Work Boundaries
It's important for your manager and co-workers to understand that although you may be working from a home office, this is serious work time scheduled and performed just as you would in the corporation's building, yet not. :) This means that dropping by unannounced or calling you outside of normal business hours is inappropriate. If your workmates don't figure this out on their own, it's your job not to make your spouse's life miserable with your complaining but to find friendly ways to let them know this is NOT OK.
Make sure your manager and co-workers understand that you are on a tight schedule. Conference calls including you have to be scheduled with your day in mind and meetings or visits to your home office must also be scheduled. Gently reminding people of that should eliminate unannounced visits or calls outside of the hours you wish to work. Don't feel that you have to make up for your physical absence by being over-available. If you're not expecting a call, you do not have to answer your office phone at 9 p.m. Try to establish your own boundaries by letting people know that work will be done between X a.m. and Y p.m. on certain days of the week. Anything that's an emergency should go to your cell phone or pager or to some other special number.
Priorities
Yes, some people will actually think you are sitting there all day, eating peanut butter sandwiches, watching TV, and only springing to action when the phone rings or your "you have email" sound goes off. If your day looks like that and you're getting paid AND getting work done, congratulations! :) For the rest of you, it will be important to make sure that your manager and co-workers understand how to communicate priorities to you. Having urgent calls go to a cell phone, pager or special number during or after business hours is one way.
Email is another animal. Without the cues you'd get from the sound of people's voices, you may not be able to tell how important a memo or request is. If your department doesn't already have a protocol in place for how to make sure a recipient knows how important an email is, speak with your manager about implementing one. If you are all using email programmes that use and recognise priority labels, that's one way. Another way is for people to start each email with a statement of priority, such as "priority: fyi" (doesn't require a reply), "priority: urgent" (get this done right away), and everything in between. Nobody should have to guess what the author means and it will be better to use this system than to guess incorrectly and find that there is anger between workers. Even if the manager doesn't want to implement it, use it yourself ... people may appreciate it and it could catch on even without an official departmental decree.
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