Is It For You?:
Telecommuter
Profile
Telecommuting
Self-Assessment
Telecommuting
is not for everyone:
- You can get lonely
and miss being with people every day.
- You may feel
isolated and invisible.
- You might lose
sight of goals and feel de-motivated.
- You could detest
some of the mundane aspects of working from home.
- You might experience
more conflict with your family.
And it's not
easy:
- You may find
yourself working more hours than before you telecommuted.
- You could be
frustrated by the hassles of technology when it fails.
- You can run into
problems with co-workers who resent your telecommuting.
- You might experience
breakdowns in communication with your boss or your team.
- You could find
yourself spending more time than you imagined serving as your own
maintenance person, computer technician, electrician, office designer,
furniture mover and filing clerk.
But the rewards
are tremendous! As other telecommuters will tell you:
- "I'm so much
more productive than when I commuted to the office everyday."
- "Now I can actually
concentrate and think clearly without all the distractions and interruptions
I used to deal with in the corporate office."
- "I love telecommuting…and
my kids like having me closer to home. We see more of each other now,
and that's worth any trade-offs that come with telecommuting."
- "It's helped
me increase my output, be more responsive to customers, have more
time for exercise and eliminate much of the stress I felt from my
long commute everyday."
You're certainly
not alone if you find yourself wanting to telecommute or you've already
jumped on the telecommuting bandwagon. There are distinct skills, attitudes
and behaviors essential to that success. Many of these can be learned,
developed, reinforced and honed once you're aware of them and understand
your own strengths and weaknesses with regard to the criteria for successful
telecommuting.
To learn more about
the likelihood of your success as a telecommuter, check out the following:
Telecommuter
Profile
Telecommuting
Self-Assessment
