My workgroup’s #telework initiative has gone from inception, to pilot, to post-pilot, now to full-scale rollout as of this week! Feeling good.
Micah Vono’s tweet seems simple, but it caught my eye. So many people start teleworking without a plan or strong company support. I wanted to speak with someone planning a telework program so I tracked Micah down and invited him to tell us about his teleworking experiences.
Micah works in the IT department of a Fortune 500 company helping support a team of telecommuters. He’s also a teleworker. Micah dropped by The One Minute Commute for our latest installment of 10 Telecommuting Questions.
1. Tell us a little bit about yourself and what you do.
I’m a Knowledge Manager, Information Designer, and all-around idea guy for an IT Service Desk in beautiful, currently-snowy Minnesota. I administer knowledge databases with multiple audiences; there’s a lot of information-gathering and design work. I also keep myself busy implementing new tools and systems to make the lives of IT workers and end-users easier. This year I led an initiative to have some of our IT Service Desk agents work from home, which was a really fantastic experience!
2. How long have you been a telecommuter?
I’ve been a part-time telecommuter for about a year and a half now.
3. Why did you start?
You’ve probably heard that the average office worker is interrupted about every 11 minutes, and it was no different with me. These interruptions caused serious productivity issues, especially when writing content or code. There’s a good depiction of this frustration in a scene from “As Good As it Gets,” when Jack Nicholson’s character is trying to write a book and there’s a knock at the door every time he gets his train of thought back. Luckily, my boss was really open to the idea of me working a couple days from home every week, so these are my “power days” where I can get a lot done and have more time to do it. After you do that for awhile, you really start to see how ineffective the office days can be.
4. How many people do you regularly work with?
In reality, hundreds. I regularly consult with subject matter experts for different content areas, as well as Knowledge Base users, and people in the business. But I’d say my core circle is around 15 people.
5. When was the last time you saw your coworkers face-to-face?
Yesterday. We actually had a big snowstorm here last night though, so it may be a while until some of us go back to the office again! Luckily even those of us who were snowed in can have a productive day.
6. What is your desert island must-have telecommuting tool?
I suppose the laptop is too obvious. So I’ll say the BlackBerry. I roll my desk phone to it, I do conference calls with the speakerphone, and get email and calendar events wherever I am. A smartphone is truly a teleworker’s best friend.
7. How many different ways did you communicate with your team today?
Mainly email and telephone so far today. We also find instant messaging and video chat to be extremely helpful, and our team has a collaborative website we can communicate through. I’m also a big proponent of more passive types of communication, like microblogging (we use Yammer), and regular blogging. I keep an internal company blog where I post what I’m working on and things I learn. It’s a great way to stay in touch with your co-workers. Everyone who sees my updates knows what I’m doing without me having to officially tell them.
8. What is the one thing that really makes your home office officy?
I’m going to have to say that the receptionist and security guard really help make for an authentic at-work experience while at home. I’m glad I hired them.
But seriously, it’s important to have some office-like features when you’re telecommuting, like a dedicated workspace with the right tools. If you do a Google image search for “working from home,” you’ll find a lot of pictures of people in bathrobes, or sprawled out on the couch by the TV. I think this is the misconception that can make telework such a tough sell with upper management. I have a real desk, with a real chair, and a real workstation setup, in a separate area. It’s an office, just in my home. Except for when I use my treadmill desk — that’s pretty unconventional I suppose.
9. Do you ever miss cubicle livin’?
If I worked from home 100% of the time, there would certainly be things I missed about the office. As great as email and videoconferencing are, they’re not a complete substitute for face-to-face contact. Sometimes it’s nice to run into people and have casual conversations. For me, right now, a mix of working from home and the office suits me quite well.
10. What are the best pajamas for long conference calls?
No teleworking gentleman would be found on a conference call without his silk smoking jacket and ascot, of course.
- Find out more about Micah at: micahvono.info
- Follow @micahvono on Twitter
Thanks for stopping by Micah!