The quest to escape the cubicle has often been a theme on this blog. Last year I escaped for a liberating 5 months. Not once did I miss the black ergonomic chair or the file drawers with my very own mini key. You can have the personal whiteboard and the hands-free telephone head set – I never use it anyway. But alas, after my time away, I’ve landed back in the four walls…well, two partial walls of a cubicle.
Now this has nothing to do with the job itself. Even the most stimulating jobs can be dulled a bit inside a sterile office. There’s definitely something to be said for collaborating with colleagues face to face when emails and dialing into conference calls isn’t quite enough, but in my ideal world, I will have the option to be in the office one day and the next be working from hotel roof top in Spain or from a café in Thailand. Having that flexibility is everything to me.
Fortunately, this past week I had the opportunity to work from the road. With back to back weekend events in Europe, rather than miss one or have to fly back home for the week in between, my supervisor allowed me to stay and work on the continent. This is what I’ve been waiting for. The chance to prove to myself and to my job that the world is wired enough for me to be an efficient employee from anywhere on the planet.
So how did it go?
Well, let’s just say I learned a lot. I’ve worked from home before many times, but heading to a different country with a vastly different time zone adds challenges to the mix. Definitely challenges that can be overcome, but things you need to plan for. Here are a few tips for those who are thinking about working from the road.
- Establish your work schedule and stick to it. My job is based in California, but I was working from Europe, which meant a 9-hour time difference. Not wanting to commit to 2:00 AM conference calls, I told my office I would be working East Coast hours. Where I failed here is I didn’t stick to that schedule. I didn’t want my travel to inconvenience anyone so all week I was awake until a minimum of 4:00 AM for meetings and answering emails.
- If you’re heading overseas, get a good set of plug adapters so you never have an excuse for not charging your tech devices (laptop, tablet, phone).
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| Adapter Kit I purchased from Brookstone |
- Schedule time for meals/breaks. Another casualty of working a different schedule is mealtime. Many times I found myself on calls during a majority of dinner hours. So I was rushing out at the last minute to get a bite minutes before the kitchens closed.
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| That night’s dinner came from the grocery store because most of the restaurants had closed |
- Not all Wi-Fi access is equal. Often my laptop or phone showed I had full Wi-Fi signals and emails sailed through without a hitch. Then I’d use Skype to make a call and suddenly that full signal wasn’t enough to support my voice. Probably my biggest fail on this experiment was having steady phone access and with at least 3 – 4 conference calls per day, this became annoying for me and probably for my coworkers as well. As another option for free/cheap calls, I’ve had a lot of other travelers recommend getting Google Voice. I plan to set up account to see if that’s more reliable overseas.
- Know that if you want to be totally professional, you may have to incur additional expenses. I spent more on accommodations than I may have done on a regular vacation because I wanted to make sure I was in a space that had reliable Wi-Fi access, where I wouldn’t be distracted and where I wouldn’t disturb anyone with a 3:00 AM conference call. So that ruled out affordable options like staying with friends or at a hostel. Also, often in a desperate search for last minute dinner, I ended up eating at more expensive restaurants because they were the most accessible option close to my hotel.
- Choose your location wisely. I ended up basing myself in the Hague in the Netherlands. It’s a city I quickly took a liking to last year and enjoyed wandering around during the day, but where I didn’t really know anyone so was able to avoid distractions like going out for dinner with friends or heading to the local pub for drinks. It can be a little lonely at times, but it helped me to focus on work, which was really why I was there.
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| My “office” in my sunny hotel room in the Hague |
So after a week of little socializing, minimal sleep and regularly dropped calls, would I do it again? In a heartbeat! The chance to sit in a sunny Dutch café and soak up a different culture while typing out an email is well worth any of the minor hassles I encountered. And I have to tell you, a conference call is much more manageable when you can sit on a comfortable couch with a cold glass of white wine, rather than in a sterile office with a lukewarm cup of coffee.
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| Working from a Dutch cafe |
I hope that I proved to my office that I am responsible and accessible whether I’m in the cubicle across from them or thousands of miles away. I know each time I do this, I’ll get better at it, working out the kinks and making things even smoother. For those of you who have already mastered the art of working from the road, what are some tips you can share? What gadget, process or work location makes your absence from a real office nearly imperceptible? Please share with a comment below or on the There’s So Much To See Facebook page.
I too believe one’s environment has a real impact on physical and emotional feelings and, therefore, productivity. Give me the charm of a new land and I am filled with new energy.
It depends on how long you are in a place, but look at renting an apartment where you are instead of hotels. If it is a personal apartment, the Internet is usually decent (people know their own priorities). Having a kitchen and being in residential areas for grocery stores saves money and helps you deal with meal times. If you aren’t going sightseeing, being out from the center won’t be such a big deal.
We have been on the road for a few months and heading home soon. The concept of setting a schedule and keeping to it has been the hardest part for me so far. It is just blog work, not paid contracts, but interesting to see how hard I have to put myself in the right mindset.
Keep working on your experiments. Companies need to realize that we can be productive and actually even moreso with less time in the physical office.
This is what I’m struggling with right now. I’m trying to find the right balance between working life and the life of a traveler. I’ve been doing the latter for a couple years and have recently just found a 9-5 job and its been a real struggle for me to get back into it. Hopefully one day I’ll be able to telecommute like you have.