Tips on Telecommuting

March 14, 2000

American Express Blue presents June Langhoff, editor of Telecommute magazine who discusses telecommuting, the portable workplace, working at home, and teleworkers.

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AmericanExpress: Welcome to another of an ongoing series of Blue from American Express chats! Tonight's chat will help you get started on the road to telecommuting-and offer helpful tips to current telecommuters. Our special chat guest is June Langhoff, editor of Telecommute magazine. She is author of The Telecommuter's Advisor, and writes about the portable workplace for Home Office Computing, Working at Home, and TRIP.com. Her Telecommuting Resource Center (www.langhoff.com) provides loads of advice for wannabees (people who want to get started telecommuting), plus tips for people who already work at home. The site also summarizes news of interest to telecommuters and contains lots of links to additional information on the Web. You can ask June as many questions as you like, but please keep them on topic. Welcome, June!

June Langhoff: Well thank you very much!I'm delighted to be here, and excited to talk to you all about working remotely, so let's get started! What kinds of questions do you have?

Brig: I am not familiar with this - what is telecommute and what does it offer to office workers?

June Langhoff: Telecommuting is a way of working using your modem to get your work to work, so that you can work from anywhere, and stay connected to work via a telephone line. Office workers can do some or all of their work in a much quieter environment, for example their homes, and still do all of the work they need to get done for their employer.

Noelle: Are there many companies that use telecommute? and is it successful?

June Langhoff: Yes, Noelle, there is a tremendous number of companies that are doing telecommuting - big companies like American Express, AT&T, Pacific Bell, Cisco Systems, and small companies of all sizes throughout the world. In most cases it is extremely successful for the organizations. They save money by having fewer meetings and needing a smaller amount of office space, and they can attract and retain good employees.

Tootie: How can I get started telecommuting?

June Langhoff: Assuming that you have good work skills, and are familiar with the computer software that is used at your company, and have worked there for three to six months, you can make a proposal to your boss suggesting that you work from home one or two days a week as a trial. But make sure that you tie your proposal to work related benefits, not because you want to do it. In other words, if you want to stay home with your children, don't mention that. Say you want to stay home to improve your productivity, and get more accomplished.

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