There are many perks to working at a telecommunications and technology company. One of those advantges is telecommuting, otherwise known as having the flexibility to work from a location other than your company’s place of business while still having everything you need to perform your job duties.
Typically this means working from home, but some prefer a coffee shop, collaborative workspace or other location.
Although not everyone believes in the advantages of telecommuting, in light of Yahoo’s recent ban on the practice for their employees, Teltek is still an advocate of it.
Last week I had the privilege of working from 4 different office locations. Monday I worked from my home office, Tuesday was spent in our Bethesda location, Wednesday and Friday I was located at our Baltimore office in the Emerging Technology Center and Thursday you could find me at Teltek’s World Headquarters in Westminster.
I must say it was a somewhat tiring and disorienting week. Each day my first thought when I woke up was, “Where am I going today?” and the drive to Bethesda was ummmm…challenging. Still, I enjoyed my time at each location.
Diversity in work spaces has many advantages. Interacting with a variety of people leads to new insights and perspective, networking in multiple locations can expand awareness of your company and services in those communities and it can prevent boredom on the job.
Working from a different office every day requires a fair amount of preparation. I scheduled my days to coincide with the meetings and networking events I needed to attend that week and also had to make sure I had everything with me to get my work done; including notes, project folders, etc. I have a desk at each office with all the essentials, so it’s just a matter or orienting myself to the environment.
Home is obviously somewhat isolated, but that’s how I get most of my writing done. Bethesda is interesting because it’s a very trendy city with lots of cool shops and restaurants to explore over lunch and has a vibrant business networking scene. One of Teltek’s favorite clients, International Municipal Lawyers Association is on the same floor of our building, so it’s fun to hang out with our IMLA friends.
Baltimore is ideal because it’s the shortest commute (outside of my home office) and it’s a great collaborative environment with lots of interesting people. Working at World Headquarters is always a pleasure since I get to interact with our technicians, project managers and office managers.
If you are considering a similar working lifestyle, here are a few tips I have found helpful.
1. Plan your days at different offices around events happening there
2. Inform your co-workers about where you are and when, this is easily noted on an Outlook calendar, I block off the day with “working in Westminster”, “home office”, etc
3. Watch the weather. If you’re like me and have access to offices that require commutes that range from 10 seconds to 90 minutes, you will want to plan according to ideal weather conditions if you have that flexibility. Around here, few drivers know how to handle rain, snow and ice and that extra time on the road means less productive office time.
4. Keep a bag handy with everything you need to work outside of your standard office. A few things I have in my bag are a contact list with my co-workers office extensions, my blog file and our Labor Rates chart. Basically anything that’s on your bulletin board that you regularly refer to should be accessible online or make a copyof it for your travel bag.
If you need guidance on telecommuting equipment or office procedures, give us a call! Telecommuting can be a wonderful thing with the right tools in place.