Question for Hawaiian telecommuters (real estate, home, employment)

[DestinedForHawaii]

I was hoping some of the Hawaiian telecommuters on this forum could give some advice. There is a potential for my company to allow me to telecommute (I am a programmer) in the future.

How do you deal with the time zone differences? Is it tough working really early hours? I routinely get up at 5 here on the mainland.

Do you ever have any problems with feeling isolated? Meaning, do you miss being physically around people? This will be new to me.

Any gems of advice that you learned while telecommuting?

Thanks in advance for any words of wisdom!

[OpenD]

Originally Posted by DestinedForHawaii

I was hoping some of the Hawaiian telecommuters on this forum could give some advice. There is a potential for my company to allow me to telecommute (I am a programmer) in the future.

How do you deal with the time zone differences? Is it tough working really early hours? I routinely get up at 5 here on the mainland.

Do you ever have any problems with feeling isolated? Meaning, do you miss being physically around people? This will be new to me.

Any gems of advice that you learned while telecommuting?

Thanks in advance for any words of wisdom!

We just thrashed this out fairly well on this thread: https://www.city-data.com/forum/hawai...waii-oahu.html

There's a 5 hour difference this time of year to the East Coast. So you'd have to start at Midnight to match 5am NY time. It's 6 hours during the summer (Hawai'i does not do Daylight Savings). How I deal with it is to ignore it. I'm open for business at 9am local. You may not be able to pull that off, but in my field (IT Project management) we're dealing with people all over the globe, so we work it out.

[DestinedForHawaii]

Actually, OpenD, that's the whole reason behind my post. I eagerly devored that thread. I was hoping for more insights into this type of work.

Thanks for your comments!

[banzaimakai]

our company uses "virtual workers" for development and IT support all over the world.. our developers dont really need to work a particular timezone "shift.." they just need to be reachable to talk with management or answer questions when they come up.. support is a different game.. they have to be available when the help desk is open.

a lot of good info was covered on the other thread but I would reiterate the importance of "face time" with your employers.. whether it is once a month or once a quarter it will make a difference..

it has always been easier to "cut the remote people first" during a RIF.. so that would be a heads up.

Lots of communication and always show to be "plugged in" because as the others have said, the folks at HQ will assume you are goofing off

most of our management staff (we have 350 employees globally) telecommute partially but we need to be in the office every few days so unfortunately for me now I cannot get away with a permanent move to HI... but can do it a couple months a year like summer and winter vaca...

enjoy!

[OpenD]

Originally Posted by banzaimakai

it has always been easier to "cut the remote people first" during a RIF.. so that would be a heads up.

Unfortunately, that does seem to be the case more often than not... maybe because they can get away with doing it over the phone or via email

It's stupid, because remote employees cost less than in-house employees. The first employer I worked for reduced their real estate cost by over a half when 2/3 of the employees began working from home. They also found it improved their recruiting efforts, because they could hire top employees all over the country who would not want... for whatever reasons... to move to the NYC area. And my last employer sold the building and made everyone a remote employee, so a lot of the workability depends on management attitudes.

Remote people also tend to get passed over for promotions. But since the average worker now changes employers anyway (avg 5 years) to get a bump in income and more responsibilities, that's not as big a disadvantage as it used to be.

Anyway, it all boils down to having to work a bit harder to stay all bright and shiny at the Home Office. I do it because my productivity is better working at home. I'm easily distracted in an office environment, and a cube farm or open office are the worst.

But one thing to be careful of... you can easily fall into the trap of working longer hours in compensation. Whatever you decide to do, it's best to have a set routine. Even if you are only available during the two hours your schedule overlaps with someone distant, make sure you are available during that time if they want to call.

[dragonfly2178]

Originally Posted by DestinedForHawaii

I was hoping some of the Hawaiian telecommuters on this forum could give some advice. There is a potential for my company to allow me to telecommute (I am a programmer) in the future.

How do you deal with the time zone differences? Is it tough working really early hours? I routinely get up at 5 here on the mainland.

Do you ever have any problems with feeling isolated? Meaning, do you miss being physically around people? This will be new to me.

Any gems of advice that you learned while telecommuting?

Thanks in advance for any words of wisdom!

I teach at multiple schools, all online. My schools are on the East Coast, Mountain Standard Time, and Pacific Time. I am also a morning person, so I would get up early on the main land, but now I start work at a "later time." For example, I get up at 5am here, but it is 10am on the East Coast. It isn't much of an issue as long as your boss is ok with it. Sometimes it can be quite tiring when an 9am meeting is called, but at that point you just suck it up and set an alarm.

The key to doing time zones is to mark everything in Hawaii time so that you know what time YOU need to be there. One thing I do is have my computer clock set for MST because that is where my work is primarily. This helps me so if I am talking to someone I can say, "Well it is noon (even though it is 9am here). I can get that to you by X"

I haven't found it too isolating. You meet people here so the physical contact is still there. Sometimes it is odd never "meeting" people you work with, but you get to know them and their personality through emails, im and phone calls.

I hope this helps and good luck.

[OpenD]

Originally Posted by dragonfly2178

One thing I do is have my computer clock set for MST because that is where my work is primarily. This helps me so if I am talking to someone I can say, "Well it is noon (even though it is 9am here). I can get that to you by X".

Excellent point. It's the little things that help the most sometimes. My former employer was smart enough to put 5 clocks on their intranet portal for key installation cities around the world.

I have a panel clock with three faces side by side and a label holder under each. I set them for key cities I'm working with. It's especially useful for cities like Hyderabad, India, where the time is offset by 30 minutes from GMT. You can do the same thing with widgets. Or with wall clocks, like the stereotype "command center" or tv newsroom. That's cool looking for visitors.

[csassie]

My employer is considering letting me work remotely when I move to Oahu in June.
I'm wondering if anyone knows if they would need to follow Hawaiian employment law, pay Hawaii worker’s compensation, be incorporated in Hawaii?

[whtviper1]

Originally Posted by csassie

I'm wondering if anyone knows if they would need to follow Hawaiian employment law, pay Hawaii worker’s compensation, be incorporated in Hawaii?

No. But you do have to pay Hawaii state taxes.

[Kayekaye]

Originally Posted by DestinedForHawaii

Do you ever have any problems with feeling isolated? Meaning, do you miss being physically around people? This will be new to me.

Haven't work long distance but worked in my home for a couple decades. It can be very isolating so what I did to stay connected to my field was to join a professional forum. Made a lot of friends from all over the world, became moderator and still have some very qualified people to turn to when I am stuck. There are also "Meetups" that can be in your field so you can find some like-minded and skilled people where you are.