Working Remotely for Microsoft: Can You Focus On Work At Home?

First off, I don't recommend remote work for folks who don't like spending the vast majority of their time away from their colleagues, sometimes having trouble focusing on the work in favor of household duties or interactions. In fact, the ability to focus on work while at home is the #1 issue you'll have to face as a remote employee and I've seen it drive 80% of folks back to the office. I've always been naturally in the 20% bucket on that issue.

As an example, when I first started at DevelopMentor, my office was in an open back room separated from the dining room by a hallway kitchen. My two infant boys had me in clear view when I was handcrafting RPC packets for communication with a DCOM server, hanging on the child gate, crying for me to play with them. My wife also had in plain sight when she wanted something from the high shelf. My family often heard me protest, "You know, I am actually working over here!" I eventually built a door, purchased Melissa a stool and learned to be very mushy about the split between work and home life. My family's actually been very supportive and I've always preferred the work environment I've established at home over any I've ever had from an employer, if for no other reason than my home has my family in it.

My advice to anyone that wants to switch to remote work is to try it for a month or two first. Are you able to balance work and family life when you're at home? Are you able to go for days or weeks without the hallway conversations with your colleagues? Can you communicate effectively in ways that aren't face-to-face? If you don't like it, don't force yourself into it. For example, while DM instructors didn't seem to have any attrition due to remote work, all of the names I listed above as remote Microsoft employees have either quit, moved to Redmond or complained bitterly during their transition (Scott's still new : ).

Tomorrow I'll discuss "Can I Find Someone To Let Me Work From Home?"

Looking forward for tomorrow's post since I'm really interested in working from home but just don't know how to convince the boss...

Beyond not being in the same space as other work employees to me the key to being able to successfully work from home is half up to you, and half your boss.

The number 1 trait you need is the ability to pressure yourself to get the work done (consistently - or at least ensure all schedules are met!) - sometimes known as focused or even a work-a-holic. Additionally as Chris points out the family needs to understand that you are actually working! This is really not that hard once the balance is found :-)

If you don't have this personality trait I cant imagine you would be as successful working from home compared to the office.

Your boss needs to trust you enough that you will meet your deadlines, and yet be flexible enough to shift stuff around reasonably easily without him needing to be stood in front (or behind) of you.

I have to say that I work from home and it certainly has its ups and downs. But in my case the positives far outweigh the negatives!! (Plus it saves a ton on gas!)

I hated being in a "common workarea" (I found the noise level very disturbing) so I asked for permission to spend most of my time in my small office (with a door) in another building.

That was OK with the boss there and he also said that if I wanted as far as he was concerned I could work from home.

I turned that down saying that "there, my wife would disturb me". As you wrote even with a door and separate workspace there are always things that wives do fine when you are not there but for which you are essential when you are there.

In my case there was also the problem that the room with the door and desk at home included the PC my wife uses. So if I used my portables there she would be unhappy to say the least and if I used my portables downstairs there would be disturbances all the time.

As you write. You need to try it out for a couple of months first. I had two days a week off during the summer and tried to do half days work each of those days. It wasn't easy.

I work for one of the other big companies. We have "home working" since years - starting to say decades. Having 56k modems in the beginning - now we have ISDN phones and ADSL to work from home.
As you said - my biggest problems have been:
Focusing on the work.
My Family
Missing the hallway/coffee gossip
It takes some time until your family understands that you are actually working - and not waiting until your wife asks to hoover the home.
On the other hand it took me very long stop working in the evening. One can very easily end up with 10-15 hours working a day without realy noticing that fact.
If you can also change from "40 hours a week" to "this deliverables" or "this amount of work to be done" it will be easier to play with your kids on the afternoon and work when they went to sleep.
I dont know how many of you have to work in an international environment - I sit in Europe - and have collegues in china, india, germany and us. When I wake up - china nearly goes to be - when US wakes up - am already tired again.
My advise: Think about your possibilities - and plan your days/work carefully.