Telecommuting is not all nirvana and fuzzy slippers. Telecommuters face challenges with time management, teamwork, and technology; with coworkers and managers; and even with family. This book shows you how to deal with those issues, plus accomplish more, communicate better, disarm skeptics, and improve your visibility, involvement, and promotability in your company—all as a telecommuter. 

It is no secret that telecommuting is not at all easy. It demands a lot of work, personal savvy, and perseverance. Throughout this book, I help you understand what it takes, why telecommuters fail, and how to make sure you don’t. 

I discuss how telecommuters often experience incredible productivity increases, how they often do a better job and do it on time, and how, if only for brief moments, they find themselves really enjoying their work. I show you how to create a productive home environment, track your productivity, develop schedules that keep you focused, and avoid extremes of laziness and overwork. 
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In short, I show you how to become what I call a “power telecommuter.” Now it’s time for you to work away from the office better than ever before—and this book is your roadmap. 

• If you’re currently a telecommuter: If you are already telecommuting, you can always do it better. With the knowledge and insights you gain from this book, you will. I’ll show you how to stay connected with your customers, managers, and coworkers while you work away from the office. I guarantee at least a few “ah ha’s” as I put into words what you intuitively know. The book helps you use telecommuting as a catalyst to improve your position, your skills, and your personal stock in the eyes of all who are watching.
• If you wish you were telecommuting: Some sections may be overwhelming to you if you are just starting out. But if you take baby steps and read the chapters as you need the information, this book becomes a how-to manual as you reinvent yourself as a telecommuter. At the very least, you learn critical skills that you can use right now.    (back to features list) 
• If you are just entering the workforce and are interested in a telecommuting option: You are perhaps positioned better for telecommuting than any other reader. You must be patient, though. Most managers want to see unmistakable proof that you can be trusted and are capable of working without supervision. As you develop your work personality, you will find the tips on communicating with coworkers, earning superior performance reviews, career path strategies, and staying visible when you’re virtual all particularly useful.
• If you are a manager with telecommuters: This book offers an incredible opportunity for you to accelerate your organization’s effectiveness. Even though telecommuting can be a catalyst for excellence, it will succeed only if you have effective remote work rules that are enforced equitably. This book provides you with hints on effective remote work techniques that you can use as you coach your employees to excellence.
• If you are a manager with closet telecommuters and are concerned about telecommuting: I am pleased you are reading this. It shows you are open-minded, willing to learn something new, and interested in modernizing your management skills. Looking at telecommuting from the telecommuter’s perspective is one of the best ways to prepare yourself for the management of remote workers, a skill necessary in the new economy.
• If you are an executive who wants an excellent telecommuting program: This book is a good start. You learn the kinds of questions you should ask about telecommuting and how telecommuting affects your employees and the organization. You learn what your telecommuters must do to be successful and the secrets of excellent remote communication. You gain the telecommuter’s perspective, including the challenges they face and practical solutions for success.

• 10 best ways to sabotage your telecommuting privilege
• Avoiding the top 10 telecommuting traps
• Mastering technology without becoming a technology geek
• Some things equipment and services vendors won’t tell you
• 10 ways to prevent technology gaps and disasters
• Some ways to prepare for technology that’s not even invented yet
• What every home office needs—and doesn’t need
• 10 reasons your employer should invest in your home office
• Training yourself, your coworkers, boss, spouse, kids, pets, and neighbors
• 10 time management tips you can use today
• 10 ways to prevent stress and burnout
• Effective communications with modern technology tools
• Developing and maintaining your telecommuting credibility
• 10 ways to stay on the corporate radar screen    (back to features list) 
• Tips from the pros on maintaining virtual relationships
• Signs that it’s time to visit the office more often
• Telecommuter career path strategies that work
• Tips for finding a telecommuting job
• Developing a retirement strategy as a telecommuter

• Telecommuter attributes and accomplishments
• Mobile work task identification form
• Weekly telecommuter task and activity form
• Monthly remote work activity form
• Communication needs assessment worksheet
• Your home office checklist    (back to features list) 

• Steps to telecommuting program development 
• Home office inspections and federal rules 
• Tips on managing your meetings 
• It turns out that your mom was right about good posture 
• Instant messaging: Telecommuter’s tool or telecommuter’s trouble? 
• The home agent: The ultimate transparent telecommuter     (back to features list) 

Quotes from industry experts and relevant articles: Quotes appear throughout the book, both in the text and in highlighted boxes. They provide expert insight into key telecommuting issues. 

Telecommuting resources on the Web: This special section directs you to Web sites with good information for telecommuters. 

Keys terms used in this book and by telecommuters: This section allows you to look up terminology used in this book and in the telecommuting industry. 

All You Need To Become a Power Telecommuter! Once again, this book provides all you need to become a power telecommuter. It will help you learn and play by the rules of the new workplace, to use time and space to your advantage, to master the role of mobile worker, and to increase your personal and professional value as a driven knowledge worker.  
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Chapter One of this book begins with the heading, “This is Not Your Father’s or Your Mother’s Workplace,” a catchy title that introduces Michael Dziak’s discussion of the diverse and sometimes convoluted changes we see in today’s organizations, and the relationship between those changes and the growth in telecommuting.  

In a strange accident of timing, this past week (late December 2000), General Motors announced that it was making plans to close down its venerable Oldsmobile division as part of yet another round of attempts to streamline or otherwise revive GM. The media coverage about this announcement all noted the most memorable of recent attempts to breathe new life into the Oldsmobile line - the “It’s not your father’s Oldsmobile” campaign of a couple of years ago. I guess that when your car brand has the word “old” as its root, you need to do something to convince today’s buyers that it’s not yesterday’s car. 

Michael Dziak’s assertion that the workplace of today isn’t the same as the one of our fathers’ or mothers’ day is much more accurate than the similar GM attempt to disassociate from the past. In fact, Dziak has clearly made the case for telecommuting by showing not only that the workplace has changed - and will change even more dramatically - but also by convincingly proving that the question today about telecommuting is not “whether” but “how far” and “how fast” it will grow.  
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I’ve known Michael Dziak since he started banging the drum for telecommuting in the Atlanta area in 1991, and have watched as his interest in telecommuting first grew to immersion and then to conviction. I can’t think of anyone else who believes deep in his soul that telecommuting makes sense for employers and employees alike.  

Beyond being an advocate and skilled consultant, however, Dziak has used this book as his platform to speak directly to today’s telecommuter and to convey the essence of his ten years of experience. As I went through the book, I could envision him sitting across the table with a telecommuter, imploring and guiding that person to become a “power telecommuter,” as he calls it.  

That’s an interesting choice of words - “power telecommuter” - because it summarizes the purpose and value of this book: there are many books available that describe telecommuting, or talk about how to implement it, or otherwise very adequately cover the basics. But this book goes beyond those basics an guides the reader through telecommuting “graduate school” - and leaves no detail unmentioned when it comes to creating a successful telecommuting career. 

The strength of this book is in the countless tips, tricks, warnings, suggestions, and shortcuts that collectively make up the difference between just being a telecommuter and thriving as a telecommuter. Reading this book is like walking up to the biggest, most tempting buffet table you can imagine: you see much more before you than you would ever think possible to consume, but you don’t dare risk bypassing anything because you know that each serving will be better than the next.  
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So, sit back, loosen your belt, and settle down with this telecommuting how-to masterpiece. Michael Dziak put everything he knows about becoming a “power telecommuter” into it - all you need to do is read carefully, pay attention, and march full speed ahead into the new world of work we all face in the 21st century. 

Guide Rating: Five Stars out of Five 
  
Pros  

• Great coverage of issues
• Excellent work sheets provided
• It's hard to put down 

• It's hard to put down

• Excellent background info on the use of telecommuting. 
• You can pick it up and read from any section at any time. 
• The success tips are timeless and very real. 

I highly recommend this book for any business that has or is implementing a telework program and would make it required reading for all teleworkers in that program.