I am new to the workshifting team so before I delve into the meat-and-potatoes of my first post, allow me to introduce myself.  First, although I am new to workshifting.com, I am not new to workshifting.  I have been telecommuting (rather than working for myself from home, i.e. freelancing) since 1995.  Back then, I thought upgrading from 9600 to 56 Kbps was pretty cool (we're talking modems); I had a hard time finding a desk that could accommodate a keyboard and didn't look like something that belonged in an industrial complex; and almost no one else I knew did what I did. Obviously, that's all changed--but what hasn't is my happiness with being able to work a corporate job (complete with salary and benefits) from anywhere (currently Steamboat Springs, Colorado, a.k.a. Ski Town USA). 

When I started telecommuting I was an editor at InformationWeek magazine; now, I'm an Industry Principal (fancy word for "analyst") at Frost & Sullivan, where I cover the same technologies I use every day: conferencing, VoIP, instant messaging, unified communications and collaboration. So, if anyone should be a workshifter, it's me (drink your own champagne, and all that). Still, it never ceases to amaze me when I come across managers (and they're almost always managers) who just don't get the concept of working from somewhere other than the office. Eric Besley's recent post does a great job of outlining why such thinking is so outdated.  I'd argue it's also likely to make your business less competitive in the increasingly virtual marketplace.

The usual reasons for this certainly apply: you won't be able to hire the best and brightest if you can't offer them the same flexibility as other companies; you will spend more money than you have to on office real estate and other facilities costs; your employees are less likely to suffer burn out if you let them skip long commutes and spend more time with friends and family; you can be a greener organization by cutting travel and commuting costs; and so on.

But the real reason you won't be able to compete is you're thinking like a 20th-century boss in a 21st-century workplace. The fact is, people should be judged on their productivity, reliability and ability to satisfy clients. That's always been the case, but now, thanks to technology, it's possible to meet all those criteria and work from home (or the local coffee shop, as my friend Charlie seems to do often, based on his Facebook updates). With VoIP technology, you can make low-cost calls and give people one number with which to reach you; with conferencing and collaboration software, you can stay involved with colleagues, brainstorm ideas and work on projects; with IM and presence information, you can reach the right people when you need them; and with social networking sites, you can connect to people personally and professionally, developing and deepening relationships that lead to greater business success.

But all the technology in the world won't enable workshifting unless you shift your management attitude, too. So here's a great way to tell if you think like a 21st-century manager, or whether you're stuck in 1999. Do you view IM as an excellent way to monitor whether your home-based employees are working? If your answer is "yes!" you're managing in the past. IM and presence are great for deciding whether, how and when to contact someone if you need information quickly. But if you are using it to monitor whether that someone is "at their desk," you're making a mistake.

For starters, as Eric noted, there's no particular reason to think people are more productive just because they're sitting next to a phone or have an Internet connection. Indeed, the opposite is more likely true--we all know how hard it is to get work done during normal business hours, when e-mail, IM and phone calls pose constant interruptions. I have colleagues who live near a corporate office but only visit for social calls--they know they're not going to get anything done working there!

This is why, as a workshifter, I stay logged out of IM for the first half of my work day. That gives me time to catch up on e-mail and voicemail; stay current on what's happening in my industry; and put at least a couple of hours of productive work in before the communications barrage starts in full. Doing that is the only way I can actually get anything done. But to a monitoring boss, it would, presumably, look as though I wasn't working at all.

There's another drawback to using IM as a monitoring tool: Many of us who have been working remotely for years have grown accustomed to doing so in the way that works best for us--and often, that means not under the watchful eye of managers and co-workers. Change that MO, and suddenly, we're likely to get skittish--and far less productive as a result.

So here, a few quick tips for how to use IM as a productivity tool, not a motivational drain: