Re: Need working-at-home advice

[Chris Kowalchuk <chris -at- BDK -dot- NET>]

I've been mostly working from home (or away from my employer's/client's
site) for several years now.

I prefer it, but aside from avoiding a commute, you have to think why
you are working at home. I am the sort of person who can get a lot of
work done in my own comfortable surroundings, especially when you are
talking about actual writing, or other thought-intensive work. However,
I have found (sometimes the hard way) that there is no substitute for
face-to-face communication. I think you have to look at it in terms of
what is likely to be the most productive, and also in terms of the
culture of your organization. In some "wander-around" offices, not being
present can cause you to miss out on a lot of research opportunities,
simply because that kind of place seldom does anything very formally,
and relies on impromptu meetings and working lunches etc. Also, I often
find being a (or "the") technical writer is a cross-functional job, and
people (especially in production) tend to pull you onto their team
ad-hoc because they know you've been working on something related etc.
This is good for you when you need information from them. If you are not
around enough, it can be difficult to sustain these relationships.

My advice:  work at home when possible, but don't sacrifice your working
relationships. Is your telecommuting time flexible? How tightly
scheduled are your interactions with other employees? If these
interactions are tightly controlled, then they might not notice your
absense, but in a looser organization, you should make very clear when
and where you are available, and perhaps try to be in more often
(especially during a development phase--if you are usually in on
them--when boucing ideas off of one another and quickly responding to
questions can be very important). It all depends on the nature of your
organization and your usual job role.

As for the TV:
Try to think critically for awhile about television. Analyse the
content.  Read some Chomsky. Soon you won't be able to tolerate even 5
seconds of it, let alone *want* to watch it.

As for the fridge:
I don't know. I tend to snack quite a bit, but mostly healthy food. Then
again, once you get down and start concentrating on something, you may
find that you are not eating enough.

I find I work best when I can hop right out of bed and start working
immediately. I can often get four or five hours' productive work done
before lunch, and if it's writing etc., then that's about all you can
reasonably expect on an average day. The beauty of it is, you can go
into work and have those meetings etc. if need be, or get more work done
at home, or goof off. Whichever way, you've still had a fairly
productive day.

For what it's worth,

Chris Kowalchuk


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