Tackling Work at Home Social and Organizational Issues

A Home Business Article Contributed by G. Uma Bennett

Tackling Work at Home Social and Organizational Issues

Your decision to work at home has not only technological and logistical considerations, but also social and organizational issues. Communication between telecommuting employees and managers is key. When you become a telecommuting employee, you might feel dissociated from your peers, especially if you do this full-time. Make sure your manager keeps your co-workers aware of what you are doing and why.

Keeping in contact with other people is also important, so maintain social contacts outside of your job. Working at home can cause you to become stagnant, so make sure you resist the temptation to just sit at home and work.

Keeping Your Work at Home Perspective Fresh

Information intensive work at home jobs can be mentally draining and the first thing that usually suffers is your ability to visualize solutions. If you spend a lot of time working independently, you may be in need of some input from another source. Go to lunch with a friend or coworker. Or spend some time doing work from a park bench, so you can get some fresh air and change your perspective, reflecting on nature can be very inspiring. Take a few minutes from your daily schedule to refresh your mental clarity with a purely creative activity like art or playing music.

Managing Deadline Pressure When You Work at Home

>From an organizational standpoint, the need to communicate effectively is top of the list when you work at home. A communication system relieves the pressure of keeping your manager and coworkers who depend on aware of what you are doing, when you are free for meetings or phone calls and the status of the project you're working on. To avoid distracting phone calls, have an "email only" policy during the days when you need uninterrupted time to work on critical projects; they will give updates or relay questions related to your project and give assurance that you are being productive.

Mastering "off-Site" Work at Home Office Politics

Learning new skills is one of the most exciting aspects of being able to work at home. As a telecommuter, being able to read between the lines and be able to pick up on when things are going wrong will be invaluable. In most cases people will be indirect, they may complain that you don't get projects done on time or aren't immediately available. To avoid these issues, establish a performance standard of measurable criteria and put it in writing, which will help coworkers understand what is expected of you and why you are working in a particular manner.

Staying in the Office Loop When You Work at Home

Of course, like everything else there are positives and negatives when you work at home as a telecommuter. The one thing you won't be able to do when you telecommute is participate in office politics very well. To play office politics you have to be in the office and connected to what's going on. If you're a full-time telecommuter and need to participate in this activity for career viability, then make sure that you use each office visit to catch up with office happenings. You might even consider adding in a day each week where you work from the corporate office.