Homeworkers also need to work especially hard at ensuring they know what is going on within the office and avoiding isolation.. When BT conducted a teleworking experiment, allowing some of its Inverness operators to work from home, they found that one of the main grumbles was that the operators felt they were not kept up to date with company news the way they had been in an office. For those who work only a couple of days at home, this can still be a problem. It pays to phone in on your days out and to take part in any social events in the office. When you are in the office, make sure everyone knows that you are there — and keep your wits about you. ‘I make sure that when I’m in the office, I listen very carefully to what’s going on,’ says Helene Hook of the computer firm ICL. Kevin Attwood of Nat West Bank has formalized the process by having an updating meeting with his boss every week.
Stephen Jupp of Digital Equipment finds that one of the most effective ways to communicate with colleagues in the office is to arrange meetings, ‘but to be sure that I know exactly what I want to achieve before I go into the meeting. If you are meeting infrequently, there are no second chances.’ He also phones up colleagues frequently for a chat about what’s going on.
Finding out what’s going on in the office is vital if you are to feel you are playing an important role in company life. Far from being unimportant, office gossip is often the chief way in which company news is transmitted. Job vacancies, resignations, changes in company policy, are often widely known through office gossip long before they are officially announced.
According to Cary Cooper, Professor of Occupational Psychology at the University of Manchester Institute of Science and Technology, being less visible in the office can mean your chances of getting promotion are severely affected. He suggests that the only way for homeworkers to be sure they are remembered is to keep in touch - whether it’s by phone, fax or email.
Homeworkers can also find out that they miss out on opportunities for training - simply by not being informed on time. The solution is to ensure that your boss knows just how keen you are for any training - backed up with periodic reminders if necessary. If you are expected to operate computer equipment that you are not used to, make sure you get training on it before you start working at home - and that you are entitled to help from the office support systems.
It is important to realize that colleagues may feel jealous of your flexible working arrangements. You may make life very difficult for yourself if you insist on rhapsodizing about your life in the country and how you spent the preceding afternoon out walking, if you know your in-house colleagues are trapped in a grimy inner-city office. This is one occasion where discretion may be the better part of valour. Indeed, when Ken Davey of Mercury introduced his Location Independent Working Scheme, he was well aware that other employees might view his team as ‘leading the life of Reilly, coming and going as they pleased and working when they wanted to.’
He challenged this by explaining to colleagues in the office that working at home and on the move did present its own drawbacks and risks. Even so, he admitted in a paper on the subject that ‘our real problems have been in managing our peers who still see us as having special privileges, despite explanation. It may be that this is the price you have to pay - if so it may signal that those who are not working flexibly are keen to adopt flexible working practices too.’
The moral of the story is that if you are one of the very few allowed to work from home, it is a good idea to play up the difficulties, rather than tell everyone about how you were on the golf course when they were slaving over a hot desk !
One of the major difficulties of homeworking is that it is very easy to overwork. Without exception, everyone I spoke to felt that they had worked harder at home than in the office. ‘I find that I sit down at 9 a.m. and, because I’m concentrating really hard and don’t get any interruptions, I look up and suddenly it’s 2 p.m.,’ says Stephen Jupp. ‘I haven’t had any lunch, my back and neck are stiff and I suddenly become aware that I’ve worked flat out.’
It is vital to build breaks for yourself in the day — just as you would in an office. Set an alarm clock to go off at lunchtime if necessary. Try to get up from your word processor at least every hour and walk round and stretch your legs. It is also important to leave your work behind when your day is officially finished. If you find this difficult, make up your own ritual. One man I know takes his tie off when he feels his day is officially ended. Another woman goes out of the house, walks round the block and then re-enters. These may seem extreme rituals, but without commuting time or distance from the office, you do need a way to learn to switch off. It is also important that your colleagues understand that although you are working at home, that does not mean you can be interrupted all the time.
Tell them when you are working — and be firm about when you are not. This is vital, as according to Professor Noel Sheehy of the University of Belfast, who has made a study of homeworkers, people working at home can end up routinely overloaded. This is because employers find it much harder to gauge how much work a homeworker is doing. ‘When you’re in an office, you can look round and see that Jane is buried under a sheath of papers, or that Fred is walking round looking as if he has the weight of the world on his shoulders. You know just by looking who is busy and who is not. It’s much harder to tell that down a telephone line.’
He also points out that homeworkers can be a victim of office politics — if someone is strenuously resisting taking on a project, it is much easier to post it off to an out-of-sight homeworker than have a face-to-face confrontation about it.
Another important issue is security. If you work in an area where you are frequently dealing with confidential documents, it is vital to have facilities for locking them away. Leaving them on the coffee table could be a serious breach of confidentiality. You also need to be aware of your own security. Social workers, council tax collectors and others who work in sensitive areas may need to take extra precautions to protect themselves. This means, at the least, being careful about whom you give your home address to, refusing to see clients alone unless specifically pre-arranged and getting yourself a good alarm and security system. A separate business line might also be a good idea.
This may sound daunting, but remember — over 80 per cent of employees who are working at home believe that their quality of life has been improved by homeworking. Making sure you know the pitfalls before you start can maximize your chances of avoiding them and increase your chances of success. Homeworking will only be a success if you — and your employer — are equally pleased with the arrangement. As Pam Block, accountant for Oxfordshire County Council, remarks : `working part of the time from home and part of the time from the office not only helped ease me back into work, it also meant I didn’t miss out on my kids and was very efficient into the bargain. I think that’s a good deal all round !’
Possibly related posts: (automatically generated)
Wealth and Success, Nitty-gritty guidelines for Working at Home, so you’ve persuaded them! continue…
- Wealth and Success, Nitty-gritty guidelines for Working at Home, so you’ve persuaded them!
- To Grow or not to Grow continue...
- Does networking marketing involve selling?
- Investing in your best is ... The Fairest thing to do
- What to do if the prospect is not interested
- Learn to delegate
- The Two Pillars of a Successful Marketing Strategy Part 2
- Overseas Trips: National and Inter-National Travel costs need regular Scrutiny, get costs reduced (1-10)
- Always Stay on Top of Your Promotion
- The Performance Planning Meetings
