August 31st, 2010 
Maria Helm 
With mobile technology and online tools becoming available to anyone inexpensively or sometimes even free, more and more workers are thinking of cutting out commute time and work from home. The challenge is how does one make a case for virtual work? First, ask yourself whether the nature of your job does not require you to be present in the office. In other words, if you can start and finish your job or project without eyeball-to-eyeball contact with co-workers or customers, then you are a candidate for virtual work.
Second, are you sure you’re cut out for virtual work? Are you convinced that you have the self-discipline to work from home under minimal supervision? And perhaps more importantly, does your boss perceive you as the kind of self-starter who can perform independently? Are you a proven performer? Well organized? A good time manager? If you can effectively communicate your value to your employer, you’ll be better able to sell your boss on the idea of letting you do virtual work.
Once you are comfortable that virtual work or telecommuting is right for you, and you are fully informed, use the following guidelines and strategies to craft an effective proposal:
* Ask not what telecommuting can do for you; explain what telecommuting can do for your employer. Never frame your proposal in terms of how telecommuting will meet your needs. Don’t mention your need for better work-life balance, more time to spend with your kids, or any other personal need. State only that telecommuting will make you more productive and efficient, be a better use of the time you previously spent on the road, make your boss’s life easier — whatever benefits you come up with that focus on the employer’s needs — not yours.
* Tout your value to the company and the traits that will make you an effective virtual worker. Note your accomplishments and contributions. Describe yourself as someone who has the characteristics of a successful virtual worker, and wherever possible, cite supporting evidence of these characteristics, such as in performance evaluations.
* Propose a trial period. The most successful telecommuting proposals are those that offer an easy out for your boss. It’s hard to refuse an offer to simply try it. If telecommuting doesn’t work for you or your boss, the experiment will be over after a trial period. Both you and your boss may want to propose an “out” clause that would enable either of you to end or adjust the telecommuting experiment before the end of the trial period if it simply isn’t working out.
* Build in accountability measures. Suggest ways for your boss to keep tabs on you and be fully informed of your progress. Establish a list of measurable goals against which to determine the success of the trial.
* Talk about equipment. Communicate with your IT department before transitioning into a telecommuting role to see if the systems in place adequately support this type of role.
* If you’re turned down, don’t give up, but try a different approach. For example, volunteer to finish up a project at home over a weekend to show how efficiently you work from that venue. Or negotiate fewer days a week of telecommuting or a shorter trial period.
In the early days of telecommuting, I was an evangelist. I didn’t have the need to “see” my direct reports every single day nor do I crave to know how they spend each of every minute of their day. As long as the deliverables were done on time and on budget, that’s all that mattered to me. Now I’m a bit more pragmatic about it. In the main, telecommuting is a win-win for employees and employers.
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