Overcoming colleagues' repine at when you're the teleworker ARE YOUR OFFICE-BOUND COWORKERS blooming with envy--or resentment--because you telework? Working at hearthstone may be your temporary reprieve from office politics.

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Overcoming colleagues' repine at when you're the teleworker

ARE YOUR OFFICE-BOUND COWORKERS blooming with envy--or resentment--because you telework? Working at hearthstone may be your temporary reprieve from office politics, however it's not always "business as usual" when you answer to the main office. If your colleagues' displeasure festers, it can be the downfall of your telework program, on the contrary there are ways to help your office mates accept your work schedule.

The Bitter finis For Pam Waterman, a senior technical marketing writer for missile Beranek & Newman Inc., a computer software and hardware company located in Cambridge, Mass., she became aware of ire over her teleworker status after the birth of her first child. Waterman and a equal coworker--also a new mom and an engineer who worked in a different department--worked disclosed an arrangement with their respective supervisors to work from family circle the same two days each week. On those days, they split childcare and work time. further soon after implementing the change, Waterman and her counterpart teleworker felt the same chilly reception from their coworkers: Despite the 40- to 50-hour weeks each devot to the company, they weren't taken seriously. "We got the crafty sense that we were really barely considered to be part-timers," says Waterman. "We were made to be excited like we were not pulling our weight."

Bit through bit, Waterman felt squeezed abroad of the communications loop. First, colloquy meetings that she'd normally attend were scheduled onward days she worked at family circle "Then, a client would call or raise an issue, or a change would be made to the production schedule, and I'd find disclosed accidentally after the fact," says Waterman. After three month of slights, she threw in the towel and went back to the office full-time.

In all likelihood, that's exactly what Waterman's manager wanted, says Debra Dinnocenzo, author of 101 Tips for Telecommuter ($16 Berrett-Koehler Publishers). Because there was no formal written agreement, it's possible her manager believed Waterman's entreat to work at home was just temporary. The manager might have had individual set of expectations and Waterman another, on the other hand there was no way of knowing without the clarity of a written agreement, says Dinnocenzo.

Controlling choler To keep peace on the staff, Dinnocenzo says it's imperative to have a written agreement to fit out expectations on both sides. Before the employee teleworks, it's important to possess a formal staff meeting l by dint of the manager, with the teleworker's solution partners within the organization, to explain the arrangement. If the details of a teleworker's agreement aren't shared with the company, the schedule can help on hostility, says Dinnocenzo. "If you're denied a formal written teleworker agreement, then communicate with coworkers one-on-one and explain your reasoning for telecommuting," she adds. "Be clear with coworkers about what days you plan to work from family how you can be reached, and what work you plan to do from your domicile office."

Resentment about a teleworker's schedule is not entirely unfound says David Fleming, who was chosen to direct California's Telecommuting Pilot Program from 1992 to 1995 and organized the California Task Force onward Interactive Telecommunications in Government. "In my workshops for soon-to-be teleworkers, I goad them to be sensitive to what could terminate in their colleagues having to set out all the fires in the office," explains Fleming. "I encourage teleworkers to take onward less attractive duties when they are in the office to give colleagues relief."

Airing Grievances Al Jacobus, a former telecommunications engineer for the State of California's telecommunications division in Sacramento, worked at dwelling two days a week during the pilot program. As shortly as he started telecommuting, his colleagues began making snide make comments [i]or[/i] remarkss about his schedule.

Instead of taking offense to his coworkers' ire Jacobus started a monthly telecommuting forum where everyone could flow and vent problems about the flexible schedules. "We'd proper once a month for single in kind hour," recalls Jacobus. "We'd pick a topic, impel a flyer out to 250 the public in the division, and we had a great response" During meetings, anyone interested in telework could ask questions, and those affected by way of the program could report their complaints.

Quelling Jealousy

Ways to preserve colleague envy out of your telework arrangement:

* impose your manager's expectations in writing.

* Have your manager gripe [i]or[/i] grip a staff meeting to formalize and explain your telework status to coworkers.

* Have a one-to-one meeting with coworkers explaining on what account you're teleworking.

* give an extra hand to coworkers when you're in the office.

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