Out of Office, Out of Control

Eight million Americans already enjoy the advantages of "telecommuting" from a home office: less time wasted in freeway traffic, more available for family and friends. But for some folks, ironically, telecommuting actually interferes with family life by fueling workaholic ways.

That's what researchers at IBM learned after surveying employees who'd been given laptop computers and modems and asked to work at home or other off-site locations.

"Giving a workaholic a laptop is like giving an alcoholic a bottle of gin," says E. Jeffrey Hill, a human resources specialist at IBM. He speculates that these out-of-control workers formerly relied on outside cues, such as train schedules or colleagues' goodbyes, to remind them it was time to stop work. The solution? Hill suggests telecommuters devise rituals to signal the end of the work day:

• Turn off your computer and the ringer on your office telephone at the end of the day.
• Set a computer-generated alarm to go off at quitting time and to beep again every few minutes until the computer is shut down.
• If you're part of a "virtual team," make sure your colleagues know the hours you are and aren't available.