Category Working Naked

The NUMBER ONE problem reported by employers, when asked about their home office or telecommuting employees, is lack of communication -regardless of industry. Supervisors and Coworkers MUST be kept informed about what is going on with you. The transport mechanism of this communication, be it email, IM software, telephone, teleconference, semaphore, smoke signals, or whatever you want is entirely up to you -but you MUST keep them up to date.

The NUMBER ONE problem reported by home office, telecommuting, or traveling employees, when asked about their employers, is lack of communication -regardless of industry. "Out of Site, Out of Mind" is a frustrating, but true, reality. When you are not part of the "Office Space" you can very easily be forgotten about. This is not fair, but it is nevertheless true. The difficulty here is that the onus is on you. YOU must make a habit of regular "check in" communications with your team -minimally once a day. These communications can take the form of status meetings, calls, technical questions, or even nothing more than a "good morning -whazzup" IM ping. The point here is to provide a daily reminder to the members of your team that you exist.

The NUMBER ONE problem reported by businesses regarding their relationships with vendors / service providers / consultants is lack of communication -regardless of industry. Again, the onus here is on you. YOU must let your customers know what is going on regularly -even if it is nothing more than a "hey there, just wanted to let you know I'm still working on your stuff" call. This doesn't have to be daily, but you should never go more than three business days without a check in, period. Your customer is paying for your expertise and professionalism, and a critically important part of that is communication.

Just as Location is important in real estate; Communication is Critical in business.