By the time I was 6 months old, I'd traveled by train, plane, ship, and automobile. A few years later, my brother and I each had a "toy bag" for travel into which we could put any combination of books and toys. The only caveat: we had to be able to haul, drag, or carry the bag ourselves on car trips and through airports. So we constantly shoved items in and pulled items back out, experimenting between must have and too heavy. Is it any wonder, then, that by college I shunned library carrels and did all my studying ensconced in a big chair in the very open lobby of the law school?

While I was born into workshifting, sometimes it's a learned behavior. I have a friend who works for a large multinational corporation. Even after many of her colleagues gave up their offices, she thought it was important to go into hers. When, occasionally, she worked from home, she was restless, unproductive, and wondering whether she'd made the right choice.

That was so last year. Now she's working out of coffee shops, running loads of laundry while on conference calls, and scheduling her day so that she can squeeze in a workout with her coach. In other words, she's blossomed into a true workshifter.

What about you? Is workshifting nature or nurture?


Photo Credit: ikeX

"If only I had that netbook/iPhone/Blackberry/miFi/VoIP/Macbook/digicam/other-cool-gadget, then I would be able to work from anywhere."

I used to believe that I was comfortable working from anywhere, because I grew up in an era where the tools to do so were readily available to me. But then, I started noticing that there were people around me, who had access to the same tools, but that were not using them to achieve location independence.  This led me to a realization. Tools don't make a workshifter.  Giving a man a hammer and a saw does not make him a carpenter. Similarly, giving him a smartphone and a laptop does not make him a workshifter.

Workshifters are a special breed.  While many romanticize the idea of telecommuting and location independence, a small minority actually take advantage of the opportunity.  Perhaps this is because not everyone has that luxury.  Maybe some people would like to workshift, but don't have the tools.

I don't buy it.  Look back through history and you will find workshifters in every era.  Do you think Plato wrote the Republic from the office?  Da Vinci may have painted the Mona Lisa in a studio, but his sketchbook was filled with sights from all over.  Workshifting.com's own AJ Leon talked about how Winston Churchill was the greatest workshifter of all time.

None of these men had access to the internet, Blackberries or Basecamp.  The workshifter's greatest tools are his own personal traits.  Here are just a few of the traits that a workshifter needs to be successful:

1) Flexible
Workshifting means being able to work anywhere under any circumstances.  If you need rigid routines and structure to accomplish work, then you need to work on your flexibility before you can consider the workshifting lifestyle.

2) Ability to deal with uncertainty
The challenges of working from outside an office usually aren't obvious until they arise.  Dead batteries, spotty internet connections, sudden mobs of teenagers invading the Starbucks you're working from, bumping into old or new friends.  Any of these can happen at a moment's notice while workshifting, so workshifters need to be able to deal.

3) Being on the cutting edge
Plato may not have been a big technologist, but I bet he knew exactly which inks and papers travelled best.  A minimum amount of tech savvy is required for being a workshifter, because you need to be able to solve tech problems when they arise, and also because being at the cutting edge gives you an advantage, and lets you stay competitive.

4) Being comfortable with solitude
The typical workshifter doesn't enjoy the camaraderie of a packed office. Instead, he works alone. Even when he is surrounded by others in a cafe, or other public place, the people around him are usually strangers, and while being surrounded by them might be comforting to some, the work of a workshifter is generally solitary. This means fewer people to bounce things off of. Less moral support on a particularly difficult day. A true workshifter needs to be comfortable in his solitude

5) Self-motivated
Workshifters are self-starters by nature, or they learn to become self-starters.  If you depend on the 9-5 clock to get work done, you'll be in for a nasty drop in productivity once the clock no longer holds any real power.

6) Creative
Workshifters are generally creative people, because they often work in creative industries, but the creativity goes beyond the subject of their work.  They also need to be creative in problem-solving, find creative ways to motivate themselves, and generally just need constant creative stimulation to keep them fueled.

Anyone who has worked in an office has seen the legions of workers with their laptops and Blackberries, all of whom come in at 8, and leave at 6, and who essentially use these devices as ways to not pay attention during meetings.  Give someone who's not a workshifter by nature the tools to workshift, and s/he will use them from the office.

There's nothing wrong with this, in and of itself. But it's important to realize that those tools, while they may help in the workshifting process are not essential to it. Having the tools, does not a workshifter make!

What are your thoughts?


Photo Credit: Orionlee

Today Jacquelyn Brown stops by to ask for your assistance with a research project exploring personality type, telecommuting and the potential connection between them.  Jacquelyn has been workshifting for the past 7 years and is currently working on her PhD at the University of San Diego with a research focus specifically on telecommuting.

As a telecommuter for the last seven years , I have been intrigued by this alternative work arrangement and have chosen to explore the concept of telecommuting for my doctoral dissertation at the University of San Diego.
 
Telecommuting continues to grow as technology improves, organizations look to save on overhead costs, employees seek stronger work-life balances, shifting economic priorities, and we look to help the environment by putting fewer cars on the roads.  To ensure that organizations continue to support and encourage telecommuting, we need a better understanding of telecommuting challenges.
 
There are so many avenues to explore when it comes to telecommuting.  One area that is underdeveloped and could be insightful for employers, employees and managers, focuses on the relationships between telecommuting and personality type.  We already know that there are learned skills that can benefit a telecommuter (time management, self-discipline...), but what about how one's innate personality type relates to telecommuting?  This complex issue could provide insight into challenges faced by telecommuters based on their personality type.
 
Telecommuters face numerous challenges, such as feelings of isolation, lack of promotional opportunities, lack of structure in their workday and relationships with managers, co-workers and family.  What is not currently understood is why not all telecommuters experience these challenges, and for those that do, why they experience them to varying degrees.  I am suggesting that this difference may be related to a telecommuter's MBTI personality type.  While it shouldn't be assumed that certain types would be better telecommuters than others, it would be interesting to investigate how the various MBTI personality types could adapt to make their telecommuting situations more successful.
 
The focus of my research is to uncover telecommuters' experiences with telecommuting challenges and explore if there is a relationship between those challenges and such factors as one's Myers-Briggs (MBTI) personality type and telecommuting characteristics and demographics.
 
The MBTI is a personality assessment that takes approximately 15 minutes to complete.  After taking the MBTI participants will be provided with a detailed analysis of your type.  In addition, I have created a telecommuting survey consisting of only 16 questions that is broken up into three brief sections, Telecommuting Overview, Telecommuting Challenges and Demographics.
 
If you participate in this research, I will provide you with the following:

• Your Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) profile (a $12 value)
• The MBTI make-up of the survey participants
• The telecommuting characteristics and demographics of the survey participants, and how they compare to the larger population of telecommuters
• The challenges faced by the survey participant
• The telecommuting challenges for different personality types
  

If you work for an organization that you do not own and telecommute from home using a phone and computer at least once a week, I welcome your insight into your experiences as a telecommuter.  If not, thank you for your time.
 
I will be conducting research for the next 60 days.  Please email me at telecommutestudy@gmail.com to indicate you would like to participate in this research. After you register, I will send you links to both the MBTI and telecommuting surveys with further instructions.  Your feedback on both surveys will be kept confidential.  

Thank you for being a part of this exciting research project!