The Telecommuter Manifesto

Many of us take vacations to get away from work, but as a telecommuter you may choose to take your work with you on some types of vacations.  This tends to work best on vacations where you are visiting someone, rather than going to a remote location where you don’t know anyone.

When I was an office worker and wanted to visit family in another state, I would use vacation time to do so.  As a telecommuter, I can take the same trip (or longer), without such a restriction. As long as I bring my laptop and cell phone and have access to a high speed internet connection, I am equally capable of doing my job from away as I am from home.  It may not be as good as having all day and night to visit with family, but working during the day and spending time in the evening and weekends is a lot better than simply talking to them over the phone.  Should I choose to go for a month or more, that’s fine too.  Since I’m simply moving my base of operations, I don’t need to take any time off at all.  Telecommuting basically gives me the flexibility to “live” in different locations throughout the year.  With the ability to take longer trips, spending every waking minute with those I’m visiting is much less a priority.

Using this technique you can reduce, or eliminate your need to use vacation time.  That means you can either take working vacations more often, or that you’ll have more time available to take a true vacation where you leave work completely behind.  By living at your destination, there’s little reason to limit the length of a visit as long as you don’t outstay your welcome.

Much of a typical workday is spent waiting. The waits are often short, so we hardly even notice them.  Individually, they seem inconsequential, but collectively they amount to significant waste that can be eliminated.

An example of this type of wait is when you show up for a meeting before the entire team arrives.  You end up zoning out or engaging in idle chit chat while you wait for the work to begin.  Again at the end of the meeting you might wait for someone to finish a personal story before leaving.  Even the walk to and from the meeting is technically wasted, since you are not getting work done.  While such short waits are inevitable in the office, the telecommuter can exploit those times for gains in productivity.

What you do with this recovered downtime depends on your work situation.  You maybe inclined to focus on work tasks, or do a small personal task, if such an activity is appropriate.  Either way, you save yourself from having to do that particular task later.  You might not think that you can get much done in a few minutes, but you certainly can.  You may even choose to keep a queue of short tasks at your desk to quickly complete during downtime.

As you get better at exploiting downtime, you’ll notice two things:  First, you’ll be able to identify even more downtime more quickly.  Second, you’ll be amazed how much more work you are able to get done in a day or how much less time it takes to do a full day’s worth of work.  Taking back your downtime, even if only a minute or two at a time, really adds up over the course of an entire work day.

One of the bizarre aspects of telecommuting is that you may go a long time (or forever) without ever meeting your coworkers face to face. Even if you regularly use video conferencing software, a physical meeting is an entirely different experience. When the opportunity to meet your coworkers presents itself, you may even be hesitant to disturb your working dynamic. You may feel that a great showing could inspire management to ask to see you in the office more or a poor one will leave them wondering why you work there at all.

As a virtual coworker, you and your colleagues have probably formed opinions of one another. A physical meeting stands to challenge some of those beliefs and may even allow new biases to form. Will you seem as smart in person? Will you get along? Will you jeopardize your successful relationships? You must remember that these fears are probably shared with your coworkers as well, since they’ll be meeting you for the first time too. The big difference for you is that you are out of your element. Being well prepared for your first meeting should help it to go much more smoothly.

To make the most of your first face to face meeting follow these tips:

Keep it Short
If your main goal is to put faces to names, there isn’t much need for a long drawn out meeting. Obviously you’re not going to just drop by for 5 minutes (especially if you traveled a great distance) but keeping the meeting as short as possible will help to reduce any awkwardness.

Focus on Key Relationships
Your manager might want to drag you around the office to meet everyone who’s ever heard of you, by try to limit your exposure. More time with the people who matter most is much better than casual encounters with the entire staff. You probably won’t be able to remember too many faces, so focusing on key relationships will help the important ones to stick.

Adequately Prepare
Without your computer, files, etc that are normally at your disposal, you may appear under prepared.  So allow for some extra preparation time before an on-site meeting. If it’s been a while since you presented in front of a crowd, a dry run (e.g. with your family) before you leave may be prudent.

You Don’t Have to Prove Your Worth
Your value to your company or client won’t be judged solely on your one day in the office. This isn’t a job interview, so don’t press too hard to make a good impression in limited time. If you’re a good worker, your reputation should precede you.

Mind Your Behavior
The behavior that you’re used to when interacting virtually with your coworkers may not translate well to in-person meetings. So even if you have a keen understanding of a particular coworker’s sense of humor, that won’t necessarily mean that they’ll appreciate the normal level of joking. This may be a non-issue, but keep things casual until you get a better read of office culture.

Re-Establish Traditional Contact After the Fact
One of the most important steps in meeting coworkers for the first time is to re-establish your traditional contact method after the visit. If you normally communicate by email, IM, phone, or video conference, follow-up your visit by making contact using that method. This will restore your normal relationship and leave your visit as a brief (but important) anomaly.

They say you never get a second chance to make a first impression, but for telecommuters that isn’t entirely true. You, the telecommuter and you, the office visitor, each have a chance to make a first impression. Making both a great virtual and in-person impression will allow your stock to soar.