SMB Networks / Remote Offices /

Handling the hotel

By Jeff Zbar
Net.Worker, 02/25/02

Last week, we looked at dos and don'ts of creating temporary offices. What about when the remote and home-based workers head back into the office's hotel or temp cubes for on-site work? How are they to work with, and how do they leave the space once the day's through? Often, it's not a pretty sight... Second of two parts

At a recent telework managers workshop at a large healthcare company, attendees lamented the condition of the shared space - and the behavior of its occupants.

The 200 remote workers treated the company's 20-seat hotel space like a run-down motor lodge. At day's end, cubicle garbage cans brimmed, docking stations were left propped upright against the wall (to free up desk space), phones laid disconnected after contractors used the their jacks to access data lines. Worse, in the morning, new occupants would call the IT helpdesk to restore phone service before realizing the cause.

"It's like preschool. People don't leave things the way they found them," complains the company's telework program manager, who asked not to be identified.

The corporate hotel office - space designated for remote and home-based workers who occasionally work in the office - can be tough to manage. After all, while most consider their home office a haven, shared offices garner little respect and take lots of abuse.

While unkempt workspaces don't necessarily lessen morale, they can lessen productivity - for the manager who has to stay atop the situation, as well as for workers seeking remedies. The telework program manager describes herself as part manager, part cop, lurking the halls, spot checking equipment, looking for inappropriate behavior and hinting at better habits. She's posted signs around the office and pantry asking people to be respectful of others. A 2000 New York Times article on hoteling etiquette hangs nearby as well - not the best use of her time, she admits.

The effects of noise, food, smells, general respect and consideration and the loss of privacy and personal turf can't be dismissed, writes telework consultant Gil Gordon in his essay, "Telephone Rings, Onion Rings and Other Annoying Things: Getting Along in Shared Cubicles and Offices Without Tearing Out Your Hair."

Next time you check into the office hotel or shared space, Gordon says consider potentially disruptive behavior or habits that irk others:

Keep food out of the cube, or ditch the empty wrappers or containers in the lunchroom garbage.

Watch your personal hygiene, and avoid using air fresheners, nail polish or remover and perfumes that may cause allergic reactions.

Be mindful of humming, the volume of your phone ringer, PC multimedia sounds, finger rapping, toe tapping, talking to yourself or others nearby.

Don't turn your cube mate into a social secretary. When not in the cube, leave paper and pens on your desk for others to leave notes, forward your calls appropriately, and leave word of your whereabouts.

"There's no way that working in an office - any office - affords you the same kind of privacy you have at home," Gordon says, "and the smaller the office space and the more it is shared, the worse it gets."