RE: Down the Rabbit Hole...(telecommuting)

[Chris Despopoulos <cud -at- arrakis -dot- es>]

I am also a dedicated telecommuter.  So far, I have managed
to work almost exclusively at home, with few site visits.
Of course, I'm contracting, so that makes it a little
different.  I have two contract rates...  If the job is long
enough and warrants it, I charge a higher rate which
includes two weeks onsite each quarter.  My belief is that
the site visits will not trouble my family.  However for the
only two-week visit I have made, I brought my family
(EXPENSIVE!!!)...  We're Americans, and the visit was in
America, so we tacked on requisite family visits, etc.  All
other visits have been one week or less.  Yes, my wife
carries an extra load for those.  Our children are young; as
the children get older, things should be easier.

Be prepared to work long days on your visits.  You will find
yourself socializing during normal work hours...  Meetings
or just plain old getting-to-know-you sessions.  Then you
will have to produce real work, won't you?  That will be
after everybody else has gone home.  Also be ready for
network problems.  It will be a miracle (in my experience)
if you can log on, print, and do useful work within a
two-day visit.  And have a powerful laptop with an ethernet
card.  Of course, the visits will be more productive if you
are well prepared.  That should go without saying.

For my one long visit, what surprised me was that I didn't
wind up doing anything either my manager or I thought I
would do.  I was supposed to do plenty of writing, and a
good amount of learning.  Instead, I wound up working on the
processes to realease the online docs with the rest of the
product.  And I wound up doing some general teaching about
the product.  But then, I came in as the expert...  You are
coming into a new situation and you will probably be
learning.  I would offer to spend a week or two on site when
you first start the job.

I personally have had little trouble communicating with
engineers and others in the company.  Communication is
almost exclusively via email, with phone calls when the
schedule is getting tight.  But I'm a contractor.  When
comapnies hire freelancers, they are usually motivated to
get the docs out the door.

Actually, when we started on this adventure my wife and I
had doubts that it would work.  So the big surprise is that
we're still here.  Also, as a contractor, I have only found
one client "cold"...  All my other clients have come from
previous contacts.  In fact, the cold client came from a
recommendation.  So another surprise was that the world
seems to resist online job hunting more than I though.  But
as more and more people telecommute, I believe that will
change.

Hope this helps                      cud