By JANE HODGES

Telecommuters, entrepreneurs, and the self-employed all grapple with the logistical challenges of working alone. At home, workers face isolation and domestic distraction. At the corner coffee shop offering free Wi-Fi, there’s insufficient privacy, too few electrical outlets and the nuisance of latte orders shouted out through the day.

A growing number of workers face these hassles every day. As of November 2009, there were nine million self-employed workers in the U.S., according to Bureau of Labor Statistics data. Meanwhile, the volume of workers telecommuting at least once a month for employers grew 17% between 2006 and 2008, to 33.7 million workers, according to WorldatWork, a human-resources research firm in Scottsdale, Ariz.

Telecommuting has grown more widespread among full-time workers due to technology advances and corporate efforts to drive down overhead by lowering real-estate costs, says Cindy Auten, general manager of Telework Exchange, a telecommuting research organization in Alexandria, Va. “Organizations are starting to see the benefits of telecommuting for the bottom line,” Ms. Auten says. “The ability to work offsite is even a recruitment tool.”

For those who lack a conventional office, shared, or “coworking,” spaces promise to solve some of the dilemmas of working alone. These facilities provide environments where professional nomads can work in relative quiet and even socialize around the coffee pot, or copier.

Just how well could we “cowork”? To find out, we took laptop and cellphone to four facilities in four cities, Office Nomads in Seattle; Souk in Portland, Ore.; The Coop in Chicago; and New Work City in Manhattan. All four are located in popular neighborhoods near public transit.

The facilities offered a variety of pricing plans ranging from day rates for the noncommittal to full-time 24-hour access memberships. Aside from solo workstations, they all also offered free high-speed Internet connections, free coffee, whiteboards and areas (with beanbag chairs) for small group brainstorming sessions, restrooms, lockers or storage, and light office amenities such as copiers.

Reservations weren’t required at any of the spaces, but were available at Souk and are forthcoming at New Work City.

All the facilities belonged to the “Coworking Visa” program, which lets members in participating coworking spaces use partner spaces elsewhere when traveling.

All also offered first-come/first-serve use of conference rooms for quick private chats or calls. At Souk, you could pay to reserve conference rooms for formal meetings or longer uses.

The Coop, located in Chicago’s West Loop area, was the smallest space we tested, with desk-top spaces pushed up against one another without dividers.

We visited twice during the week—on a Wednesday and Thursday—and appreciated that a few workers—an accountant and a consultant—greeted us. Working in a formal office motivated us more to work and we appreciated the comfy black leather chairs and good lighting. But the lack of barriers between desks meant we could see coworkers’ computer screens, and vice versa.

We were unsure of phone etiquette, but learned it was acceptable to make calls in the open when coworkers conducted job interviews and client meetings over the phone. While slightly distracting, the open-air calls were no worse than in a conventional office.

Manhattan’s New Work City, on the edge of SoHo, was on the compact side. The space had a 20-worker capacity and didn’t take reservations when we called, but the owner said a reservation systems is in the works. After check-in, we snagged one of the few remaining spots. We appreciated that our work space was spacious and that coworkers seemed industrious. Some of the office denizens appeared familiar with one another and a bulletin board posted community news, but we didn’t feel pressured to socialize.

Both coworking spaces we tried in the techie Northwest were bigger. Seattle’s Office Nomads, located in youthful and artistic Capitol Hill, can accommodate several dozen workers with its mix of closed-door offices, open desks and lounge areas. Office Nomads didn’t require a reservation and won’t charge for the first visit. Office Nomads was well-lit, with abundant plugs and desk options.

Coworkers—as well as the site’s founders—introduced themselves and offered help. We weren’t sure if we visited on a particularly friendly day or if this was the norm. Office Nomads appeared to place an emphasis on creating a community for its members; there was a “State of the Nomads” monthly meeting at midday. A bulletin board listed in-house social options as well as visiting speakers slated to appear, and also featured quirky photos and fun facts about members. Office Nomads also offered the most extensive weekday hours, from 8:30 a.m. to 6 p.m.

We made a reservation to use Souk, on the edge of Portland’s Pearl District and Chinatown, for a Thursday. We were surprised at how quiet the space was, with less than 15 workers inhabiting a space sufficient for several dozen more. The friendly office manager checked us in, gave us a tour, and even made us an Americano coffee from the office cappuccino maker.

Souk offered the widest variety of work-space configurations. Full-time members could use enclosed offices, but less-frequent coworkers could choose from rolling desks in a large open room, a communal work table, or first-come/first-serve semi-private rooms with walls and sliding doors. We liked that rolling desks in the open room could be moved at coworkers’ discretion—toward a wall for privacy, near a partner for collaboration. The open room also offered lightweight partitions for makeshift privacy. We chose a semi-private room. Noise was minimal, but we overheard some consultants and nonprofit sector types talking about work projects. Abstract art adorned the brick walls and furnishings included Herman Miller chairs and modern desks.

All in all, we liked coworking spaces. There were a few hitches, however. We needed to spend considerable time on the phone and felt uncomfortable discussing confidential matters publicly or hogging conference rooms. The other complication is that while coworking spaces guarantee and deliver a baseline of services, they also offer lots of extras based on loose rules. For instance, sometimes the facilities stay open later than posted hours and sometimes they don’t, or conference rooms aren’t always available.

For those of us with tight deadlines or plan-ahead mentalities, this can be stressful. But considering how cheap and flexible coworking is relative to a full-time lease—and the social perks—we don’t have problems with this unpredictability.

—Lori Barrett in Chicago and Shivani Vora in New York contributed to this article.

By CRAIG CHAPPELOW AND JEAN BRITTAIN LESLIE

Mid-career derailment can happen any time, but in today’s economy there is no room for complacency. With job opportunities harder than ever to find, it’s a particularly rough time to be fired or demoted or to hit a career plateau. You can reduce your risk for derailment by paying attention to your value and effectiveness and by focusing on interpersonal skills, adaptability, team leadership and bottom-line results.

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Based on the Center for Creative Leadership’s ongoing study of executive derailment with clients around the world, here are 10 ways to avoid these pitfalls:

Ask for instant feedback. When walking out of a meeting, ask a colleague, “I think that could have gone better – what could I have done differently?” Listen to the response. Don’t defend or justify your actions and don’t interrupt. Sean Fowler, assistant vice president with insurance company IAT Group in Cold Springs, Fla., uses feedback from his co-workers as a reality check. “You have to develop a bit of a thick skin,” Mr. Fowler said. “Once you get past the initial shock, you really come to appreciate it. It’s a long-term effort made up of small steps, not a leap.”

About the Authors

CCL

CCL

Craig Chappelow and Jean Brittain Leslie are senior faculty members at the Center for Creative Leadership and co-authors of the CCL guidebook “Keeping Your Career on Track.”

Increase self-awareness. Become a student of your own behavior. Take stock of how you feel about your work and how you react when you are pushed outside your comfort zone. Explore the values that matter most to you and use them as an anchor during times of change, transition and stress. Amy Gillard, owner and operator of Gillard Enterprises, an event-management business notes that selecting work which is not the right fit will only create challenges with clients down the line. “Self-awareness is key in my business. You have to know who you are and what you have to offer,” she said.

Pay attention to organizational culture. To stay aligned with your organization as it morphs and changes over time, you need a clear understanding of the prevailing culture. Analyze how decisions get made and think about the underlying assumptions that guide the organization as it responds to challenges and opportunities.

Use empathy. Your direct reports, your peers and even your bothersome boss are all human beings worthy of your respect. Listen without judging. Take the feelings and perspectives of others into account. Don’t use humor inappropriately and always keep private conversations private. You’ll end up with stronger relationships.

Learn to listen. Hearing isn’t the same as listening. Turn away from your email and concentrate on the person talking to you. Don’t be passive. Ask questions to make sure you understand. Stay in the moment and take notes to help you remember key points. Show people you’re really hearing them. Air Force Col. Trent Edwards, Commander of the 28th Mission Support Group at Ellsworth Air Force Base, learned to listen differently in response to feedback from his team and his family. He realized he was using a “war zone” mentality in non-war zone settings. With tours in Afghanistan and Iraq, Edwards describes his previous approach as “very action-oriented. Everything was always go, go, go. Now I try to listen with more patience, with an open ear to try to hear what is being said and also what is not being said.”

Collaborate. Try to not be the Lone Ranger. Be open and willing to disclose your decision-making process to others, along with important facts and feelings. Your influence and effectiveness will increase.

Deal with problem employees sooner rather than later. If a direct report’s behavior or lack of skills threatens the success of your team, confront the problem head on. Don’t let it fester. These kinds of problems almost never heal themselves. Document specific shortcomings and either dismiss the employee or create a development plan for improved performance. The cost of carrying poor performers can have a ripple effect across the organization – destroying morale and dragging down productivity.

Delegate authority. Don’t keep your employees tied down and stuck in the same roles and responsibilities. Allow them to test their wings. Assign stretch projects you think they can handle. As they prove themselves, increase the complexity of the assignments. Give adequate guidance and follow up to see how they are doing. Debrief shortfalls and use them as a learning opportunity. Above all, acknowledge positive outcomes.

Focus on the task at hand. While it’s great to have a development plan and to work on skills you will need down the road, don’t forget that your main job is just that – your main job. Organizations value managers who get work done. Focus on what you need to accomplish each day. Bring jobs to a close. Tie up loose ends. Document outcomes. Get closure, and…

Break out of a rut. Learn from the mistakes that you and others make. Stop talking about how things were done in the past. Bring a new idea or solution to the table. Break away from your lunch cliques. Identify a rut you are in and get out of it.

Become known for your skill at adjusting to change, building strong relationships, leading effective teams and getting results. Your colleagues will appreciate it – and you’ll reap the professional rewards.

By WILLA PLANK

I’m not on the run yet. But I’ve been warned. AT&T doesn’t like what I’m doing.

The mobile carrier sent me an email out of the blue last week. Apparently I had reached a milestone: I’m in the top 5% of the carrier’s heaviest data users.

AT&T punishes its heaviest wireless data users by slowing down their service but what does it take to join the top five percent of the carrier’s data users? Willa Plank explains on The News Hub. Photo: AFP/Getty Images

But there were no prizes. Repeat the feat, and I might be punished with slower service, the email said. Just in case I didn’t get the message, AT&T followed up with a text reminding me to use Wi-Fi to help avoid pokey download speeds.

How did I get to this digital penalty box? In 2010, AT&T announced new tiered data plans, with prices escalating based on the amount of a customer’s monthly data use.

In July, it warned that data hogs might suffer network slowdowns. I stuck with the $30 a month unlimited plan, figuring I wouldn’t be one of them.

I was wrong. I had been using my iPhone for nearly four years, doing nearly the same things every day—checking email, listening to Pandora Internet radio, using Google Maps, browsing the Web at night and shopping online. I averaged about 1.76 gigabytes of data per month in 2011

That changed this month. I’m not sure what did it. Perhaps it was one 84-minute movie on Netflix, or a bunch of shorter clips that came to total 200 minutes of video. Maybe it was the 24 photos I uploaded to Facebook or the extra hours on Pandora as I took bus rides between New York and Washington, D.C.

By Jan. 18, about a week before my billing cycle ended, I had already used 2.05 gigabytes.

There isn’t much agreement on what counts as normal data use. The average smartphone owner used 606 megabytes of data per month in the third quarter of 2011, according to Nielsen.

An NPD Connected Intelligence study of 700 Android smartphone users found they used 724 megabytes per month on AT&T’s network. The average was 1.7 gigabytes on T-Mobile, 902 megabytes on Verizon Wireless and 1.2 gigabytes on Sprint.

But there is agreement that data consumption is on the rise. NPD group expects video streaming to double over the next 12 months.

Oddly, this isn’t great news for AT&T, which over the years signed up millions of users with the promise of unlimited data access.

When data use was relatively low, this made business sense for the carrier. Now, voracious data use is making those unlimited plans less profitable—and harmful to AT&T’s wireless network.

“If you look around at competitors you’ll find similar approaches,” said AT&T spokesman Mark Siegel. “We all have to find ways to find efficient uses of that spectrum available.”

AT&T’s network has had trouble handling the crush of traffic set off by the iPhone, particularly in big cities like New York and San Francisco. The carrier’s ill-fated $39 billion deal to buy T-Mobile USA, along with its spectrum and thousands of cell towers, was intended in part as a fix for those problems.

In the meantime, AT&T is trying to get customers into tiered plans, so those who use more will pay more.

The problem is that I’m not alone in using my cellphone as my primary path to the Internet. About 25% of smartphone owners said they mostly use their phones, rather than a computer, to go online, according to a Pew Internet Project survey conducted last year.

AT&T’s email had suggestions including that I: “Consider using Wi-Fi when possible for applications that use the highest amounts of data, such as streaming video apps, remote web camera apps, large data-file transfers (like video) and some online gaming.”

I shut off my iPhone’s Wi-Fi option long ago, because constantly searching for a signal can eat up battery life. But after AT&T’s gentle suggestion, I came back to Wi-Fi instead of accessing AT&T’s network.

While this works at home, it’s still a hassle when I’m on the move. Coverage cuts in and out, and I can’t listen to Pandora on the train anymore. I have to lug my work laptop home more often. So much for mobile.

The warning notices have had another effect: I’m starting to get paranoid. Was that sluggish service when I was trying to find a restaurant online last Wednesday?

AT&T’s Mr. Siegel said slowing down heavy data consumers is a way to ensure that all customers can use the company’s network.

Joe Schram/The Wall Street Journal

A warning text from AT&T

On Oct. 1, the carrier started slowing network speeds for the top 5% of unlimited-plan users in each market, a group that varies by market and by month. I asked how much data the average AT&T customer uses, but was told that wouldn’t be a helpful comparison.

AT&T subscribers on tiered plans don’t get throttled. They just have to pay for more data if they go over their limit. AT&T’s letter suggested that I look at these tiered plans.

It may be a coincidence, but it arrived the same week the carrier said it would raise the price and size of its data tiers. The new data plans offer 300 megabytes for $20 a month, three gigabytes for $30 and five gigabytes for $50.

I used just over two gigabytes, so why would I switch to a capped plan for the same price as my $30 unlimited plan? Oh yes, the throttling threat.

New customers can’t sign up for unlimited plans anymore. When asked if slowing down the network is to encourage unlimited customers to switch, Mr. Siegel said: “We offer people the variety of choices. They can pick the plan that is right for them.”

Indeed, the right plan for me may be with another carrier. Lately I’ve been looking at Sprint. It offers “unlimited data,” too.

Write to Willa Plank at willa.plank@dowjones.com

Q: I enjoyed your article on stay-at-home moms returning to work. Do you see men facing the same issues? After 10 years at home with my kids, I am beginning to interview for jobs and am preparing for the transition you describe.

—R.C., Marietta, Ga.

A: Many at-home dads have faced challenges in making the transition back to work, as described in the column, but they are seldom willing to tell their stories for the record. Men typically encounter even more skepticism than women when they return from time at home caring for their children, says Carol Fishman Cohen, co-founder of iRelaunch.com, a Web site for people returning from career breaks. The recession has actually eased the stigma by making it easier for returning dads to blend into the crowd of other jobless men.

Networking is even more important for male on-rampers than for women, Ms. Cohen says. The key is to forge connections with people who have known you in roles other than parenting, she says. Former classmates or co-workers or fellow committee members in volunteer activities can help you reconnect with the working world. Consider signing up for a career re-entry seminar at a university or community college near you, to brush up on basic skills, practice interviewing, network and look for job leads.

If you can’t find a social or professional networking group with other men who have taken time off, consider starting one yourself, says Mercy Eyadiel, director of alumni career services at the Stanford Graduate School of Business, which offers a career re-entry program with the University of Virginia Darden School of Business. If you are able to consult with a career or life coach, doing so could help you clarify your goals and set an action plan and timeline, Ms. Eyadiel says. When interviewing, don’t apologize for your time away, but focus on what you could do for a new employer.

Q: If parents of teenage children divorce, is it right for moms or dads to leave their homes open when they aren’t present, so the kids can come and go as they please? My husband and I don’t allow my teenagers in our home when we are away, bolting our door when we leave. However, my ex-husband leaves his house open to the kids 24/7, even when he travels on business. The kids accuse me of lacking trust in them, but I am concerned that they or their peers might use the house for parties. Am I off base?

—L.M.

A: Not at all. “It is very risky for teens to be unsupervised for long periods,” says JoAnne Pedro-Carroll, a Rochester, N.Y., clinical psychologist and an expert on children and divorce.

Teens do best with consistent structure and clear rules, she says. “Deep down, too much freedom results in a concern that their parents really don’t care about them. Teens need and want limits to help them learn to manage their impulses and choices.”

Your question raises another issue—cooperating with your kids’ father, says Dr. Pedro-Carroll, author of a forthcoming book on children and divorce, “Putting Children First.” It would help your teenagers if the two of you could agree on how they should be supervised while either of you is away. “Right now, your kids are caught between two extremes: A bolted door at one house, and too much freedom at the other,” Dr. Pedro-Carroll says. She advises working toward an agreement that will ensure that they always have a responsible adult present.

Many divorced parents have such a requirement as part of their parenting agreement to cover times when one parent is out of town. If the other parent can’t oversee the kids, then the responsible parent must make arrangements to find another adult to help out. If you don’t have such an agreement, she says, “it may be time to renegotiate.”

Write to Sue Shellenbarger at sue.shellenbarger@wsj.com