Telecommuting (buying, sell, make money, income)

[jhlcomp]

Yes, you can have your phone set up to receive calls remotely and no one will ever know that you aren't sitting next to your father in NJ - except on snow days. :-)

[zipbags]

Originally Posted by jhlcomp

Yes, you can have your phone set up to receive calls remotely and no one will ever know that you aren't sitting next to your father in NJ - except on snow days. :-)

We have 5 lines at work. And was hoping that I could have a system. That when any of the lines ring at the office. They would ring at my phone...or at least the secretary can transfer any of the calls she gets to me like she does with our phones now. Is that even possible?

[cdelena]

I telecommuted for years when I lived in Dallas and both myself and my employer participated in the savings. I saved much time and money working from home and my employer got office space back and had an employee that was available more of the time.

I found two major downsides; even though I was in contact with many people on the phone and with email, after a couple of years I really missed in-person interaction. There is also the occasional executive or customer that thinks you are not fully engaged unless they can see you... these narrow minded people often create bad feelings and unnecessary travel.

It does not work well in all industries or for all people but it is the only way I will work from now on.

[DCNative]

Everyone should telecommute one day a week. We'd still have 4 days of being in the office... and at the same time cut our gas consumption by nearly 20%.

[NewToCA]

Telecommuting is a mixed bag in a large organization. If the organization agrees to this as a routine for all employees it can be workable, and improve morale.

If some work from home a vast majority of the time, and others choose not to, don't be surprised if those attending the office more often advance more quickly as promotions open up. When you have organizations with a dozen or more folks, don't be surprised if some see this as an opportunity to frame those who work from home more often as slackers, and make it stick.

I say this from the perspective of a former manager, with subsidiary managers (i am now retired). I spent a lot of time having to justify to upper management the advancement, and enhanced compensation, of folks who had less "face time" than others, who exploited this lack of personal attendance.

[zipbags]

I saw this question on another forum. It was never answered...But, the setup is similar to what we use....

Hi,
I know commercial VoIP is cheaper than traditional phone lines. So for home user, it works. But will it work for business? For ease of argument, I assume the following situation.
1. current situation: 10 phone lines, main phone number is 905-1234567, 20 users share 10 phone lines with extensions. All 10 phone lines are bundled together (rollover).
Features:
internal calls by short extension;
transfer calls to other extensions;
conference calls;
voice mail;
oversubscribe phone lines by extensions which saves money;
2. VoIP solution (imagine): keep main phone number 905-1234567, subscribe 10 or less VoIP phone numbers.
Q#1: Is it possible to keep most or all of the current features/phone system while using VoIP numbers?

My situation is similar. Except we only have 6 lines. And I would be in an office in another location from these phones. I want to be able to have a phone call come in to the secretary and if its for me. She can transfer the call to me from any of my 6 roll over lines.

[jhlcomp]

Originally Posted by zipbags

We have 5 lines at work. And was hoping that I could have a system. That when any of the lines ring at the office. They would ring at my phone...or at least the secretary can transfer any of the calls she gets to me like she does with our phones now. Is that even possible?

Yes, it's possible. As one of the other posters mentioned, you might want to check using VoIP (Voice over IP) - we have this and it has made all the difference except we're a little unique in this case as we are a provider (sort of like our own telephone company).

If you don't want to go the VoIP route then see who provided your phone service in your office. What kind of phone system do you have at the office and who provided that system? Talk with them. There are many ways to go about this - in the end you can get what you want.

[yellowsnow]

I would love to telecommute and there's nothing I do that can't be done with a high speed internet connection. That said, we are all afraid to bring this up. We don't want to give them the idea that if our jobs can be done from home they could just as easily be done in INDIA. Or Pakistan...whatever.

It would be wonderful but if I keep on going to the office, I at least still have a job to go to!

[cdelena]

Originally Posted by yellowsnow

I would love to telecommute and there's nothing I do that can't be done with a high speed internet connection. That said, we are all afraid to bring this up. We don't want to give them the idea that if our jobs can be done from home they could just as easily be done in INDIA. Or Pakistan...whatever.

It would be wonderful but if I keep on going to the office, I at least still have a job to go to!

Sorry, but any job that can be done remotely here can be done remotely from anywhere in the world. BUT, if you offer specific industry skills, contacts, experience, effective communications, and produce good results, you will be much more difficult to replace.

In many professions we now compete in a world-wide market place so it is more important than ever to be on top of your game.

[yellowsnow]

Originally Posted by cdelena

Sorry, but any job that can be done remotely here can be done remotely from anywhere in the world. BUT, if you offer specific industry skills, contacts, experience, effective communications, and produce good results, you will be much more difficult to replace.

In many professions we now compete in a world-wide market place so it is more important than ever to be on top of your game.

I've worked with a lot of those contractors in far-away places. I've never yet seen them deliver the same level of service as the people they replaced. I don't think they were ever intended to do so. It's just part of the game. The companies who offshore the work don't really care if the quality goes down or the work takes twice as long. All they look at is the bottom line.

I am lucky we can't communicate with them by phone. They don't speak enough English or repeat a learned script. They read English well so it's all by email. I stumbled over a huge mistake made by some of these folks. I knew immediately it would be a problem. I emailed my boss and my bosses boss outlining what I knew about the error and what the consequences of a database release would be. I was told to more or less shut up. I can follow a direct order just fine! They did their release and a disaster ensued. I was darn lucky I had copies of those emails and the responses.

Yeah, I have enough first-hand knowledge of that world wide market!