by Jayne Cravens

More resources at coyotecommunications.com & coyoteboard.com (same web site)

 
Telecommuting / TeleWork / Cloud Commuting & Virtual Teams:
Advocacy & Resources

 
I've been working with online volunteers since 1994, and researching and advocating the practice of online volunteering / virtual volunteering since 1996.

I also have been working from home, for the most part, since 2005 (and did so as well from 1996 to 1998).

In short, I'm deeply immersed in working-from-home - telecommuting, telework, cloud commuting, whatever we're calling it these days.

When I started directing the Virtual Volunteering Project in December 1996 - while working from home - there was no research regarding online volunteering, so I used a combination of traditional volunteer management research, resources and publications and telecommuting manuals to come up with the original suggestions for how to work remotely with volunteers using the Internet. Yes, that's right - there were telecommuting manuals, and telecommuters, back in the 1990s - COVID-19 didn't invent it. My supervisors were in Washington, D.C. and California. I adhered to those telecommuting manuals in putting together my home office, defining my work day, providing my supervisors with regular updates and creating a balance between my home and work life (which were just inches apart).

By the time the 1990s were ending, I had managed hundreds of volunteers online, people working a few miles or hundreds of miles away from my geographic location, on long-term projects and byte-sized/micro-volunteering tasks, and worked on projects together with dozens of paid staff in remote locations, relying on a variety of communications tools and methods to collaborate successfully. And I was hardly alone in the 20th century being so immersed in online work - most of the people I knew then in Austin, Texas also did some or all of their work from home. 

Through these experiences, I became an advocate for telecommuting. I don't advocate that we all give up onsite office work and onsite face-to-face meetings entirely. But I do believe that workers can be more productive, cut down on travel time and reduce fuel costs, and that the environment can be made much cleaner and our roads less congested, if more workers were given the option to telecommute at least part-time. I'm just so, so sorry that it not only took more than 20 years for the rest of the world, including the USA, to realize it, but also that it took a global pandemic to get people here.

But I think even now, the vision many managers have of telecommuting staff is someone sitting at home, surfing YouTube or continually raiding the refrigerator while their kids run around the house and need attention, with neighbors at the door ready to visit, etc. Or the telecommuter runs errands all day outside the home. But for most telecommuters, this is NOT the case. In fact, telecommuters are notorious for overwork, for not knowing when to quit their workday, for taking time away from family and social activities to work, and always being "on call" out of a sense of guilt for not being in the office.

Before Covid-19, I wrote recommendations on the page you are reading now for people that wanted to telecommute. I've updated those in light of the global pandemic.

Some things to keep in mind if you want to telecommute:

• You cannot telecommute / work remotely to full effectiveness if you are also looking after children at the same time - those are TWO jobs and cannot be done at the same time. That said, during global pandemics, you have no choice! If it was possible to telecommute with children also at home, everyone would be taking their kids to work with them onsite every day. Your employer needs to understand this if a pandemic is keeping you all home - but once the danger of the virus is passed, you will need outside-of-your-home (or, at least, entirely outside-of-your-home-office) child care for your kids during work hours.
   
• You cannot telecommute if you cannot be available to colleagues for spontaneous online meetings, or meetings during regular business hours. Yes, you can work after hours, but you MUST be available to clients, colleagues and others during regular business hours, at least part time - and be available regularly and reliably.
   
• You cannot telecommute if your job functions cannot easily and practically be performed offsite. I know that goes without saying, but I'm amazed at the questions I get, like, "Can I telecommute if I'm a waitress?" No.

If you want to telecommute, you have to be able to well communicate the following to your employer, or your potential employer, in clear details (not just verbal affirmations):

• How your job functions (work tasks) can easily and practically be performed offsite. Specify how you will meet each job requirement and your boss's performance expectations without continual onsite face-to-face contact (will you use

• That you will be as accessible by phone or Internet communications during business hours to co-workers and clients as you are at the office. I like instant messaging, like via Slack or WhatsApp or Telegram, so that colleagues can see me online and contact me instantly via such, or use such to request a phone call or a live audio chat. Many employees use these programs onsite, asking questions of colleagues who may be on a different floor or in a different building.

• You have a way to show your progress regularly to your supervisor and co-workers, probably much more than you would have to if you were onsite. How will you show your supervisor and colleagues what you are accomplishing every day, or every week? Help your manager identify ways to measure your productivity. Detail how you will provide updates on established goals and objectives. It can be as simple as a document or spread sheet update regularly and you share with your supervisor in the cloud (via Google Drive, for instance), or you could use an online collaboration/project management tool like Groups.io or Basecamp. Of course you, as a telecommuter, shouldn't be held to a different standard than onsite personnel; reporting requirements should be equitable across the work place, no matter where people are working. But don't be surprised if you are, indeed, held to a different standard.

• You will initiate and maintain communications with managers, co-workers and team members, you will ensure that matters don't fall through the cracks, that you will handle problems right away, and that you won't let questions/concerns fester. You have to take the lead in these things - don't expect co-workers or your supervisor to.

• You can hold video conferences with CLEAR audio - and, preferably, video too - via Zoom, Google Voice, Microsoft Teams, WebEx or Skype.

• You are prepared to dedicate 100% of your attention to your work during working hours at home, you have a separate room or area of your home that is quiet and insulated from the various domestic activities of your household, and you are ready to treat your telecommuting day as you would a work day, "getting to work" on-time and working a full day. Doing work from a coffee shop or the park may not be okay with your supervisor or co-workers; best not to try it until you have proven your productivity from your home office and telecommuting is accepted at your organization.

  This also means that you should NOT use FaceBook or Twitter during working hours, and never from work, liking status updates, commenting, posting, etc., unless your profile is used PRIMARILY for your professional activities. The exception is if you manage your organization's Facebook group or Facebook page or Twitter account - but you need to strictly stick to work-related activities during work hours. If you work from home, you need to think very carefully about friending co-workers, including your boss, on Facebook - and if you do, you should consider blocking them from seeing certain posts on your account - and if you cannot figure out how to do this, stay off Facebook. Also consider that co-workers may be on the same Facebook group as you - like a group focused on your community. If you are posting to that community during work hours, they will see those posts.

• You are prepared to affirm that you will not hold business visits and in-person meetings with business customers or co-workers at your home (do these at the company you work for, or in a public place).

• You and your employer will prepare written agreements of when you, the worker, will be "on" and "off" the job, if you will be paid for overtime, how you will get permission for overtime BEFORE engaging in such, etc. You may need to explore with your employer putting in place a time-tracking mechanism such as computer login-logout tracking.

• You and your employer will establish whether you are responsible for paying your own transportation costs when coming into the office. The general rule followed by most employers is that once workers have done the first "principal activity" of the workday onsite at the workplace, they are on the clock when they are on the road, but if the trip is from home to work, it's commute to work and not reimbursable. You need to get this clarified before telecommuting begins.

• You are prepared to comply with company policies while on the job at home (you won't have a martini during your work day, for instance).

• You do NOT see telecommuting as a way to combine your work while taking care of children - if you do, you are NOT ready for telecommuting (unless there is a global pandemic).

• Outside of a pandemic, you may not want to telecommute five days a week, at least not to start. Consider proposing that you work from home just one or two days a week. Later, you can increase the number of days you telecommute, if things are going well.

• You have identified exactly what it is you will do from home. Even if you produce reports 50% of your time, how much time do you spend knocking on doors, attending meetings, tracking people down, and going through onsite files to get the data you need? These sources of information will be harder to reach from home, even if your colleagues use email regularly and even if you can access the company intranet from home. Also, its easy to ignore email or requests for a video conference; it's harder to ignore someone standing in your doorway asking for information.

• You are tech-savvy enough to not overburden at-office colleagues or IT support by working from home.

• whose computer you will use at home
• if you are permitted to use the computer outside of work hours for personal reasons or if you will switch to your own computer
• how you will back up your data
• how you will protect company confidentiality, as appropriate
• how you will protect your computer from being accessed by anyone in your household
• how you will protect company equipment you have at home or outside the home from theft or damage
• how you will ensure that your virus protection is up-to-date and always activated
• if you will get reimbursement for your Internet access at home
• what insurance covers company equipment you have with you out side of the audience

By the end of the last century (and millennium!), there was already extensive information online and off about companies who had instituted successful telecommuting programs, as well as guides on how to start a program. There were already already a growing number of guides regarding working in multi-cultural teams and working with virtual teams.

Below is a list of such resources from that era that I'm still particularly fond of, and that I think, still, offer fantastic, realistic info about telecommuting:

• Two excellent resources written by Esther Schindler that were reprinted at the now defunct Telecommute!Connecticut
  (copy & paste www.telecommutect.com/homeplate/home.php into the Internet Archive Wayback Machine to access archived versions of Telecommute!Connecticut):  

  Telecommuters Need to Develop Special Skills - http://www.telecommutect.com/employees/employees_tips7.php (copy & paste the URL into the Internet Archive Wayback Machine to access)

  Getting Clueful: Seven Things the CIO Should Know About Telecommuting http://www.telecommutect.com/employers/employers_tip8.php (copy & paste the URL into the Internet Archive Wayback Machine to access)

• Robert Moskowitz's "Are You Ready To Telecommute? An Objective Checklist To Determine If Your Company And/Or You Are Ready For Telecommuting." This was a key resource for the early days of the Virtual Volunteering Project.

• Successful Management in the Virtual Office
  This outstanding, extensive guide, released May 10, 1995 by Bernie Kelly and Bruce McGraw, is still incredibly relevant. It had the most influence on the original Virtual Volunteering Project of any telecommuting resource. (copy & paste the URL into the Internet Archive Wayback Machine to access)

• Pacific Bell Network Telecommuting Guide. Pacific Bell's telecommuting program was one of the first in the nation.
  Cut and paste this URL: http://www.pacbell.com/products/business/general/telecommuting/tcguide/index.html
  into the Internet Archive Wayback Machine

• Proposal to set up a virtual office by Object Services and Consulting, Inc. This document, written in 1995 and updated in 1996 and 1997, outlines how this consulting organization would be set up as an entirely virtual office, with all employees working from home offices - at the time, its nine employees were spread across six geographic regions of the USA. Excellent model for any organization wanting to develop a telecommuting strategy.

• Gil Gordon Associates / Telecommuting, Telework & Alternative Officing
  This is an outstanding set of and links to resources for managers of telecommuters. This site - operating since May 1995 - consolidates a wide variety of information from around the world, and from many different perspectives, on the subjects of telecommuting, teleworking, the virtual office, and related topics.

• Communication and Trust in Global Virtual Teams
  Cut and paste this URL: http://jcmc.indiana.edu/vol3/issue4/jarvenpaa.html
  into the Internet Archive Wayback Machine
  This is an in-depth academic study by Dr. Sirkka L. Jarvenpaa that "explores the challenges of creating and maintaining trust in a global virtual team," particularly those that involve people of different cultures and interest, and varying degrees of commitment. It's from June 1998, but let's face it -- technology may change, but the fundamentals of communication and trust do not. Still an outstanding resource.

• The Psychology of Effective Business Communications in Geographically Dispersed Teams
  In September 2006, Cisco released this white paper that identifies rules for communicating that will help virtual teams to work together successfully. Virtual communication 'best practices' recommended in the report include agreeing to protocols on response times, and establishing rules for the selection of media and the frequency of communications, especially in multi-cultural teams. Encouraging socializing and ad-hoc chats over a virtual 'coffee machine' by using spontaneous and richer media for communications can also speed up the development of trust. Whether you work with online volunteers or with paid staff in dispersed locations, this is a very interesting and helpful white paper. One of the things I like about it in particular is it's focus on the cultural differences that can become exaggerated within virtual teams and lead to misunderstandings. Great stuff. Press release about this
  Cut and paste this URL: http://newsroom.cisco.com/dlls/2006/prod_091906.html
  The Executive Summary (PDF 137.10KB)
  Cut and paste this URL: http://newsroom.cisco.com/dlls/2006/eKits/psychology_business_comm.pdf
  into the Internet Archive Wayback Machine
  
  
• Involving People With Disabilities in Virtual Volunteering Programs
  A benefit of online volunteering is that it can allow for greater participation of people who might find on-site volunteering difficult or impossible because of a disability. This in turn allows organizations to benefit from the additional talent and resources of more volunteers. This resource from the 1990s provides some of the FIRST suggestions on how to accommodate and encourage people with disabilities in online volunteering programs, and to help agencies develop volunteering programs and systems flexible enough to meet the needs and preferences of the broadest range of users of computers and telecommunications equipment. A greatly updated version of the resource is how to make your volunteering as accessible as possible.
  

• Questions and Answers About Telecommuting for Persons With Disabilities: A Guide for Employers
  Cut and paste this URL: http://ilru.org/html/publications/ilru/telecommuting_employers.html
  into the Internet Archive Wayback Machine
  Produced by Dr. James E. Jarrett, Graduate School of Business, University of Texas at Austin, and the Independent Living Research Utilization Program at the Institute for Rehabilitation and Research in Houston, Texas. While this guide is focused on managers working with paid employees, the advice is easily adaptable to managers working with online volunteers who may have disabilities.

• Establishing a Corporate Telecommuting Program
  Part of "The HR Manager", an online reference guide to the broad range of Human Resources topics. It's produced by Auxillium West.

• The Telework Coalition
  Cut and paste this URL: http://www.telcoa.org
  into the Internet Archive Wayback Machine
  "Enabling Virtual, Mobile, and Distributed Work through Education, Technology, and Legislation." The Telework Coalition brings together a diverse array of organizations, companies, and individuals with the common interest of promoting awareness and adoption of existing and emerging Telework and Telecommuting applications including telemedicine and distance learning, as well as addressing access to broadband services that may be needed to support these applications.

• WorkShifting
  Cut and paste this URL: http://workshifting.com
  into the Internet Archive Wayback Machine
  A site promoting tools and information about telecommuting. From by Citrix Online.

• Oregon Department of Energy - Telework/Telecommuting Resources
  Cut and paste this URL: http://www.oregon.gov/ENERGY/TRANS/Telework/telehm.shtml
  This site contains loads of information: an introduction and setting up a telework program, case studies of successful programs, tax credits for telework equipment, information on videos and brochures for Oregon-based employers, and more. I love Oregon. I want to move there.

• Studies and research regarding online volunteering / virtual volunteering
  A compilation of publicly-available research regarding online volunteering, and a list of possible angles for further research regarding online volunteering.

• Online culture and online community
  It's the norm for mission-based organizations (NGOs, NPOs and others) to use Internet tools to work with volunteers (including board members), staff, donors and others. This section of my site provides resources on how to work with others online, not just volunteers.

Also, this report, Working from home: From invisibility to decent work, published January 13, 2021 from International Labour Office (ILO), seeks to improve understanding of home work as well as to offer policy guidance that can pave the way to decent work for homeworkers both old and new. Though working from home has long been an important feature of the world of work, the institutions that govern the labour market are rarely designed with the home as a workplace in mind. With the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic, many in the world’s workforce have shifted to homeworking, thereby joining the hundreds of millions of workers who have already been working from home for decades. The sudden rise in homeworking brings renewed urgency to the need to appreciate the implications of home work for both workers and employers. The report, 279 pages long, includes chapters and sections on

• Working conditions of homeworkers
• Occupations and earnings
• Work-life balance: Relations between the work and family spheres
• Home work and child labour
• Social protection
• Organizing and the importance of representation: Workers’ organizations and cooperatives, employers’ organizations and social dialogue
• Occupational safety and health for homeworkers
• Training and career prospects for homeworkers
• Legal protections for homeworkers
• The adoption of ILO standards on home work
• Freedom of association and the right to collective bargaining
• Social security and maternity protection
• Supervision and enforcement measures
• The role of governments

Return to Index of work place-related resources

 

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