Unexpected "Sound Effects" on Conference Calls

February 4, 2008 · Filed Under WFH, telecommuting · Comment 

As more and more people work from home and take company calls from there, it’s inevitable that we’ll be hearing more and more interesting sounds in the background going on at people’s homes. Everyone has heard the toddler trying to talk to daddy or mommy while they’re on an important conference call. Here are some of the other intriguing sounds you might be hearing in the background:

  • Excessive slurping of coffee
  • Small children to the extent that is sounds like the employee is moonlighting at a day care
  • Dogs barking
  • Toilets flushing
  • Trains
  • Cabs
  • Heavy breathing

The office creates a sterile environment for conference calls devoid of ancillary noise but at home, life goes on and the presence of families and their activities provide a backdrop for the modern day conference call.

My favorite is the toilet flush. I have not personally experienced hearing one on a call, but I have had friends who have heard one go down (excuse the pun) on a call. The funny thing is that many times, the initiator of the sounds can be identified since often there is a limited group of call participants who are at home while most are in the office. How many of you have succumbed to the call of mother nature and muted a call during a pit stop?

I’ve experienced an employee conducting another phone call in parallel with a conference call that I was on with them and they accidentally added the other party and the conversation to the first call! Although it was not a memorable call to listen in on, about 7 of us were listening in on a call that we weren’t invited to. Our call participants went silent as we were overcome by another conversation.

While we try to make avid use of the mute button, inevitably there are mishaps. It’s inevitable that you will be on the wrong end of the equation at some point in your work from home life.

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Non-Telecommuters More Likely to Leave a Company

January 31, 2008 · Filed Under WFH, telecommuting · Comment 


This article I ran into explains that in companies with a high concentration of telecommuters, there is an adverse effect on those who are left behind in the company offices.

These workers are more likely to feel less committed and are more likely leave the company. There is a perception that those left behind have been left with more work and are permitted less flexibility than their peers.

With the focus in the press so often placed on the telecommuters themselves and the benefits derived, here is another ignored side of telecommuting that companies need to be aware of.

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Dead Body Discovered In The Home Office

January 29, 2008 · Filed Under WFH, telecommuting · 1 Comment 

I made the trek up to the 3rd floor to my home office and found the above gruesome but not-too-uncommon discovery on the carpet by the door. A few feet away I found another pile of body parts, this time, internal organs:

And then there was the bulk of the remains a few feet further away. It appears I came just in time - the octopus could be saved but the goose was too far gone.

The culprit was found, surprised that we had located her …

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Getting Out of the Home Office

January 25, 2008 · Filed Under WFH, telecommuting · Comment 


As a manager for a consulting services organization who works from home, I occasionally need to get out of the home office and actually meet with humans face-to-face. Although the rigors of the airport ritual make me wince when I think about traveling, I enjoy getting out of the house and into a real office talking with people in the flesh.

Leading customer meetings in-person is much more demanding mentally and physically than conducting them via phone. If you don’t get out there once in a while, you get out of practice and your skills start to decline.

If you’ve been home-bound for too long, I recommend getting out there and creating a reason to get into an office. Meet with your coworkers or your customer in-person. Doing so could prove to be rejuvenatinating if you feel that the working from home pattern has been repeating itself for too long.

If you manage a team of telecommuters, find a way to get an in-person team meeting at least once a year. Over the years, I’ve encountered budgetary resistance to holding these but it is critical that these be held. The team bonding is one of the biggest reasons for it. It’s hard for people to feel like a team if they’re geographically dispersed and never see each other in person.

Telecommuting full time has it’s benefits but staying locked up in your home with no outside stimulation is not healthy over the long term.

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Bad Seafood and Customers Don’t Mix

January 22, 2008 · Filed Under WFH, telecommuting · Comment 

I remember my first “real day” on the job of my first WFH position. I had just taken a consulting position for a hot pre-IPO software company and I really felt like I had taken my career up a notch. My pay was up 75% over my previous job and everyone I knew that worked for this company was poised and scary smart. As a result, I felt immense pressure for my first days and weeks to be performed at my best.

It was primarily a travel job - I worked from home and flew to customer sites on a weekly basis. Unfortunately, my very first customer visit in the new position didn’t transpire as I would have liked.

I traveled on Sunday night for a Monday early start. It was probably a large insurance company having issues with their software implementation and I was to parachute in and save the day. Those were some of my favorite engagements: the customer could be losing millions of dollars a day with a non-performing system and you had hours to turn around major improvements. I was always rather good at it.

My flight in was uneventful and I made it to the hotel without issue and proceeded to find a restaurant to grab some dinner. I located a major-chain Italian restaurant (small town options were limited) and ordered the seafood pasta dish. Dinner went fine and I went home to bed early so that I could be on top of my game for my first-ever customer.

I began throwing up around 3:00 AM and continued to do so for about 4 hours. I cursed the chain restaurant all night and vowed never to return to any of their locations as long as I lived (10 years later, I haven’t returned).

Nonetheless, I cleaned myself up and left sleep-deprived and dehydrated for the customer site with my suit and tie properly applied. I remember that the day went remarkably normal and nothing really came of my weakened state and I completed the engagement successfully.

It was just one of those times in life where you wonder to yourself if someone is pulling the strings, controlling your fate and trying to mess with you. I have this image of me as a marionette with an ethereal figure above me directing me to eat bad seafood and laughing an evil laugh: “Ha, ha, ha, let’s see how he handles this curve ball”. What are the odds that the only time I get food poisoning is the night before one of the most important professional days of my career at the time?

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