Working Remotely

            My various travels this summer demonstrated to me the serious challenges women (and men) face when trying to work away from their home office. On my various trips, I carried with me a laptop and my Blackberry phone. For the most part, I was able to accomplish what I needed to do, but I did face a few obstacles along the way.

            First, I encountered significant problems with my laptop which continually froze up at the most inopportune times.  This forced me to turn to my Blackberry for email communication.  That's fine when you want to share a one or two line message with someone, but when you have a much longer missive to send, it can be a huge pain trying to type with your thumbs on the cell phone keypad. I have to give the guys some credit here.  I'm fortunate enough to have pretty small hands.  I can't imagine how a man of even medium build manages to share more than a simple "hello" on the thing.

            In the middle of the summer, I switched from my Blackberry to the Apple iPhone 3G.  I made the change because my Blackberry had the unhappy tendency to call my mother-in-law and sister at all hours of the day and night, even with the keypad locked and the phone turned off.  That said, for the most part, I liked my Blackberry.  I wasn't one of those people desperate to get my hands on the latest and greatest thing to come out.  What do I think of my new iPhone?  Don't even get me started.  In fairness, I haven't yet attended the one hour class at the AT&T store the salesman recommended for learning to use my new iPhone.  Maybe there are some really great pearls of wisdom in there which will completely change my attitude about this purchase.  Right now, though, I'm not a huge fan.

            So what did I learn about working remotely (something many women working from home need to be able to do)?  First, I learned that there always needs to be an acceptable backup to any form of technology you choose to use.  Just because you bring your laptop along doesn't mean you're home free when you need to create documents, use the internet, or otherwise communicate with the outside world.  For whatever reason, your laptop may fail you.  In that case, if you're staying in a hotel, find out in advance if it has a business center or WiFi access.  If not, identify the nearest location to where you're staying that might be able to accommodate you.

            Next, always leave an Out of Office auto reply on your email.  You never know when you may not be able to communicate with business associates desperately attempting to reach you.  It's not a good idea to leave them with the impression that you aren't answering because you're either too busy or you just don't care.

            Finally, make sure that you've taken care of the logistical side of any meeting or presentation you might have.  I learned this the hard way while visiting the Outer Banks of North Carolina.  I was scheduled to appear on a morning radio show originating from Ocean City, Maryland.  I told my publicist that the host would need to call me on my cell phone for the live interview.  She said that would be fine.

            Just minutes before the interview, I discovered that the only place I could pick up a signal for my cell phone was from a balcony of the hotel where I was staying in a location overlooking the ocean.  When the host finally called me for the live interview, I could barely hear him over the sounds of waves crashing on the shore.

            "Are you on a cell phone or under water?"  he asked as the interview began.

            "I'm on a cell phone by the ocean," I responded.

            "So you're on a cell phone almost under water," he replied with a chuckle.

            Needless to say, this wasn't exactly how I wanted the interview to begin. If I had to do it again, I'd probably reschedule and not take my chances with cell phone reception.

            With so many women trying to run businesses from home or working remotely in their jobs, I'm sure there are many women out there with some great helpful hints for women working outside their home office.  Please share them here.