Welcome to the Telelympics! Telecommuting For The 2010 Winter Games

The 2010 Winter Olympic Games are looming large for all of us now. It's nearly 2010 and February is going to be here before you know it. The question that a lot of us have been asking ourselves, and you should ask yourself, is "What am I going to do about work during the Games?" Some folks are lucky enough to be given the time off. UBC, BCIT, and many other educational institutions have chosen to close during the Games, but what if you're not one of those lucky folks? How are you going to get to work? What's your Vancouver Winter Olympic work plan? In this first column of a series I'm going to layout one option that might appeal to many folks: working from home.

Update: Per the comment below, it's only the classes that are cancelled at UBC. Everyone else will be working ... hopefully tele-working!

Since I moved to BC in 2000, I've primarily worked from home. Only for a "brief" period in the last year have I gone into an "office" on a daily basis. One year out of nine isn't bad is it? Because I've spent so much time working from home, I have more than a few tips and tricks up my sleeve that I'm going to share with you on how to work from home successfully. The first hurdle is talking to your boss, unless of course your boss has already told you to work from home in which case it might be your family that needs to be convinced! It should be obvious, but working from home is predicated on you having both a computer and high-speed internet access at home. If you don't have these, you might be stuck going into the office.

Working it out with work

If you haven't broached the subject with your boss yet, you need to very soon. The City of Vancouver and VANOC wants to reduce our regular traffic load by 30% during Games time, just to allow for the extra traffic (and associated craziness) that will come part and parcel with the Games being in town. I can't think of a better way to reduce traffic than not having to jump into whatever mode of transportation you choose and just stay at home for work. Here's how to approach the topic of working from home with your boss: Just lay it out straight. There is going to be traffic from the seventh level of Hell during the Games so being able to plan for you to be at work at a predictable time isn't going to happen. Sure, you can time shift, but at some point you're going to have to venture out into the throng of the city and that will just not be fun. So if your boss would like you to be available to him or her and your clients/customers with as little disturbance as possible, just take travel out of the equation. Sure you can play the "it's easy being green" card or "I know I'll be more productive at home" spin (both of which are true and fantastic reasons themselves), but for your boss it's minimizing the disruption to day-to-day business that will probably win the day.

Paint a plausible scenario: You're heading to work. You've left home at the recommended "really darn early" time (let's say adding an extra 1-2 hours to your commute), but there's a security incident or accident close to town. Even if a few roads are blocked off or a bridge closed for only a short time, that could create chaos lasting much, much longer. This puts you coming into work late for an important conference call. Since the cell phone driving ban will be in place and a ticketable offence, you calling in from the car isn't going to be an option. When you finally get to work, "grumpy" probably would only scratch the surface of your mood. The day might not be shot, but it hasn't started off well and that will certainly effect your productivity. Compare this to if you are working from home. A few minutes extra sleep or time to prepare and your favourite coffee in your favourite mug. You sit down in your office area and dial into the call on time and chipper. The rest of the day goes just as well. If a client wants to meet, and they are close by, walking over to a local coffee place could make for a nice relaxed atmosphere for a productive meeting.