Teleworkers come in all shapes and sizes. Some never meet their teams face-to-face while others are in the office a few days of every week. Maryanne Perrin co-founded Balancing Professionals, LLC to help companies understand that non-standard workplaces are a good investment.

Maryanne is a telecommuter in the Raleigh, Durham area and runs her company without any brick and mortar offices. She dropped by to share her experience and answer 10 Telecommuting Questions.

1. Tell us a little bit about yourself and what you do.

I’ve spent most of my career with start-up tech companies and loved it! Five years ago I started a completely different type of business (Balancing Professionals, LLC) to help organizations re-think how they work and embrace more flexible work arrangements like telecommuting, part-time and job-share positions, flexible scheduling, and non-traditional career paths. These types of arrangements offer tremendous benefits to employers and employees and are really a no-brainer when you see all the studies that support them. However, changing the workplace culture to enable them can often be challenging!

2. How long have you been a telecommuter?

I’ve been doing some aspect of my job from home for the last 15 years. Ever since I had a laptop. Now, I’m a 100 percent telecommuter!

3. Why did you start?

Like many entrepreneurs, the decision to telecommute was a bottom-line decision. For our business model, it didn’t make financial sense to have a bricks and mortar office so my business partner and I have both worked out of home offices for the last 5 years.

4. How many people do you regularly work with?

My business partner, Kella, and I are in touch frequently using a variety of technologies. I also work with job-seekers in the Raleigh/Durham area, business leaders, and a great network of women entrepreneurs who have formed an advisory board.

Some days it’s just me and the dog. Those days are very productive!

5. When was the last time you saw your coworkers face-to-face?

I saw Kella a week and a half ago when we had a full day of meetings with a community leader and our advisory group. We’ve been experimenting with technologies like CrossLoop which allows us to share computer screens without being face-to-face. It decreases our need for in-person meetings.

6. What is your desert island must-have telecommuting tool?

Definitely my iPhone. Work has gotten even more mobile now that I’m not tied to my laptop. For example I often answer emails or read articles while I’m waiting somewhere for my kids.

7. How many different ways did you communicate with your team today?

Email and text message

8. What is the one thing that really makes your home office officy?

The sound proof door!

9. Do you ever miss cubicle livin’?

While I sometime miss being part of a bigger team, I don’t miss the inflexibility associated with cubicle life. Thankfully, social networking technologies help me feel connected to a great network of really smart people without having to live in the cube!

10. What are the best pajamas for long conference calls?

For me, it’s all about the slippers and the hot cup of tea.

• Find out more about Maryanne’s company at: Balancing Professionals
• Connect with Maryanne on LinkedIn
• Follow @BalancingProf on Twitter

Thanks for stopping by Maryanne!

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!

My first thought after finishing Wayne Turmel’s Remote Working: Turning “Them” Into “Us” was I should’ve written that. Wayne tackled the tough issue of building relationships on remote teams with a deep understanding of the problem and straightforward advice. There’s a lot more I could tell you about Wayne, but I’ll let him take the mic as he answers today’s 10 Telecommuting Questions.

1. Tell us a little bit about yourself and what you do.

I’m a former standup comic turned corporate drone. After 13 years in the training business I’m now the president of www.greatwebmeetings.com and work from home in Glen Ellyn, IL. We help people learn to sell, present, train and manage using any web presentation platform. I’m also the Virtual Working contributor for BNET and Management-Issues.com.

2. How long have you been a telecommuter?

I started about 4 years ago working more and more from home to avoid office politics, craziness, and recover from all the airplane travel. They took me out back and shot me 2 years ago. I started Greatwebmeetings and I’ve worked from home since then with occasional forays into the big wide world for sales calls.

3. Why did you start?

Most of the people who worked for me were scattered around the world, my clients were all over the country, and my boss was on the East Coast; so it’s not like I was working face-to-face with my team anyway. That’s not unusual, 70% of managers now have remote employees although very few companies have figured out the implications of that. The company was also going through a lot of turmoil and the environment wasn’t conducive to positive energy or creativity so a couple of days a week I’d work from home. Now, of course, I work for myself and who needs to pay for office space?

4. How many people do you regularly work with?

I’m a small company with only a couple of people I partner with on projects, but my clients are scattered around the world so there are probably 5-6 projects going on at any time.

5. When was the last time you saw your coworkers face-to-face?

I have one client close to home so I venture out to work with them. Actually, I make any excuse to see people. I’m a big old “E” (Extrovert) on the Myers Briggs and I don’t deal well in captivity. Getting out to see people is important to my mental health even if it’s not the people I work with regularly.

6. What is your desert island must-have telecommuting tool?

Skype. My oldest client is in the UK and 6 o’clock in the morning I’m video to video with them at least once a week. It’s also got IM, file transfer, and I can make really cheap phone calls to anywhere in the world. I may be in Glen Ellyn but my clients are spread out from France to Australia to Washington DC.

7. How many different ways did you communicate with your team today?

Hmmmm Skype, telephone, email, and I hope one of them isn’t psychic because I cussed someone out telepathically for something. I hope they didn’t hear that.

8. What is the one thing that really makes your home office officy?

I have a laptop and a desktop with a big monitor, but the thing that really makes it “officey” is a door. I can work without having to listen to my wife watch “The View”. A blessing if there ever was one. Joy Behar fighting with Elizabeth is not conducive to clear thinking.

9. Do you ever miss cubicle livin’?

Actually, a little. I miss the daily interaction with people and the ritual of going to work… get up, eat, shower put on your big boy clothes and leave the house. I am really good about settling into a routine though and treating this like work. I don’t miss the commute, venturing out in the Chicago winter, or the 7 times a day I had to stick my head up over the cubicle like a meerkat to see what all the racket was. Also I’ve dropped 40 pounds this year because all that commute time now lets me get to the gym.

10. What are the best pajamas for long conference calls?

That’s easy. If I’m not using the webcam, it’s my Toshiro Mifune T-shirt and sweat pants. If the video’s on, it’s a button down shirt and boxer shorts. Well, sometimes jeans because boxers and leather office chairs are an uncomfortable situation.

Wayne Turmel is the a speaker, writer and president of Greatwebmeetings.com and the author of 6 Weeks to a Great Webinar- the best selling web presentation book on Amazon. He lives in the Chicago area. You can find him at www.greatwebmeetings.com and listen to his podcast, The Cranky Middle Manager Show. You can also follow him on Twitter @greatwebmeeting.

• Check out Wayne’s company: Greatwebmeetings.com
• Follow @greatwebmeeting on Twitter
• Listen to the The Cranky Middle Manager Show

Thanks for stopping by Wayne!

The minute I read Sylvia Dahlby’s amazing and insightful comment on Could telecommuting be a career mistake? I wanted to hear more of her thoughts as a teleworker. I found @SylvieDahl on Twitter and invited her to answer 10 questions about telecommuting.

1. Tell us a little bit about yourself and what you do.

I’m a sales & marketing professional, currently working for Advanced Personnel Systems, Inc. the makers of SmartSearch, an industry leading software solution that automates workflow for staffing agencies, executive search firms, staff augmentation & consulting firms, and corporate human resources. I work from home, so I communicate with my customers and prospects via telephone, email and online communities; and I conduct online product demos either webinar-style or on the phone.

2. How long have you been a telecommuter?

Since 1995.

3. Why did you start?

I was already working at home for five years, struggling to make a home-based desktop publishing company profitable. One of my clients offered me a part-time, commission-only sales job. So I started working for him, selling exhibit space at a technical job fair. I wasn’t online at that time, we synched up an ACT database on a dial-up connection that took almost all night. Still, the work itself was less time consuming, more fun, and an easier way to make money. So I began working for him full time, and kept part of my business as a sideline.

4. How many people do you regularly work with?

I don’t know – a lot! I have about a hundred client companies, most with multiple points of contact, plus hundreds of prospects that I call & email regularly using my Sales/CRM database, dozens of new leads every week to qualify, and about a dozen or so people in my company headquarters that I speak with on a regular basis along with weekly sales meeting & monthly all-hands staff meetings via conference calls. I also work with several of our vendor partners, and I work on marketing projects with outside service providers as well. I’m tied into the company phone system that also has IM, and I’m well wired into my LinkedIn groups and online communities. I even get out once in a while or travel to trade shows and professional association meetings.

5. When was the last time you saw your coworkers face-to-face?

I saw one member of the sales team a few weeks ago when I went to an industry Expo. I go to a few conferences every year and see one or two of my colleagues. I also regard my clients as co-workers — since I work directly with them too — I probably saw about a half dozen of them at the last show, and went out to dinner with one of them. If you want to count vendor partners, a handful of them were also exhibiting. The last time I saw all of my company co-workers face-to-face was at the Christmas party; that’s probably the only time all of us are together since I’m not the only one who teleworks.

6. What is your desert island must-have telecommuting tool?

LOL, I happen to live on an island (albeit a tropical one) the Big Island of Hawaii. And oddly enough, I lived in the desert north of Phoenix, Arizona when I started. Anyway, I’d say the only thing I really can’t work without is my cell phone since it has text messaging, email and mobile web access; it’s a mini-office in the palm of my hand.

7. How many different ways did you communicate with your team today?

IP phone which means calls to HQ can be transferred to me & I can also route calls to tech support, billing, etc as needed. IM via the same phone system. Email. Cell phone with one team member who is traveling this week.

8. What is the one thing that really makes your home office officy?

It’s separate from the rest of the house, a large bedroom with its own half-bath that takes up the entire top floor of my house. It was built as a room addition, and it was a key factor in deciding to buy this particular house.

9. Do you ever miss cubicle livin’?

Never.

10. What are the best pajamas for long conference calls?

Technically, I don’t own any pajamas. I have a closet full of long & short comfy dresses that I call “every-wear” — loungewear or loose-fitting dresses that are wrinkle-free synthetics, warm crushed velvet or cozy velour for winter, cool crinkly cotton or light gauzy fabrics for summer — and I typically wear one of these dresses 24/7 because they are comfortable enough to sleep in and most of them are nice enough to wear outside with the right shoes. A few can even be dressed up and worn as office attire with the right accessories or jackets. Since I moved to Hawaii last year, I’ve started adding muumuus to my every-wear collection.

Sylvia Dahlby is a rainmaker and purveyor of software for the human resources, recruiting & staffing industry.

• Check out her company: http://www.smartsearchonline.com
• Follow @SylvieDahl on Twitter
• Connect with Sylvia on LinkedIn