Represent

Did you know that the entire future of Work-At-Home rests on your shoulders? YOUR shoulders? Well, it does.

Work at home employees are constantly under a microscope. We know that we have to work 150%+ compared to the average worker to "compensate" for our distance. But what happens when work at home goes wrong? Answer: You ruin it for everyone.

It's an unfair reality, but any misstep when you are remote is associated with the fact that you are remote. The same mistake could happen in the office, or be worse in the office, but the world is wearing local-colored glasses and only sees your demographics. Whatever happened, being at home is to blame.

Worse, when they blame home for the mistake, they cast a wide net and associate that mistake with everyone. You all remember Yahoo! pulling back, right? Whatever their issue was, it surely wasn't the entire company. Closer to home, I am getting questioned about my own remote work because it is failing in another area. I have news for you - My team has outstanding engagement scores, high productivity, great quality, and the best individual people you'll ever meet. Whatever *your* problem is, don't reflect it on me!

But that is what inevitably will happen. Remote work is a scapegoat for whatever the real problem is. And yet the opposite is not true. If you are a rockstar at home, you don't see a movement for everyone else to do it. It only happens when it goes belly up.

What does this mean for you? It means that you must realize that you represent the entire remote community. Your success is your success, but your failure is failure for us all. You have a huge burden to always shine, and you probably don't even realize it. So I'm here to tell you, on behalf of all the remote workers out there (and especially myself, but I LOVE working from home), you better wow your colleagues every day. If not, we're forming a posse...

To quote Spock, in honorable memory of Leonard Nimoy: "The needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few, or the one."

Live long and prosper (from home).

Manage by measuring

Probably the most popular question I hear from managers about working at home is "How will I know my people are working if I don't see them?" To this my answer is always the same: "How do you know they are working now?"

If you are managing only based on the fact that you see someone's smiling face at their desk from 8-5, then you are a bad manager. Yes, I said it. The truth hurts sometimes.

Management should always be based on measurement. You should have a system in place that allows you to set goals and track progress towards those goals. Those goals should be SMART goals and have enough meat to really hold someone accountable for their work. They should focus on delivery, quality, effectiveness, customer satisfaction, and value-add.

I've seen associates do all sorts of things while in visible distance from their leaders. They spend all day on Facebook. They moonlight with a 2nd job. They daydream and wander aimlessly just collecting a paycheck. They may even be trying to do a good job, but may not be competent or need help. If you aren't measuring from multiple viewpoints along the way, you won't catch it until it is too late and you could, in fact, bring yourself down as a result.

So riddle me this - Would you rather

1. See your team members but have no idea if they are really performing, or
2. Never see your team members but have high confidence in their performance based on tangible measurements?

Hopefully you answered #2! If you are truly doing your job as a manager and have a measurement system in place, then physical location becomes inconsequential. 

Snow Day

Our local offices are closed today due to snow. Many of my work-at-home colleagues are bummed that they don't get the traditional "Snow Day". I get it... who wouldn't want the equivalent of a free vacation day? Sleep in, stay in your PJ's, watch trashy TV. It's almost nostalgic.

But I look at the Snow Day as a gift in a different sense. I'm thankful that I didn't have to listen to the weather this morning to determine if I was going to the office. Or worse, have it NOT be a snow day and have to drive in that mess! I'm thankful that every day I get to avoid traffic, not just on snow days. I'm thankful that I don't have to wear 7 layers of clothes to walk from my car to the office building. With the upcoming -30 wind chills later this week, those couple of city blocks are brutal!

Snow days for me are a gift. They remind me of how lucky I am to work from home. And, when the rest of the office is shoveling their driveway or making snowmen, I'm happy to be working without interruption and get a little caught up for a change. When they come back to work, they will feel days behind, and I'll feel a little ahead of the game.

Snow days help level the playing field, at least for a moment.

Get a backup plan

Random "hiccups" can happen whether you are at home or at work. The power can go out. The internet could go bump. Your phone could get cut off. All of these issues will prevent you from working as you usually do. In the office, everyone is there, so everyone knows. Being universally down is somehow more acceptable than being down at home. When you are at home, you are expected to be connected and never have these mishaps. So what happens when you do?

You have a much bigger responsibility to be prepared when you are at home. You need to be able to get a hold of your coworkers to let them know what is going on, and you need to find a way to work.

The easiest thing to do to prepare is to create your contact list. You should have the email addresses and phone numbers of your key contacts stored offline. This could be on paper, on your cell phone, on your personal PC, or whatever works for you. But consider all the options. If you lose power, you lose personal devices as well.

When you let people know you're situation, you have to let them know what you are doing about it. All of this will depend on your role and what you need to accomplish for the day. This can vary, so understanding all of your options under any situation is important.

• If you have power, but no internet, you may be able to work offline. If you have heads down work, you have materials locally you can work on, or your work is mostly by phone. You may be able to get by somewhat disconnected for a bit.
• If you have no power, working offline is going to be hard. Your battery will eventually die. You need to find another location to work such as a family member, physical office, or coffee shop.
• If you have both connections, but experience technical difficulties with your work connection only, you may have alternative connection options. Check to see if your company has a web mail client or an email app that will give you some means to connect.

If you are not prepared, it may cost you. You could lose face with your leader and peers, and you may even be out a vacation day because not working is not acceptable.