Guidance for working away from your traditional office. Includes info to help make your new work environment secure and more productive, while being safe & healthy. In our Bookstore, there are more in-depth how-to primers and guides.
Often, the biggest problem faced when starting a Telecommuting/Telework program is breaking through the inertia of the management heirarchy.
Your immediate manager may feel that "out of sight means out of control", which is usually the biggest hurdle to overcome.
HR may not want to have the additional work of modifying existing policies & procedures, carrying out the due diligence needed to make sure that your alternate work location is a safe & healthy place, and that you comply with the overtime policies and regulations.
IT may be apprehensive about issues related to getting and being connected to the network while 'off campus' - data security, exposing the network to being hacked, 'malware' (viruses, worms, phishing etc) and support.
These days, Technology has a solution to overcome all of these and similar barriers, whether perceived or real, against working away from the traditional office.
You will find out, when you dig, that Telecommuting/Telework has been going on in your organization, but under the radar; otherwise know as 'Guerrilla' Telework. The most likely to be running under the radar are travelling executives (working from airports, hotels and other wireless-enabled locations) and those, who take work home to complete tasks over the weekend, in the evening or while on holiday so they can "stay in touch".
How Telework/Telecommuting help the Environment. An NVTC Voice magazine article, authored by John Edwards, provides some of the metrics that demonstrate how much Telework/Telecommuting help to reduce global warming and postpone and/or reduce the need for transport infrastructure. (1-page)
Planning for a Safe Home Office The basic guidelines that every home office should follow -- mostly common sense and not costly.
"Presenteeism" Passes Illness to Co-Workers & Clients -- Ask HR to change a policy. "Presenteeism" Passes Illness to Co-Workers & Clients -- Ask HR to change a policy: Change the old, traditional Sick days & Holiday/Vacation days to Personal days for employees to use however fits their need to manage their lives between work time & private time. Explained in a 1-page .pdf
Theft Prevention Strategies for Lap & Desktops. When you are working away from the office, your copmuter and so the information in it will become more vulnerable to theft than when it's in your cube, protected by your employer's security staff & systems. This paper lays out what can be done - from basic common sense (regularly backing up, religiously using encryption) to basic hardware (cable locks) to more sophisticated hardware (Smart cards) to cool stuff (Biometrics and LoJack style tracking systems). The paper contains the urls of the vendors involved. Authored by one of my Network colleagues, Susan Harrington. 5 pages.
Why Telework Works Why Telework works for the employer, employee & society; 1-page .pdf.
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