Telecommuting is not for Me

My office was closed again today, and I got word late this afternoon that it's probably going to be at least another week before we're allowed in to the building. Maybe more. Yikes. I have been learning over these 2 days that even though it may sound tempting, telecommuting in practice is much harder than it sounds -- and it most likely is not for me.

I have worked from home on many occasions before, but that's always been my own choice, and it requires planning. You let people know that you'll be out of the office but online, you bring home files, you email drafts or templates to yourself. And, most importantly, even while you work from home everyone else is still at the office and very accessible by phone and email.

None of those things happened this week. I had no idea that we'd be closed off from the building, so I have nothing at home with me. We weren't allowed to go into the office for anything - not even files or rolodex cards. So the only drafts or templates I have are from past projects that I happen to have worked on on my computer, and they're not exactly appropriate. And, the worst part was that for about 24 hours our email server was down. So much of the past 2 days has involved my frantic search for home email addresses or phone numbers, just trying to get in touch with people and communicate anything. And that's just with internal contacts -- for outside people, I've only been able to contact the people who I talk to a lot, so I just happened to have their email addresses memorized. Having our email server down = no address book. Suck!

But, after figuring out people's numbers and email addresses, I was able to work on a lot this afternoon. While the circumstances of this telecommuting experiment are unusual, I found that there are still several things about the very nature of telecommuting that I find annoying:

1. My ear hurts from cell phone calls! The physicality of talking on a cell phone is different than a desk phone. For one, the cell gets ridiculously hot. I finally had to fish out my little ear bud to keep from burning my cheek!

2. You can't reach people as easily as if you're in the building. Sure, you can call and email, but if you get no response you're just stuck waiting. If I were at work, I would walk down the hall and try to find the person, or one of their colleagues who might know the answer. There are a lot more unanswered questions when you're sitting here alone.

3. No conference calls! Today I spent 3 hours on the phone, but many of those calls could have been collapsed all into one if any of us were at an office rather than trying to talk via our home phones. And all of this phone calling doesn't come close to the benefits of talking in person. My colleagues are graciously bowing to my anxiety and have agreed to meet in person tomorrow rather than keep doing this annoying phone tag.

4. My apartment is not very well-equipped. I don't have a working printer or a fax machine. So everything I am able to do is either online, on disk, or -gasp- handwritten on paper with a pen. I have 2 meetings to prep for tomorrow, and my natural instinct is to type up an outline. But since I won't be able to print it out, I have to go for the loose-leaf. I haven't done that for years!

5. I'm so sick of staring at these same 4 walls! For that reason alone, I'm glad that I have 2 meetings tomorrow.

My challenge tomorrow will be being away from my apartment and with no office to go to. How do I get online? I may head to Kinko's... has anyone ever used Kinko's workstations to get online? I better start saving those receipts for business expenses.

I can't wait 'til my office is open again. This forced work-at-home stuff is driving me crazy!