Working from Home (companies often call it telecommuting or remote working) started out a promise. No more of those horrible, crowded daily commutes and more time with your family. It works too. Until you start to miss on real face-to-face interactions. You miss people (during desperate times, even the people busy with their phones on the train). And for some, family time become too much of noise, distraction and a series of uncomfortable adjustments to a productive work day.
Notes from a Hacker News (Online news discussions for coders and startup types)
The Pros:
- No commute/transportation costs (include extra gas, car maintenance, etc)
- More time with family
- Smaller food costs (don't eat out as much)
- Smaller clothing budget -- not dressing up
- Complete control over my environment (lighting, wall color, music, etc)
- Fewer interruptions (even with 5 kids in the house)
- Almost no sick days...like I'm not going to work when I have a bad cold? I go stir crazy.
- 1 AM eureka moments happen more naturally.
- I can justify my increased home internet bandwidth
The cons:
- No routine that gets you going
- Less time with your friends and colleagues (if they live in other part of the city)
- Less team lunches/nice dinners
- Getting dressed can help you mentally make the switch to start your workday and can translate into higher productivity
- You have to spent money for office equipment
- More interruptions ('you are at home, surely you can do x')
- You have more sick days, since kids are bags of disease
- No more eureka moments after water cooler chats (sometimes, you need people for sharing ideas etc.)
- Extra cost (Air conditioner etc)
- Internet is a big distraction with no one tracking your activity
- With the commute time eliminated, you could add the gym to the morning routine, if there's one you can walk to in a few minutes, or failing that, some bodyweight exercise or yoga videos.
- You can dress well as you sit at work, if it helps with the work.
- You spend much less on office equipment than what you spent on the commute (unless you need a separate air-conditioner for your personal office).
- Work from home is less distracting for people with no kids.
- Schedule internet time and cut off the net for the time when you have to finish a task.
- Their are many substitutes for conversation: Whatsapp, Slack, HipChat, Gmail, Video calling (Gmail, Skype). This way will be able to keep your visibility.
- Get out often: Walk the streets, see the sky, look at people, take in the air. Don't get isolated.
- Define clear, measurable, (reasonable) goals for your job as part of your planning process with your manager. This is very important for any remote worker
- If you are part of team which also has a proper office, let people know daily you are on the job. Ping them daily (Gmail etc.)
- Go to the head office at least once a month, or something.
- Communicate a lot, clearly, repeatedly, usefully
- Make clear agreements with your manager and team members... and keep them.
- Help your team and manager understand that your hours and theirs may not match up, so they wouldn't be alarmed when they don't see you online.
- Write concise, effective emails with useful subject lines. Make every email subject line clear in topic, action needed, etc.
- Do not reuse email threads to start new topics. It doesn't help with tracking all issues.
- CC as few people as possible on your messages, but enough to be sure to cover all your bases.
- Get on the phone/VOIP (Voice Over Internet protocol)/video call) if things feel like they are getting off track.
(Source: Adapted from a guide at Acqia.com)
- Know the team members, build a rapport: Look for similarities of values, interests, expertise, or experience so that you have a bridge into the relationship. New members are introduced to the team as soon as possible.
- Follow team best practices: Like a regular team, there will be a team leader/facilitator, and there will be regular briefing and update sessions, timelines and schedules, task lists (who's doing what), new member on-boarding plan, people-wise roles (after all agree), plan B (what do in case of failures, this will be a running list), emergency meetings when things go wrong etc.
- Shared 'online' hours are very important; The team must know when each member will be online, as well as other rules about availability.
- Project the right image for your business: Logo, email signature, business cards (if your business requires one, really) and other stationary, flyers, brochures, website, blog, etc
- You can do almost all kinds of business from a home office: eCommerce, freelancing (obviously),any business in the creative and service industries. Book a conference room at a local business center if you need to hold a big meeting.
- Having a proper work table in a corner / segregated space is better than working on the dining table all the time.
– Basically, keep distractions at a minimum while you are getting the job done
Thank you for reading.
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