Telecommuting, your thoughts?

Whenever I finish my 4-year degree and I start looking for a job, I'm thinking about finding a telecommuting position so that I can entirely work from home.

I know of a friend a while back that applied for a web development job online and it's working well for him.

Telecommuting really appeals to me because:

I'm not a very social person

I'd think I would do well since I'm doing well completing my degree entirely online

I would save a load on gas money

Flexible work hours

My question is how has telecommuting worked for those that have or had a telecommuting position?

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Comments

msteinhilber

I wouldn't set your expectations to work entirely from home. Most places around here at least seem to require you to spend a couple of days in the office so you don't lose out on the face time with others which is valuable to an organizations success.

Flexible work hours are also not synonymous with telecommuting. You often still have a set schedule of when you are expected to be available and working.

I would do my best to try and become less anti-social, it's really quite conducive to building a successful career (being more social that is). I'm certainly not the worlds most sociable person but I've been making an effort over the years to improve it.

I've telecommuted for my present job and I found myself just driving to the office most of the time. It just doesn't work well for me, I work best when I'm out of my home environment as it's filled with distractions and I actually enjoy getting out of the house and being around some of my co-workers as much as they can get on my nerves at times.

vCole

msteinhilber wrote: »

I wouldn't set your expectations to work entirely from home. Most places around here at least seem to require you to spend a couple of days in the office so you don't lose out on the face time with others which is valuable to an organizations success.

Flexible work hours are also not synonymous with telecommuting. You often still have a set schedule of when you are expected to be available and working.

I would do my best to try and become less anti-social, it's really quite conducive to building a successful career (being more social that is). I'm certainly not the worlds most sociable person but I've been making an effort over the years to improve it.

I've telecommuted for my present job and I found myself just driving to the office most of the time. It just doesn't work well for me, I work best when I'm out of my home environment as it's filled with distractions and I actually enjoy getting out of the house and being around some of my co-workers as much as they can get on my nerves at times.

Agreed.

earweed

I personally don't see any advantages to just telecommuting. Occassionally it would be ok but not as a full time thing. I'm setting up a small office right now and doing a lot of the configuring of the server from home (remote). I still go to the clients office regularly so that he is kept up to date (face to face) on what I'm doing.
You would be missing out on alot of the advantages to your career if you don't have the face to face with coworkers/bosses/clients.

tiersten

You say you're not a very social person but you're not going to be leaving the house at all most days unless you make plans for the evening. Some people find this to not be a problem whilst others will start to get something like cabin fever.

As you're new and only just completing your degree, what jobs available to you will be limited even before you factor in your requirement to work from home. You've also not actually tried working in an office either. You may find that you don't mind it or like the social interactions with other staff.

As msteinhilber said, you will probably not get flexible work hours. Not unless you work for yourself like your friend as a web developer and those sorts of job will be extremely variable. You'll be working one week and then not the next week.

I've telecommuted on various occasions and whilst it is nice to be able to get up and get to work with nearly no delay between, it isn't the greatest thing ever. You need to have very strict rules and be diligent about following those rules otherwise you'll be constantly distracted by things at home.

exampasser

Thanks for all of the useful comments. About the flexible work hours, it would be nice but it's not a necessity for me.

msteinhilber

exampasser wrote: »

Thanks for all of the useful comments. About the flexible work hours, it would be nice but it's not a necessity for me.

Another thing to keep in consideration, especially as you seem to be working on moving you way up in this industry. Getting noticed, in addition to being somewhat social, is a big key to moving up. If you're the guy who isn't often in the office and is the voice behind the phone at home, even if you are pulling your fair share of work it's going to be more difficult to get noticed and be considered for promotions IMO.

shednik

I work from home atleast once a week myself and we offer a few remote access products for people to be able to work from home more efficiently. I know the Cisco office in my town has very few people that go into the office frequently. It's going to become more of the norm for a lot of companies and I think they should really consider the benefits of it. I have my companies wireless in my home, along with an IP phone with my extension, and a video conference unit. Now mind you I have all of this because I support the remote access products, but I really don't need to go in the office much with all that there. Since I work with my colleagues in Germany a lot, those early morning conference calls are taken in the comfort of my own home and not on my home phone or blackberry.

msteinhilber

shednik wrote: »

I work from home atleast once a week myself and we offer a few remote access products for people to be able to work from home more efficiently. I know the Cisco office in my town has very few people that go into the office frequently. It's going to become more of the norm for a lot of companies and I think they should really consider the benefits of it. I have my companies wireless in my home, along with an IP phone with my extension, and a video conference unit. Now mind you I have all of this because I support the remote access products, but I really don't need to go in the office much with all that there. Since I work with my colleagues in Germany a lot, those early morning conference calls are taken in the comfort of my own home and not on my home phone or blackberry.

It can be very beneficial as long as it is implemented well and everybody involved has the expectations properly established. I can see it becoming more common as well, but in many ways I hope it doesn't grow to be very popular. Right now, when you're not telecommuting there is a fairly distinct divide between work and home time. Technology over the years has helped erode this divide little bits here and there with information and communications being available just about anywhere and immediately. I fear a society where we work from home more often in general because I think that will further erode that divide even further. Not that we as IT professionals don't already undertake a significant responsibility in many cases with regards to after-hours requests but I can see what companies expect from their employees outside of typical work hours only increasing as time goes on, and more rapidly if telecommuting becomes much more common.

tpatt100

At my last job the work from home crew that was in another state were the first people to get cut when our budget was slashed. We got a bunch of farewell emails from them but it did not really bug us since they were just a voice on a conference call every week.

Those of us that worked together five days a week and went out to lunch a couple of times each week were pretty close.

When we all lost our jobs at the end of the project we all kept in touch. One guy carpooled with me since he got a job near mine. The other I play WoW with on the same server. The others all keep in touch via email and LinkedIn.

When job opportunities arise we let our "network" know first.

powerfool

The telecommuting thing is really tough to find, unless you are a freelancer, and even then it can change based on your client. I had an opportunity to work a job that would allow nearly 100% telecommuting outside of a few meetings; they were willing to pay me what I wanted, but it was a job doing programming while my most recent expertise has been Systems and Network Engineering. I took vacation time from my job and tried it out. It wasn't bad, but I couldn't give up my work of choice. I tried working out a telecommuting relationship with my then employer where I would work 40-ish hours a week in the office but in fewer days, and then be available for remote work the other days. That didn't fly.

It is just tough sometimes. It will do you good to get some experience before you head that route... just a good life experience, really.

shodown

I have a lot of recent customers asking us to ramp this up. We have made several Juniper Clusters for 1 particular customer who has a lot of users that VPN into the network. I thought there would be more of this. I guess in the IT field it would take a while to get here, but there is no reason that sys admin can't work from home once they get VPN in they can access the boxes they need to. Also with Voip and softphones people can still have the same number they have at work ring there laptops at home and with VTC capabilities making there way down to mid level employees we should see more people working from home.

Plantwiz

msteinhilber wrote: »

I wouldn't set your expectations to work entirely from home. Most places around here at least seem to require you to spend a couple of days in the office so you don't lose out on the face time with others which is valuable to an organizations success.

Flexible work hours are also not synonymous with telecommuting. You often still have a set schedule of when you are expected to be available and working.

I would do my best to try and become less anti-social, it's really quite conducive to building a successful career (being more social that is). I'm certainly not the worlds most sociable person but I've been making an effort over the years to improve it.

I've telecommuted for my present job and I found myself just driving to the office most of the time. It just doesn't work well for me, I work best when I'm out of my home environment as it's filled with distractions and I actually enjoy getting out of the house and being around some of my co-workers as much as they can get on my nerves at times.

100%

Particullary that last section!

Save the telecommuting for 'in need' times only (sickness, extended out-of-town family visits, etc...) Most tasks, even simple ones are best completed at the office from my experience.

mikedisd2

msteinhilber wrote: »

Another thing to keep in consideration, especially as you seem to be working on moving you way up in this industry. Getting noticed, in addition to being somewhat social, is a big key to moving up. If you're the guy who isn't often in the office and is the voice behind the phone at home, even if you are pulling your fair share of work it's going to be more difficult to get noticed and be considered for promotions IMO.

+1

I don't telecommute but I've been working offsite for the past 2x years and barely see the manager or colleagues. This is works well for me, except that I'm always overlooked for training, glory jobs, project involvement. It's a case of 'out of sight, out of mind'. This is a contentious issue for me considering my work brings in a lot of revenue for the company.

It pays to be seen and noticed.

Pash

mikedisd2 wrote: »

It pays to be seen and noticed.

You work for a Japanese company don't you?

I totally agree with the point's above, but don't get into the whole "the later I stay the more people will notice me" thing.

Pash

msteinhilber

Pash wrote: »

You work for a Japanese company don't you?

I totally agree with the point's above, but don't get into the whole "the later I stay the more people will notice me" thing.

Pash

It isn't so much the staying later to be noticed, it's all about not being there in person and not being noticed. You could put in 12 hour days 5 days a week as a voice on a phone from home and do some really phenomenal work but you're still going to be less noticed than the 8 hour a day person working in the office producing the expected but still average quality of work from my experience. People seem to get included in projects, meetings, decision making, and be considered for more things such as training and promotions when they are not the person people rarely see physically because they are working from home all the time.

Turgon

I like homeworking. It saves me a hell of a lot of commuting time getting to office and makes for a shorter day. I get more done from home as well when Im working on those timeconsuming pieces of work when I need some quiet. The benefits of being in person are obvious though, so I always visit the office each week.

tpatt100

msteinhilber wrote: »

It isn't so much the staying later to be noticed, it's all about not being there in person and not being noticed. You could put in 12 hour days 5 days a week as a voice on a phone from home and do some really phenomenal work but you're still going to be less noticed than the 8 hour a day person working in the office producing the expected but still average quality of work from my experience. People seem to get included in projects, meetings, decision making, and be considered for more things such as training and promotions when they are not the person people rarely see physically because they are working from home all the time.

Yeah my last job I started on second shift with two other guys. After a couple of years I got sick of it and asked to go to first shift. Totally different world. Longer lunches more socializing. More solid networking connections for the future.

ajs1976

I try to work from home once a week. The rest of the time is either in the office or at a client site. Boss would prefer that I work from home more often because I can get more work done, but company perception is that if you are not in the office or not at a client site, you are not working. Once a week gives me a break from the BS at the office.