101 Tips for Telecommuters—Successfully Manage Your Work, Team, Technology and Family

97. Have Technology, Will Travel

In the not-too-distant past, when you left your office to travel on business, you pretty much “unplugged” from your normal activities and communication. (You might remember how agonizing it was to “catch up” after some of those extended road trips.) I can recall people referring to themselves being “out of pocket” for the days they'd be gone, and the implication was that regular work would cease, voice-to-voice contact would be minimal at best, and mail would simply pile up in in-baskets until the trip was over. Enter onto the business scene a series of innovations to improve our access to information and connectivity to everyone regardless of where we are: telephone calling cards, lower longer distance rates, ...