A Vacation Day is Best Taken Not In the Office

Okay, I know it's intuitively obvious to the casual observer, but your best vacation day will be one taken outside your office. But when you telecommute full time and you take the occasional vacayday it can be so tempting to just pop into your home office and do a little work. Stella is not going to lie to you: she did pop in the office this morning for a little work, but now I've taken myself out for a quick bagel.

And I'm blogging to you live from the coffee shop. I've totally become that guy tippity-tapping my keyboard at the coffee shop.

Don't hate me for my battery life.

Persistent Telepresence on the Cheap

This quick article talks about a couple of free tools that telecommuters like me use all the time. Seriously I'm rarely not "available" on Skype, but this guy goes one step farther: he connects to a Skype instance on a computer on a desk in the remote office and is "there" all day. So people can stop by, see him working, and he can see them. I think this is a pretty nifty idea because it gets at one of the problems that telecommuters all suffer from: out of sight out of mind.

Okay we're all outta sight, man.

But you know what I mean. People all too easily forget you're there, you're working, you are available. By being actually visible, that could help address the problem.

Maybe if the IT guys stick with their plan of replacing my overheating slow rig I'll get them to use the old machine as a disembodied head end-point. It's something to consider.

Telecommuter Fashion Forward: Flip Flops

Summer is officially here at StellaCommute headquarters. While we fired up the office air conditioner a couple of weeks ago, it's really kicking into gear now. With that in mind, it's time for our irregular feature on telecommuter "fashion" -- note those are not unnecessary quotation marks, because we're talking about flip flops here, people.

 What Did You Say You Bill Hourly?

For the truly discerning shut-in, these lovely numbers from Roberto Cavalli are ON SALE at Zappos for more than a grand. I kid you not. These are perfect for the telecommuter who doesn't actually need to work for money. Or who bill out at, like, $500 an hour. And really, I'm not sure what you can do at home for $500 an hour, but I'm pretty sure it involves different shoe styles than these.

My Legs are Cold, But My Toes Are Warm

These are the perfect choice for the telecommuter who suffers from chilly calves on those jaunts to the refrigerator. Or maybe you're too lazy to shave your legs every day -- wear these and keep your hirsutism to yourself. Elegant brocade plus white leather mean you can only wear these between Memorial Day and Whitsunday, though, so govern yourself accordingly.

Fringe Benefits

Buckle up, it's going to be a ticklish ride. These shoes will make you feel like you have small flies landing on the top of your feet all day. You'll get a nice workout from twitching and shaking your feet to get them off GET THEM OFF NOW AIIIIIIIEEEEE!

The Enterprise Edition

Something about these just makes me think "Trekkie" and I'm not sure why. The angular cut of the straps, the groovy 70s refrigerator/stove/wall oven color scheme, it's hard to put my finger on it exactly. Hey, they look comfortable.

Okay, at this point I just want to note that none of these shoes is less than $100. For flip flops. Am I so hopelessly out of touch with what shoes should or could cost or is that unreal? Okay, hopelessly out of touch it is! Let's continue...

Not Safe For Work (If Your Job Is Cowboy) 

Don't be fooled by the top people, these will not protect you if a horse steps on your foot whilst you try to saddle him or her. They are very sparkly, though. But bedazzling is, generally speaking, not a safety feature.

Back To Basics

All right, enough of this silliness. These are your basic flip flops, like the ones you had as a kid. They're less than twenty dollars, the straps look like they won't wear you raw, and they're perfect for staggering around your yard looking at flowers while you listen to a conference call.

So there you have it, a nice selection of extremely casual footwear. Please feel free to go to Zappos, where I found these fantastic shoe pictures, and purchase yourself a new pair of flip flops for the summer. After all, as a shut in, you don't spend nearly the money you might otherwise on clothes shoes and stuff. And please, don't call them thongs. That's something else entirely.

Like I Don't Already Look Like a Corpse

This is an interesting product, a monitor top light that is designed to better light online videoconferencers. I think it has potential to make it easier to see people's expressions when doing online video, and I like the idea. Of course part of me thinks, "Nobody wants to see that!" And by "that" I mean "my face at 6 am my time". High-definition cameras for the desktop? Ai, papi, no.

But maybe this is deeply flattering light, like those old makeup mirrors they had in the 1970s where you could change the light (Office - Daytime - Home - Evening) -- the office setting was green, but the evening setting? Mood lighting straight from the best bordello.

I'm sure that the monitor light has the same settings. At least I hope so.

How Much of My Face Do You Need to Face?

I am of two minds about face-to-face meetings. On the one hand, I am a pretty social person, and I love to go to the Real Office and meet with people. I like happy hour, I like lunch meetings, I like wearing shoes, I like bumping into people in the hall way. I recognize that this is useful to me.

On the other hand, I know for a fact that the contents of meetings expands to fit the time allotted. People love to waste time in meetings, and will re-hash decided issues in a way that is not super productive if there are twenty minutes left. I would think busy people would be grateful for an extra twenty minutes to sort through their email between meetings, or make some calls or whatever, but no. Once we're in that conference room together, we're going to discuss things until it's time for our next meetings.

That said, this post from Web Worker Daily notes that there is still value in face-to-face meetings. It's absolutely true. I just wish that there were more web cams everywhere. I find that when people can see me at all (vivacious disembodied head, in person, at happy hour, whathaveyou) they feel better about our interaction. I know they know I'm listening. I need to get a way that all the people I meet with can be visible to me, so I can see their smiling faces.

Maybe it's time to talk to IT about deploying more cheap webcams.

Defining Your Personal Brand as a Telecommuter

Having an idea of what you want to project to your colleagues and customers is important to any worker, but especially for the telecommuter. As a vivacious disembodied head, you need to be aware that all they have to go on is what you do and how you do it. So always doing what you do with a joie de vivre, a sense of what you want people to take away from the experience is helpful.

Stella has decided to embrace this idea. And here is my personal brand: I am the guy who gets things done. Do you want to have endless meetings and have nothing to show for it in six months? I am not that guy. Do you want to have something to show pretty soon here? I am the guy who gets things done.

It's pretty simple, really. I am the guy who gets things done.

Reducing Isolation: An Update

If you're a full-time shut in like Stella, you know that you can get a little weird the more time you spend alone. That's why it's important to seek out interaction and activity outside the house. I find that getting that interaction during my workday is a little hard to manage -- I've yet to really work successfully in a coffee shop, for example. I seem to spend so much time horsing around with the wi-fi in public places and by the time I get it all set to rights my laptop battery is 2/3s gone and my hands are shaking from the coffee.

So instead, I'm trying to be more social in the other things I do in my life besides workin. For example, I'm making more of a point to make friends at the gym. Okay, friends is a strong word for it - acquaintances is where I'm at, truthfully But it's nice to see people with whom you can share some desultory chit-chat with, and on whose lives you can catch up. It keeps those small talk skills honed, and helps tamp down the monk-like desire for absolute quiet.

I also started singing with a symphony chorus this year, so this is a weekly commitment to go out and sing music, do performances every few weeks, and generally act like I'm a member of a larger community. Again, it's not exactly a pathway to deep connections, but it means that I now know people in my city who are not related to me by blood or marriage. I know a good optometrist who is also a lovely soprano. I know a couple of musical computer geeks who do assorted nerdy things.

And of course, I still do tons of stuff with the extended family -- I'm no more than two phone calls away from having a house full of people drinking gin and tonics and eating gluten-free hors d'ouvres right now.

But what these casual social commitments are doing for me is just taking me a little more out in the Real World - and that can't be a bad thing.

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.

Happy New Year!

It's a new year, and Stella is glad to still be here and still wearing slippers. So rock on with your bad selves!

On the downhill slide

We're on the short turn around to holiday parties, friends, and maybe it's best if the telecommuters don't go. Because there is a non-zero chance that we'll show up to the party in this. Actually, in my fevered imagination, I think that this is what my colleagues picture me in all the time. This or a muu muu.

Please, retain your discipline and composure, fellow telecommuters. Just because you can wear just a Snuggie to your home office doesn't mean that you should.

So Stella Just Woke Up

And realized that Thanksgiving is next week. Really, how did it get to be almost December so quickly? However it has come to be, the holiday season is upon us and I can't help but feel a little bit like the Grinch in my disbelief that it's happened again. Last year, Stella was going to try to organize a telecommuters' holiday party in her home town. That didn't get very far, largely because I just sat around and didn't really do anything. This year, I posted a Craigslist ad recruiting local telecommuters. Um, that'll work, right?

So, taking it one step further: I'm declaring December 18th official holiday party day (to coincide with my Real Office's actual holiday party). So you know what we're going to do? Twitter a party. I'm starting it now #vivaciousdisembodiedhead.

Twitpic your best crazypants holiday sweater (or crazypants crazy pants!). Get drunk in your pajamas at eleven in the morning, and then tweet. Come on now! Well, not now. Unless you want to now.

You know, I'm not about command and control. I'm about having a good time all the time.