On behalf of all of us at Phone.com, I want to wish you a happy and healthy holiday season and a well needed happy and healthy new year!

As I write to share our thoughts about 2020 and look forward to 2021, I will just start and end a wish for the most important thing: health to all!

At Phone.com, we are proud of the work we did this past year and how we were able to cope and help our customers and employees once the pandemic hit.  

Like everyone else, all our original plans and programs had to be changed or amended. We made the immediate change to remote work for our entire team and managed to do so with very little to no disruption.

Our motto and mantra was and still is: We are all in this together! 

Luckily our own service is what made it very easy for us to make the change.

We have enjoyed the opportunity to help our customers do the same. We have worked with so many of our long-time customers and many new ones who joined us as they changed the way they worked and operated.  

Like many other companies, we have hired and onboarded many new teammates who we have yet to meet in person. This includes Chris Basile, our new head of our Customer Success team. I have yet to meet Chris in person, but we probably spend more time together on our video meetings platform than we would have had it not been for the pandemic.

Our Phone.com family has grown by over 20%, and we successfully onboarded team members in all departments!

We had several new product and service releases during the year, as well as many updates to our platform and network, and we will continue to do so and more in 2021!

Here are some hi-lights:

• We released a significantly enhanced video meetings platform that is also HIPAA compliant and clientless. 
• We introduced browser-based web calling in My.Phone.com.
• We updated our entire user interface
• We expanded our partner program with deeper relationships to offer better products and integrations
• We continued to upgrade our network
• We continue to get recognized for our work and appreciate all the great feedback we get from you!

The unsolicited positive feedback our customers give thanking our customer service agents for the support they provided is the best thank you we can get, and we deeply appreciate it.

The honest and constructive feedback we get when you don’t like something is also appreciated and we strive to learn and improve! So thank you all!

We look forward to an outstanding new year at Phone.com, with many new product and service improvements! 

Happy holidays and a happy & healthy new year!

Ari Rabban and the Entire Phone.com Team

The post 2020 Year End Message from the CEO appeared first on Phone.com.

The Civic Alliance was founded by CAA Foundation, and Democracy works in January to champion the idea that everyone should have a voice in shaping our democracy and that businesses can play a crucial role in supporting safe, healthy, and trusted elections, and by inspiring our employees and customers to participate in civic life.

At the outset, the Alliance’s goal was to build a nonpartisan coalition of businesses that agreed to take steps to get their employees and customers to the polls, regardless of political affiliation, and to work to ensure Americans understand and trust the electoral process.
After the coronavirus hit in mid-February, the Alliance recognized additional ways businesses can help support the electoral process.

These included addressing the sudden shortage of people willing and able to work the polls during the pandemic and the need to educate the public about new options for participation. For many, mail-in voting, early voting, and secure drop boxes represent new ways to make their voices heard.

“What it’s all about is getting companies to work together to support the faith and trust in elections and really inspire every American to participate in shaping our country’s future,” said Civic Alliance Director Steven Levine.

Other organizations that have joined the Alliance include Major League Baseball, Target, PayPal, Microsoft, and many others in technology, retail, sports, and entertainment.

For our part, Phone.com encourages participation by providing paid time off to vote and offering a full day of paid time off for employees who volunteer to be a poll worker. 

We believe the United States’ strength lies in its people, each with the power and the potential to shape the future of our country. Like all Americans, our company has unique values. Yet we are united in envisioning a future where everyone is engaged in civics, starting with voting in every election.

Phone.com has benefited from Americans’ support. Today we stand committed to supporting all Americans as they shape our nation’s future by participating in our democracy.

Resources:

Nonpartisan Voter Information: Vote411.org

Help Staff Your Local Polling Place: Power the Polls

The post Phone.com Joins the Civic Alliance to Boost Election Participation appeared first on Phone.com.

Is Your Business Prepared for a Remote Workforce?

Today’s workforce looks vastly different from that of just a decade ago. More companies are not only allowing employees to work from home, but they are encouraging it. In a recent report by FlexJobs and Global Workplace Analytics, remote work was found to have increased by 44 percent over the last five years and 91 percent in the past decade. Today, 4.7 million people, 3.4 percent of the U.S. population, now work from home. A FlexJob survey discovered that 74 percent of respondents believe flexible working has “become the new normal.”

Remote working was once viewed as an inhibitor to productivity, yet with the right tools and oversight, it can lower operating costs, improve employee satisfaction and contribute to lower carbon emissions and less traffic. All worthy benefits, but perhaps even more importantly, it can also provide a viable solution in the case of an emergency, something that is on the minds of many business owners right now. Sometimes conditions make it so that people can’t or shouldn’t come into the office. Does your company have a plan?

If you’re a small business that isn’t quite ready to support a completely mobile workforce, now is the time to learn what you can do to prepare in case a situation arises where your employees can no longer come into the office.

Best Practices for Remote Work Situations

There are multiple factors that play into how quickly and easily you can roll out a remote workforce capability, including the type of work required to keep operations running, your technology infrastructure, and internal support are just a few. No matter the situation you may find yourself, here are six best practices that work in any environment:

1. Communicate openly.

Fear of the unknown is considered a fundamental fear. In the case of an emerging crisis or an emergency, the unknown can quickly lead to high levels of anxiety and even panic. While you may not always have all of the information to alleviate employees’ fears, you should aim to at least communicate often what you do know, particularly as it relates to your organization. Keeping all of your employees in the loop as to how the crisis is evolving and impacting your business, how your organization is responding, and what they could/should do in the near term can help relieve anxiety. It also shows you care about the health and well-being of your employees above all else.

2. Set expectations.

If you need to support a remote workforce in the case of an emergency, be sure to set expectations for each employee per their individual role. Be detailed in the tasks they are to complete, the hours they are expected to work (if there is a set number of hours), the process(es) they are to follow, and who they are to report to during the emergency. Establish performance metrics to track productivity. Managers will play a pivotal role in ensuring expectations are clearly articulated to those who report to them, tracking each person’s performance, and providing feedback. 

3. Ask employees what support they need.

If you have to create or increase remote work capacity in a pinch, it’s likely your employees will need support in preparing their remote workspace. Depending on the structure of your company, you may designate a single person to manage requests or enlist the help of managers to reach out to each of their employees. You’ll want to know if they have the basics, such as reliable and secure internet/wifi connection, a computer or alternate device to log into email and other apps they need to perform their tasks, phone connection, appropriate office space of some sort, etc. Collect the information and then work with your team to equip people with what they need to do their jobs.

4. Use non-emergency times to discover gaps in technology/space needs.

With #3 in mind, it’s a good idea to survey employees before an emergency arises to understand who has sufficient remote capabilities and who will need help ramping up. If you want to be a nimble organization that is able to quickly mobilize in a crisis, it’s important to know where your vulnerabilities ahead of time are so you can be proactive in planning to mitigate those risks. Work with IT, HR, security or any other departments in your organization to solve any issues and ensure the materials and equipment employees need to be productive is available.

5. Provide employees with tips for working from home.

Many of your employees may have never worked from home before and aren’t sure how to make the most of their new work environment. It’s easy to get distracted, procrastinate, allow interruptions, and become less productive. Here are a few resources you can provide employees who aren’t used to working from home so they can feel more comfortable with remote working:

PC Magazine – 20 Tips for Working from Home

Forbes – Five Crucial Tips for Working from Home

Inc. – 11 Best Productivity Tips for Working from Home

6. Provide a solution to keep the workforce connected.

While working from home may be preferred by many, it can also feel isolating, particularly for employees who are used to working with other people. Gallup says 21 percent of remote workers say their biggest struggle is “loneliness.” For those employees who need it, they recommend establishing online group chats to encourage regular, virtual “hallway chatter” and/or weekly “phone trees” where remote workers can gather around a workplace topic.

Whether your employees enjoy the solitude of remote working or not, it’s important, according to Gallup, to make sure they aren’t “cut off” from the organization. Managers must make a concerted effort to keep their employees “visible and their advancement, development, and recognition top of mind.” They must be engaged not only with their work but with your organization.

How Phone.com Technology Can Help

Phone.com is available 24/7 to help you prepare for the worst-case scenario. We offer more than 50 cloud-based features to keep your remote staff connected and capable no matter where they work, such as video conferencing services, global numbers, SMS text messaging, and multiple productivity and business applications, such as Salesforce, Zoho, Zapier and Haptick. With Phone.com, you can quickly establish and support a completely remote workforce – all from a single, intuitive web interface. In just minutes, you can do all kinds of things, such as:

• Set up auto attendants to route callers to the right person
• Record answering and hold announcements to let callers know how your business is operating during an emergency
• Use our Live Receptionist service to make sure someone answers the phone, even when your employees can’t
• Use unlimited conferencing to have remote meetings

What Phone.com Is Doing to Support Clients During an Emergency

Phone.com is prepared to support our clients during an emergency and any time they need us. Here’s what we’re doing behind the scenes to make sure we’re always prepared so our clients are always prepared:

• We conduct remote-work tests during non-emergency times to ensure that we are prepared
• Our network features multiple geographically-redundant offices and data centers
• We have remote working capabilities for employees in all regions
• We have Business Continuity and Health and Safety plans in place for all Phone.com locations, should they be required

Remote working may not be ideal for your company for the long term, but with Phone.com and the best practices above, you can adapt your business to meet the challenges that may come with an emergency. By giving your employees the technology and protocol they need to remain productive and efficient in a crisis, you can ensure your business stays strong and your employees are as safe and productive as possible.

The post 6 Tips for Small Businesses That Want to Enable Remote Work appeared first on Phone.com.

We started this business in 2008 with one overarching goal: level the playing field so small businesses could compete with larger companies. Phone.com is purpose-built from the ground up to provide SMBs with innovative cloud-based unified communications services (UCaaS) previously available only to the most well-heeled enterprises. One caveat with Phone.com, we insist on offering flexible pricing without requiring long-term contracts.

12 years later, I am proud of how our company has stayed the course while adapting services to meet your evolving needs both now and in the future.

In all candor, I believe what separates Phone.com from other service providers is that our company was founded by serial entrepreneurs and is run by serial entrepreneurs. What I mean is that we get it. You operate in markets that are fluid, volatile and competitive, and want technology that just works. In a world where the only constant is change, you can rest assured that your business communications service provider is agile, flexible and reliable.

Our developers are quite literally among the foremost experts in the history of IP communications. Phone.com Executive Vice President and Chief Technology Officer, Alon Cohen, was honored by the state of New Jersey with the “Legend of Technology” award for his years of service and contributions to the telecommunication sector. Alon co-founded the first-ever IP telephony company that essentially overhauled how people worldwide communicate.

For Alon, receiving such recognition from the state that invented the telephone and brought us legendary outfits like Bell Labs is well deserved. It is an honor for all of us at Phone.com to work alongside him every day. For me personally, it is a distinct privilege to call this legend a dear friend. Congratulations, Alon!

That level of acumen permeates every level of our organization, allowing us to take customer-centric inspirations from idea to concept to live service, leveraging technologies like artificial intelligence and APIs to connect and extend cloud communication services into specific workflows with custom integrations. We are very optimistic that partnerships with innovative companies will usher in a new wave of convenience by creating synergies between disparate applications that elevate and simplify how users interact with their data.

Despite all our talk of innovation, we still adhere to the old-fashioned notion that the customer always comes first. Phone.com continues to receive accolades for having one of the most dedicated support teams from coast to coast.

As I mentioned, 2019 was a year of many milestones for Phone.com. But more importantly, for our customers. Each new product, service, update and upgrade is designed to provide you with better service. We’ve made significant investments in our infrastructure that dramatically improved our network speed, security and reliability. We also continue to expand our team by recruiting like-minded individuals, providing more boots on the ground from San Diego to Newark.

I hope you’ve found the updated Communicator softphone and enhanced messaging services to your liking. We’ve also added millions of new phone numbers for you to select from as your needs for new phone numbers grows, including arguably the best selection of premium vanity phone numbers in the industry.

Just last week, in case you missed it, we also announced Live Receptionist, a new live call answering service and latest addition to our comprehensive portfolio of UCaaS and business phone services. Available “as-a-service,” Live Receptionist removes the hassle of hiring and on-boarding new personnel, as well as the financial obligations of compensating a full-time, salaried employee to answer phones.

2020 is going to be an exciting year for both of us, and I cannot wait to share details on the bevy of advanced services coming your way.

On behalf of the entire Phone.com family I would like to wish you and yours all the best for a happy, healthy and prosperous holiday season. Thank you so much for your continued support and patronage.

We are all at your service and you can always reach me directly at: ari@phone.com

Sincerely,

Ari Rabban

CEO, and your entire Phone.com team

The post Letter From The CEO | 2019 appeared first on Phone.com.

Phone.com was invited to join the Karen Hunter Show on SiriusXM on May 28th, 2019 for #TechTuesday. Our own Ari Rabban, CEO of Phone.com, and Alon Cohen, CTO and Executive VP, had the pleasure of joining Karen for an informative chat session on her show, talking about Phone.com’s benefits for small-to-medium businesses, the Newark, NJ entrepreneurial community and emerging VoIP technology.

Besides hosting her SiriusXM show on channel 127 Urban View, Karen Hunter is a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and professor. Her radio talk show is widely lauded for its focus on emerging technology, entrepreneurial spirit, hands-on approach to community and business building in a humorous, personal talk format.

This show is an informative, wide-ranging conversation about Phone.com’s role in the VoIP industry as leaders and pioneers, covering topics including:

• Early days of VoIP and Phone.com
• VoIP Technology and business benefits of VoIP
• Benefits of U.S. based technical support
• Newark, NJ based business
• Emerging VoIP technologies with AI

You can now listen to the segment here and we encourage you to check out The Karen Hunter Show on Urban View 127 on SiriusXM. Join the #TechTuesday, #KarenRebels, #weOWNtech threads on Twitter.  You can also find Phone.com on Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn.

Phone.com has built a special promotion around our appearance on the show that’s now available. Use promo code PDCKHSHOW19 during sign-up and get 12 months FREE basic service, from Phone.com.

On behalf of Phone.com, we want to thank Karen Hunter Show for inviting us on. We had a blast and look forward to the next conversation in her studio!

The post Listen to Phone.com at SiriusXM! appeared first on Phone.com.

AppCard is a personalized marketing loyalty program for retailers, independent grocers, and franchises. We spoke with Dan Winnick, a product engineer, about a custom integration Phone.com provided.

Tell us about AppCard.

AppCard is a loyalty program provider for large merchants, grocery and retail providers. When a customer checks in and makes a purchase, AppCard starts the process of collecting the SKU-level data for the purchases. Working across multiple retail locations, AppCard is able to segment audiences using AI based on purchase history, stability, and profitability. This allows AppCard then to personalize coupons and incentives for individual consumers to increase engagement and loyalty while providing complete conversion measurements of the process.

What kind of criteria in a telecom provider was AppCard looking for?

As a customer-focused technology startup company, AppCard required a higher degree of service flexibility in its telecom provider. Beyond customer service inbound and sales outbound calls, AppCard needed a service provider that would partner with them on custom development applications and caller analytics for deeper data integration.

Enter Phone.com…

AppCard reached out to Phone.com and connected with CTO and Integrations Expert Alon Cohen. After a preliminary requirements conversation, Phone.com was able to step in as telecom partner for AppCard by providing CRM integration, caller analytics, custom IVR functionality, conferencing capabilities and unique Click-to-Call functionality for customer retention.

How did we create a custom telecom service for you?

Specifically, AppCard asked Phone.com to assist in the development of a click-to-call outbound call automation. This application would initiate contact with current customers that had technical, billing or credit card issues. Once a customer had received the AppCard call, they would be provided an automated interactive voice response system to correct the problem.

And the results?

AppCard’s billing click-to-call application had two results. First, it saved AppCard’s customer service hundreds of man-hours in outbound phone calls. Also, the application was able to correct billing inconsistencies thereby increasing customer retention.

‘When AppCard needed a flexible but powerful telecom provider, we chose Phone.com. From reliable desktop call provider to cutting edge API integration with our CRM, Phone.com has become an invaluable business partner for AppCard.’ – Dan Winnick, Product Engineer, AppCard

Check out Appcard.com for more information on their services. Learn more about Phone.com’s Agent program at Phone.com/agents, email us at agents@phone.com or call for more information at 800.842.3394

The post Meet Our Customers: AppCard appeared first on Phone.com.

2018 was great for Phone.com and we hope you had the very best year too!

A core virtue of our company is to help you, the small business. We are putting in long hours to improve our network and services, adding better tools and new features along the way. We have been working with our customers from the beginning, listening to feedback and implementing changes. Our customer support team, working hand in hand with our developers, is excited to be there for all of you with 24/7 phone, text, and email support. We will keep our promise of putting our customers first!

Phone.com has grown every year and we are proud to announce we have over 30,000 businesses using our product. A recent customer survey as well as ongoing unsolicited feedback tells us that you love our service! We truly appreciate the vote of confidence but know we can always improve, fix problems, replace old technology, and introduce new features. We promise we will continue to work hard and keep you updated along the journey!

2019 is looking to be quite an exciting year for us. Get ready for a state of the art laptop softphone, replacing our current Phone.com Communicator, a sleek, innovative multimedia messaging platform, improved mobile apps for iOS and Android phones, as well as an exciting feature many have been asking for: Live Receptionist. We already have fantastic feedback from customers testing these services and we will be informing you of all these great developments as we roll them out. Be sure to let us know how you like them!

On behalf of the entire Phone.com family I would like to wish you and your families all the best for a happy holiday season!

Thank you for your ongoing support of Phone.com.

Sincerely,

Ari Rabban
Chief Executive Officer​

The post Letter From The CEO | 2018 appeared first on Phone.com.

Working remotely is increasingly popular these days, with employers and employees alike discovering the benefits of working away from the office.

That said, remote work today isn’t the same as it was 10 or even five years ago. New trends in remote work are transforming the business world, and those who take advantage of them are seeing greater benefits than ever before.

Whether you’re a remote worker or a business owner who’s thinking of taking things out of the workplace for some of your employees, it’s important that you understand how the remote work landscape is changing.

Here are just a few of the trends that you’re likely to encounter while looking into the modern remote work situation:

More Remote Opportunities

This is probably the biggest difference from years past: There’s simply more opportunities to work remotely now than there used to be. More and more employers are realizing that allowing employees to work remotely is good for both morale and the company’s bottom line.

Remote workers are often more loyal to their employers and tend to be more productive as well, both of which are good for employee retention. Add in the reduced costs that come from having fewer employees physically present in the office and you’ve got a perfect storm of reasons why employers are letting more and more employees switch to remote work.

Increased Freedom

As more employers embrace remote work, they’re also loosening the strings a bit and giving remote employees greater freedom than ever before. A number of companies that allowed remote work before tried to keep remote employees on roughly the same schedule as those who were working from the office.

These days, though, employers are more likely to give remote workers much greater control over when and where they work. Scheduled meetings are often still required, but aside from that many remote workers simply need to check in and touch base with management on a regular basis. So long as they’re getting everything completed on time and up to par, those managers are much less likely to care about when and where the work is being done.

Improved Remote Communication Tools

It used to be that email and the phone were the top communication tools at a remote worker’s disposal.

These days, however, there are a lot more toys to play with. Video chat, instant messaging and collaboration platforms such as Slack have made remote communication easier and more productive than ever before. Between a smartphone and a computer, tools exist to make sure that remote workers can easily organize their work, get approval for plans and review tasks that still need to be complete… all without having to wait for an email response or navigate a phone tree.

Key Work Locations

It used to be that “remote work” largely meant working from a home office (or a laptop and a recliner). While a good number of remote employees still opt to work from home, there are other options available as well.

Coworking spaces are increasingly popular, letting remote workers share creative space with entrepreneurs and other remote employees. Coffee shops and restaurants are popular options as well. Some remote employees even take the idea of the “home office” to a new level by installing sheds or similar structures on their property to serve as a “shedquarters” that separates them from the distractions of the home. The number of options available for remote workers seems to grow every year.

Isolation Is Still a Problem

One unfortunate trend that’s been around for years is that remote workers still feel isolated.

Social interaction is one of the big advantages of working from the office, and working remotely typically cuts the employee off from that interaction. Improved communication tools help with this to an extent, but a lot of work sometimes has to go into fighting these feelings of isolation. This potential is one of the big reasons that working remotely doesn’t sit well with everybody… unless you’re part of a full remote team, it can be kind of lonely.

The post 5 Current Trends in Remote Work appeared first on Phone.com.

When you think of “team-building activities” you likely picture trust falls, cheesy motivational speeches and forced participation in boring office games.

While developing teamwork and improving office camaraderie is important, the team will only improve if its members actually enjoy the activities. If everyone’s miserable, no one is going to take anything away from the exercise.

Instead of trying to bring everyone together through trust falls, try injecting a bit more fun into your activities. Not only will they bring your team members closer together, but they may even help them to work more efficiently as a unit as well.

Here are just a few examples of fun activities that can bring your teams together:

Escape Rooms

Escape rooms are increasingly popular attractions these days.

The scenarios presented by the rooms vary from one location to the next, but the goal remains the same: The team within the escape room has to work together to get out before an hour is up. Send your team into the room and they’ll have fun while learning to work together to solve a problem.

Lip Sync Battles

You’ve likely seen at least a few of these on TV. If you somehow missed them, though, the premise is pretty simple.

Two individuals (or teams) lip sync to songs and try to get the highest score based on accuracy and performance style. It can be silly at times, but lip sync battles are a lot of fun. Offer up some prizes and have teams within the office compete against each other to help bring everyone closer together.

Office Trivia

Trivia nights are a lot of fun.

You can channel this and use it to bring your teams together by hosting office trivia nights. There are several ways you can set your trivia nights up, with questions ranging from general knowledge to genre questions or even trivia sessions that relate directly to your company. Just be careful not to force the company line too hard or your night of fun trivia might fall flat.

Storytelling Sessions

This option is especially beneficial if you work in a creative industry.

Using short story prompts, bring your team together and have them craft a story together a few lines at a time. When it comes time to make the story, either have each team member write his or her contributions down or have an audio recording app or device in the room so that the entire story is recorded. If everyone enjoyed making the story, you can even have copies of the completed story printed up as a chapbook or other keepsake.

Department Swap

Want to give your team a better idea of how the “other half” lives?

Organize swap events where a few members from one department spend time doing the job of another department. This not only gives employees an idea of how difficult other jobs within the organization can be, but it also lets employees get to know each other who might otherwise never work together. You may even find your different departments working better together as a result.

Off-Site Meetings

Meetings are a sometimes unfortunate necessity of business, and it’s hard to think of them as a team-building activity.

If you take your meeting offsite and take care of business in the party room of a local restaurant then things can change, though. The more relaxed atmosphere will give employees a chance to get to know each other, and it may even raise morale and help you shed the monotony that’s often associated with meetings.

Meeting Icebreakers

Even if you don’t take your employees out for dinner before a meeting, you can still use meeting time to bring everyone a little closer together as a team.

Bring a few basic icebreaker activities with you and use them to get things started. Use the activities to introduce people who might not work together much. Don’t spend an inordinate amount of time on your icebreakers, but don’t rush through them and make them feel like just one more thing to get through either.

The more effort you put into trying to bring your team together, the more cohesion your team will have as a whole. Don’t be afraid to try and make things fun, since that will help to bring your team together faster than anything else.

The post 7 Team-Building Activities appeared first on Phone.com.

Some people see working from home as a dream come true, imagining days spent working in pajamas and only tackling tasks when they feel like it.

The reality of working remotely is a bit different, of course. While you do have more control over your schedule, you still have deadlines and responsibilities along with a wide range of distractions that you never run into while at the office.

This isn’t to say that working remotely can’t be a rewarding experience, however. It’s not for everyone, but for those who do thrive in a remote work environment, it can result in increased productivity and an overall greater amount of job satisfaction.

If you’ve considered trying to work from home, it’s important that you take a few moments to think how you view working remotely and make sure that the image in your head matches up with the reality.

Working from Home… or Elsewhere

When most people hear the phrase “working remotely,” they immediately picture working from home.

While many remote workers do in fact work from home, this isn’t the only option that’s available. Some choose to work in coffee shops, libraries or other public locations, while others choose work-oriented co-working spaces. Some remote workers may even work while traveling, setting up shop in a hotel room or business room each night after taking in a day’s worth of travel and activities.

Work and Responsibility

Regardless of where the work gets done, it still has to get done. Remote workers still have the same workloads and responsibilities as in-office employees, they’re just doing the work in a different physical location. Remote work isn’t necessarily easier or harder than work done in the office, it just has a different flow. Even if you do your work in your PJs, you’re still expected to put in a full day’s work and finish everything that’s required of you.

Meetings and Office Time

Sometimes, remote workers have to attend meetings via teleconferencing, conference call or video conferencing session.

These capabilities are usually considered important for companies that use remote workers as they allow remote employees to interact directly with members of the home office team. This is especially important when the remote workers are located in different geographic regions and can’t physically be present in the same space. For those who work remotely in the same city as the home office, occasional office time or physical meetings may also be required.

Setting Your Schedule

One big advantage of working remotely is the control that it gives you over your own schedule.

In many cases, you can set your schedule and work it around other things that you have going on in your life. This is great if you’re active in your community or have other responsibilities beyond just your job. There may be limits to this, however; if you’re expected to attend meetings (either in person or virtually), meet deadlines within a certain time period or be on call between certain hours then your scheduled work time has to include being on the clock at the appropriate times.

Dealing with Distractions

A major drawback of working remotely is that you’re likely to encounter distractions that you don’t have to deal with at the office.

This is especially true if you work from home, since your home is filled with people you don’t work with and all of the stuff that you occupy yourself with when you’re not at work. Some people find that the distractions are too much, heading back to the office instead of working remotely. Establishing a way to counter the distractions is essential if you’re going to work from home or other remote locations with regularity.

Is It Worth It?

Not everyone is cut out for working remotely. Some people love it, while others find themselves frustrated with a lack of structure or readily available distractions.

Whether it’s worth it to work remotely depends on your personality, the specific job that you do and how much you enjoy the freedom of remote work. If you’ve never worked away from the office before, it might be worth trying; just check beforehand and make sure that you can return to the office without any problems if you find that working remotely just isn’t for you.

The post What Does Working Remotely Mean for You? appeared first on Phone.com.