Confessions From A Home Office:Tips For Staying Professional without Getting Dressed

BY Julia L. Rogers

Many technology advancements in the last decade have created new work-from-home business opportunities for entrepreneurs and made telecommuting very similar to being at the office for other employees across industries. But it has also opened up the possibilities for business-breaking faux pas, as professionals get casual and comfortable in home offices. A 2009 survey conducted by research firm Kelly, Inc. stated that 25% of the U.S. workforce was self employed as of last January, and 90% of those people willingly chose to become self-employed.

According to the most recent figures released by the Telework Research Network, the number of Americans who worked from home or telecommuted at least one day per month increased 74% from roughly 12.4 million in 2006 to 17.2 million in 2008; and tough financial times and a bleak job market over the past couple years have sparked even more to embark on home-based ventures.

Setting up shop in your home is full of perks and saves money on everything from transportation and meals to pricey office space and clothing. Still, because the advanced capabilities of the home office have also made the dream of working in pajamas, slippers — or in nothing at all — a reality, the lines between personal and professional get blurred.

If you run your business at home, or ever telecommute, you have probably accidentally typed something untoward into the wrong instant message (IM) window or sent a personal e-mail to unintended professional recipients. Likely, you recovered from revealing to your biggest client what happened on last night’s blind date or sending links to photos of your cat Mittens’ second birthday party to your colleague, but how could you have avoided the embarrassment altogether?

Following are the uncomfortable true confessions of five telecommuting professionals and some quick, helpful tips for those trying to keep things professional while still enjoying the many secretly bunny-slippered perks of working from home.

“I have my own IT consulting company, and I like to get comfortable on the days I’m not out on sales or service calls, doing remote support or working on marketing materials from my home office. For me, ‘comfortable’ usually means ‘naked.’ Once during a ‘comfortable’ moment, I was trouble-shooting some computer problems with a female client over IM, and accidentally clicked on my webcam. I’m still not sure what she saw.” — John M.

Tip: Designate one computer as “work only” and use it only for communicating with clients and tasks like managing marketing campaigns. Not only will this practice protect you from accidentally flashing your clients or sending them irrelevant, personal e-mails and attachments, but it will also protect you from accidentally releasing sensitive information that might identify you and make you prey for hungry cyber criminals. Extend the work-only rule even further by setting up an e-mail address and even an IM screen name that you only use with your business pursuits. Getting dressed might also be something to consider, even on a day stripped of the potential of getting caught with your pants down. Work-at-home experts at Apartment Therapy note that there is a psychological reaction to the morning ritual of showering and getting dressed and that what you wear during the day can potentially impact your mood and productivity.

“I work from home as a real estate agent. I knew I was going to have a lot of appointments later in the afternoon and evening one day, so I decided to take a brief power nap at lunch. I woke up six hours later with everyone wondering where I was.” — Sara P.

Tip: Even when your work schedule can or needs to be flexible, you still need to set a framework for office hours and stick to it, even if you are just starting out with no clients or business slows down momentarily. If you are sick, take a sick day as you would if you were working at a regular company or in a traditional office environment. Continuing to work through extreme exhaustion, meeting with your clients even when you are ill, and refusing to set boundaries will ensure that your clients either take advantage of you or ultimately lose respect.

“I started working from home so I could be home with my young kids. I’ve had to hide in the furnace room to get away from crying while on a call. It’s never a proud moment!” — Rachel M.

Tip: When you work at home, you need to have a workspace, no matter what. You will never be productive if your “office” is the kitchen counter or a desk in the corner of a child’s playroom. If you have a family or roommates, getting work done can be impossible if you set yourself up in a spot where you will be regularly interrupted. The Apartment Therapy experts state that even if you are sharing “work and mommy time,” you can ease the process by giving older children some fun, small, accomplishable tasks or coordinating your work time with their homework time. Also, always think about things from your clients’ perspective. Occasionally when you work from home, domestic issues will interrupt, but you need to remember you are a professional. Think about how your confidence in your tax accountant would wane if you knew he/she was changing a diaper while working on your annual return.

“I run a management consultant business and do a lot of work out of a home office. I painstakingly planned a big Webinar for a bunch of my existing clients and prospective clients on a specific day, marketed it like crazy, set up all the necessary software and was expecting over 100 people to attend. The morning of the event, I was looking through my mail and noticed quite a few maintenance notices from my condo management company announcing that the power would be turned off for six hours that day, right in the middle of my Webinar.” — David R.

Tip: When your house or apartment is your workplace, you need to be able to embrace both its personal and professional aspects. The positive and the negative of running your business at home is that you are 100% responsible for what happens there. You need to act as the office manager of your own workplace and keep in touch with events at home that can affect your productivity, which means diligently staying on top of maintenance issues or emergencies that might interrupt regular work hours. Always compare your personal and your professional calendars to ensure there are no conflicts.

“I’m an American freelance copywriter living in Europe, and I have clients all over the world. Often I have to attend client meetings during my ‘off’ business hours, many of which happen over IM. Once I was so bored with an evening online IM work meeting that I brought out a bottle of vodka. I realized when the meeting was over that I had forgotten to send two clients some online copy that was due that day. In my altered state, I mixed up their e-mail addresses, which was particularly unfortunate, since one was a mortgage broker and the other a purveyor of adult toys.” — Art C.

Tip: You must keep things professional during work hours and, again, set real work hours for yourself. Even if no one is technically watching what you do in the privacy of your own home, anything that could potentially compromise the quality of your work — ingesting mind-altering substances or even just having the television on in the background — can quash relationships with clients and ultimately your business. When you are in the startup phase of your business, find clients that fit your desired work hours so you can keep reasonable, consistent hours. If this level of consistency is not possible in your industry because the market size is not big enough or you need to be more flexible for some other legitimate reason, make sure you plan your schedule on a weekly basis on a physical calendar — whether on paper or on your PDA or computer — and do your best to stick to it. Additionally, while brain-numbing meetings can be a reality no matter how much you love what you do, if you are regularly under-challenged by your business, consider whether that business might need tweaking to bring you true career satisfaction. The biggest perk of being an entrepreneur is finally getting to do what inspires you. If you’re not inspired, what’s the point?