TeamApart Blog

When compared to just 20 years ago, communication in the modern office is incredible. Technological advancements have dramatically increased our ability to immediately connect to partners, customers, and teammates. Email, IM, smart phones and the like let you stay in-the-know and work from just about anywhere. And yet, despite these advances, our work schedules often remain firmly rooted in the industrial age, where our output is measured in terms of hours spent at the office, not results.

Businesses are beginning to turn around, however. A rising coalition of telecommuters have been slowly chipping away at the standard 9:00 to 5:00. According to a study by World at Work, the number of people telecommuting at least once a month has risen by 74% since 2005, as a result of better connectivity, economic factors and the increasing acceptance of telecommuting by employers.

There are plenty of benefits to working remotely. For many, the reduction in commute time translates into more time to get things done, both for work and around the house. Stress levels are reduced and less interruptions results in increased productivity.  Working from home even benefits others; there’s one less traveler on the roads, and offices save on energy as well. Imagine if everyone was required to work from home one day a week: one-fifth of the morning traffic would be wiped out instantly!

I’ve had the luxury of telecommuting in some form or another at almost every job I’ve held since college, thanks to a few simple strategies. If you have responsibilities you could accomplish from home, and have wanted to try but don’t know how to take the leap, here’s a few things that got me teleworking over the years:

Negotiate Before You’re Hired
Always try to negotiate telecommuting at least a day a week before you are hired. This is the best way to ensure you’ll get a few days a month with no morning commute. The first step is to ask if the position you’re applying for is open to telecommuting. You might get a “no” or a “we’d prefer if you work from the office”. Don’t stop there! Follow up with something like “I really prefer to spend a day at week at home; is there anything additional I can do to help make this an option?”. Often, the opportunity will present itself with just a little extra effort.

If all else fails, consider suggesting a pay cut in return for the option to telecommute. Crazy as it sounds, you’ll thank yourself in the long run. The quality of life boost you get from telecommuting is much more apparent throughout your daily life than the extra money.

One important point: If you do get hired with an agreement to work at home certain days, try to be sure that there is some language in your final offer that details this agreement.

If you didn’t negotiate when you were getting hired, you have to do it the hard way - convincing your boss that the change is a worthwhile one!

Start a Trial
Changing your work schedule can be a tough thing to approach. Pick a time after you’ve been extra productive, such as when you’ve finished a big project or document, to soften the negotiations a bit.

Tell your boss that you’d like to propose a trial period, working one day a week at home for a month. Explain the reasons you’d prefer to telecommute, and make them legitimate ones, like working extra instead of commuting, or getting time alone to finish something without distractions (not because you want to take conference calls in your PJs). Explain how you plan to stay in touch and work efficiently. Suggest that you’ll send a status update email at lunch and at the end of the day each time you’re telecommuting. Follow these points up with a bit of reassurance: “Let’s try it out and reevaluate in two weeks. If you aren’t satisfied, we can stop then.”

If nobody in your office telecommutes, you’ll probably hear something like: “well, nobody else works from home, if I let you then I have to start letting all of them.” Be cool. The proper way to respond is to relieve your boss of the pressure; Explain that you’ll inform everyone that you’ll start working at home for personal reasons, and that you’ll be careful to not flaunt the privilege to other workers.

Be Available!
Trial period or not, when you work from home you need to be on your game. Your response time and productivity should be top notch. Make sure each email or IM is clear; miscommunications can be used as ammo against you.  Be proactive about responding to all emails that require your attention, even after work hours.  Your performance at home will determine your ability to continue telecommuting!

Finalize It
Assuming all goes well for a few weeks, you’ll be ready to ask for the indefinite extension. Schedule a time to sit down with the boss and lay out the facts; you were (hopefully) productive and communicative while at home, you accomplished as much as you would in the office, and you feel more satisfied with your work, your life, and the balance between the two.

With any luck you’ll find that you’ve joined the work-at-home workforce. You’ll be enjoying days with no commute, less office distractions, and you might even be surprised to find that you get more work done too!

Oh, and feel free to use MeetCast when you telecommute. We want to make working with your team while you’re remote feel like you’re working with them in the same conference room. If it doesn’t, tell us why!

More info (or, negotiation ammo) - http://www.workingfromanywhere.org/