Home Office Success Stories – August 2002

Are teleworkers and home-based entrepreneurs all that different? Sure, we ply our trades from the comfortable confines of the home, leaving the commute and corporate dress code to those who dwell downtown.

But the psychological factors that drive us have remarkably similar qualities. Entrepreneurs have ditched the dress code, commute and other downsides of corporate life to work from home. Teleworkers, those corporate employees who work from home, similarly have chosen lifestyle over workplace - at least some of the time, electing to occasionally work from home so they can keep their personal and professional lives more in balance.

In a recent survey, a third of corporate employees said they would choose telework over a pay raise if given the option, according to the Positively Broadband Campaign (www.positivelybroadband.org) . Some 54% said telecommuting would improve their lives - a figure that jumped 66% among those who commute an hour or more each day. No wonder! Some 43% said telework would make them better spouses and parents, and 46% said it would improve the quality of their work.

What about our work styles? Teleworkers and home-based entrepreneurs alike are masters of the time shift. Waking and working early, checking one last e-mail before heading off to bed. It's enough to make a PC plead "Mercy!" But it's the time shift that products productivity gains. How many of you spend at least some time during your home office day playing or talking with your spouse or kids, chatting with a neighbor, doing a chore around the house? I left the office without pause at 4:30 yesterday to take Zachary to his ice hockey championship (lost the first of a best-of-three in a over-time shootout - NHL's got nothing on these 8 year olds!), and I felt no guilt swimming with the kids for an hour on Monday. I was in the office around 5 a.m. on both days.

Learn more about our home office idiosyncrasies in my recent article on the topic at Herman Miller's online zine, www.jugglezine.com . You think you've got some quirky habits? Compare them to those mentioned, then add your thoughts at Jugglezine. One ally replied that one of his idiosyncratic rules is that he NEVER brings an alcoholic beverage into the home office. I had to put my beer down as I laughed! That much excitement before 10 a.m. can be harmful to your health! (Surely, I jest)

For those of you trying to get your work-at-home style together, or trying to figure out how to start a telework program at your office, check out my latest book, "Teleworking & Telecommuting: Strategies for Remote Workers & Their Managers" (Made E-Z Products) in early September. It's a collection of articles and columns on setting up, maintaining and improving home offices and telework programs. Well worth the $14.95 investment. In fact, bulk copy rates are available starting at 10 copies for those managers who think their organizations could benefit from a little telework know-how.

In the meantime, we're off on a week's vacation. Nothing but me, Robbie, the kids, Ayn Rand's "Atlas Shrugged", my laptop, my Blackberry, my Sprint PCS phone. No, I don't have any SOHO idiosyncrasies.

Jeff Zbar, the ChiefHomeOfficer.com, is a speaker, writer and expert on alternative officing. He is the author of Teleworking & Telecommuting: Strategies for Remote Workers and Their Managers (Made E-Z Products, 2002); Safe@Home: Seven Keys to Home Office Security (FirstPublish 2001) and Your Profitable Home Business (on CD-ROM from Made E-Z Products). Visit his Web site to subscribe to Home Office Success Stories, his free electronic magazine on home business and teleworking.