Since I’m an avid Spartan basketball fan, one of the great perks of working in the virtual environment is my ability to schedule work in a way that guarantees I won’t miss any critical game of the annual NCAA college basketball tournament.
There’s no need for me to take vacation or personal time off to watch the games, nor do I have to rapidly minimize the broadcast on my computer screen to avoid the disapproving eyes of others.
Of course, I’m available if a client suddenly finds him or herself in need of crisis communications counsel or simply wants to send a press release right away (thank you, TiVo).
In my virtual working world I meet my project deadlines, work with clients and put the time and effort into helping my company grow. But I also determine my own schedule for when that all gets done.
As a former newspaper reporter, my company’s setup suits me just fine. I like the sense of freedom—that I’m not “chained” to my desk in a 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. world with a couple of breaks and an hour for lunch. In my environment, I can concentrate fully on the work before me without the distraction of co-workers popping by my office.
What’s been an advantage for us since we first started our company back in 1993 is that ability to work at any time—well into the night, or on weekends—because our office is located in the place where we live.
However, the technology that’s come along in the 15 years since we started our business has blurred the distinction between where and when I do my work, and how it’s done by peers who work in an office setting.
There are so many more of us, nowadays, who aren’t really locked into a Monday through Friday, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. world anymore. We can be reached anywhere, anytime.
If you’ve got a laptop, a BlackBerry, or a home computer, you’re probably tied to your office in your “off” hours, too—early morning, at night, on weekends. How many of us check our business e-mail and are available to the office by cell phone in off hours? Or bring our laptops along with us on our vacations?
In an office or virtual work setting, there’s got to be balance. One of the key things I had to learn early on was to walk away from my “office” and enjoy my home. Just because the work is always there doesn’t mean I have to always be working.
If an opportunity arose for you to work in a virtual environment, you’d really have to know yourself. Would you be too easily distracted by things that need to be done at work, and things that need doing at home? Would you miss the stimulation of interacting with co-workers in an office setting? Are you prone to procrastination? Do you work best only when you’re answerable to someone on a day-to-day basis? Are you such a workaholic that it would be hard to call it quits for the day?
If so, working in a virtual environment may not be for you.