Stella Talks About Headsets

In the latest edition of Stella video: a tour of headsets past and present.

Would you like to buy the Logitech Clearchat Wireless? Try here.

Make Your Telecommuting Plan

If you're an employer who is interested in starting a telecommuting program, it can be hard to know where to start. You don't want to just close up shop, send folks home and hope for the best. That could result in confusion and despair at best, and going out of business at worst. But having said that, you can get started with flexible work arrangements without too much hassle.

This article from GreenBiz.com (an outfit that seems like a public-private partnership to share info about ecologically friendly business practices) has a great set of steps for getting going on getting your employees out of the office. In case you feel like you can take the time to read it, here are the steps they recommend (and I quote):

1. Identify job types best suited to telecommuting.
2. Select the best candidates for a telecommuting program.
3. Look into state and federal incentives.
4. Establish a trial period.
5. Adapt management techniques.
6. Track the results of the program.
7. Set goals for expanding the program.

Seven steps to enlightenment! What could be easier? Those state and federal incentives are a good point: You may be able to offset some of your initial investment in technology and tools to support telecommuting by using tax rebates available through Small Business Administration and Environmental Protection Agency programs that exist.

Reading this article also makes me realize that I need to help my manager and the whole organization do a better job quantifying the telecommuting that is going on there. There are now a total of three remote workers, and I'd like to organize us a bit so that we can prove that we're not only working, we're thriving.

Assuming, of course, we are thriving. But that's why we have to do a little measuring.

Monitoring Freelancers

This is an interesting article about a site called oDesk that not only serves as a broker for freelance jobs, but also lets the contractor monitor the contractee at will. Honestly, I don't know what I think about it.

I'm not a freelancer, and I try really hard to stay on the ball when I'm on the clock. I look at CNN or what have you probably as much as the next guy who is working in a cube somewhere, and I kick out the jams. But I'm not sure how I would enjoy having someone able to look in on my screen whenever and wherever they liked.

What do you think?

(Honestly, what kind of self-respecting employer has enough time to do this, really? If you aren't worried about liability or discoverable crap, you should probably busy yourself otherwise, I'm thinking.)

Desperate Times Call for Sensible Measures

People are generally wigging out about fuel costs, and I hear they are actually quite high. I haven't filled up my car since July 3, what with the living as a shut-in and all, so I wouldn't know about all that. But I do know that people are taking steps to reduce their car use.

Like telecommuting as much as humanly possible. Telecommuting in the Phoenix metro has reached record levels according to this article. Plus people are riding the bus, biking, compressing their work weeks and so on.

Fabulous! Keep up the good work, folks, no matter where you're doing it!

What Time Is It?

It's not time to get ill. I don't think so, anyway. But then again I'm not precisely sure what time it really is where I am. I believe that I am on central time here at the conference I'm attending. My watch has mountain time. My laptop and Blackberry are on Real Office time (e.g. EDT).

But then people are playing badminton and beach volleyball at 8 pm at night somewhere in the world.

I'm a little distemporic. It's like dyspeptic without the upset stomach.

Conference Full of Telecommuters

I'm at a user conference for an online community product that we use, and I am thrilled to report that a large number of their employees telecommute from home offices. I've met a number of their tech staff, customer relations managers and so on and they all work from home offices. This makes a huge amount of sense because:

Virtually none of their customers are actually located in physical proximity to any of their central Real Offices. So if you're doing all your customer management by phone and online meeting tools, you can do that from wherever, not necessarily by slogging to a cube somewhere.

They're a technology company -- the product is all about being online, so why not the employees?

They are secure (they tell me). In fact all the employees were complaining about how restrictive their on-network activity is.

All of which is great! Rock on!

Legal Issues and Working At Home

Yes, Stella is by and large a "use common sense and it will all come out in the wash" kinda gal when it comes to the gory technical details of the Fair Labor Standards Act and Workers Compensation and all. This stems largely from my absolute naivete on these issues, frankly.

It seems like many telecommuting programs also tend to have a don't ask-don't tell policy in this area.

I've written before about cases where terrible things happen to people who work at home and the hazy area that can arise because the home office is somewhere between work and not-work. And really I don't have any more answers, except to say that it's something that people should be aware of, and consider addressing in their telecommuting policy documents. This article from the Free Lance-Star (a hysterical name for a paper with an article about telecommuting, if you ask me) raises the same issues.

Enjoy1

Human Powered Pixels

I just have to say this about the opening ceremony of the Beijing Olympics: wow. I cannot imagine how you get people to perform like this -- so many people, so precise. Holy cow.

Built In Telecommuting Facilities

New York City is definitely a place that can benefit from telecommuting. Honestly, who wants to drive or be driven anywhere? And luxury apartment buildings are recognizing that a lot of people are working from home -- but when your home is 700 square feet, your home office can start to dominate the space. Enter the building-based coworking space. I have to say: what a great idea!

My New Coworker

The little girl had a birthday, and we rashly decided that books, clothing, and toys weren't quite enough and that what we really needed was another animal to pee on the floor.

Welcome new boy-cat. He is tentatively named Nombre (yes, there is a movement afoot to name the cat "Name"). It's kind of funny though, in a lolcats way...NOMbre...get it? And it's kind of like Hombre (which he is).

Yah, okay.

I'm pleased to report that he's an excellent purrer, typist, and hisser-at-dogs.

Strange Things That Happen When You Telecommute

There are some weird side effects to telecommuting. You don't realize they're happening, and then all of a sudden you're getting a little strange. Things I notice creeping up/out:

• I'm looking forward to going to a conference where the dress code is "business casual" because I have some fierce stuff I want to wear. Like shoes.
• I become easily startled. My home office is so quiet and contemplative that when the phone rings I jump out of my skin.
  
• My standards for socialization are really low. I've reached a point where picking a machine right next to someone else at the gym is pretty close. I feel highly socialized when I have two telephone meetings and receive a bunch of email.
  

I'm not sure if it's sad or good, but it is what it is.

Poker Face? Not Me

Laurie from Punk Rock HR is getting speaking consultation from a trained professional who has informed her that she's telling too much with her face. Punk, I feel your pain. I have a total inability to not make the "Are you kidding me" face when people say things to me that I think are dumb. It's a problem that telecommuters may notice more acutely at times than traditional Real Office workers.

Like when they forget their webcams are broadcasting during an online meeting and they reflexively roll their eyes at some dumb thing some nice colleague says.

In an actual meeting, the chances that every person in a meeting is looking at you when you widen your eyes in mock horror at some statement that the boss makes is slim. But when you're the only one on camera, people tend to notice these things more.

Note to self: Look into full-face Botox. Perhaps a general paralytic will take my facial expressions from the "squirrel-eyes" level down to the "normal" range.

Energy Plans Include Telecommuting Encouragement

The Small Business Administration got a (very polite) nastygram from Senators Kerry (D) and Snow (R) inquiring as to why the SBA hadn't quit got around to doing some of the things in the Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007. Of particular interest was the provision that encouraged the SBA to educate companies about telecommuting programs and how they could help employees. The good senators want to know:

"The bill instructed SBA to initiate a telecommuting pilot program to provide information regarding telecommuting to employers that are small business concerns and to encourage such employers to offer telecommuting options to employees. Which regions have been selected, and what was this selection based upon? What steps have been taken thus far to implement the telecommuting program? Have their thus far been any success stories?"

Hey, that's the kind of thing I'm interested in too. So what's the good word from SBA? Stella will let you know.

Trees Also Contribute to Global Warming

This article from Forbes is mind-bogglingly dumb, and also woefully lacking in those pesky little things...what are they again...uh...facts. I like that the one stat is "Commuting only accounts for 20% of weekly driving." So, wouldn't eliminating 20% of your weekly driving reduce your driving-based impact on the environment by like, 20%? The study the author cited is of a single company's telecommuting program in the 1990s.

Honestly.

I think that one could make a case for measuring the total impact that a telecommuter's worklife has on the environment -- I recognize that even though I fill up my gas tank less than once a month I am probably undoing all that good by jetting about the country to take my show on-site every four to six weeks. But the folks who are driving to the Real Office every day also jet off to conferences on a regular basis and do other kinds of business related travel, so it might be a wash. I don't know.

But I do know better than to put my perception that I'm doing better by the environment forward as a fact.

Be Comfy, But Be Safe

Security is important for Real Office and shut in employees alike. When you're in the Real Office, a lot of the security stuff is taken care of for you -- you've got the big shredding bins, someone locks the joint up, and you're probably putting things on the networked drive as part of the normal way you work.

When you're a shut in, you have to take responsibility for all that jazz yourself, to a large degree. This article from PC World has some good advice about steps to take, and gives some interesting data to chew on.

Let's be safe out there.