So, Here's the Deal

Yes, months have passed, but dear readers, don't think that I haven't been thinking of you. Really! But I've been a bit busy. I was on-site with my new employer for about five weeks for training and on boarding and all that good stuff. It was great and the company is great, but they have a strict no-blogging from their IPs policy. This is a new world for Stella - a publicly-traded employer who has to be very careful about what they say.

So that's the story. I'm back in my home office again for a few weeks, and I'll be figuring out how this blog is going to be moving forward. I think that I still have enough to write about because even though I'm a bit of a road warrior in the new position, all the same productivity and focus issues arise whether you're in a home office or churning out a little extra work in your hotel room at night. As an added incentive, I'm billable, with some pretty ambitious utilization goals. Balancing work (gotta get those hours) with living (the children aren't going to hug themselves, here, people) should provide some interesting fodder for ol' Stella.

Stay tuned. I'm back, baby. To the extent that I'm here and not sullying other people's networks.

Federal Telework Act Passes

The good news is that the federal telework act finally passed the house last week. Since the senate had already passed it, all it needs is a little signature from the President, and then all your federal teleworking dreams will come true.

Release the unicorns.

Okay, maybe it's not quite that glorious yet, but the federal telework act does provide some incentives for government agencies to promote and support telecommuting. And sometimes just saying it's okay is a big step forward.

Some Blogs You Might Like

I'll be adding these to the "Links Stella Likes" section, but I just wanted to give a little bit of a shout out to a couple of useful and active telecommuting blogs that could be of interest:

• Telecommuting Journal: Articles about telecommuting, and also some good links to leads on jobs that have a telecommuting aspect (and that aren't MLM or scams)
• Chief Home Officer: A freelance writer who blogs about the tools and quandaries of running a business out of a home office.

Both these blogs are actively maintained, and had a lot of good information. I'm always looking for more to read and understand about telecommuting, so if you know of a good blog, feel free to post it in the comments.

This Just In: People Who Are Able to Work More Easily Work More

Stella has long held that one reason for telecommuters' increased productivity is that they're able to work more hours without really feeling much of a pinch. If I need to crank out some project or another in the evening or for a couple of hours on Saturday, it's no big deal. I already have all the equipment and access I need to be just as efficient and productive at home as I would be in the Real Office.

But now researchers at Brigham Young have confirmed this. As reported in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, researchers found that people who had flexibility in their schedule, from telecommuting to being able to set their own hours, worked more hours per week before getting cranky about it. And so if having people working a lot and working happy is important to you, telecommuting seems like a good way to get to that end.

Sarbanes Telecommuting Bill Killed

The federal government is one of the biggest promoters of telecommuting, overall. Many federal agencies actively encourage telecommuting because they're based in Washington, DC and traffic is utterly hellish there. Telecommuting makes for a workforce that doesn't get caught up in snowstorms, that can continue to serve through pandemics and other disasters, and that is as efficient as you can imagine.

This is not to say that it doesn't require some effort -- you've got to equip people with laptops, administer VPNs, and get webcams and stuff. But really, it is short sighted to focus on the cost rather than the savings and benefits.

Unfortunately, the Sarbanes bill was used as an object lesson in penny wise-pound foolishness. Sigh. Maybe next time, eh?

Nice Move, New Jersey

Taking a page from the crazypants tax laws of their neighbors in New York, the State of New Jersey has (incredibly) decided it can require a company who has a single telecommuting employee residing in the state to file a corporate tax return. Seriously. The tax court of New Jersey feels that one person with a laptop comprises a significant presence in their state, never mind that the bulk of this person's output (in this case, software) is not tangibly present in New Jersey.

Oy, has anyone in the NJ state office of taxation ever driven there? Do they really want to discourage people driving less and telecommuting more? I didn't think so. Hey, here's an idea: how about structuring tax laws in such a way as to not double tax telecommuters? Or eliminating the complexity and punishment clauses that make it hard for businesses to administer their telecommuting programs. That would be nice.

How Does Stella Get This Gig?

Yes, telecommuters tend to be better employees -- they're not distracted by the Real Office crap, they don't waste time in their cars. So says Jayna Wallace, who somehow managed to get to SXSW this year. Dudes, I've been telling you exactly this for years now.

How do I start getting invited on paid junkets to talk about how telecommuting is the bomb.com? I gotta figure this one out.

An Alternative to iPad

Stella just got a netbook, and the first question everyone asks me is "What, no iPad?" Yes, we have no iPads today. The main reason is that terrible terrible name.* I just don't feel comfortable buying things from a company where there are so clearly no women in any kind of product advisory role. Because could no one in Cupertino think of anything better than this?

Seriously, what about iTab -- it's a tablet device, after all. And it sounds retro-low calorie. Whatever, nobody asked me.

* Also: no webcam.

I Kind of Like Saying "Texas Robot"

And I really like the idea behind this prototype mobile telepresence thingy called the Texas Robot. Basically, it's a camera, a monitor and a little drivable robot that can make a remote person be more there when they're not. There. You know. Like, in person.

I think there would be some non-trivial challenges to working with something like this -- for example, I still have trouble navigating my way to some of the conference rooms and offices in my Real Office, and I'm not sure having to drive a little robot around would necessarily improve my navigational performance. I would also like it if it had "random stagger" mode, kind of like a Roomba floor cleaning robot, where it would just drive you around, lurching into people and rooms, in a manner beyond your control.

That mode might be especially effective at the holiday office party.

Snowpocalypse? Or Snowtopia?

You know, it's really up to you whether or not your employees are able to get stuff done during adverse weather. Those employers with good remote working tools in the hands of their employees (stuff like a real VPN and training on how to install and log into it, webcams on laptops, virtual machines, and all that good stuff, along with people who are able to use it) are able to do a little work today in DC and Baltimore.

Just forward your phones to your cell, fire up the laptop and get rolling. And suddenly it's a Snowtopia!

You Know What You Don't Get As A Telecommuter?

You don't get an office Super Bowl pool. You don't get randomly selected numbers, and so if you're like Stella, you have even less incentive to pay attention.

That said, having lived in Baltimore for 15 or so years, I cannot be indifferent to the joy of watching the Colts lose. And as someone concerned with economic justice and who is nonplussed by our inability to rebuild huge swathes of NOLA, I'm also pleased to see the Saints win.

I wonder who won the office pool?

Stella's Team Wins

After a long hiatus caused by work, babies, and general malaise, we were back at Geeks Who Drink, and we pwned. Yay us! I was sad to miss the excerpt from "Turandot" on the Opera/Opera round (actual opera and rock opera) but really, it was one pretty small sung moment, and not really enough to tell.

Is Flying About to Become a Royal Pain?

Stella is ramping up for a post-holiday trip to her fine employer. I find that nothing says, "I really like working here," quite like showing up at the Real Office in Rochester, NY in January. But naturally I'll need to fly there, and given all the news lately, it seems like that's going to be a bigger pain than it might have been before this week.

That's okay. I can dig the need to make everyone feel safe. But I don't feel excited about the idea of not being able to do anything except sit quietly with my thoughts for the last hour of my flight. And I'm with Bruce Schneier on this:

I wish that, just once, some terrorist would try something that you can only foil by upgrading the passengers to first class and giving them free drinks.

A Potential Tax Break for Virginia Telecommuters

A bill has been introduced in Virginia to offer people who telecommute more than 75 days a year a tax break on home office equipment, furniture, and the like. This is a great idea in an area where the traffic is truly awful, and where telecommuting can make a big impact on the quality of life. Encourage people to do what you'd like them to do with incentives like these. I love it!

Always Good Advice

There are a lot of reasons your employees might all need to telecommute for some period of time. I know you're getting sick of me harping on swine flu and other epidemiological events, but consider bad weather, problems with heating/water/air conditioning in your facilities, major traffic disruptions, or the Olympics. That's what employers in Vancouver, BC are facing as they look toward the 2010 Winter Olympics. Needless to say between security, visitors, and all the rest, getting workers to offices in many parts of the city will probably be a challenge.

That's why the Vancouver Observer's tips for the basics of setting up a telecommuting environment at home available here are useful for Vancouverites. But they're also good for anyone looking for the details of setting up the home office.

Was It Prescient?

Stella dressed up as Lady Gaga this year for Halloween. If I may say so, my costume was pretty good, and as it turns out, highly appropriate for a telecommuter who relies on video conferencing to get things done. See this new video with Ms. Lady Gaga and Ms. Beyonce.



I will point out that neither of them is really dressed to convey the "office" feeling on videoconferencing systems, but that may not, in fact, be the point.

Another Consolidation in Videoconferencing.

Cisco bought Tandberg. Now Logitech has purchased LifeSize. Interesting. I am happy there is all this interest in teleconferencing, and it's probably a good thing that Logitech (which produces a ton of affordable cameras that many telecommuters rely on to show their co-workers their happy faces) is getting into the more high-end videoconferencing market.

The Telephone as a Pandemic Survival Tool

I am not a germophobe, really. But I'm glad every day that I get to do a lot of what I do over the phone and through the interwebs. Why just today, I was phoned into a meeting where one third of the other participants seemed to be coming down with something or recovering from something. Yuck.

Newsflash: You don't have to be in another timezone to call into a meeting. If I'm calling in, maybe the sick people could stay holed up in their offices and phone in, too?

If you're experiencing an outbreak of illness, use your telecommuting tools to keep people from congregating together and sharing it amongst themselves. Even if people are just calling from office to office, minimizing face-to-face contact can really help minimize the spread of disease.

Today Is a Good Day

To telecommute, if you live in the Bay Area. What a nightmare. If you have a robust telecommuting program in place, you can handle unexpected snafus like this relatively easily. If not, you end up with an office full of people for whom it took three hours to get to the office to get back on the internet.

Sometimes Changes In Routine Don't Increase Your Productivity

Ah, gentle readers, it seems like just last year that Stella was ruminating about her broken finger and taking small breaks (ha ha, get it) from blogging and being able to type 80 words a minute. Oh, wait, it was just last year. And now Stella is coping with a family fracture: the littlest Commute broke both bones in her arm in a fall off playground equipment at school.

Aside from the obvious maternal concern that I'm experiencing over Baby Commute's injury, there is the non-trivial disruption to my home-based office that has occurred. The good thing is that it has reconfirmed my most fundamental telecommuting ideal:

Telecommuting in no way substitutes for child care.

Do a search for images of "telecommuting mom" and you find all these pictures of women using laptops with their laps topped with small children. Sister, I got news for you: if you're really working, your kids probably aren't around. In fact, do everyone a favor and don't call it working.

I have a few coping techniques for when there are people in my house -- headphones, the thrill of the locking door, heavy sedation for younger family members -- it works out great. But there is always a designated adult (or young adult, now that Miss Teen Commute is 13 and a tremendous babysitter) minding the little one. And if not? I take vacation to care for her. Like I've been doing last week and part of this week.

Because no amount of headphones, blinders, and "talk to the hand because mommy's on a conference call" sign language is going to stop the piercing sounds of the Little Mermaid from penetrating my brain and rendering me incapable of coherent thought.