Re: Need working-at-home advice

[Roy Anderson <royanderson -at- MINDSPRING -dot- COM>]

Shawn Wilson wrote:
>
> I also have a question about working at home.  (This is just hypothetical,
> boss.  Seriously.)
>
> What if you don't have a family at home?  How do you handle the solitude,
> especially considering that you probably don't see your friends during the
> week?
>
> Shawn Wilson
> Technical Writer
> 310-478-4015 x289
>
Solitude? It's wonderful!!!!

If your PC or Mac lacks CD-ROM or speakers, add them. Play your favorite
music as you work. Ahhhhhh!

Use a headset to call your pals and chat as you type. This works best if
you add an unpublished, unlisted telephone line. Managers tend to dislike
getting busy signals when they call your home.

If you are easily bored with solitude and feel the need (which I don't)
to listen to bizarre news, gossip, and rumors, you can locate a TV
in your home office area and revel in the comfort of human voices on
CNN, Talkies, the Soaps, whatever.

If you and your friends add video cams to the top of your monitors, you
can chat/see each other via Internet magic. If you're exhibitionistic
and weird, you can even set up a web page so thousands of introverts
around the world can watch your every move. Why you could even charge
them for the privilege of staring at you. Many would gladly pay, too.
(I'm waaaaaay beyond trying to explain the human race!)

Since you wouldn't have others looking over your shoulder, you can also:

a. Forego the need to dress. (Saves a fortune in dry-cleaning bills.)
b. Take breaks on your own schedule.
c. Sing off-key as loudly as you wish.
d. Vacuum the carpets while thinking about your next work task.
e. Work with your pet in your lap (if you're into that sort of thing.)
f. Do the laundry as you work.

And the benefits keep on flowing...!

Working at home doesn't infer, of course, that you may goof off. You must
produce! Working-at-home (I prefer the term "telecommuting") is ideal if
one is confident, self-disciplined, focused, dedicated, and a self-starter.
(Of course, such attributes are great if you work in an office, too, but
they are absolutely essential for a telecommuter!) As a telecommuter, you
must be completely honest and knowledgeable about your capabilities and
limitations, and you must stay within your capabilities.

If you need frequent human contact, regimentation, or direct supervison to
feel respected, fulfilled, appreciated, and a team member, then please do
all within your power to avoid telecommuting.

Having years of management experience, I appreciate the difficulties that
telecommuting poses for executives and managers. Management, by nature and
need, is a controlling profession. The march of technology has enabled
many to work just as productively (even more productively in many cases)
from home. The surest way for attaining more freedom to telecommute is
develop a reputation for absolute dependability and impeccable intergrity
when you work from home. (I listed some humorous things above but it really
is a serious endeavor.) Work your fanny off when you have an opportunity
to work at home. Prove to Management that you are capable and trustworthy
of working from home.

My previous telecommuting gig was sooooo perfect that its end still hurts.
I worked for two years without ever visiting the client's city or offices.
Never attended a meeting. Never personally met the SMEs. (Everything was
handled via e-mail, phone, fax, and FedEx, without any expense on my part.)
My hours were my own, provided SMEs signed off on each help project two
weeks before deadlines. Two days after submitting my invoice by e-mail for
the previous week's work, the client paid my invoice by direct deposit. To
top all that, we took one look at Word97's problems and reverted back to
Word 7 so even MS Word and RoboHELP worked perfectly. Ooooooh! That gig
was better than sex. (Smile.) It was, to me, the very essence of a perfect
telecommuting environment.

When I die and go to Heaven, I want to be a telecommuter for that company
for the rest of eternity. (Grin.)

Roy

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