Introverts and Telecommuting - A Political Carwreck Waiting to Happen...

You'd think the people best suited to telecommuting would be introverts, right?  They can just go to the cave and get the work done.  Makes sense to me.

Unfortunately, that might be wrong.  As it turns out, the extroverts might be the best ones to go work in their PJ's, because they're going to constantly reach out to the rest of the company due to their need to be connected and gab.

Damn.  Didn't see that coming.  More from BusinessWeek:

"Five years into the mainstreaming of mobile work, there's a growing enlightenment, buttressed by new research, that the benefits of working remotely are actually a bit more complicated, and nuanced, than the cheerleaders said. In all the effusive rah-rah'ing over this great employee unleashing, many managers overlooked a simple fact: Some of us are simply not—by temperament, psychology, or personality type—wired for the life of the digital nomad.

Over the past couple of years, the London-based Stone has become increasingly intrigued by the psychology surrounding mobile work. Was there a genome for the ideal mobile worker? And a genome for one who would fail?  Three years ago, Stone, along with a group of other Cisco execs, hired a U.K.-based outfit called Pearn Kandola to help him, Cisco, and Cisco's clients better understand the deeper pscyhological issues at play in mobile work. "We really wanted to understand the dynamics around the technologies we were bringing to market," says Stone.

Duff and his researcher colleagues found that it's the employees who chase socialization who thrive in the land of virtual work. The office gabbers. Those who are life of the break-room party. Left on their own, these types of workers are the ones who work closely with clients, chum around with colleagues, and talk it up with bosses. They stay connected no matter where they are. It comes naturally to them.

Duff also assumed that mobile workers would tend to be seat-of-the-pants types who could get away with being disorganized scatterbrains. After all, nobody ever had to see their "offices." For Duff the picture of the disheveled door-to-door salesman living out of the back of his car came to mind. Again, the truth turned out to be the opposite. "Mobile workers are far more organized, personally, than their office-bound counterparts," says Duff. "They have to be on top of their game the whole time."

Alrighty then.  After reading the study, I'm also thinking there's a career coaching lesson here.  Introverts, you can go telecommute and get all the work done you want, but it's a political world.  If you don't connect while you're virtual like the extroverts, you run the risk of A) not being as effective because you're not connected to talent that can help you, and b) out of sight and out of mind.

So, go get the work done at home.  But only if you are an extrovert.  How counter-intuitive is that?

Comments

[Kerry]

That is fascinating. I thought it was just me.

I am a huge, huge introvert. When I left HR last year and became a stay-at-home mom, I began to realize how easy it would be to just stay in the house and become a total hermit. One of the reasons I started my blog is to force myself to have some interaction with the outside world (particularly the segment of the outside world that isn't talking about diaper changes, Cheerios on the floor, or the PBS Kids line-up).

I think introverts can successfully work at home, but we have to be disciplined about not giving in to the urge to hole up.

[Breanne]

As an introvert who both works from home and travels to do consulting, I find this article very interesting.

However, I would disagree that introverts don't reach out- I would bet that the issue is more around the method of communicating. I have to consciously force myself to pick up the phone to reach out to internal team members (instead of my natural preference for email and IM).

Extroverts have their challenges in telecommuting too. I'm the sole introvert on my team, and have heard from some of the extroverts that getting out of the office and working from a public location can help their energy level. One of my coworkers regularly worked from Starbucks just to be around others.

Thanks for posting this- very thought provoking...

[Michelle]

From personal experience I think this relates to remote office assignments as well. As someone who works in corporate America but spent most of my time in remote sales offices I have learned that for me, as an introvert, it is difficult to stay connected to HQ. I've just never been comfortable calling someone in HQ without a real reason. Just checking in doesn't feel natural to me.

I've learned to deal with this after recognizing the political impact of being a remote introvert. Best way to manage this has been to schedule those casual "what's up" phone calls that can keep you on the radar.

[Amy Wilson]

So interesting, Kris! Breanne's point about where you get your energy from is also insightful. It seems there is a balance to supplying your energy and using it in the most effective way.

As an introvert, I build up my energy on work-from-home days, and then spend it in work-in-the-office days. I get a lot out of both and can't imagine missing one or the other.

[Meg Bear]

This does make sense to me. I don't think you have to be an extrovert but to be effective remote you do need to have the confidence to be the one who reaches out to connect with others.