Tips From Teleworkers

Sarah Browning spends a lot of time home alone. Though she is free from the 9-to-5 grind, her jobs as a telecommuter for a nonprofit organization and a freelance writer come with their own challenges. Too often, she says, she ends up moping around the house in her pajamas -- at 2 p.m.

"I found myself going stir-crazy during the daytime," she says. "I knew I wasn't the only person in the city feeling this way."

So, Browning, 43, got creative. She met with the folks at Busboys and Poets, the vast restaurant/bar/meeting space at 2021 14th St. NW, to pitch her idea: a weekly social hour for fellow freelancers and telecommuters. She called it a Coffee "Klatsch" -- German for a casual conversation. The idea was a hit, and the group has been meeting (now biweekly) since Busboys opened in September.

"What we're trying to build at Busboys is a community space," says Pamela Pinnock, events and marketing manager at the restaurant. The Klatsch "fits that idea." Browning already had her foot in the door at the restaurant because she serves as a volunteer for its poetry advisory board.

Telecommuting, or the more inclusive word "teleworking," is a much-buzzed-about trend nationwide, but even more so here in the District: Washington was named the best city for teleworking in America last month by research firm Sperling's BestPlaces.

Most of the seating areas at Busboys and Poets consist of comfy couches, but the Coffee Klatsch reserves the more traditional front table for its meetings. At a recent Klatsch, 13 people gathered to chat about work and life. One person ordered a hamburger, but everyone else stuck to coffee and espresso. Two women traded war stories about breaking into the graphic design field; their conversation later turned to relationship advice from their therapists. Across the table, two other members broke out in an impromptu waltz.

"We don't get out much," joked Amy Martin, a 33-year-old freelancer.

It's a mostly female crowd, and the majority of Klatschers are professional writers and editors, though the event has also drawn professors, architects and composers. One full-time information technology specialist even attended a Klatsch on his lunch break for a chance to get out of the office. "That's a fun thing about it," Browning says. "Otherwise a lot of us wouldn't meet."

The Klatsch still feels like an experiment to Browning, who has made minor alterations to the schedule since the meetings launched. They used to meet every week, but it felt too frequent. And by popular demand, they changed from morning meetings to afternoon sessions. It turns out mornings are the most productive work time, and it's the long, lonely afternoons when members need the boost.

Though Browning does not enforce a no-networking policy, she emphasizes that the Klatsch is a social gathering, not a business event. Networking is only acceptable if it arises naturally, she says.

Some members of the group miss aspects of the traditional office experience but don't mind giving them up for flexibility and independence, says Cathy Sunshine, a freelance copy editor. "You aren't anyone's lackey," she says. "You don't have to sit in a cubicle, wear hose to work, attend staff meetings or participate in the office secret Santa."

Since leaving her job in November to freelance full-time, Sarah Massey, 32, has mourned the losses of a technology department and a benefits package. But she thinks the traditional work structure is something of a myth, anyway.