1. Consider creating a dedicated workspace that offers few distractions.

Jennifer Evans, VP Marketing at Southern Living in Manhattan, lost power at her home in Morris County, New Jersey—one of the top four hardest-hit counties in the state—for two weeks. In turn, she and her husband Jeff took their two boys and their dog to her mother-in-law’s home. Jennifer, who already telecommutes when she can, knows she needs a space that provides little disruption while she’s working, so she usually hits the library or Starbucks. With the power down everywhere, however, neither locations were options. Instead, she found a way to her company’s outside office in Parsippany, NJ. “I just showed up on the doorstep and said, ‘Hi, I work in New York. Can you help me?’ They were great—they set us up on different computers and gave us server access.” Jeff, a high school teacher whose school was out, even ended up joining Jennifer at the office. “When you have to get work done, you just go into makeshift mode.”

Fortunately for Cristina Luna, an Art Director who works in Manhattan and lives in northern New Jersey, her home had electricity and running water. But with family and friends nearby who didn’t, she and her husband welcomed several people into their house to take shelter. Transportation difficulties kept Cristina away from the office for four days, however, and work deadlines were still looming. “With everyone there, it felt like a party—like I needed to be a hostess. But I was the only one who could do my job remotely, so I was also the only person working. And while I was more than happy to help everyone out, it was also unfortunately distracting since my work still needed to be delivered on time.”

2. Be prepared to make an extra effort to interact with people during work hours. 

Working from home means more alone time—and everyone we interviewed mentioned missing out on regular connections with coworkers. “I missed the interaction with my colleagues and also the team environment,” explained Rob Jarschke, a contract senior interior designer for Herman Miller, whose Soho studio in Manhattan was without power for almost a week. “Collaboration is important in what I do each day.”

It only took Brooklyn resident Zovig Garboushian two days out of the office before she found a way to leave her apartment for the change of scenery her midtown Manhattan workspace could provide. “I had power and was able to work from home, but I very quickly felt stir crazy. So as soon as I heard that our office had power, I got approval from my manager to get a car service into the city,” she said. “I needed to talk with people, to laugh. I needed those day-to-day interactions again.”

3. Kids at home? Remember that that’s another job in itself.

With the power out in her Manhattan apartment, Randine Pastrovic, Herman Miller’s Marketing Lead for Specialty and Consumer, spent the week of the superstorm in a Times Square hotel room provided by her husband’s company. With her husband continually having to work and their regular daycare without power, Randine had to take on baby duty for their small daughter. “When she was asleep, that was the only time when I could jump online and take part in conference calls,” she explained.

With schools out everywhere, childcare was also an issue for Jennifer Evans and her husband, who were only able to spend working time in a satellite office after their nanny was able to pitch in again. But it was Cristina Luna’s full household that proved positive on the babysitting end. “I already work from home one day a week, and when I do, I know to have a sitter on hand for my toddler. So while we did have several people in our house during that time, at least I had lots of help with my daughter!”

4. Be sure to take a breather, move around — and step away from the desk.

Weather, power outages, and lack of transportation left many temporary telecommuters stuck inside with not much to do except work. “It made me restless. I really hated not being physically active,” stated Zovig Garboushian. Her first stop after getting to her office right after the lights came back on? Her nearest gym location. “I needed a break from not being able to really move around.”

Randine Pastrovic let breaks from work in her midtown hotel room turn into much-needed exercise — and regular check-ins on some people who needed it most. “I took my daughter for walks down to our apartment in Union Square,” she said. “Our next-door neighbors are older, and one can’t walk well, so they weren’t able to get out. We were able to bring them a transistor radio and other things they needed. We made sure to take that walk every day.”

Did you learn anything while working from home during Hurricane Sandy? Let us know in the comments section.

There are still many victims from Hurricane Sandy that need aid during this recovery period. To learn more about how you can help, click here. 

Photo: Gabriela Herman

Along with these growing stats, the research offers a few of the pros that result from working out of a home office, such as increased focus, which can lead to better productivity. Cons, of course, included feeling out of the loop and burned out because of the fuzzy line between “home” and “work.”

Are you part of this growing trend? What are the positives? The negatives? Let us know in the comment section, then take a look at a few thoughts from some telecommuters (and some in-the-know self-employed workers) we’ve featured here on Lifework.

PR Consultant Melissa Riche on the advantages of working from home: “It gives me flexibility and freedom to do what I want when I want. I can work early in the morning or late in the evening. I don’t get constant interruptions from other people. I control my own noise level — I can play music if I want, and I don’t have to listen to other people’s chatter. I can wear what I want and I can bring my dog to work! I can eat lunch at home and save lots of money. I don’t have to take time traveling to work, sitting in rush-hour traffic.”

Jennifer Kennard of Letterology on the obstacles: “I find the most difficult thing about working from home is balancing the work part from the living part. I love what I do, but it consumes much of my life right now. I try to take breaks to either go for a daily walk or a run or meet up with friends when I can. Some of my work is self-imposed, but [my] teaching [job] consumes a tremendous amount of time. When I’m not teaching, there is new software to learn, and maintenance to be performed. It’s a constant task having to be your own IT person, too—or MT—a misinformation technologist, in my case.”

Designer Jason Munn on the challenges he faced transitioning from working in a design firm to a home-based office: “The biggest drawback for me about working from home versus in a design firm is the lack of communication or feedback while you are working on project. More and more I miss that aspect of a studio. Dirk Fowler, another designer and friend of mine who also works from home, and I often send images of what we are working on back and forth to get feedback or advice from each other …. I think the distractions of working in a firm versus working at home probably balance out. In the long run, I feel I have less distractions. I do miss the commute to work a little bit, as I used to walk to work and that was perfect for starting the day. Now if I have any errands or anything like that, I typically do them first thing in the morning, so that becomes my commute.”

Architect Matt Gagnon on the ideal home/work space: “I think living above the store would be an ideal scenario. It is necessary to create boundaries when living and working in close proximity. The ability to lock up work and go ‘home’ would make the distinctions between work and play easier to communicate to oneself as well as to the rest of the family.”

Architect Bruce Bolander on balance and not bringing work “home”: “I have a separate studio that is about 100 feet away from my house. Every once in a while, my kids pop in after school and sometimes some of them will spend the afternoon in the studio working on their homework. But once I cross the driveway and head back into the house, I am home for the evening.”

Rob Ford of the Favourite Website Awards on scouting out the right setting: “Finding a location in the countryside, with stunning views and excellent dog walks, was crucial when we moved. Being able to relax and suck in clean air is essential for anyone working from home. It’s also highly inspirational, as walking stimulates parts of the creative side of my brain that sitting in front of the computer tries to kill.”

Technologist Chris Pirillo on having a personal office space: “It’s perfect for me in the way I’ve set it up. In a traditional office environment, you never come close to what you need, what you want, how you want it to be – no matter how much you rearrange things or add items. It’s always just an office created by someone else for you to use. For me, my space is ME — through and through.”

Designer Cameron Moll on why he needed a dedicated workspace: “My workspace is a continual work in progress. I’ve worked out of the home both times [I've been freelance], and my office has usually been tucked away in the corner of our master bedroom. This doesn’t yield a lot of room, figuratively and literally, to be all that creative. Only recently did I finally secure a room in the house as a dedicated office. I’m still defining what I’d like that space to be.

Boing Boing Founder Mark Frauenfelder on what’s great: “I don’t have to commute to work. It would kill me to have to drive on the LA freeways every day.”

Photos: Linked to their sources; top photo: office of Bruce Bolander

Berentson says of the experience:  ”Well, it was different for different people. So I think there were some people who were a bit skeptical before we started it and thought, “No no no. We really have to come into an office. The magazine’s a collaborative venture.” But one of those people, for instance, decided that why do we ever have to come to the office again, because he could get out of his bed; roll 20 feet to his desk, still in his pajamas; save $300 a month on commuting and thought it was great. There were other people — I, personally, for instance — missed the social and collaborative aspect of coming to an office.”

(Photo: Philip Toledano)

Job satisfaction among workers is at its lowest point in 22 years—just 45% of Americans are satisfied with their work, down from 61% in 1987, when the Conference Board conducted its first survey. Workers are dispirited by having fewer raises, more financial responsibility for their healthcare, and uninteresting work. Only 51% find their jobs interesting today, compared to 70% in 1987.

While there’s no research on what’s happened to worker satisfaction among telecommuters lately, they’re likely less satisfied, too, since they are subject to the same business realities. People who work from home probably still have more job satisfaction than their office-bound counterparts, however; they can comfort themselves with “at least I get to work from home.”

But not everyone who can telecommute should do so all the time. Research from the University of Connecticut shows that while a worker’s job satisfaction initially increases, satisfaction “tapers off at higher levels of telecommuting.” Worker autonomy is a factor, too. The researchers found that “if you regularly depend upon others to do your job or have limited job discretion, extensive telecommuting could put your sense of job satisfaction at serious risk.”

Virginia Heffernan has a great column in the New York Times Magazine called The Medium where she explores Internet culture. Her latest column struck a chord as it looks at working from home, particularly from a woman’s point of view. She sings the praises of telecommuting –  ”this time in a feminist key.” She argues that women have benefitted even more than men from telecommuting as it enables them to more easily juggle their workloads. We’d love you to weigh in on this argument. Let me know what you think. You can email me directly at cerentha_harris@hermanmiller.com.