important, when McCarty came off maternity leave that February, she began teleworking two days a week. So, as others were left to wonder how they were going to find work or worried that they were losing the only workplace they’d ever known, McCarty knew she was going home to an office she was quite comfortable in.
“I like working in my home office and know I’m good at what I do,” she says.
In uncertain times, some teleworkers spend more time in the corporate office or otherwise try to raise their profile in hopes of avoiding layoffs. But, as McCarty learned, even trusted and valued employees can’t escape the ax when economic hardships lead to restructuring. And if you can’t dodge the pink slip, telework may help minimize the damage and soften the landing.
On October 24, 2001, about three weeks after learning she was to be downsized, McCarty started her new work life from a fully functional home office. She and her husband have separate workspaces in the converted bedroom. The closet is outfitted with filing cabinets and storage shelves. The computer is connected to a cable modem and two printers. There’s a business phone line, and a dedicated fax line as well. McCarty has a Rolodex full of contacts.
Equally important is how McCarty has benefited from her positive mental attitude about the future, she admits. Workers in danger of unemployment can be overwrought with fears. Her time spent as a senior executive – and as a teleworker – turned McCarty from an employee to an “entrepreneur” within the company, she says. Sure, she was always technically an employee. But for years she was a decision maker overseeing a team of 12, traveling throughout the U.S. and Latin America, leading new initiatives, and helping the company grow.
Even teleworking has helped build McCarty’s entrepreneurial spirit. Working away from the corporate office and constant daily contact with her peers has developed a free-spirit attitude and helped foster a sense of independence, she says. To be sure, she will miss her peers and the buzz
130 of the corporate hive. But, in time, her mind-set has changed. She’s independent, enabled and empowered.
“(Telework) allowed me to realize I can be an effective manager outside the workplace,” she says. “But it also taught me that I can be an effective worker from home.”
This might even leave McCarty in a better position to hunt for her next job – possibly as a full- time teleworker. Because South Florida traditionally hasn’t had a large corporate employment base, whenever the economy goes sour, jobs locally could be scarce. But in a 10-year career spent with two of the largest media companies in the world, McCarty knows how to do her job. Besides, with toddler Hannah about, she’s not too eager to relocate or take a job that will have her working a grueling schedule.
“This change in my life has saddened me – but not freaked me out,” she says. “I’m set up to go forward.”
KEY TELEWORK TACTICS • The ability to work amid isolation, as well as with family members around, often is hard for first-time teleworkers or other home officers to learn. • “Alternative” work sites are familiar to teleworkers. If laid off, they can quickly find comfort in the home office. • Teleworkers often have a greater awareness about their importance in the workplace, and their ability to do their jobs regardless of location.
COMPANY SHUTTERS SHOP IN FAVOR OF VIRTUAL OFFICE
TELEWORK TAKEAWAY Rent, utilities, insurance and other recurring costs can drain a company’s balance sheet. Instead, some companies are closing their facilities and sending workers home to work – saving money and growing more satisfied workers in the process.
For several years, Mapics, Inc. had been making the most of telework.
131 More than half the workers in the Woburn, Mass., facility worked from home fulltime or part time. Nationwide, workers of the firm – which provides extended enterprise applications and enterprise resource planning to mid-market manufacturers globally – worked in small or home offices.
In fact, telework was working out so well that executives in Mapics' Alpharetta, Ga., headquarters decided to transform the Woburn office into a fulltime virtual operation.
"With more and more people teleworking, we needed a smaller and smaller footprint," explains company Vice President and General Manager Sandra Hofmann. "It just made sense to create an entire virtual office."
But going virtual takes more than a notice that the office will be closing and you need to find suitable space. As executives learned, it's important to help employees create their new offices – and then ease the transition out of the office.
On January 1, 2002, the company formally launched its virtual officing program. For the first phase, employees split their workweek between home and corporate offices. But when the company's lease expired in May, the 3,300-square-foot facility in Woburn was shut down.
Not only did this save the company thousands each month in rent, utilities and insurance, it also eliminated commutes ranging from 15 minutes for Hofmann to two hours for a colleague who drives in from southern New Hampshire.
As part of the process, in late 2001 Hofmann informally surveyed several employees and charted their commuting habits to learn how much time was wasted commuting. Too much, she found.
“It was astounding how little time was left for all the things that keep your employees rich in their quality of life,” she recalls.
Telework has provided more personal balance, but the move didn’t come without some pain, she admits. Two employees – a call center dispatcher and Hofmann’s own administrative assistant / office manager – were laid off in the shift to home offices. “Phone habits and needs changed,” she says.
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Another issue was office size. Employees who live in the Northeast often find their homes typically smaller than those of their colleagues in Atlanta. Therefore, they aren’t always suited to adding a home office. Some don’t have spare bedrooms, others hardly have space enough for a desk, chair and other office furnishings. And some employees who live in rural areas are finding they couldn’t get reliable or cost-effective broadband access.
But Mapics did doing what it could to help. Before the company shut the Woburn facility, furniture throughout it was flagged with labels identifying which employees planned to take what pieces home to set up in their own home offices. The company provided movers to transport the furniture, and some employees took home office equipment such as printers, copiers and other technology. The firm also negotiated corporate rates for long-distance and broadband Internet service, and worked with office products retailers to supply phones, computers, printers and copiers.
For those new to telework, Mapics provided training on how to telework and guidelines for setting up a home office. The firm planned weekly meetings to review current business practices and how the workers would need to adapt to a virtual setting. Employees received teleworking training and advice from current company teleworkers across the country. Advice included how to best use tools such as video and audio conferencing and instant messaging services.
All along, Hofmann was hopeful the transition would ultimately result in more productive workers. “Today’s hectic lifestyle demands a flexible work environment. When employees have the flexibility to create their own schedules, they are likely to be more productive in both their personal and professional lives.”
KEY TELEWORK TACTICS • A shift to mandatory telework is hard on first-timers. Take time before closing a facility and sending employees home to work. Research alternative work arrangements, set up training programs, and field questions to allay their concerns. • Let employees take furnishings, electronics, computers and peripherals from the corporate location to use in their home offices. This will save costs and shorten the time needed to ramp-up the telework program.
133 • Institute a communication and contact program to ensure no workers fall out of touch with their peers or the organization.
‘VIRTUAL’ MOVE REQUIRES REAL TRAINING
TELEWORK TAKEAWAY Effective telework doesn’t happen without some instruction. Help teleworkers and their managers learn the ropes in quickly to create an effective telework and remote officing program.
In April 2002, the Woburn, Mass., office of Mapics ceased to exist. In anticipation, executives left little to chance – and provided employees with home office furniture, computing equipment and broadband connections.
But before they shuttered the doors, the final ingredient needed to create this virtual team was education and an infusion of good remote work habits.
Even though half the Woburn employees already teleworked, employees expressed a need for guidance early on. Programmers feared the loss of face-to-face interaction with their coworkers, while others worried the move would hurt team camaraderie, morale and productivity, explains Sandra Hofmann, vice president and general manager of the Woburn office.
In response, the company began holding meetings and teleconference sessions between its veteran and rookie teleworkers. The general manager began teleworking herself – and researched best practices online – so she would be better prepared to serve as a role model to others.
With a goal to “learn the skills and good habits to make remote work work better,” Hofmann says Mapics' solutions centered on keeping the office team intact virtually and physically during the transition, and keeping employees focused on habits that establish work routines. Workers shared their own practices – like showering and dressing, or heading out to Dunkin' Donuts for coffee each morning before heading into the home office.
Other remedies involved using technology. The company experimented with video conferencing
134 and encouraged employees to use its own product – enterprise resource planning collaborative process management software – to interact with each other.
The learning process went both ways. In helping employees develop good remote work habits, Mapics executives discovered what works best for their employees. Even today, its virtual workers are making the most of face-to-face time, holding meetings in conference space in offices of company partners, allies or vendors. Lunch meetings are being used not only to discuss business, but as a vehicle to socialize or catch up on water cooler chat. Workers and management are finding social interaction is key to building bonds and staving off isolation in a virtual team.
In fact, the nature of how Mapics employees interact changed, as did the pace that people approach their work. “Business discussions are becoming shorter and more focused. But then the pace may slow down when people are relating to each other,” Hofmann explains.
As a leader, Hofmann began teleworking so she could relate to her workers' experiences. Personally, Hofmann got caught up in some of the distractions common to the home office, including raiding the refrigerator and doing household chores.
To help the team succeed, Hofmann tapped her organizational behavior and management skills, which she says can help an executive manage in any work environment – including first-time remote officing scenarios.
But while she may do a bit of handholding, Hofmann hoped her employees would solve their own problems and find their own way.
Even if everybody’s really excited right at the beginning, issues can crop up, she learned. When employees asked her how they should go about finding a missing colleague or how to keep the family out of the home office, she told them, ‘I don’t know, you need to help me figure this out. Because if I get the answer, it might not work for you. It’s your program, not mine.’ That’s just good management.”
KEY TELEWORK TACTICS
135 • Scour Internet search engines, online sites and other interactive locations to find information on telework pilots, training and skills. Visit the local bookstore to locate books on the topic. • Learn to adopt new technology and practices – like online and telephonic video conferencing, and borrowing conference room space from vendors and allies, for example – so the team can stay productive and connected. • Implore managers to look within themselves to help those around them to improve their remote work and managerial skills.
SECRETS OF A VIRTUAL COMPANY’S CEO
TELEWORK TAKEAWAY Virtual management is a new skill for today’s business owner and corporate executive. Developing hands-off managerial styles – and learning to trust employees – helps the team work virtually effortlessly.
The Web applications development company Turner Consulting Group employs around three dozen workers. CEO Daniel Turner and a manager work out of the Washington, D.C., office, two employees work from home offices nearby, and the rest work from homes scattered across the USA.
“I’m not entirely sure where everyone lives,” Turner muses.
Welcome to the virtual company. Employees and contractors collaborate across distances and stay connected using the Internet and telephone. Productivity and cost-efficiency increase by reducing the need for dedicated corporate office space and commuting costs. Organizations are agile and very competitive, says Jessica Lipnack, founder of organizational consultancy Virtual Teams (http://www.virtualteams.com) and author of the book of the same name (John Wiley & Sons, $29.95).
“The boundary-crossing, virtual team is the new way to work,” Lipnack says.
136 Staffed with loyal, full-time employees, today’s virtual company hires top talent regardless of locality. In Turner’s case, each sets his or her own schedule, tracks his own time, networks with the team via e-mail or phone, and thrives in the work-at-home environment. None has to commute or move to already-congested D.C., and Turner doesn’t have to entice talent to relocate.
Because more than 20 of Turner’s staffers are working mothers, he doesn’t have to fret losing anyone to maternity leave. The women just set their own schedules and do their jobs on company-issue desktops, with kids nearby. Having kids in the home office goes against many companies’ home-work policies, but this culture fits Turner’s needs and those of his workers.
“It’s a very family-friendly company,” he adds.
To bridge the physical distances between workers, Turner strives to build bonds. He talks daily with his six project managers, who hold calls with team members as needed. Every week, company-wide conference calls are held to foster community. Annually, the company stages an “All Hands” meeting in D.C. to discuss the company’s path, people’s roles and the airing of grievances.
“It’s 90 percent schmooze,” he says. “Fun and satisfaction are huge.”
How does Turner select and manage the right candidates to work from home? Here’s his strategy:
• Look for experienced recruits. Ideal candidates previously have teleworked or have worked from the home or remote office, if even on a limited basis. If the recruit has no telework experience, Turner asks each to identify the worst aspects of telework. “The best aspects are easy,” he says. “We’re not interested in people who haven’t thought about it.” Be prepared for first-time work-at-homes to succeed, but they may spend more time adapting to the new environment, essentially learning on the clock.
• Target soloists. The best candidates are those who claim independence and say they don’t require eye contact or day-to-day interaction. Turner asks for three references – a former supervisor, subordinate and peer – all of whom know the recruit’s workstyle. He
137 also asks whether they like starting projects or coming in midway. There’s no wrong answer, but mid-project entry is common in the virtual environment, he says.
• Make them meet a team member. Because much of Turner’s recruiting is done remotely, all new hires are on probation until they meet an existing employee face to face for work or fun. “If there’s no chemistry, they’ll know it as soon as we do.”
• Avoid admitted loners. Singles or workers with few friends, little family nearby and no social life could become depressed in the home-based environment. Although it’s illegal to ask about family or personal issues, Turner regularly asks about hobbies or what recruits do for fun. “The fact that they have some sort of support group outside work is good. It gives us some measure of if they’re sociable or not.”
MORE SECRETS OF A VIRTUAL COMPANY’S CEO
TELEWORK TAKEAWAY Treating remote workers like first-class citizens can improve employee loyalty and productivity, and ultimately boost client service and retention.
Just because the vast majority of Daniel Turner’s employees don’t work in Turner Consulting Group’s Washington, D.C., headquarters doesn’t mean they’re second-class citizens toiling in Spartan home offices. From the latest computer and communications equipment to home office furniture, Turner’s policy ensures that his remote staffers are ready for business.
“These are employees, not contractors,” he reasons. “They expect to be treated that way.”
Independent consultants working from home long have battled the stigma that “home-based” is really a euphemism for “low-cost” or “low-overhead.” Yes, the commute is by foot and monthly rent is nonexistent, but having the right tools is key to a home office worker’s success. Turner knows it’s no different for a virtual company that employs full-time, albeit remote, workers.
138 In Turner’s company, the details of home office setup fall to the individual workers, with Turner paying for specific equipment and services. He’s found that most new hires already have home offices, so furniture hasn’t been much of an issue. Even so, he will pay for a desk or chair, but he says the furniture must be returned if the employee leaves the company. (Not surprisingly, employees rarely take him up on the offer.)
Turner knows that technology is key to his remote workers’ success, so that’s where he kicks in the real coin. Workers negotiate their own phone services, and Turner reimburses long-distance calls. For managers, Turner pays for dedicated business phone lines, cell phones and multifunction printers that include fax and copier capability. When DSL or cable service becomes available in an employee’s area, the workers negotiate the service agreement, but Turner reimburses $50 of the service cost each month.
Turner also purchases computer systems for his employees, and every 18 months spends $900 on upgrading everyone’s CPU. If workers want a new monitor or keyboard, they’ll have to pay for it. And if anyone wants the old CPU for personal use, Turner will sell it for $100. He says paying for new systems ensures that his employees have the latest technology available and that they’re working on company-owned equipment, not their own.
With almost three dozen virtual offices in operation, that potentially amounts to $1,600 a month each for broadband access, and more than $28,000 every 18 months on new computer technology. Tack on full health insurance, workmen’s compensation, life insurance for his six managers and property coverage, and supporting remote office workers gets pricey. Still, Turner reasons, that’s much cheaper than paying $40 to $50 a square foot for commercial office space in D.C.
KEY TELEWORK TACTICS • When hiring teleworkers, find the best and brightest. That will be reflected in the way they perform and treat clients. • In turn, treat teleworkers like valued employees. Studies have shown they’re as much if not more loyal, satisfied and productive than their in-office peers. • Depending on the arrangement, teleworkers using technology and furnishings comparable to that used by in-office staff appreciate the consideration.
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MAGNA CARTA: A GREAT CHARTER FOR THE VIRTUAL AGE
TELEWORK TAKEAWAY Today’s workplace requires different rules. Having a charter to run your organization by helps set the company apart from its peers or competition, and lays the ground work for success.
Jennifer Johnson sees no irony between the original “Great Charter” and her small business’s Virtual Magna Carta. The first was written in quill in 1215, and guaranteed certain land and civil rights from the monarchy. Johnson’s document, written in 785 years later on her Packard-Bell Pentium, outlines how her company will operate in the Information Age.
Her document lays out the 10 best practices employed by Utah-based Johnson & Co.’s 17 staff and freelance virtual workers, none of whom are based in the same office location. It could be viewed as a model for any virtual work force or team working outside the traditional office location.
The document centers on one basic tenet: Success stems from the right mix of technology, process and culture, Johnson says. It supports a reliance on technology, but the need for professional and personal relationships to build balance in the remote worker’s life.
When Johnson previewed the document at a team-building trade show one summer, the document was lauded as going where academics and technical methodologies left off by providing common sense and how-to insights, she says.
“People really reacted positively to our thinking,” she says. “People agreed that the most questions and hang-ups centered on the culture part of this.”
In the remote workplace, culture and relationship-building must be stressed as central to success, says Jessica Lipnack, founder of Virtual Teams (www.virtualteams.com), and author of a book by the same name. Documenting those goals helps employees, coworkers, clients, vendors and family understand the model, she says.
140 “Even though people are not sitting right in front of you, they are right with you all the time. Never forget that,” she says. “This is always about creating strong, trustworthy relationships with people. High trust builds business.”
From Internet connectivity to Web-based applications and even full-featured telephone systems, the technology has arrived for effective virtual work. When powerful and widespread video conferencing arrives, that will only add to the virtual organization’s toolbox. For now, though, people need to have some rules to work and live by, says Eric Klein, senior analyst for small and medium business with The Yankee Group, Boston. This isn’t just for a virtual corporation like Johnson & Co., which has no corporate location. Big business could learn from this little exercise, Klein says.
“People must adjust to that lifestyle and focus,” he says.
Johnson’s Virtual Magna Carta is one way to lay out expectations and procedures that need to serve as policy – especially in such a loosely-housed but highly-organized work environment, adds John Girard, senior analyst with Gartner Group. Create and communicate a clear vision, support the culture and serve as a role model for the program, Girard says. “Walk the talk,” he says.
Any company keen on working virtually could benefit from a written document that personalizes the practices, Johnson believes.
“It really was created to further define the virtual workplace and boost productivity,” said Johnson, who left 12 years in corporate America before launching her public relations firm, The Virtual Agency ™, in 1997. “It may sound funny, but in order to create flexibility, you have to have rules.”
THE VIRTUAL MAGNA CARTA Johnson & Company's indispensable guide for unfailing professionalism in the virtual workplace 1. Know the three keys. Success in the virtual workplace hinges on effectively managing technology, process and culture.
141 2. Know what you're getting into. The virtual workplace really isn't for everybody. It requires self-motivation, self-discipline and a willingness to share knowledge and collaborate with others. Be realistic about your own temperament, character and expectations before taking the plunge.
3. Over-communicate. Make sure coworkers are clear on your boundaries, such as office hours, type of work you can do, when you are available without distractions and when to expect "home noises" in the background.
4. Drop your solo project and join a band. If you freelance, get to know fellow freelancers and view them as potential allies, not competitors. Team up and leverage each other's availability, skills and expertise. Don't forget the importance of mentors. Develop relationships with your managers and colleagues in the virtual world and learn from their experiences.
5. Yes, there is life in virtual space. You gave up the office, not the people. Relationships are important. Recognize the need for and cultivate a virtual culture. Find ways to celebrate achievements or special occasions on-line or via conference call. A little creativity can go a long way.
6. Technology is your friend. Research the best products for your needs and use the tools at hand! Some suggestions that are extremely useful in collaborating with virtual colleagues include Internet files servers, instant messaging and electronic faxing.
7. Technology is not your only friend. Meet your coworkers face-to-face. Schedule professional retreats to build a live connection as the foundation for enduring work relationships. Cultivate those relationships by respecting coworkers' professional boundaries, as you would have them respect your own.
8. You're not in Kansas anymore! Face it: The virtual workplace can be far out! In dealing with coworkers and clients in "bricks-and-mortar" offices, you risk becoming the odd man out – a disembodied voice on the conference call. Step up your efforts to be a team player. Over-communicate – without becoming a pest – through multiple vehicles (such as an email followed by a phone call).
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9. Virtual professionalism is not an oxymoron. Eschew the yes-man tendency of the virtual officer by being confident in your skills. They are just as valuable as those of your in-office counterparts. Question then challenge any instructions that do not seem appropriate, realistic, or strategic.
10. Remember why you joined the virtual workforce in the first place. “My-size” your workload to take a more appropriate role among your most important assets, including family, friends and hobbies. Beware of electronic latch-key syndrome, or the tendency to be technically home, but virtually unavailable most of the time. Contents copyright © 2000 Johnson & Company, The Virtual Agency™
GOOD COMMUNICATION CUTS BOTH WAYS
TELEWORK TAKEAWAY Off site but on the job, remote workers often are the forgotten souls of the corporate workplace. Staying in the loop is as much the team’s responsibility as it is the teleworker’s.
E-mail and voicemail unreturned, canceled meetings unannounced, projects not updated, even off-site social events unmentioned all can result from a communication breakdown.
Often, it’s not the teleworker’s fault but that of the in-house coworker who can forget that remote workers are on the job when they’re not around.
Who has the responsibility to keep the lines open? Long considered a roadblock in the telework arrangement, traditional thinking held that teleworkers had to facilitate and simplify communication with their non-teleworking peers in the corporate offices. But is the onus solely on the teleworker to ensure the lines of communication are always open?
143 It cuts both ways, but the duty to keep info flowing belongs primarily to the teleworker, says Doug Lockwood, a former telework program manager with Ericsson in Richardson, Texas. “It takes some handholding. As a teleworker, you really have to work at it.”
Recommended practices for the teleworker have included posting a weekly calendar outlining telework days and hours of availability; making home office, cell phone and pager numbers available to all team members; and changing voicemail messages to reveal daily working location and contact information. Teleworkers are advised to stay in touch, make themselves reachable and otherwise stay on their peers’ radar screens, lest they be perceived as slacking off and shirking responsibilities.
But campus-based workers need to hone their communication skills to work well with remote workers. If they leave a voicemail, or their e-mail or IM to a colleague across the floor isn’t responded to quickly, they can pop over for a quick chat. On-site collaboration is a wonderful thing – unless you’re off-site.
Teleworkers reading this column could take some of the pointers here and gently suggest them to their in-office peers. A nudge in the right direction can help steer a course to better communication. So, from all those teleworkers out there to all those in-house employees in there, here’s the memo:
• Return e-mail and voicemail promptly. Teleworkers can’t poke their heads in the office door or pop up like prairie dogs to yell to another cube, “Why aren’t you answering my e-mail?” Realize how distance can affect communication flow, and adjust your workstyle.
• Acknowledge receipt. If you’ve received an e-mail, document or file from a teleworker, download it, make sure it opens, and then hit “Reply” and type, “Got it.” Simple as that. This way, the teleworker knows you’ve received the document and can move on to other tasks.
• Build buddy teams. Try as they might, teleworkers can miss out on news or updates if such info is passed along in casual chat among in-office workers. Even acknowledging social or life-cycle events (“The team’s going in on a birthday present for Bob” or
144 “We’re heading out to lunch next week”) can be so informal that they easily can be overlooked. Create buddy teams between teleworkers with in-office peers, making sure the in-office worker knows to keep the teleworker informed of professional and social meetings and events – both in-office and off-site.
• Cancel meetings well in advance – and inform the team. Canceling a meeting 20 minutes before it starts means the teleworker might not learn of the cancellation until he or she is already there. When a meeting must be canceled, immediately alert the team and administrative assistants, and spread the word. Call the teleworker on the portable phone if he or she cannot be reached at the home office.
• Don’t avoid the vacant office. In-office workers might visit a teleworker’s vacant office or cube, assume the worker is not working, and say, “Oh, this can wait until he’s in tomorrow.” Wrong reaction. Call the worker at home. “Don’t assume you have to hold your question or collaboration until the day they come in,” Lockwood says. “That’s a big issue, because it would slow flow.”
• Maintain the conversation. Good communication starts with the teleworker. When working from home or remotely, call peers you chat with frequently and casually at work – just to chat. Mimic in-office conversation banter. And when you’re working from home, let coworkers know that calling you at home is acceptable – and welcomed.
• Managers must stay alert. When situations arise where you were left out of a communication flow, bring it up with coworkers and managers. If communications break down, the team suffers. The teleworker and manager must stay attuned to the situation, before it becomes problematic.
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CHAPTER V BUILDING FOR THE FUTURE
TURNING DISPERSED WORKERS INTO A TEAM
TELEWORK TACTICS Teams dispersed over space and time zones often must work together to conquer maladies common to the home-based workspace. Not only does it help workers cope, it builds strength throughout the team.
Merriam-Webster defines “isolate” as “to set apart from others,” “insulate,” or “quarantine.”
Robert Long defines it by the company he keeps as a teleworker.
“The old joke is, when you telecommute, your new best friend is the FedEx guy,” says Long, the full-time teleworking manager of marketing and sales for Dow Chemical Company’s global technology center.
If the improved productivity that comes from solitude is the by-product of teleworking, then the downside is isolation. Even as a voluntary workstyle, heading outside the corporate office to work from home or some other remote location often leaves workers feeling alone and unsettled.
Long and his team are no strangers to isolation. All work remotely, some thousands of miles from Dow’s Midland, Mich., corporate offices. Although teleworkers have unique needs to bond and stay connected with their fellow remote workers, sales people – who by definition thrive on personal contact – have different needs. It’s Long’s job to help instill in his team the practices that “alleviate the feeling of disconnection,” he says.
How do Long and his crew cope? Through a mix of technological and psychological practices. The simplest way is to just disconnect from technology in the home office and get out among clients and peers. “They try to stay disconnected so they’re not strapped to their office,” says
146 Long, whose team uses a simple combination of cell phones and laptops to stay connected in the office and on the road.
“Any time there’s an opportunity to hook up with people, you should do that,” he says. “Everyone enjoys doing that, and what a great opportunity it is just to sit and talk. But somebody has to step up and put it together. If you don’t, it’s not going to happen because everyone’s so darn busy.”
Long’s other tricks to avoiding isolation include:
• Practice tech-touch. Use teleconferences to keep the remote team in touch, and encourage team members to regularly call and e-mail one another – for business or socializing. “The key sometimes is just to pick up the phone and say hello,” he says.
• Build the team. Infuse camaraderie among the team by staging team meetings – with a dose of socializing – several times a year. Long will hold his daylong meetings from noon one day to noon the next and take the team out for a social dinner in the evening.
• Take notice. Acknowledge personal milestones and events, and copy team members on messages announcing an individual’s professional success. When a member of Long’s team celebrates a birthday, anniversary, or the anniversary of joining the company, Long also hand-addresses a store-bought card and sends it to the worker.
• Socialize. Long encourages his staff to spend time together whenever possible, whether in Midland for a meeting, attending a conference, or any time they’re in the same town at the same time.
COMPANY PROGRAMS HELP TELEWORKERS STAVE OFF ISOLATION
TELEWORK TACTICS
147 Isolation is a common complaint among remote workers. Smart managers create incentives and programs to keep their teleworkers motivated and connected – and productive.
Thrusting office-based workers into a telework program can spell disaster. If they’re not trained, prepared and knowledgeable of what to expect, focus, motivation and productivity can plummet.
In 1999, Siemens Enterprise Networks launched a mandatory telework program for its entire 70- person staff. It was a disaster.
By dispersing the workforce, the company found, employees lost their sense of community and camaraderie all at once. Feeling isolated in their home offices, workers’ production dropped and turnover topped 25 percent, which then sent management scrambling to the PC terminals for a solution.
After some deep self-examination, Siemens found new ways to identify the traits of ideal telework candidates, and instituted programs for fostering employee relationships and promoting productivity. The goal was to keep teleworkers stimulated, alert and in touch, says Glenda Kiddoo, a resource manager with the company who has worked from her Chesapeake, Va., home office since the program’s inception.
And the extra effort has paid off. The once-telework-plagued division of the global communications giant boasts a successful, 100-member tele-workforce.
In the case of Siemens, Kiddoo’s team engages in group activities online. Each quarter, the team’s book club reads and discusses a book in an online chat, and Kiddoo eats lunch twice a month with employees in the local office. The company provides online training that workers can participate in remotely.
Some on Kiddoo’s team have returned to college to earn their degrees, and others are taking classes to broaden their skills, either in person or online. One worker in Kiddoo’s group travels from her home office on a remote Kansas farm to take a class in Nebraska. Siemens’ managers offer flexible scheduling to accommodate workers’ educational requirements and the company pays for relevant coursework, she says.
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Beyond Siemens’ example, a mix of corporate-sponsored and self-initiated extracurricular activities can help you stay connected. These can be as simple as having breakfast, lunch or afternoon coffee with friends or colleagues. Volunteering at a child’s school, PTA or a local charity or library can increase adult interactivity and serve as an anticipated anchor during the week, helping to pull you out of the office.
“These programs keep your skill sharp and become a place to find common ground to develop relationships outside the work-a-day world,” Kiddoo says.
Annually, the entire 100-person team gathers – one year in San Jose, another year in Colorado Springs – for four days of work and play. One teleworker studying music production performed as the party DJ after hours. As part of a recent gathering, colleagues brought photographs of their home offices – and people had to match workers to their workspace.
“It is a hoot,” says Kiddoo, who convinced Siemens to support and pay the bill for these events. Workers are encouraged to maintain interaction with colleagues and coworkers by phone call, e- mail, instant messaging and even on-site visits to help keep the team connected – physically and socially.
“We feel it’s essential. People often go through a grieving period of social detachment,” she says. “This keeps a touchstone back to other human beings. Cliques can form and people bond, even over the miles.”
KEY TELEWORK TACTICS • Create programs, meetings and gatherings that will keep workers stimulated, motivate and feeling part of the team. • Non-work related book clubs, chats and lunches help build camaraderie and foster team spirit outside office hours. • Remote meetings that combine work and play help teams bond.
PLAY WITH A PURPOSE TELEWORK TAKEAWAY
149 All work and no play can tear the telework team apart from the in-office staffers. Scheduling fun events and outings can build team spirit and create a festive atmosphere.
Laser tag, after-hours socializing, a ball game or concert with the team … John Putzier can rattle off dozens of ways to build camaraderie among the team. But how do you include team members who are hundreds or thousands of miles from the office?
“Team-building was an issue even before telework came along,” says Putzier, author of Get Weird: 101 Innovative Ways to Make your Company a Great Place to Work (Amacom, 2001). “You can work next to someone for years and still know nothing about them. Now that’s been exacerbated by distance. People are just electrons on a screen.”
Hoping to build esprit de corps among a virtual or mixed traditional/remote team? First, find out how well the team members know one another. If telework failure often comes from a lack of trust or a sense that remote workers aren’t carrying their load, building a bond could help build trust, Putzier says. “You’ve got to learn who is on your team.”
How about a little “Getting to Know You” session via e-mail, message board or face-to-face chats? Workers can share tales from their early lives, education, experiences and expectations. Try tackling one topic each Friday for a month, and keep it fun. No, you can’t mandate socialization, but lead by example, encouraging your team members to get to know one another better. Using text-based chat for frequent, friendly, non-work-related discussions allows remote colleagues to become real people to their colleagues.
For local team-building, Putzier suggests, members should attend sporting events, rock concerts, movies or nights out on the town together – possibly aboard a rented bus or van to create a group event. The team even can visit a supplier or vendor, to see how the companies work together.
Whether the events occur locally or virtually, they always should include at least the manager, as well as an occasional senior executive. If not, team socializing can sometimes take on a counter- productive, even “revolutionary tone,” he says. “And if management isn’t motivated to do it, I’d be concerned.”
150 KEY TELEWORK TACTICS • Be creative when planning fun events, with an eye on team building, fun factor and potential learning opportunities. • Use all means – electronic, telephonic, face-to-face – to introduce remote team members. • Beware having “fun” events take on a “revolutionary” tone. Management could become suspicious.
BUILDING REMOTE TEAM SPIRIT TELEWORK TAKEAWAY Groups build stronger bonds when individuals know more about one another, whether it’s socializing outside the workplace or events that open people’s lives and stories to their peers.
So your team is scattered across the landscape, with some people teleworking from homes nearby, and others based hundreds or thousands of miles away?
How do you keep the “we” in the team?
Team-building events long have been heralded as effective camaraderie builders in the corporate environment. Pull off similar events – laser tag, after-hours socializing, a ball game with the workgroup, or joint attendance at a concert or movie – for the telework group to keep the team spirit alive and well.
The event even can be in-house gatherings or gags that take moments – not hours, but have the same door-opening impact, explains John Putzier, author of Get Weird: 101 Innovative Ways to Make your Company a Great Place to Work (Amacom, 2001). The goal is to heighten individual achievement and unite the team, he says.
Here are some of Putzier’s ideas for telework and in-office team building. Some require everyone to be in the same place at the same time, but others can work for on-site and remote team members. For those that discuss Internet-based efforts, consider setting up an intranet site accessible only by team members.
151 • Heard it Through the Grapevine. Create a chat area (a Web forum or list serv) where workers can start discussions or pose questions of a professional or personal nature. From the company’s point of view, this can help stifle rumors and gossip about internal policy or workplace issues. “The grapevine is the No. 1 source of information for non-managers. This takes the grapevine to a legitimate level,” Putzier says.
• Wall of Fame. Display awards, trophies, certificates or other professional or personal successes on a shelf in the office dedicated to showing off individual or team awards or achievements. For remote members, post images, photos or tales of the worker’s accolades on the intranet site, or have the team leader send an email to members praising individual honors. Similarly, you can lead any recurring, teamwide conference calls with such news announcements.
• Peer Pats. Don’t wait for management to recognize you or your coworkers. If you know that a coworker has won an award or has done a good job on a project, send a message to the team acknowledging the worker.
• Personal Messages. Every Friday, encourage team members to create some sort of personal message or information as part of their team-only email. Accolades, hobbies, greatest accomplishments, favorite local restaurants or vacation retreats, or upcoming vacation plans are all good candidates. Consider including family notes, such as a child’s soccer championship or college acceptance. “It doesn’t need to spur discussion,” Putzier says. “It’s just so people can read the email and say, ‘That’s cool.’”
• Brainpower Inventory. What are the skills and interests of your team members? You’ll probably find musicians and singers, artists and cartoonists, chefs or barbecue aficionados, authors and poets in your group. Display their work in the hallways or on the team intranet, or hold a social event – possibly when the whole team is in town for a department or company-wide meeting – to have everyone show their stuff. The team could put together a band to jam at events – where the team’s chefs supply the fare, for instance.
152 • Oh, Baby! What were you like as a baby? When the team is together, or on the team intranet, post team members’ baby pictures. Get team members to try to match the baby with the adult.
• Rock Me, Baby. Whether the entire team works in the same region, or those times that the team is together for a company meeting, scan the local paper to see what events will be held locally. Plan to attend sporting events, concerts, a comedy club or the movies as a group. Rent a bus and ride together – even include spouses or partners. If the event is kid- friendly, invite the whole family.
• Fantasy Weekends. Have team members submit their own fantasy weekends. If you could have dinner with anybody, whom would it be? List three things you would like to do before you die. Make them reasonable, and then try to pull off some as a team. Putzier’s lifelong dream, for example, is to be a racecar driver. So one summer, his wife sent him to a weekend stock-car race-driving school.
STAYING MANAGED WHILE THE MANAGER IS AWAY TELEWORK TAKEAWAY It’s been said before in this book that teleworkers and their managers aren’t born. They’re created and nurtured over time. If managing remote workers is new to you, cut your learning curve by establishing best practices now.
Telemanaging – the art of managing employees remotely – can be an arduous task. Either you’re tucked in your office with subordinates scattered across the landscape, or you’re the one working outside the corporate office and trying to keep tabs on remote team members.
Either way, there’s a new model emerging here, one that few management books or mentors ever consider: How do you manage workers when they – or you – are out of sight?
Many of the same principles apply when managing via telework as when managing in the corporate office. Implement these guidelines to make sure your team operates smoothly:
153 • Set up standards. How often should team members report in? Each telework day, or just as projects reach certain stages? As team leader, you need to outline minimum standards for accountability, correspondence and general commitments to a project or telework arrangement.
• Trust others. You – or your company – hired the staff with the full expectation that the workers would be loyal to the organization. That same faith should apply to your team. On your telework days, resist the urge to call or e-mail your in-house staff to find out what they’re up to. The best way to know they’re working is to …
• Manage by performance. Conversely, don’t fret whether your people are “working” when they’re teleworking. When project status reports are held or milestones reach due dates, what they bring in will speak volumes for their performance. This goes for you, too. If you (or the team) aren’t delivering what’s expected, you may need to reiterate your expectations – or revisit your telework arrangement.
• Express yourself. If your team members are good at delivering projects on time but otherwise are difficult to reach via phone or email, they could think their job is done when they hit “Send” on a project. But you’d still like a little more discussion or input. No one knows what irks you unless you speak up. Often, you’ll find the neglect is benign, and team members will be quite responsive if you express your concerns.
• Be trusted yourself. Soldiers follow trusted leaders into battle, and good managers earn the trust of their teams. Slack off and the team will come to expect it from you and slack off, too. Morale will slip, and distrust will grow, even among those outside the team who rely on your group. Earn the respect of your team by displaying your own adherence to the principles you outline: Be productive on telework days, stay in contact, and solicit feedback from team members when they – or you – have questions or concerns. Honesty and performance beget trust.
• Know when to meet. Conference calls, video conferencing, e-mail and the like are ideal for updates, status reports and general schmoozing amongst team members. But know when to call the team together for a meeting. If members appear confused about roles,
154 assignments or deadlines, or internal conflicts arise – or when a new project or significant change to an existing project emerges – it might be the time for some face time.
• Ask. Solicit input from other experienced telemanagers about how they’ve learned their expertise. Head online to learn about the different skills needed for the role of telemanager, especially if you’re new to this assignment. Consult with an experienced manager within your company, a book on telework management or an expert who will spend a day with you on the topic. Resources exist. Tap the input of others who have been there before and grow your own base of knowledge.
TO INCREASE YOUR PRODUCTIVITY, LOOK WITHIN TELEWORK TAKEAWAY Time management when working from home is a learned skill built of habit and good practices. Turn your day into a well-planned event to increase your productivity and efficiency.
Stop and think about what you’re doing – right now.
Sure, you’re reading an article on telework, but does this activity conflict with what your body is telling you to do? Everyone has his or her own unique circadian rhythm – an internal clock that determines when you’re most alert and productive, and when you’re sluggish and easily distracted.
Unencumbered by traditional hours and work schedules, teleworkers often find themselves working to their own natural rhythms. The early risers begin work early. The phone doesn’t ring, the family is asleep, and instant messenger and e-mail are quiet. The night owls find they’re most productive in the evenings, once the 9 to 5 office has gone home.
If you want to increase your productivity, consider “day mapping.” This exercise can help chart productivity peaks and valleys throughout the day. Starting on a Monday, write down what time you got to your desk or workspace. Begin working. Note when you take your first break, or feel the urge to step away for a change of orientation. Then, note the time you return and how much
155 time has passed. Whenever you’re at your desk, note the duration of your work stints. Also jot down whether and when you drive the kids to school, take lunch or exercise.
Do this for a week, along the way tracking when you felt you were at your peak of productivity. The goal is to put together a road map of a day’s flow. This will help you better match your internal fourth gear with the best times to get the most challenging work done. For example, if you’re most productive at certain hours – perhaps 7 a.m. to 9 a.m. or midmorning – put the phone on voicemail, log off IM and start cranking.
Of course, this assumes that particular workstyle matches the needs or expectations of your corporate counterparts. Any action in the home office could cause an equal – and possibly opposite – reaction in the corporate tower. Before you disconnect, contact your coworkers and manager to be certain they won’t need you during that time. Consider turning on your cell phone or pager – and letting them know they can contact you that way if something urgent arises.
If your peak time arrives after hours, you could be setting yourself up for some intrusions. If coworkers – or your manager – start seeing e-mail coming from your office at night and on weekends, they could determine that your office is always open nights and weekends. Your effort to boost output could invite unwanted input from the troops in what would otherwise be personal time – albeit time you occasionally elect to use for work.
If you sense that coworkers and managers have surmised that your longer hours mean you’re more available, sit with those who have taken advantage of your off-peak productivity efforts and discuss why you work the schedule you do. Make clear that your time is your time. Tell them you welcome responses to email – or after-hours calls when they know you’re working or you’ve invited their input.
And remind them if they send an email after hours, you may not get to it until the next business day – even if it starts at 6 a.m.
That’s a schedule everyone can live with.
KEY TELEWORK TACTICS
156 • Try to identify your own natural circadian rhythm and personal work style to strike a balance between the two and plan your day – before it plans you. • “Day-mapping” calls for charting both periods of productivity and lulls – your “peaks and valleys” – to find out what times you’re most efficient or when you naturally slow your work efforts. • After a week, work those periods into your day planning, including how your work or correspond with your coworkers and clients.
EFFECTIVE HOME OFFICING FOR THE HOLIDAYS – OR ANY DAY
TELEWORK TAKEAWAY Home officing for the holidays – or any day you share the home with family – can mean disaster. Planning your holidays at home well in advance can help make the home office a productive place when the house bustles with activity.
Kids home from school. Family visiting from out of town. Even remote workers trying to weave in a little work while visiting relatives elsewhere. The holidays can be one mean season for teleworker productivity.
Some companies forbid employees working from home as a substitute for child or senior care, but during the holidays, vacations or when kids are home sick from school, teleworkers often have few options. How can an otherwise-efficient teleworker find productivity when the house you live in or are visiting teems with chaos?
The answer is to juggle, schedule, stock up and get creative. Here are some ideas to finding time (and a place) to work when the family invades your home office and throws a wrench in your routine.
• Get out of the house. Visit a local business center, executive suite, company branch office, library or Kinko’s. Even if just for a few hours, working in a quiet or more professional setting can help put you back on track.
157 • Time shift. Working early in the morning or at night can help teleworkers find productivity amid a quiet household. Alter your routine to work when kids sleep, nap or are out playing with friends.
• Create an itinerary. Plan some events for your out-of-town guests - and hand over the car keys. Suggestions could include shopping, a museum, a movie or play, or a trip to the park – anything to get the visitors out of the house for a few hours.
• Hit Blockbuster and the craft store. For the kids, keep videotapes, books and coloring books on hand, and schedule some do-it-themselves projects or other activities. Keep plenty of fruit, snacks and juice on hand (because you know they’ll come asking for something to eat). Better yet, make the food and crafts accessible to the kids so they’ll bother you less. Enlist older kids to help with work-related projects. Pay is a good motivator and will help teach kids the meaning of work.
• Employ a mother’s helper. A young teenager can watch the children for a few hours, providing the solitude and concentration an at-home worker needs to be productive.
• Share play dates. Alternate play dates with your children’s friends or other work-at- home professionals. One day, the kids play at your house; the next, the other family hosts them. Even when they’re in your home, the kids will attach to one another, and not the working parent.
• Punt. There will be times that you simply won’t be able to get any work done with the kids around. Pandemonium runs rampant, and you just won’t be able to fake an “office” setting. If this is truly a rare occasion that cannot be avoided, take a break and spend some time with the family. Remember, most of your peers and coworkers in the corporate environment can only wish for such freedom.
Make some of these arrangements well before the holidays. Call the local executive suite or your company’s local branch office to inquire about space. Call the mother’s (or father’s, as the case may be) helper to book some time.
158 If your home office will become the guest bedroom when out-of-towners come, seek an alternative space before their arrival. Even a card table in the master bedroom could suffice in a short-term crunch. Just make sure power outlets and a phone jack are nearby, or your extension cords are long enough.
With all the rush the holidays bring, a family’s intrusion into the workspace doesn’t have to deliver even more chaos. Planning can help make the holidays enjoyable and productive.
KEY TELEWORK TACTICS • Plan in advance. If kids or family will be at home when you’re teleworking, map potential conflicts to ensure they’re covered. • Juggle. Telework means balancing family and work. For these few weeks, working altered hours and shifting schedules can help avoid workflow interruptions. • Seek help. Sitters, a mother’s helper, alternating play dates with other at-home parents or even a spouse can help get the kids’ focus off you during especially difficult times.
BEATING THE HOLIDAY BLUES
TELEWORK TAKEAWAY Home officing can be isolating in the best of times. During the holidays, it can be downright lonely. Plan your holidays so you don’t have time to feel all alone while coworkers in the corporate office are being festive.
Holiday blues? Erin Hughes has no time for that.
Of course, as a three-day-a-week teleworker, she has ample opportunities to feel detached and isolated from the team. While the office is buzzing with holiday plans and tidings, she’s off in her Brandon, Fla., home office 25 miles from the corporate offices of AEGON Equity Group in St. Petersburg. None of Hughes’ coworkers lives close enough to meet and spread the good cheer.
A part-time event planner, Hughes works on the company’s Corporate Fun Committee, planning holiday parties and the annual family picnic; plans events; and handles scheduling for the Tampa Bay Ice Palace, as well as seasonal events for her mother’s church.
159
“I don’t have time to be lonely,” she says.
The holidays can be a quiet time for teleworkers. Although AEGON shuts its doors only on Christmas and New Year’s days, many firms it works with close for the full week in between. For teleworkers – a group often known for working long hours – the loss of peer contact can be unsettling.
How can you battle the isolation of the holiday quiet – or any time when coworkers are away and the phone stops ringing and e-mail stops coming? Here are a few pointers:
• Create a buzz. Every day she teleworks, Hughes plays music or has the TV on in the background. The buzz approximates the noise level of the corporate office.
• Head in. Assuming the office is a drive away, the easiest way to combat holiday blues is to visit the office. Hughes heads in often this time of year, even if for only half a day.
• Head out during lunch. Shopping, lunch with friends or your spouse or partner, or just a walk around the neighborhood, getting out of the house “so you see anything other than your computer,” as Hughes says, can help stimulate the mind and break the monotony of the home office.
• Volunteer. Whether it’s for your house of worship, a local charity, a soup kitchen or other needy cause, giving time gets you out of the home office and into the company of others. See what the company is supporting this season, or find a deserving charity on your own.
• Take time off. While Hughes doesn’t do this, what better time to get away than during downtime, like a lull in phone calls or in-bound e-mail? Teleworkers typically work longer hours than their in-office peers, especially beyond the traditional business day. So a few hours spent outside the office can help the teleworker benefit from the quiet time.
Time spent with friends also helps Cheryl Waybright, a manager and teleworker with BellSouth in Atlanta, get through the holiday lull. Luncheons and dates dot her December calendar.
160
But, truth be told, Waybright capitalizes on the quiet time when phones, e-mail and pager go quiet, adding, “It’s when I can get all the stuff done when nobody else is working and bugging me.”
KEY TELEWORK TACTICS • Get into the spirit. Volunteer, head into the office, play holiday music, take time off. Do what it takes to get into the mood of the holidays. • Be sociable. Attend holiday parties, have lunch with fellow workers, or participate in social events with a business networking or civic group. • Catch up. Do some light work. Send some email. Staying busy is a great way to avoid the blues.
RESOLVING TO PLAN AND PERFORM BETTER NEXT YEAR
TELEWORK TAKEAWAY Looking back over the last 12 months, how were you as a teleworker? Could you have done some things better to improve your efforts, the team’s experience or the client’s results? Even if last year was the model of success, improving the program next year can ensure the program’s future in the enterprise.
“I like deadlines,” cartoonist Scott Adams once quipped. “I especially like the whooshing sound they make as they fly by.”
As you look back on your previous year of telework, take some time to consider whether it was a year rife with the rush of deadlines – and your seeming inability to stay ahead of the crunch. Was it a fast year, or did a lack of effective planning make project deadlines seem to stack up?
Did your planning (or lack thereof) make you an asset to your team, or did you frequently call the office on your telework days to beg someone to fetch a file, fax you a document, or otherwise
161 handle something you should have handled the day before – when you were in the office? Did your coworkers come to dread your telework days?
Now, pause for a moment and think about next year. How can you become a better planner and a more effective worker? Often the answers are easy – better planning, organizing and information sharing between yourself and team members about your plans for your telework day. They just take time to implement.
“These problems can’t be fixed with quick solutions,” says Peggy Duncan, an Atlanta-based efficiency consultant and author of Put Time Management to Work ($13.95, PSC Press). Duncan has consulted with teleworkers hoping to improve their at-home workstyle.
“They have to eliminate useless work with process mapping and getting organized to be truly efficient for the long haul,” she says. “People must do this regardless of the work situation.”
What better time than December to resolve to make your telework days exemplars of efficiency? Here are some ways to improve your workstyle in 2002:
• Plan your day out of the office. If your admin or teammates are back in the office – and fearing that call from you seeking a document you left behind – plan your telework day. List the projects or items you will be working on from home. Include on the sheet your contact information (email address, home and cell phone numbers). Then make a copy: One to keep, and one to post on your office. Then ...
• Map your day. Day-mapping calls for tracking the highest, most effective use of your day to make sure you squeeze the most out of it. Get out a pen and paper, and for the next few days write down how you are using your time. How much is being spent on chores or tasks that beef up your bottom line? What are your productivity peaks and valleys? When are you most productive, and what conditions cause that? If you see a pattern – for example, you peak before noon, but you lose productivity after lunch – schedule your day to capitalize on those patterns.
• Prioritize your day. Utah-based time planning organization Franklin Covey speaks of pebbles and rocks in a stream. Rocks are the big projects you have to get done, and
162 pebbles are the little details unrelated to the projects that invariably pop up along the way. Rocks are addressed deliberately – with the phone turned to DND, IM shut off or email alerts silenced – so you can complete them.
• Perform your task. Once you’ve planned, mapped and prioritized, then stick to your assessment. Because your coworkers know what projects you will be emphasizing while away, they shouldn’t be surprised when you refuse to squeeze in more work for them – leaving you to scramble to meet your deadlines, or worse, to possibly beg an extension.
With these strategies in place, you’ll be better prepared next year – or just in the future - to make the most of your time spent working from home.
TODAY’S TELEWORKER, TOMORROW’S ENTREPRENEUR?
And what about tomorrow? Is today’s teleworker tomorrow’s entrepreneur?
Teleworkers and entrepreneurs aren’t all that dissimilar, and the leap from home-based employee to home-based entrepreneur isn’t all that great. Whether they're entrepreneurs, teleworkers (employees allowed to work from home for a boss elsewhere), or even heads of households handling family finances from a corner desk, home officers are a highly individualistic and entrepreneurial-minded segment.
About 33% of U.S. households support some home-working activities, according to 2002 statistics from IDC, a research consultancy in Framingham, Mass. The U.S. currently has some 34.3 million home offices, up slightly from 34.1 million in 2001 and 33.9 million in 2000, IDC reports. Of those, income generating home offices account for less than half, or about 14.3 million, with 9.6 million of those being full-time, home-based businesses, IDC notes.
The average age of today's home-based worker is between 39 to 43 years, with slightly more than half the group being men. The average household income is $57,000. Some 28% of boomers have home offices, notes a 2000 Yankelovich Monitor report.
163 Whatever the audience – teleworker or entrepreneur, the psychological drivers are important. According to a 1998 study by Ernst & Young, entrepreneurs – including home business owners – identified themselves by such qualities as:
· Individuality. The desire to work for themselves. · Awareness. The knowledge they can do their jobs from home. · Confidence. To leave current job and launch a business on their own. · Freedom. To explore self and family - without corporate obligations or interference. · Understanding. From family, co-workers, clients and peers that they are business people - not hobbyists.
Though home-based workers are decidedly Baby Boomers, two emerging demographic groups have their distinctive expectations of today's workplace. While boomers (those born between 1946 and 1964) felt liberated to be able to work outside the corporate office or from home, Generation X'ers (born from '65 through the mid-1970s) are increasingly individualistic. They enter job interviews with the expectation of flexible work arrangements and telework.
The next wave, Generation Ys or Millennials, are Americans aged from 18 to 24. They also are prepared to work from home. Some 19% of Americans 21-35 years old have a home office, according to Yankelovich. Their upbringing is a key part of their ability to work remotely or from home. Reared on the PC and such community-building tools as the Internet, Instant Messenger and "buddy lists," Millennials raised in dual-income families abhor their parents' work-related stress and seek to better integrate professional and personal lives, according to William Strauss, co-author of the book Millennials Rising (www.millennialsrising.com, Vintage Books, 2000).
Optimism runs high among today's home officers. In spring 2001, when the economic was well into a slide, upward of 40% of entrepreneurs surveyed noted their businesses were performing well.
"The entrepreneurial spirit is stronger than ever," notes Ray Boggs, IDC's vice president of home office research. "From an attitude standpoint, they have this pervasive attitude of optimism. It's not a just a 'let's make money kind of thing.' These folks have a mission, and that's what carries them."
164 Listen closely, and you might find that sounds like the voice of a telework talking, too.
165 APPENDIX A
TELEWORKER APTITUDE TEST Working alone as a teleworker takes discipline, motivation – and the support and respect of others.
Take this Teleworker Aptitude Test to see how you would rank as a teleworker. Fill in each box with a 1 to 5 ranking (five meaning you strongly agree with the statement, 1 meaning you strongly disagree). The higher your score, the more likely teleworking can work for you.
This test also can be applied to the prospective home-base entrepreneur.
I can work alone, without direct supervision or peer input and contact? I don’t need the daily social interaction and water cooler chat of the office? I am a self-starter, motivated enough to begin and complete projects with minimum guidance. I can communicate well via phone, fax and email. I can stay connected enough with peers and managers so I won’t “fall out of the loop,” losing plum assignments or career advancement opportunities. I can garner the respect from coworkers and managers regarding my alternative work arrangement? I can reasonably purchase and use at home the technology common to the corporate office, including voicemail, broadband Internet connectivity and other communications services required to run an office. I have the technology (or me or my employer are willing to fund the purchase or lease of such hardware), including a laptop or desktop PC, to perform my work assignments from a home or remote office. I believe I can collect needed reference tools to keep in the home office, or rely on staff to provide support you may require (forwarding calls, messages or internal communications; faxing information to me; or helping out with other needs) on my teleworking days. I can create a dedicated office area and foster enough solitude or quiet in my home to operate a professional home office.
166 I can foster respect from the family to accept that I am working on my teleworking days. I will not use the teleworking opportunity as an alternative to day care for young children or dependent elders. I feel confident that I can produce results enough to make teleworking and alternative work arrangements a positive experience at my company.
Scoring. • 51-60 – Ideal Teleworking Candidate. Depending on whether your organization welcomes alternative work arrangements, you could perform well as a teleworker. • 41-50 – Moderate Teleworking Candidate. Your success could be hindered by limiting factors, ranging from personal, peer or manager acceptance of an alternative work arrangement. Seriously consider a limited pilot program to gauge your – and others’ – reaction to teleworking or flexible work programs. • 31-40 – Poor teleworking candidate. Limited performance and poor acceptance of an alternative work arrangement could lead to failure, which could ultimately reflect poorly on your position in the organization. If you are still enthusiastic about a teleworking program, propose one day a month as a trial, and set quantifiable standards and goals to be met. • 30 or lower. You likely would find success elusive in a teleworking program. Factors vary, ranging from limited corporate cultural acceptance to your own inability to get past the psychological pitfalls of working outside the corporate setting. Rethink your goals, wait for the culture to change (if that’s the primary inhibiting factor), and consider addressing the issue a few months down the road.
167 APPENDIX B
WEB SITES www.goinsoho.com / www.chiefhomeofficer.com The site of author Jeff Zbar, offering tips, news, articles and insights on working from home for both teleworkers and entrepreneurs. www.nwfusion.com/net.worker “Tying the teleworker to the enterprise,” Network World magazine’s online telework Web zine offers articles and commentary on the latest telework technology, programs and practices. www.telecommute.org The site of the International Telework Association & Council, designed to drive the growth and success of work independent of location, and promote the economic, social and environmental benefits of telework. www.teleworkcolorado.org A public-private partnership offering free technical assistance to employers setting up a telecommuting program. www.telecommutect.com A Connecticut statewide initiative providing employers with the design, development and implementation of telecommuting as a worksite alternative. www.att.com/telework A pioneer in telework, AT&T’s Telework Webguide offers information on people, news and views related to remote officing. www.telework.gov The joint General Services Administration / Office of Personnel Management Web site on telework and telecommuting. www.gilgordon.com
168 The consolidates a wide variety of information from around the world, and from many different perspectives, on the subjects of telecommuting, teleworking, the virtual office, and related topics. www.ecommute-nepi.org/washington.html The eCommute program is administered jointly by the National Environmental Policy Institute (NEPI) and the Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments (COG) for employers and employees in the greater Washington, D.C., area. www.tipsfortelecommuters.com
The site of Allearnatives, this site focuses on telework, geographically dispersed teams, and work-life issues. www.ivc.ca This site is shared by InnoVisions Canada (IVC), a telework and flex-work consultancy, and the Canadian Telework Association (CTA), a non-profit association dedicated to promoting telework. www.youcanworkfromanywhere.com Info, tips, tools, articles, newsletters, workshops, ideas and other resources to help improve the productivity of telecommuters, mobile workers, road warriors, executives, entrepreneurs and home-based workers. www.sangabriel.com/telecommuting.htm A list of interesting information regarding the concepts, experiences and future of Telecommuting www.joannepratt.com/tips.htm The site of a virtual company that helps both public and private organizations implement telework. www.jala.com The site of JALA International, Inc., founded by Jack Nilles, heralded as the creator of telecommuting in 1973.
169 www.esuite.com A resource for free detailed information on office space, office business centers, executive suites, short-term office space, virtual offices and shared offices. www.execsuites.org The site of the Office Business Center Association International. www.officequest.com Helps users find workspaces in a number of markets.
170 APPENDIX C Sample Agreement No. 1 Between Company and Employee Approved for Telework on a Continuing Basis
The supervisor and the employee must each keep a copy of the Agreement for reference.
Voluntary Participation Employee voluntarily agrees to work at the Company-approved alternative workplace indicated below and to follow all applicable Company policies and procedures. Employee recognizes that the telework arrangement is not an employee entitlement but an additional method the Company may approve to accomplish work.
Trial Period Employee and Company agree to try out the arrangement for at least (specify number) months unless unforeseeable difficulties require earlier cancellation.
Salary and Benefits Company agrees that a telework arrangement is not a basis for changing the employee's salary or benefits.
Office-Based Workplace and Alternative Workplace Company and employee agree that the employee's official office-based workplace is (indicate office-based workplace location for regular office) and that the employee's approved alternative workplace is: (specify street and number, city, and state, and whether this location is the employee’s residence, a telework center or another form of alternative work site).
Note: All pay, leave, and travel entitlement are based on the official office-based workplace parameters.
Official Duties Unless otherwise instructed, employee agrees to perform official duties only at the regular office or Company-approved alternative workplace. Employee agrees not to conduct personal business while in official duty status at the alternative workplace, for example, caring for dependents or making home repairs.
Work Schedule and Hours of Attendance Company and employee agree the employee's official workplace location(s) will be: (specify days, hours, and location, i.e., the regular office or the alternative workplace. For flexible work schedules, specify core hours and the limits within which flexible hours may be worked).
Time and Attendance Company agrees to make sure the telework employee's timekeeper has a copy of the employee's work schedule. The supervisor agrees to certify biweekly the time and attendance for hours
171 worked at the regular office and the alternative workplace. (Note: Company may require employee to complete self-certification form.)
Leave Employee agrees to follow established office procedures for requesting and obtaining approval of leave.
Overtime Employee agrees to work overtime only when ordered and approved by the supervisor in advance and understands that overtime work without such approval is not compensated and may result in termination of the telework privilege and/or other appropriate action.
Equipment/Supplies Employee agrees to protect any Company-owned equipment and to use the equipment only for official purposes. The Company agrees to install, service, and maintain any Company-owned equipment issued to the telework employee. The employee agrees to install, service, and maintain any personal equipment used. The Company agrees to provide the employee with all necessary office supplies and also reimburse the employee for business-related long distance telephone calls.
Security If the Company provides computer equipment for, or the employee is accessing or handling sensitive or proprietary Company or client digital or paper documents, information, data or files in the alternative workplace, employee agrees to the following security provisions: (insert Company-specific language; see page # of this book for additional details).
Liability The employee understands that the Company will not be liable for damages to an employee's personal or real property while the employee is working at the approved alternative workplace.
Work Area The employee agrees to provide a work area adequate for performance of official duties.
Worksite Inspection The employee agrees to permit the Company to inspect the alternative workplace during the employee's normal working hours to ensure proper maintenance of Company-owned property and conformance with safety standards. The company may also require employees to complete a self- certification safety checklist.
Alternative Workplace Costs The employee understands that the Company will not be responsible for any operating costs that are associated with the employee using his or her home as an alternative worksite, for example, home maintenance, insurance, or utilities. The employee understands he or she does not relinquish any entitlement to reimbursement for authorized expenses incurred while conducting business for the Company, as provided for by statute and regulations.
Injury Compensation Employee understands he or she is covered under the Federal Employee's Compensation Act if injured in the course of actually performing official duties at the regular office or the alternative office-based workplace. The employee agrees to notify the supervisor immediately of any
172 accident or injury that occurs at the alternative workplace and to complete any required forms. The supervisor agrees to investigate such a report immediately.
Work Assignments/Performance Employee agrees to complete all assigned work according to procedures mutually agreed upon by the employee and the supervisor and according to guidelines and standards in the employee per- formance plan. The employee agrees to provide regular reports if required by the supervisor to help judge performance. The employee understands that a decline in performance may be grounds for canceling the alternative workplace arrangement.
Disclosure Employee agrees to protect Company/Company records from unauthorized disclosure or damage and will comply with requirements of the Privacy Act of 1974, 5 U.S.C. 552a.
Standards of Conduct Employee agrees he or she is bound by Company standards of conduct while working at the alternative worksite.
Cancellation Company agrees to let the employee resume his or her regular schedule at the regular office after notice to the supervisor. Employee understands that the Company may cancel the telework arrangement and instruct the employee to resume working at the regular office. The Company agrees to follow any applicable administrative or negotiated procedures.
Other Action Nothing in this agreement precludes the Company from taking any appropriate disciplinary or adverse action against an employee who fails to comply with the provisions of this agreement.
Employee's Signature and Date: ______
Supervisor's Signature and Date: ______
173
Sample Agreement No. 2 Between Company and Employee Approved for Telework on a Continuing Basis
This agreement between the Company and ("Employee" – an employee of the Company), is effective as of ______. Company agrees to permit Employee to work at home and Employee agrees to work at home under the following terms and conditions. Except for those additional conditions expressly imposed on Employee under this Agreement, the conditions of Employee's employment with the Company remain unchanged.
This document does not constitute a contract of employment, either express or implied. At the Company, there is no fixed duration to the employment relationship. Employees can terminate their employment whenever they wish and for whatever reason they might have, just as the Company may terminate an employee at any time for any lawful reason. This is known as "employment-at-will."
Employee expressly acknowledges that he/she cannot rely on, or take actions in reliance upon, any particular duration of the permission to work at home. I have read the following documents and agree to follow the policies and procedures outlined in them:
Company Telework Policy and related documents Company Code of Conduct, employee handbook Company security instructions
The location from which I will telework is (give full address): Street Address: ______City: ______State: ______Zip: ______
My work area at the above location will be as follows (describe room):
In establishing the home work area, I have determined that all common safety practices have been followed, and that this area provides a safe work environment for myself and others who may enter it.
My telework schedule on a weekly basis will be as follows (circle the appropriate location and note work hours):
Monday: Home office Company office Work Hours:
174 Tuesday: Home office Company office Work Hours: Wednesday: Home office Company office Work Hours: Thursday: Home office Company office Work Hours: Friday: Home office Company office Work Hours: Saturday: Home office Company office Work Hours: Sunday: Home office Company office Work Hours:
If not scheduled on a weekly basis, describe the telework schedule:
During scheduled telework times, I can be reached at ______and, if applicable at ______(enter primary and secondary phone numbers).
I agree to obtain my telephone messages at least (circle one). Daily Hourly Three times a day Six times a day Morning and afternoon on each scheduled workday while teleworking.
Work assignments upon which I will work and outputs which I will produce while teleworking are:
The Company will provide the following equipment for my telework arrangement:
In addition to those listed in the Company telework policy, reimbursable expenses include:
If this Agreement is part of a telework trial or if the supervisor has agreed to this telework agreement for a predetermined period of time, the termination date of this Agreement is no later than ______.
Notwithstanding the following, this Telework Agreement may be terminated at any time by the supervisor by providing the employee notice in person or in a telephone conversation, followed by written confirmation.
Print this page and sign it. Supervisor should file the original, and employee should keep a copy.
Employee's Name and Signature: ______Employee's Title: ______Date: ______
Supervisor's Name and Signature: ______Supervisor's Title: ______Date: ______
Reprinted With Permission of AT&T. All Rights Reserved.
175
Author Note:
These sample telework agreements are for information and guidance only. They do not necessarily comply with local, state or federal law with regard to any specific company or its legal employer-related responsibilities or obligations. When instituting a telework program within your company, organization or department for the first time, check with your corporate counsel to ensure that any policy the company adopts complies with:
• Labor or other contracts to which your company may be a party; • The laws of the state in which the teleworker and / or company is located; and • Changes in federal laws or regulations.
176
Appendix E Sample Telework Contact Form For Completion by Teleworker / Remote Worker and Distribution to All Appropriate Company, Coworker & Client Contacts
TELEWORKER NAME: ______DEPARTMENT: ______
IN-OFFICE / TELEWORK DAYS & HOURS: MONDAY: TELEWORK ______IN-OFFICE ______LUNCH HOUR: ______TUESDAY: TELEWORK ______IN-OFFICE ______LUNCH HOUR: ______WEDNESDAY: TELEWORK ______IN-OFFICE ______LUNCH HOUR: ______THURSDAY: TELEWORK ______IN-OFFICE ______LUNCH HOUR: ______FRIDAY: TELEWORK ______IN-OFFICE ______LUNCH HOUR: ______
CONTACT INFORMATION: IN-OFFICE PHONE NUMBER: ______REMOTE OFFICE PHONE NUMBER: ______WIRELESS PHONE: ______E-MAIL: ______IM: ______
BUDDY / TEAM MEMBER INFORMATION: BUDDY / COWORKER NAME(S): ______BUDDY PHONE NUMBER: ______BUDDY E-MAIL: ______
LAST UPDATED: ______
177 178 Index Backlash (avoidance of) Back-Up (see “Data Protection”) Broadband (DSL, cable modem, satellite) Disruptions of service Weather Back-up plans Burn-out Business center Camaraderie Children / childproofing (see Family) Communications (personal, habits) Communications (tools) Crises / Disaster Prevention Recovery Data Protection Day Mapping (see ‘time management’) Demographics Design Electronic Mail Ergonomics Etiquette Expenses Costs Deductions Failure (signs of) Family Children Holidays School vacations Furniture (furnishing) Guilt Hotel (-ing)
179 Illness (see Sick days) Information Technology (IT) Management Help desk Insurance Instant messaging Internal Revenue Service (IRS) Isolation During holidays Working remotely Kids (See family) Layoffs (Telework amid…) Management Profiles Self
Motivation Moving / relocating Natural Disaster (see crises) OSHA (Occupational Safety & Health Administration - Rules) Pets Pilot (-ing) Putzier (John) Remote Officing Worker Road warriors Schedule (-ing) Security / Safety Laptop Theft (avoiding) Selection Of teleworkers Of space Of technology
180 Set-up Sharing space Sick days Space selection
Taxes / deductions Recapture Red Flag Team building Strategies Fun Telecommuting Telework Telework Center(s) Terrorist attacks (September 11 impact on telework) Time management Tracking (tracking sheets) Training Teleworker Manager Travel (strategies)
Vacations
Virtual office (-ing) company management
181 About the Author… Jeff Zbar, the "ChiefHomeOfficer.com," has worked as a home-based journalist, author and small business advocate since the 1980s. In early 2001, he was named the U.S. Small Business Administration’s 2001 Small Business Journalist of the Year.
As a writer, author, speaker and consultant, Jeff’s specialties include work-at-home, teleworking, alternative officing and small business marketing, technology, security, communications and motivation. His think tank and consultancy, Goin' SOHO! (for “small or home office”), works with corporations hoping to target the emerging home office and teleworking markets, and individuals and employees hoping to enter or excel in the home-business, small business and teleworking arena.
Jeff writes for more than a dozen national publications, and is or has served as a contributing editor to Home Office Computing, Entrepreneur’s Home Office, and Writer's Digest. His credits include “Home Base,” the teleworking advice column on Network World's Net.Worker Web site, and the weekly marketing columnist and recurring small business feature article and technology column for the South Florida Sun-Sentinel. His columns also have been featured on Onvia.com (SOHO Corner Office) and FreeAgent.com (Go SOHO!).
Jeff’s published books include Safe @ Home: Seven Keys to Home Office Security (FirstPublish, 2001), Home Office Success Stories (Goin' SOHO!, 1997), Home Office Know-How (Upstart, 1998), and Your Profitable Home Business Made E-Z (on CD-ROM, from Made E-Z Products Inc., 2000), which was named the 2001 Editor’s Choice Business Software Tool by ComputerTimes.com. He also is the author of the forthcoming book, SOHO Psychology: Mastering the Mindset of Working from Home (spring 2003). Jeff publishes Home Office Success Stories, a free monthly ezine on working from home and teleworking (www.goinsoho.com/successstory.cfm).
Corporations hoping to understand and target the home office worker and small business owner frequently tap Jeff’s knowledge and media experience. His marketing and promotional efforts have included marketing message development and national speaking and / or satellite media tours for Office Depot Inc., BellSouth Inc., Sony Corp., Lexmark, Logitech, Brother, Broderbund, Hunter Douglas, and a successful national home outreach for office contest for Verizon Wireless and Sprint Corporation. Comfortable in front of the microphone, camera or a live audience, Jeff
182 has extensive presentation and television experience. He has served as a recurring home office expert guest for WFOR/Channel 4, the CBS affiliate in the Miami-Fort Lauderdale market, and he appears regularly on Entrepreneur’s Tour of America with Richard Tavener and Jim Blasingame’s Small Business Advocate nationally syndicated radio shows. Jeff frequently lectures for organizations serving the home office segment.
Jeff works and lives in suburban Fort Lauderdale with his wife, their three young children, and Riley, his canine administrative assistant.
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Get Teleworking Today! Strategies for Telecommuters, Remote Workers, Their Managers & Their Families…
… makes an excellent gift, informational / instructional resource, corporate incentive, product sales enhancement, and value-added merchandising and promotional tool for: • Marketers of small or home office products and services • Retailers selling small business technology or supplies • Companies launching new or improving existing corporate telework programs • Friends of home officers and teleworkers
Contact Jeff Zbar directly to discuss bulk paperback orders of Get Teleworking Today.
Jeff Zbar also is a veteran lecturer, and is available for presentations, seminars, and keynote addresses on a wide range of small or home office (SOHO) issues, including telework best practices, motivation, safety and security, marketing, business strategy, organizational development, home office / small business psychology, and professional / personal balance issues.
For additional news, trends and information on small or home office (SOHO), telework and alternative officing, visit: www.chiefhomeofficer.com . To contribute tips and ideas for future versions of Telework Tactics, send your thoughts to [email protected]
Jeff Zbar ~ The Chief Home Officer.com Home Office: 954-346-4393 Email: [email protected] Web site: www.chiefhomeofficer.com P.O. Box 8263 Coral Springs, FL 33075-8263
ALL CONTENTS © 2005-2008 JEFFERY D. ZBAR INC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
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