The following questions and actions will help you to replace presence-based work with performance-based freedom.
If you had a heart attack, and assuming your boss were sympathetic, how could you work remotely for four weeks?
If you hit a brick wall with a task that doesn’t seem remote-compatible or if you predict resistance from your boss, ask the following:
What are you accomplishing with this task—what is the purpose?
If you had to find other ways to accomplish the same—if your life depended on it—how would you do it? Remote conferencing? Video conferencing? GoToMeeting, GoToMyPC, DimDim.com (Mac), or related services?
Why would your boss resist remote work? What is the immediate negative effect it would have on the company and what could you do to prevent or minimize it?
Put yourself in your boss’s shoes. Based on your work history, would you trust yourself to work outside of the office?
If you wouldn’t, reread Elimination to improve production and consider the hourglass option.
Practice environment-free productivity.
Attempt to work for two to three hours in a café for two Saturdays prior to proposing a remote trial. If you exercise in a gym, attempt to exercise for those two weeks at home or otherwise outside of the gym environment. The purpose here is to separate your activities from a single environment and ensure that you have the discipline to work solo.
Quantify current productivity.
If you have applied the 80/20 Principle, set the rules of interrupting interruption, and completed related groundwork, your performance should be at an all-time high in quantifiable terms, whether customers served, revenue generated, pages produced, speed of accounts receivable, or otherwise. Document this.
Create an opportunity to demonstrate remote work productivity before asking for it as a policy.
This is to test your ability to work outside of an office environment and rack up some proof that you can kick ass without constant supervision.
Practice the art of getting past “no” before proposing.
Go to farmers’ markets to negotiate prices, ask for free first-class upgrades, ask for compensation if you encounter poor service in restaurants, and otherwise ask for the world and practice using the following magic questions when people refuse to give it to you.
“What would I need to do to [desired outcome]?”
“Under what circumstances would you [desired outcome]?”
“Have you ever made an exception?”
“I’m sure you’ve made an exception before, haven’t you?”
(If no for either of the last two, ask, “Why not?” If yes, ask, “Why?”)
Put your employer on remote training wheels—propose Monday or Friday at home.
Consider doing this, or the following step, during a period when it would be too disruptive to fire you, even if you were marginally less productive while remote.
If your employer refuses, it’s time to get a new boss or become an entrepreneur. The job will never give you the requisite time freedom. If you decide to jump ship, consider letting them make you walk the plank—quitting is often less appealing than tactfully getting fired and using severance or unemployment to take a long vacation.
Extend each successful trial period until you reach full-time or your desired level of mobility.
Don’t underestimate how much your company needs you. Perform well and ask for what you want. If you don’t get it over time, leave. It’s too big a world to spend most of life in a cubicle.
LIFESTYLE DESIGN IN ACTION
Consider trying Earth Class Mail, a service that you can reroute all your mail to, at which point they scan and e-mail you everything that comes in, giving you the option of recycling/shredding junk, getting a scan of the contents, or having specific items forwarded to you or someone you designate. I have not personally used it yet (will be testing it out this month in preparation for an upcoming trip in May), but a friend and author in Portland swears by them and knows the CEO. Seems they’ve gotten good press and the idea seems far better than relying on friends/family who, if they’re anything like my friends/family … will surely drop the ball at some point:-).
—NATHALIE
I also use GreenByPhone.com to process checks electronically that come in through my Earth Class Mail account—they charge $5 a check, but I live in San Diego, my Earth Class Mail office address is in Seattle, and I bank in Ohio. It works great!
—ANDREW
To add to your excellent list (we’ve traveled just like that for several years SWEET!), I’d like to add my modifications as a female traveler and a new mom (16-month-old baby). Personal favorites: (1) Athleta carries excellent, light, quick-dry clothing that hold up well to sports but still look very fashionable. Skorts are a must for looking feminine but being fully covered for hiking and steep pyramid steps—you know what I mean, ladies! Just a note, a slightly longer length will serve you well in a lot of countries, as well as tankini tops and swim skirts for swimming. (2) Fresh & Go toothbrush is simple to use. (3) Marsona sound machine for drowning out unfamiliar noises is a must (regularly use with baby at home too so when they hear the sound they know it’s sleep time!). This has been a lifesaver for us on many trips, and we now use it regularly at home for better sleep. No more changing hotels midtrip to avoid noise. AND, I know we have to travel light, but with baby a lot of things are nonnegotiable. These make for smoother sailing: (1) Peanut shell sling in black fleece—it’s more comfy than the cotton and you can pop baby in and out wherever you are, from birth to 35 lbs. I never take mine off, it’s part of my outfit; (2) Peapod plus portable tent—this is baby’s main bed at home and travel so baby has the same sleep place everywhere we go, and the flaps give all travel parties privacy—great from small babies to five-year-olds. I can still jam this onto a little wheeled carry-on and pack mine and baby’s minimal clothing around it; (3) Go Go Kidz TravelMate (great for wheeling car seat up to the gate for gate check or use on plane); (4) Britax Diplomat car seat is small but kids can use it from birth to approx. four years old.
Make sure the wheeled carry-on bag you get is one size smaller than the allowed carry-on size so you don’t get bumped to check the bag in if the plane is full. You can always nicely argue/reason/bat your eyelashes that you will put the bag in your foot space. Also, very helpful to give baby something to sip or munch on during take off and landing so yours isn’t the baby screaming from ear pain. Happy travels!
—KARYL
PRE-EMPTING THE BOSS: COMMON CONCERNS ABOUT REMOTE WORK
In the linked article, Cisco acknowledges that remote work arrangements are “here to stay” yet lists a set of security issues. It makes sense to preemptively research solutions so that you are armed and ready if your employer raises these concerns. http://newsroom.cisco.com/dlls/2008/prod_020508.html.
—Contributed by RAINA
58. If you’re an entrepreneur, don’t skip this chapter. This introduction to remote working tools and tactics is integral to the international pieces of the puzzle that follow.
59. This verb is used by Japanese women as well, even though female workers are referred to as “OL”—office ladies.
60. Any reason to be home will do (cable or phone installation, home repairs, etc.) or, if you prefer not to use a ruse, work a weekend or take two vacation days.
61. Review the Puppy Dog Close from “Income Autopilot II: Testing the Muse.”
62. Do not digress from your goal. Once you’ve addressed an objection or concern, go for the close.
63. Friday is the best day to be in the office. People are relaxed and tend to leave early.
64. Do not accept a vague refusal. Pinpointing the main concern in detail enables you to overcome it.
65. Don’t jump to the defensive after an objection. Acknowledge the validity of a boss’s concerns to prevent an ego-driven battle of wills.
66. Note this indirect threat dressed as a confession. It will make the boss think twice ab
out refusing but prevents the win-lose outcome of an ultimatum.
67. This removes the boss’s ability to call you to the office. This is critical for making the first jump overseas.
Beyond Repair
KILLING YOUR JOB
All courses of action are risky, so prudence is not in avoiding danger (it’s impossible), but calculating risk and acting decisively. Make mistakes of ambition and not mistakes of sloth. Develop the strength to do bold things, not the strength to suffer.
—NICCOLÒ MACHIAVELLI, The Prince
Existential Pleas and Resignations Mad Libs
BY ED MURRAY
Some jobs are simply beyond repair.
Improvements would be like adding a set of designer curtains to a jail cell: better but far from good. In the context of this chapter, “job” will refer to both a company if you run one and a normal job if you have one. Some recommendations are limited to one of the two but most are relevant to both. So we begin.
I have quit three jobs and been fired from most of the rest. Getting fired, despite sometimes coming as a surprise and leaving you scrambling to recover, is often a godsend: Someone else makes the decision for you, and it’s impossible to sit in the wrong job for the rest of your life. Most people aren’t lucky enough to get fired and die a slow spiritual death over 30–40 years of tolerating the mediocre.
Pride and Punishment
If you must play, decide on three things at the start: the rules of the game, the stakes, and the quitting time.
—CHINESE PROVERB
Just because something has been a lot of work or consumed a lot of time doesn’t make it productive or worthwhile.
Just because you are embarrassed to admit that you’re still living the consequences of bad decisions made 5, 10, or 20 years ago shouldn’t stop you from making good decisions now. If you let pride stop you, you will hate life 5, 10, and 20 years from now for the same reasons. I hate to be wrong and sat in a dead-end trajectory with my own company until I was forced to change directions or face total breakdown—I know how hard it is.
Now that we’re all on a level playing field: Pride is stupid.
Being able to quit things that don’t work is integral to being a winner. Going into a project or job without defining when worthwhile becomes wasteful is like going into a casino without a cap on what you will gamble: dangerous and foolish.
“But, you don’t understand my situation. It’s complicated!” But is it really? Don’t confuse the complex with the difficult. Most situations are simple—many are just emotionally difficult to act upon. The problem and the solution are usually obvious and simple. It’s not that you don’t know what to do. Of course you do. You are just terrified that you might end up worse off than you are now.
I’ll tell you right now: If you’re at this point, you won’t be worse off. Revisit fear-setting and cut the cord.
Like Pulling Off a Band-Aid: It’s Easier and Less Painful Than You Think
The average man is a conformist, accepting miseries and disasters with the stoicism of a cow standing in the rain.
—COLIN WILSON, British author of The Outsider; New Existentialist
There are several principal phobias that keep people on sinking ships, and there are simple rebuttals for all of them.
1. Quitting is permanent.
Far from it. Use the Q&A questions in this chapter and chapter 3 (Fear-setting) to examine how you could pick up your chosen career track or start another company at a later point. I have never seen an example where a change of direction wasn’t somehow reversible.
2. I won’t be able to pay the bills.
Sure you will. First of all, the objective will be to have a new job or source of cash flow before quitting your current job. Problem solved.
If you jump ship or get fired, it isn’t hard to eliminate most expenses temporarily and live on savings for a brief period. From renting out your home to refinancing or selling it, there are options. There are always options.
It might be emotionally difficult, but you won’t starve. Park your car in the garage and cancel insurance for a few months. Carpool or take the bus until you find the next gig. Rack up some more credit card debt and cook instead of eating out. Sell all the crap that you spent hundreds or thousands on and never use.
Take a full inventory of your assets, cash reserves, debts, and monthly expenses. How long could you survive with your current resources or if you sold some assets?
Go through all expenses and ask yourself, If I had to eliminate this because I needed an extra kidney, how would I do it? Don’t be melodramatic when there is no need—few things are fatal, particularly for smart people. If you’ve made it this far in life, losing or dropping a job will often be little more than a few weeks of vacation (unless you want more) prior to something better.
3. Health insurance and retirement accounts disappear if I quit.
Untrue.
I was scared of both when I was eliminated from TrueSAN. I had visions of rotting teeth and working at Wal-Mart to survive.
Upon looking at the facts and exploring options, I realized that I could have identical medical and dental coverage—the same provider and network—for $300–500 per month. To transfer my 401(k) to another company (I chose Fidelity Investments) was even easier: It took less than 30 minutes via phone and cost nothing.
Covering both of these bases takes less time than getting a customer service rep on the phone to fix your electric bill.
4. It will ruin my resume.
I love creative nonfiction.
It is not at all difficult to sweep gaps under the rug and make uncommon items the very things that get job interviews. How? Do something interesting and make them jealous. If you quit and then sit on your ass, I wouldn’t hire you either.
On the other hand, if you have a one-to-two-year world circumnavigation on your resume or training with professional soccer teams in Europe to your credit, two interesting things happen upon returning to the working world. First, you will get more interviews because you will stand out. Second, interviewers bored in their own jobs will spend the entire meeting asking how you did it!
If there is any question of why you took a break or left your previous job, there is one answer that cannot be countered: “I had a once-in-a-lifetime chance to do [exotic and envy-producing experience] and couldn’t turn it down. I figured that, with [20–40] years of work to go, what’s the rush?”
The Cheesecake Factor
Would you like me to give you a formula for success? It’s quite simple, really. Double your rate of failure.
—THOMAS J. WATSON, founder of IBM
SUMMER 1999
Even before I tasted it, I knew something wasn’t quite right. After eight hours in the refrigerator, this cheesecake still hadn’t set at all. It swished in the gallon bowl like a viscous soup, chunks shifting and bobbing as I tilted it under close inspection. Somewhere a mistake had been made. It could have been any number of things:
Three 1 lb. sticks of Philly Cream Cheese
Eggs
Stevia
Unflavored gelatin
Vanilla
Sour cream
In this case, it was probably a combination of things and the lack of a few simple ingredients that generally make cheesecake a form of cake.
I was on a no-carbohydrate diet, and I had used this recipe before. It had been so delicious that my roommates wanted their fair share and insisted on an attempt at bulk production. Hence began the mathematical shenanigans and problems.
Before Splenda® and other miracles of sugar imitation came on the scene, the hard core used stevia, an herb 300 times sweeter than sugar. One drop was like 300 packets of sugar. It was a delicate tool and I wasn’t a delicate cook. I had once made a small handful of cookies using baking soda instead of baking powder, and that was bad enough to drive my roommates to puke on the lawn. This new masterpiece made the cookies look like fine dining: It tasted like liquid cream cheese mixed with cold water
and about 600 packets of sugar.
I then did what any normal and rational person would do: I grabbed the largest soup ladle with a sigh and sat down in front of the TV to face my punishment. I had wasted an entire Sunday and a boatload of ingredients—it was time to reap what I had sown.
One hour and 20 large spoonfuls later, I hadn’t made a dent in the enormous batch of soup, but I was down for the count. Not only could I not eat anything but soup for two days, I couldn’t bring myself to even look at cheesecake, previously my favorite dessert, for more than four years.
Stupid? Of course. It’s about as stupid as one can get. This is a ridiculous and micro example of what people do on a larger scale with jobs all the time: self-imposed suffering that can be avoided. Sure, I learned a lesson and paid for the mistake. The real question is—for what?
There are two types of mistakes: mistakes of ambition and mistakes of sloth.
The first is the result of a decision to act—to do something. This type of mistake is made with incomplete information, as it’s impossible to have all the facts beforehand. This is to be encouraged. Fortune favors the bold.
The second is the result of a decision of sloth—to not do something—wherein we refuse to change a bad situation out of fear despite having all the facts. This is how learning experiences become terminal punishments, bad relationships become bad marriages, and poor job choices become lifelong prison sentences.
The 4-Hour Workweek: Escape 9–5, Live Anywhere, and Join the New Rich - Expanded and Updated Page 23
