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What are the worst distractions of being in an office?
We’d love to hear your stories of how working in the office was distracting and how working remotely was the salvation. Was it the constant phone calls? The boss always demanding you come to his office only to keep you waiting outside? The meetings that never start on time? Share!
couple of my favorites. Used to work for a guy who bragged about not being an e-mail or phone guy, but a real “face to face” type. He spent his whole day either calling people into his office or walking into theirs and literally would interupt us 6 times a day each. And usually it was because he wanted to nag on us for not getting things done and being distracted. My other favorite was at a telco a while back. We didn’t have offices, just cubes and people would just walk in no matter what you were doing. I got so tired of people walking in while my headset was on asking “are you on a conference call?” that I made a sign “Yes, I am on a conference call”. It didn’t stop them though.
There are some really helpful tips out on the web to help people be more effective working from home. MVW recently posted and article on the “News” page about 10 Telecommuting Pitfalls to Avoid. The article was posted on 3/14.
The article sites two pitfalls that seem to be the double edged sword for a lot of remote employees and their employers:
#3. - Increase Workload
#9. - Inability to separate work and home life
One of the reasons why many people love the ability to work from home is because they can be more productive… However, when your increased productivity results in more work and bleeds over into your home life it can be a real draw on the appeal of working from home. Setting boundaries seems to be one of the areas where many teleworkers really struggle and don’t give much thought to until it is too late. Remote employees need to set boundaries with their employers as well as the other occupants of their home - which can be tricky to balance at times.
Does anyone have any tips about how to approach the topic of setting boundaries with your employer? Would love to get some insight from people that have been able to do this successfully.
Thank you for the details guys…
I’m new here…. I want to learn from you!
