Telecommuting And Technical Writing – An Ideal Match?
I’ll start off by saying that for close to three years I telecommuted full-time as a technical writer for Cisco Systems. Cisco, of course, as a networking leader had telecommuting all figured out from the technical side. I never had any trouble getting into the secure VPN although on occasion I did have short lived problems with my local cable company.
I was located in Herndon, VA, my manager was located in San Jose, CA, and the other writers and engineers I worked on a daily basis with were located in California, Nevada, Massachusetts, China, and India.
From a technical writing viewpoint, working from my home office was little different than working in my cubicle. The big difference was that there was more time for work.
Gasoline prices and the local commuter traffic were no longer an issue. Either was office politics; in fact, I became almost totally oblivious to the latest tech writer rumors.
I could get up early and start working almost immediately. This was especially helpful when dealing with fellow writers in India who were often not available during normal working hours.
I could call into meetings as necessary. I was also available for contact via AIM whenever someone needed to contact me.
The documentation cycle went on the same; I wasn’t really necessary as a physical presence. While there were some people I knew from actual physical meetings, most were simply usernames on emails or AIM. This was pretty much par for the course at Cisco because the people you worked with were often on other continents.
In fact, after this experience I wonder why telecommuting is not more common for technical writers. It seems an ideal match. With today’s technologies, you can easily do from your home office anything you do at the workplace.
The only reason that comes to mind is that perhaps management has not yet figured out how to deal with telecommuting.
For additional insights, see:
Telework (Telecommuting): the Benefits - and some Issues!
US agency: Telecommuting offers many advantages
About the Author
Larry Czaplyski has over twenty years of professional writing experience in high tech, real estate, business-to-business, and technical writing. His web sites are http://ljcjr.com/ and http://targetedcopy.com/.
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