We talk a lot here on WWD about the benefits of being a web worker. But not everyone is suited to it, and not everyone likes it, despite the fact that the freedom and comfort of working from home can sound like nirvana. In “7 Signs That You’re Not (Yet) Cut Out For Teleworking,” Celine outlines seven traits that mean that web working could be hard for you. Maybe you see yourself in Celine’s seven signs, or you hesitate to describe yourself as outgoing and organized. Yet you still aspire to a web working career. What do you do?
After spending a few years as a self-employed web worker, I’ve assembled a list of a few traits that should be part of the optimal web worker personality. And there is good news, because they are traits that can be acquired through discipline and practice. Read the rest of this entry »
Many large corporations, and even Federal government agencies, are increasingly interested in launching telecommuting programs as a tool for reducing overhead and for employee retention. However, such programs aren’t turnkey affairs. They require infrastructure, planning and strategy in order to be successful.
This post is going to look at some of the organizational considerations for building, launching and supporting a successful remote work program. While some of these points may seem obvious for the seasoned web workers in our audience, they do need to be factored into the overall corporate decision-making process when implementing an employee telecommuting program. Read the rest of this entry »
Employers are increasingly concerned about the risks to their data security posed by telecommuting employees. As a telecommuter, your ability to discuss and address those concerns is important, to make sure that you’re allowed to continue telecommuting, or to convince an employer to let you start telecommuting in the first place.
Data Security Basics
The biggest concern for many employers is just how safe their data is. An employer can put some very specific safeguards in place in an office environment, controlling just who has access to specific computers, and so on. But it’s reasonable for an employer to be a little worried about just who has access to their information at your home. Read the rest of this entry »
Many of us have left the world of cubicles behind as our jobs increasingly move into the online realm, where physical presence becomes just an occasional part of our work lives rather than a daily grind of commuting in traffic and cubicle dwelling for 40 hours a week. I see more and more people joining the remote web worker ranks every day, and I’m not the only one seeing this trend. According to Seth Godin in a recent TIME article, “The Last Days of Cubicle Life“:
“Most of the best jobs will be for people who manage customers, who organize fans, who do digital community management. We’ll continue to need brilliant designers, energetic brainstormers and rigorous lab technicians. More and more, though, the need to actually show up at an office that consists of an anonymous hallway and a farm of cubicles or closed doors is just going to fade away. It’s too expensive, and it’s too slow.”
Photo by Ste3ve
Godin also points out that this will be a stressful time as many people struggle to find essential, valuable work that is less likely to be outsourced to other locations. This isn’t really a new feature of the work landscape. Peter Drucker was talking about the focus on knowledge workers from the 1950s, and outsourcing has also been a concern for many years.
While outsourcing isn’t new, the rapid increase in the number of remote workers is. According to WorldatWork, “the number of employee telecommuters in the U.S. increased 39 percent, from 12.4 million in 2006 to 17.2 million in 2008.” Businesses are actively seeking to embrace remote working as it lowers overheads — see Simon’s post on GigaOM Pro, “Enabling the Web Working Revolution” (subscription required). Anecdotally, I seem to see more and more people working remotely from home offices and coffee shops.
What does all of this mean for us? As a culture in the U.S., we have moved away from a traditional worker mindset where 9-to-5 office jobs were intended to last for decades and many aspects of our lives were tied up with our employer (pensions, health insurance, etc.). Now we need to embrace a freelancer mindset, with a focus on the work rather than the employer. This puts many additional burdens on the worker: health care and retirement, for example. Work may last only days, weeks or months, rather than years, and we need to be able to demonstrate our value regardless of whether we are working remotely or in a cubicle. We need to be flexible and ready to embrace new jobs, new work, new technologies and new business models at any time.
I always try to keep an eye on the future by looking for new opportunities and clients. I also make sure that I’m keeping my skills fresh by learning about new technologies and continuing to tweak the services that I offer for clients as the business environment changes.
What do you do to prepare for changes in your work life?
Last summer, we cheekily covered the Macro-1, a kind of lockable and movable cubicle for coworkers and hotdeskers.
A similar product, but perhaps stranger still, is the recently launched OfficePOD, a self-contained office space intended to create a high-quality office space for employees at home. The OfficePOD is intended to help companies minimize the need for centralized, serviced offices and for employees to have a discrete working space within their home property.
Curiously, rather than a one-off capital purchase, the OfficePOD is being made available as a managed service to employers and workers. The pod is envisaged as being situated outdoors, with electricity and connectivity piped to it from the worker’s home. With just over six 45 square feet of floor space, it’s certainly a cozy workspace!
Read the rest of this entry »
Stretching all the way back to April of last year, coworking – the growing movement of independent café-like collaboration spaces for freelance professionals – has been a popular topic here on WebWorkerDaily, covered from many perspectives by our writing team and also attracting some thought-provoking commentary from our readers.
At its heart, the concept of coworking is very attractive to many web workers. You get to work in a creative environment with other professionals, freed from unhappy workplaces, with the option to be as flexible as you choose.
For those unfamiliar with the subject, we thought we’d take you on a brief tour of some highlights from our coworking archives. Read the rest of this entry »
Image by sxc.hu user blu_arim
A piece by Chris Brogan called “Why Bookstores Are My Office” made me think about how web workers and telecommuters have an enormous amount of discretion in setting up, organizing and utilizing their time. Web working is an enormous opportunity to thrive under an ideal environment and an ideal schedule, yet it’s also a little bit scary for many to figure out how to be productive outside the walls (and cube farms!) of the traditional office workplace.
The “best way” to set up one’s web working day is greatly particular to individual tastes, strengths and needs. Brogan, for example, enjoys working at bookstores and coffee shops to be close to books full of new ideas, being near people who will serve him food so that he doesn’t have to “worry about the sustenance part,” being able to easily meet with small groups of people to chat and brainstorm in a casual environment, and because “…[b]ookstores are actually fun. How many people’s offices are fun?”
Here are some tips on how to set up the best web working day for you.
What Time of Day Do You Work Best?
Many web workers have the relative luxury of setting their own schedule. Therefore it makes sense to really think about a work schedule that puts you in front of a monitor during the hours when you are most perky and most productive. For some it’s the early morning, and for others it’s late at night!
For example, I usually try to get several hours of work and research done in the morning. Then I’ll typically have lunch, take a break to clear my head, and then do another session of lighter and more administratively-minded tasks like e-mail and correspondence. Then after dinner I’m ready to go again for a hardcore session related to a major project that I’m working on. So by stretching out the workday and setting a pace that works best for me I’m able to get the most out of each working day.
Read the rest of this entry »
Web Work 101: How To Escape The Cubicle
