Comment on Are you cut out for telecommuting?

By Courtney Jespersen, San Francisco Chronicle: Business
Thu, 06/22/2017 - 3:06pm

Are you cut out for telecommuting?

“Not everybody is cut out for working from home,” said Jack Aiello, a psychology professor at Rutgers University. “Above all else, two things are required to be a successful work-at-homer: the ability to be a self-directed, focused planner and a healthy dose of introversion,” Kit Yarrow, a consumer psychologist and professor emeritus at Golden Gate University in San Francisco, said in an email. [...] you can’t chat at the water cooler on your break or stop by a colleague’s desk on the way to lunch. The “mildly extroverted” can make telecommuting work if they have an after-work social life, for instance. Some people can’t help themselves from playing computer games. [...] while society may paint a picture of at-home workers binge-watching Netflix, some telecommuters have a tendency to work too much because they never leave their work environment. Remedy this with boundaries, said Cassidy Solis, senior adviser for workplace flexibility with the Society for Human Resource Management, a trade association. Solis, a telecommuter herself, sets expectations; she won’t respond to emails outside regular working hours unless there’s a pressing deadline. [...] your employer and supervisor will have a lot to do with your success at home. Teleconferencing and regular check-ins can help alleviate feelings of isolation by fostering a team environment, Aiello said. Gallup’s State of the American Workplace report found that employees who spend at least some of their time working remotely have higher engagement than employees who never work remotely. If you fit the criteria and want to explore telecommuting, Solis recommends checking your company’s existing policies, drafting a proposal and starting with a trial period.

 

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