One Team, More Than One Place

A lot of people "go" to work, meaning they leave their residence and put in their time at the office, store, plant, or wherever.

They likely have some form of face-to-face contact with other employees, whether in a village of cubicles or just at that exact time of shift change.

A lot of people, however, "go" to work in their own homes. Now, you probably already knew this. I knew it, too. But I'm still new to this world of freelancing, so sometimes I have moments of realization about the meaning of this particular employment lifestyle.

Last weekend brought me some of those moments. I got a call a couple of weeks ago from the agency that has used my services before. They had a project for me coming up at the end of the month. I penciled it in, knowing I'd get more details as the date neared. On Thursday, I had a phone conversation with some of the agency people, outlining the plan of attack. And on Friday, the layouts started arriving in my e-mail. And they kept coming all weekend! Receive, review, return, repeat. If you'd been peeking in my windows, you'd simply have seen me sitting in front of my computer hour after hour after hour. It may not look like much from the outside. But non-leisure reading for that length of time can be draining!

What struck me as interesting is that there were three active teams (admittedly, some teams had only one member) in three different locations. One person laid out the pages. She e-mailed them to me. After I read them and made notes on the electronic file, I sent them back. She made changes and sent them to the folks at the agency office for a second review before being presented to the client. There was no need to be in the same building, and I never had to use the phone to talk to anyone during the process. Just me and my computer.

I hope that you don't get the impression that I'm new to this technology stuff. I'm just more used to everyone's technology being under the same roof. I have to say that the experience made me appreciate the tools a little more.

It can be nice to just walk down the hall and actually see the rest of the team working on the same project that you are. But it's also kind of amazing to be able to do it all from the comfort of your own personal space.

What have been your experiences working remotely? I'm looking forward to discovering more of both the pros and cons.