Project Management from a Distance – Part 5
Posted by Brad EgelandIn Part 4 of this six-part series, we covered the topic of what type of equipment and setup you would need for handling project management activities from afar. In Part 5, we will discuss the process of negotiating with your management on moving into a telecommuting role:
Part 1 – Why remote?
Part 2 – Will it work for you?
Part 3 – What type of job enables remote PM?
Part 4 – What setup do you need?
Part 5 – Negotiating when it’s not an obvious move
Part 6 – Staying the course
Instigation
Timing is everything. You’ve heard that before and no truer words were ever spoken when it comes to trying to negotiate a remote working situation in your project management role.
Sometimes it will just happen, as with it did for a role I had for over two years with one organization. My project resources were dispersed across the country, the clients I was running the implementations for were all over the country with locations globally as well. The home office is here in Las Vegas, but rarely was it a benefit to me so I rarely worked from a location at the home office. And that was ok with them – well, most of the time. There were a couple of projects where my key resources were located here in Las Vegas and they pushed for me to spend some time at the office…which I did. But 95% of the time, I was managing everything remotely.
When You’re Coming In
When you’re coming onboard at an organization, look for a time to mention it during the hiring process. If you wait till you accept the job, it may be too late. You need to ask yourself, “would I accept this position even if they won’t allow me to telecommute?” If the answer is ‘yes’, then it may be better to accept and then try to ‘sell’ the idea after you’ve been there awhile. If the answer is ‘no’, then you’ve got nothing to lose – bring it up late in the discussions when it’s apparent that they love you and want you badly. You may even offer to take the position for less money if you want that telecommuting option bad enough – they may see it as a win-win for them.
When You’re Already In
If you’re already inside an organization and want to change to a telecommuting/remote working situation, then you’ve got a different beast on your hands. Your best route is to put together some assumptions and numbers to help you sell the concept to your supervisor or executive management staff. Ballpark some overhead numbers that you’ll be saving them and if you can’t come up with numbers, at least be sure to provide a lengthy bullet list of benefits to you working remotely. And none of them should focus on YOUR benefits…they must all focus on the company’s benefits. That’s all they’re going to care about. The list should include:
- Increased productivity (stress your productive home office setup) due to fewer office distractions
- No driving time means more available work hours
- Greener setup – less fuel consumption, less pollution, smaller carbon footprint for the company (heck, they should allow all their workers to do it!)
- Decreased overhead for the company
- Healthier work environment – fewer sick days because as we all know many sick days aren’t really ‘sick’ days
Get creative, there are a lot more things that can be included on this list. And if you want it bad enough, you can always revert to requesting a pay cut in order to have the telecommuting option. One key note – if you think your request is going to meet heavy resistance, just go in initially asking for 2-3 days per week of remote work. Eventually move it to 5 days if it’s been successful.
Summary
Your approach is important. Be sure to stress to your management staff how much this situation will benefit them, not you. Point to your work record and your trustworthiness, and your dependability. Ensure them that they’ll always see that same level of leadership from you, but this new situation will make you even more available to their main concern – the external customer who you are ultimately running the project for.
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