| e do you work?" | | | | But there is more than just language that makes |
| "Planet Earth." | | | | the global office a tricky workplace to navigate. |
| Sound familiar? No? Well, it should. More and more | | | | Aside from the lack of water coolers and |
| people are working from home on the Internet, | | | | washrooms, most of the world works in metric, |
| and there are two things you should know about | | | | but the biggest Internet market works in imperial. |
| your office when you work on the Internet. | | | | So some customers won't know what a mile is, |
| First, your office will be very, very small and | | | | and others won't know what a kilometer is. |
| very, very lonely, as I chronicled in my hermit | | | | And everybody spells funny to someone else. Is it |
| trilogy at . | | | | honor or honour? Center or centre? Folks or |
| Second, your office will be very, very big and full | | | | peeps? |
| of many, many people from every corner of the | | | | Fortunately for me, I live in Canada. 95% of |
| planet, mostly trying to sell things to each other. | | | | Canadians live within a stone's throw of the US |
| That is because when you work from home, | | | | border. (They are all folks, by the way.) So we |
| Planet Earth is your office...and theirs, too. | | | | officially learn to spell and to count the way the |
| For instance, would you believe that a man in the | | | | British do (but they are still not peeps). |
| Ukraine delivers the local weather forecast from | | | | Nevertheless, Americanisms sneak across the |
| Sydney to Chicago through his website at ? So | | | | border by osmosis, perhaps due to an attack dog |
| much for sticking your head out the window. | | | | budget shortfall at the illegal aliens department. At |
| I have a client in the UK who sells ball bearings | | | | least I'll know what a mile is – it's that thing |
| through his site at to every country in the world ... | | | | people want to take when I give them an inch. |
| except the UK, of course. Doesn't that make the | | | | And what about currency? I make it simple. I use |
| local hardware store redundant? | | | | US dollars, because that really is the currency of |
| Office Politics in the Global Office | | | | the Internet. But I also accept Paypal payments, |
| My clients live on almost every continent, and the | | | | so anybody can input their favorite currency and |
| only thing that occasionally gets in the way of | | | | out pops US dollars on my end. I wish more |
| seamless communication are time-zone | | | | people would do that. I could use more dollars. |
| differences. (If Columbus would have minded his | | | | If none of that phases you, consider time zones. |
| own business, we wouldn't face even that | | | | Just as a client in Australia is waking up, your |
| challenge!) | | | | client in the United States is going to bed. And |
| What's more, my clients are not always | | | | how will they reach you when you are not in the |
| English-speaking, and neither are all of my clients' | | | | office. Tools like email to phone services ( )can |
| websites. Can you say | | | | help. So can insomnia. |
| netzwerküberwachungservice? I do search | | | | Nobody twenty years ago would have imagined |
| engine optimization in four languages - English, | | | | that you and I could sit at home and type words |
| French, Spanish and German - which tells you | | | | into a TV screen to make a comfortable living. |
| something about the global office in which some | | | | Welcome to my office – Planet Earth. |
| of my clients sit. | | | | |