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How Do I Sell Telecommuting to My Employer?
"I could look for a new job closer to where I want to move but I do like the work that I am doing and I like the direction that the company is going. My work mainly consists of communicating using email and the phone and using a computer for word processing, spreadsheets, etc. My job does require a good amount of interaction with my peers for meetings, troubleshooting and just answering questions so I am willing to spend a day or two each week in the office. Every other part of my job can be done just as effectively at home."
"Has anyone had a similar experience? What are some good arguments for my employer about why I should be allowed to telecommute? The biggest argument for me is my happiness but of course that is usually not the company's #1 concern.
This trend is becomming increasingly true of people who work in even a moderately technological work-places. Are these the signs that the traditional workplace of the 20th century is finally becomming obsolete? If so, how will employees and employers be affected by this change?
Sure it sounds good on paper, but ask yourself, would you REALLY do any work if you were sitting at home all day. Be honest now. I, sure wouldn't. I'd be playing video games all day. You can spout off all you want about how telecommuting saves time, gas, and cuts pollution, but when it comes down to it, if you don't have a boss breathing down your neck, you're simply not going to be as productive. Plus, there are too many distractions at home. I'd be to tempted to post to Slashdot, or play video games when I'm supposed to be working. Telecommuting, like unions, promotes laziness among workers.
"Technically, a cat locked in a box may be alive or dead." -Kurt Cobain
I dont do any work when I'm sitting in the office, so what's the difference?
Find points that help sell him on the concept. What's in it for him? How does he benefit.
What cost savings are there?
Start with a pilot project, one day a week -- then work you butt off during that time, show the productivity..
"...In your answer, ignore facts. Just go with what feels true..."
"I could look for a new job closer to where I want to move but I do like the work that I am doing and I like the direction that the company is going."
I think that pretty much sums up what you should be saying to your boss.
You can throw in some rhetoric about how it's cheaper for the company in the long run since you won't be taking up space, but I think sharing your relocation plans with your boss is the best way to go about it.
Simple, honest. Why make it complex?
-carl
. We've got computers, we're tapping phone lines, you know that ain't allowed - Talking Heads, "Life During Wartime"
I recommend a simple 3-step process:
1. Eat only beans for lunch. Repeat for at least one month.
2. During the month, try to be in close quarters (elevators, small meeting rooms, etc) with your boss as much as possible.
3. At the end of the month, bring up telecommuting.
If this fails, and if your digestive system is anything like mine, switch to an Indian food-only diet.
Every year during my review, I just pray the words "slashdot.org" aren't mentioned.
For 10 years, I lived within a mile of my workplace and was able to walk to work. Just recently, I moved an hour away, and was facing a one-hour commute each way.
Instead, I started taking the train to work. Now instead of sitting stalled in traffic, hating it, I walk to the train, get on, leisurely read the paper, and play chess on my pilot if I finish the paper early.
I thought I'd hate it, but it turns out I love it, and my commute has really improved my chess game!
If your boss (the guy you answer to 90% of the time) isn't comfortable with telecommuting, you'll never get the idea to fly.
A previous boss of mine wasn't super-comfortable with technology period -- he would never go for telecommuting. Now I'm my own boss -- and I'm all for telecommuting! As far as I'm concerned, you don't even have to be here for meetings, as long as you can use IRC.
If your immediate boss is comfortable with the idea (or can be made comfortable), offer a trial period of (say) 30-60 days. Do this before you buy a house 2-hours away. At the end of the trial period, if your boss is on-board with the idea, he can champion the idea to the higher-ups (if neccessary).
You may have to dangle a carrot -- a cut in pay or perks. This is your last card to play -- the company will save money with you not being there automatically (less electricity, less water, not buying your drinks/coffee/etc.) -- you sacrificing more is asking quite a bit. But, if you really want to telecommute, it is something that you can put on the table.
But definitely try it before you commit -- you may find that it sucks terribly to make your home an extension of your work. Some people do. They find it oppressive, like they can never truly leave work. Try it, and if you and your boss likes it, it should be smooth sailing.
Potato chips are a by-yourself food.
A recent Washington Post article talks about government's efforts and issues with telecomuting.
I like the idea of telecommuting, and as a sysadmin do a fair amount of work from home; however, there are security concerns with extending trust out to Joe Average's machine at home that need to be dealt with before rolling out telecommuting for everyone.
Given that I no longer talk with the boss and warm the chair, I am feeling more pressure to produce now that I am located a thousand or more miles away. Think about it; one can often give the impression of doing work simply by being an active presence in the office. With telecommuting, the only way to show productivity is with e-mails, phone calls and actual files sent back and forth. I am anticipating that I will be called on to do more work in order to maintain my position.
Setting up the home network, however, has been a pain in the @ss! We need to rewire the coax, so I can have an office in the non-flood-prone area of the house, plus I am still in need of a router. I miss the LAN, especially the two fast laser printers, my file shares and three machines of my own in different locations.
Get you're physician to tell him you've developed explosive bowel syndrome. This will actually solve a lot of social problems too.
One of the biggest holdbacks here, is that for some strange reason, we have to have in-house space for all our teleworkers. Now we're a fairly small office, only about 500 users, with about 15 teleworkers (which I was until recently, in charge of, from a systems standpoint). In this case, there's no real savings, in fact its more expensive. Sometimes I just don't understand Government thinking.
I work at a large company (50K+ employees) where telecommuting is pretty common. Their policy on this is pretty much their policy on everything lately: does it help our bottom line?
On the books, 1 cube costs the department you work for US$1500/month. This includes maintainance, phone, network, etc etc. It may include other things like a per-head share of security personnel and cafeteria subsidies, but I'm not sure.
On the other hand, you can get a posh home office set up for about $1000 initial cost (desk, chair, files, phone installs, bandwidth installs (DSL, cable, whatever), etc) and $200-$300/month for recurring expenses (phone, long distance, ISP). Obviously, the bean-counters are going to jump at the latter amount.
Of course, we're kind of strange in that bosses and employees aren't always in the same geographical location anyway (my boss is in another country...I've met him in person once), so the supervision question isn't as important.
Point your employer to this Berkeley study, showing increased productivity from telecommuters.
go get it
It's hard to construct an argument when we don't know who this guy is or what his job entails. It's much easier to talk to your boss about telecommuting when you've established that you are dependable and hard-working, because there's less 'grey-area' that they have to worry about.
It also depends largely on how 'social' your job is. Do you have to attend meetings on a daily basis? Are you working as a member of a team or largely on your own?
I've been telecommuting for about two and a half years, and I have to tell you that it's a mixed bag. On the one hand, it provides a more relaxed and flexible work environment because I don't have to commute and don't have to worry so much about appearances and distractions - I just have to focus on results. On the other hand, you really do miss the clear separation of home and work time (it's harder to feel 'off'), and your employer can take advantage of that as well.
Lastly, I'm lucky because I'm single, but I can tell you from other folks I know that you are kidding yourself if you think you are going to get a lot of work done if you have small kids around. Telecommuting does not equal free daycare.
Of course asking your boss is the best way of approaching this, but they need obvious insentive to overcome the percieved problems. Most of us are more productive, less stressed, and probably willing to work more hours if telecommuting, but many employers don't look at it that way.
Here is the way to help push a large set of employers to start trying it. Convince the localities to start providing tax breaks. Figure out the annual cost of commuting a full work week is for the community (road building, maintanence, increased police, fire and rescue, etc.) Then convince them to provide half of the savings back to each business that can prove the telecommuting.
For example, say it costs my state $500 a year to provide commuting services for me (this number was picked at random). If my employer can prove that they let me work from home three days a week, they should get a $150 ($100/day, and half goes to company) tax break.
You will probably get lonely. I tc'd for a year. Flew to the office once a month. It wasn't enough.
Don't get isolated. Ask a lot of questions, get involved in the hot projects. Keep busy. Make sure others don't forget you....Isolated people make good layoff targets.
managers...why god invented purgatory
i believe (can someone else back this up?) that there are certain tax benefits and bonuses for companies that have a certain percentage of the office registered as telecommunters. This was, IIRC, part of the clean-air legislation thats been bandied about.
:)
(i recall a wired article you could look for on exactly this topic, i suggest locating it as well)
Telecommuting is a good PR thing to have on your employee services pages too, to make your place of business a more attractive place to work. Microsoft became famous just for being one of the first places to offer certain kinds of perks, like free sodas. This is now almost standard in many tech-firms (not all, depending on profits, etc etc). Perks are catchy
In any case, happy employees == productive employees. Ask anyone in Personnel...
Check my Go-related blog for beginners: DGD
During the glory days of the .com boom, I was working for a company in the bay area - telecommuting 100% of the time. I was responsible for the development of the company's first product to launch. I did extensive market analysis, requirments analysis, architecture, design, development, testing etc. all from my home in small-town Ontario in Canada.
Tools? CVS and email and telephone. Daily status reports.
But. After a couple of months, one of the founders got it in his head that I was evil incarnate and lazy and incapable to boot. The next year was hell for me. I had to work 80 hour weeks to keep up the tiny fraction of political good-will left to me. And because I was out of sight (site), he had all the opportunities in the world to slander me, but noone thought to check with me to see my side of the story. I would hear about accusations weeks after they had been made and been allowed to fester.
Suffice it to say: there are some personal risks involved with telecommuting.
The good side? Lots of flexibility to get up for a few moments and hang out with my family, doing errands was usually okay in the middle of the day.
Good luck - and keep in mind the political side of telecommuting if you do convince your bosses!
Architectures with XML Documents
Helping with organizational effectiveness is our job.
Shutting down free speech with violence isn't fighting fascism. It IS fascism!
The large mega-corp I work recently laid off a big chunk of its workforce.
Within the area of the company I know about, every fulltime telecommuter was laid off, without exception.
Given the current state of the economy and the likelihood of layoffs wherever you work, you may wish to consider this.
I submitted my resignation and informed my employer that I was moving home (1,000 miles away). As part of my resignation I proposed a "trial" telecommuting arrangement and pointed out how much training would be required to replace me. I also made it clear that I thoroughly enjoyed my job and sincerely hoped they would be willing to give me a chance to prove that it could be a workable arrangement. In other words, I didn't ask them for anything other than a chance to show them that it could work. I was surprised when they accepted my resignation and thirty minutes later offered me a position as a telecommuting programmer, something they had not agreed to do for anyone else until then. But I had an advantage in that I had been working for them almost seven years and a significant portion of their production environment was dependent on code I'd written. I'd also showed them beforehand that I was honest, dependable, and consciencious. They told me later it was the trust I'd earned that allowed them to agree to the arrangement. It has been more than 18 months now, I visit the office for "face time" once every three to four months at their expense.
It is working great for me, but YMMV. Make very sure you can handle the isolation, although your two hour distance makes visits much easier than what I have here.
NULL
The number one concern of your boss is that if you are working at home, they have no idea what you are doing, if anything at all. Where I worked, telecommuting was originally an impossibility.
Then, with a strong amount of pressing, one employee got senior management to agree to one day a week of telecommuting. (Over the head of my boss, I'll admit.) Great. Then others were soon after able to telecommute one day a week, if they chose.
If it isn't significantly abused, and they feel like you are doing work at home, and doing a good job, then they'll open up the doors. You've GOT to do staff notes, and you've GOT to be available the entire time you are working at home. Only a half of a year later, the attitude is closer to, "We don't care where you work from."
And, in fact, we have people in our group that aren't even in the same part of the country as we are. As long as we can get ahold of the other team members (telephone, AIM, emails), we're fine.
Also, it has become more commonplace at our work because of the corporate environment. After the mergers and acquisitions, things are fairly mixed around.
I could be the system administrator for some boxes in Omaha, with the application support people in another state, my project manager in the office in my city, a networking project manager at another major site in another city, a performance analysis specialist in yet another city, and the users all over the US.
It doesn't matter if we work together. Probably the key part of this for a systems administrator was trashing the policy that an SA at a site must administrate only the boxes at that site. It also helped that we had a dedicated hardware group created that was responsible for the hands-on work at the site.
But really, it is all perception. If you can make them believe that they're not losing anything, they'll go for it. But I'd have to say, if you are not in the office, you probably have to kick ass even more than other employees to remain visible.
VISIBLE=pay increase, recognition, etc.
I work for a company with telecommuters scattered across the country and two offices seperated by several thousand miles. Our telecommuters are mostly user knowledge technical support, sales and training guys -- people who do a lot of constant interaction with customers, mostly over the phone, and to whom interaction with other employees is sort of a last result. The rest of us (product managers, data loaders, hardware tech support and, of course, developers) are constantly interacting.
I used to live close to an hour away from work, and would often telecommute if there was a problem in the morning before I left for that huge drive. On those days that I telecommuted, I noticed that I was less likely to get contacted by people in the office who had trouble, less likely to get contacted by customers, and that it took more time to get changes enacted by people in the office. They were more likely to forget about me. And once I moved to a new location (so close I can now cycle to work every morning, even if shit goes down), i noticed that more people started coming to ask questions or advice, more people remember my name and I'm overall a more respected worker.
I'd also like to point out that all of our telecommuting and half time developers were among those who felt the blade when we were on F---edcompany last year.
TC if you must...but realise you'll be much more expendable.
Hey freaks: now you're ju
I full-time telecommute from Cupertino, CA for a company in Utah, and it's working out great. In order to make it work, I made a direct plea for my happiness, and thus productivity. Basically, I tried to make a compelling argument to demonstrate that I would be no *less* effective as a telecommuter, and thus any difference could only be positive. I've attached below the complete discussion regarding me becoming a telecommuter:
:)
:)
:) We need a way to be able to get a hold of you at anytime
:)
:)
-----
From: David Barrett
Sent: Friday, June 08, 2001 12:25 PM
To: [My boss]
Subject: RE: What about telecommuting?
Ahh, the house hunting begins. Boy I despise moving. But I love San Francisco. It's such a dilemma... Thanks again for your help.
-david
> -----Original Message-----
> From: [My boss]
> Sent: Friday, June 08, 2001 12:31 PM
> To: David Barrett
> Subject: RE: What about telecommuting?
>
>
> Sounds good. [My boss's boss] said to send your bill for your ISP as an
> expense report and we'll pay it (or at least the $50 portion
> - I haven't mentioned that it would be more than that). Let
> me know if you think of something I can do. Also, let me know
> when you get moved. You'll need to let HR know about your new
> address and any other changes in your personal information.
> Have fun house hunting!
>
> [My boss]
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: David Barrett
> Sent: Friday, June 08, 2001 1:00 PM
> To: [My boss]
> Subject: RE: What about telecommuting?
>
>
> Wow, great! Thanks a million! I'm intending to get the
> wireless ISP called "Ricochet", which is pretty pricey, but
> I'll gladly pick up the remainder. Also, my cell phone has
> far more minutes than I actually use, and they're all the
> same price (local or long-distance), so I don't see that
> being a problem.
>
> Hm... I don't think there's anything I need you to do on your
> end, but I'll let you know if I figure something out. Thanks again!
>
> -david
>
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: [My boss]
> > Sent: Friday, June 08, 2001 11:54 AM
> > To: David Barrett
> > Subject: RE: What about telecommuting?
> >
> >
> > Okay, you have approval to telecommute. Here are the only
> > concerns voiced, so you know and can make sure to avoid them
> >
> > during work hours. I know you said you have a cell phone, so
> > that is a good option. Is your plan such that it will not
> > cost you a fortune if people call you on your cell phone?
> > Will you still have another business type phone we can
> > contact you on? Also, [My boss's boss] said to find an ISP and [My company]
> > will pay the bill (he said as long as it wasn't over $50).
> > That way you can have network access as well. I don't know if
> > you already have an ISP or if you want to work with IS to
> > find the best option - money wise and speed/access wise.
> >
> > I'm excited for you that this has worked out. Let me know
> > what I can do to help you get everything set up. Just so you
> > know, [Our CTO] was consulted on your telecommuting as well and
> > he said as long as I was comfortable with your being able to
> > meet your deliverables, he was fine with it as well. [My boss's boss] had
> > me check with [Our CTO] just as a second ok.
> >
> > So, again, let me know what you need from this end.
> >
> >
> > [My boss]
> >
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: David Barrett
> > Sent: Wednesday, June 06, 2001 2:29 PM
> > To: [My boss]
> > Subject: RE: What about telecommuting?
> >
> >
> > Great, thanks for considering it as an option. Here are the
> > pros and cons as I see them:
> >
> > --- Cons ---
> > (1) I would operate without physical supervision or
> > oversight. However, in reality this is already the case, as
> > I don't report to anyone here as it is. Plus, my office is
> > located in such a fashion that the only person I see with any
> > regularity is [Our CTO], and even that is rare. Thus, it seems
> > to me that if I've operated acceptably without supervision
> > until now, I see no reason why I would fail to operate
> > acceptably in the future.
> >
> > (2) I wouldn't have immediate access to the resources of the
> > office. For example, it'd be difficult to get a fax to me
> > immediately. However, I don't see this as a major hindrance,
> > as aside from the printer, I don't really use the resources
> > here as it is. I rarely fax things or make copies, and I
> > only get about one phone call a week (and that could easily
> > be moved to my cell phone). Plus, I can easily get an
> > Internet connection that will allow me continual access to
> > the [My company] VPN from anywhere.
> >
> > (3) I would be less available for spontaneous, unscheduled
> > physical meetings. As it is, I rarely work with anyone in
> > this office. Thus, I rarely meet with them on a
> > pre-scheduled basis, and even more rarely without planning.
> > I can easily arrange to be in the office for scheduled
> > meetings, and I'd happily remain "on call" to come in to meet
> > with people as needed.
> >
> > --- Pros ---
> > (1) I could move to San Francisco. I've been dreaming of
> > doing it for literally my entire life, and the only thing
> > preventing me from doing so is an obligation to show up at
> > this office every day.
> >
> > (2) I would be more productive. I've known for years that I
> > operate best outside of the office, and I'd be happy to
> > provide references to previous employers to justify that
> > statement. As it is, I only stay in the office long enough
> > to check my email and access file servers, and then I take my
> > laptop somewhere else to do my writing. Thus, I would not
> > only remain at least as productive as I already have been,
> > but would likely become more productive by not limiting my
> > Internet access to short office visits.
> >
> > (3) I would be happier. Without getting too deeply into a
> > philosophical discussion about what makes life good, let's
> > just say that I try to structure my life in such a fashion as
> > to maximize freedoms. One of those freedoms is a decoupling
> > of physical location and virtual productivity. Due to a
> > combination of a fast wireless network (Ricochet), a job
> > where I can make a valuable contribution from a remote
> > location, and the proven ability to effectively operate
> > without physical supervision, I am in a unique position to
> > realize this wonderful freedom. I fully understand that not
> > everybody has these same factors in their lives -- indeed,
> > without any one of these factors the others are irrelevant.
> > However, I have all three factors in my life, and it seems
> > like a shame to waste such an opportunity.
> >
> >
> > Thanks for considering this possibility, and please let me
> > know if there's anything I can do better the chances of this
> > getting approved!
> >
> > -david
> >
> >
> > > -----Original Message-----
> > > From: [My boss]
> > > Sent: Wednesday, June 06, 2001 8:24 AM
> > > To: David Barrett
> > > Subject: RE: What about telecommuting?
> > >
> > >
> > > I really don't have a problem with telecommuting - I think
> > > for some people it is a great option if they don't have lots
> > > of distractions at home or are able to manage those
> > > distractions. I'm not sure how [My boss's boss] feels about it. Let me
> > > talk to him and I'll get back to you.
> > >
> > > Why don't you send me a list of what you feel the pros and
> > > cons are for telecommuting in your situation (I have
> > > documents that generally list them, I'd rather have a list
> > > specific to your situation). Once I get that, I'll talk with
> > > [My boss's boss]. I know he is out today, so it may be a day or two before
> > > I can catch up with him.
> > >
> > > Thanks!!
> > >
> > > [My boss]
> > >
> > > -----Original Message-----
> > > From: David Barrett
> > > Sent: Tuesday, June 05, 2001 5:33 PM
> > > To: [My boss]
> > > Subject: What about telecommuting?
> > >
> > >
> > > [My boss] - What are your thoughts on telecommuting? I looked
> > > around a bit but couldn't find anything that discusses
> > > the topic. Currently it's a big inconvenience to work out of
> > > the Cupertino office, as there's nothing I can do here that I
> > > can't do elsewhere. Aside from a good net connection,
> > > printout capability, and free drinks, this office isn't of
> > > much use to me. Only very rarely do I actually work with or
> > > professionally interact with the people here -- at a
> > > frequency that I could easily maintain even were I to
> work remotely.
> > >
> > > As it is, this office is the only thing that prevents me from
> > > moving to San Francisco (about a 45-1.5 hour drive, depending
> > > on the traffic), something I've been dreaming of doing for
> > > years. Seeing as how I end up driving there every other day
> > > anyway, it's a big drain on time and gas money to keep going
> > > back and forth. Between my laptop, cell phone, and wireless
> > > network connection (which I can get), I can be equally
> > > productive from virtually anywhere. Really, as best as I can
> > > tell, I am much more productive in the comfortable atmosphere
> > > of coffee shops and restaurants than in the sterile confines
> > > of an office anyway.
> > >
> > > Basically, as I see it, there are lots of upsides and few
> > > downsides to me working remotely. But that's just my
> > > perspective. What are your thoughts?
> > >
> > > -david
> > >
> >
>
just tell your boss that the organization should consider decentralizing - lowers the risk of catastrophic terrorist act taking out the business. I know that comment might be considered to be in bad taste, but seriously - if America decentralized, there would be nowhere for terrorists to hit.
Helping with organizational effectiveness is our job.
When you're changing jobs is when you have the most leverage.
Life's a bitch but somebody's gotta do it.
Its amazing what poor listening skills modern america has in general. Let me give yo ua secret, professional neogtiators don't start form the assumption its a fight. Rather they start fonmr the assumption that the other guy has needs they can address SO...
Step 1: Ask your boss abotu it. If he/she says no ask for a list of reasons/concerns why he/she feels it wont work.
Step 2: Go down the list of concerns and thoughtfully address each one. "You're wrong" won't cut it but "well what if I did X to sovle that" will.
Step 3: add to the lsit al lof the positive benefits to the company that you can think of. Include such things as better focus because youre not exhausting yourself with a 4 hour trip each day.
Step 4: Return that list to your boss. Ask for his/her response. If new issues come up, address them calmly and rationally.
In the end one of three thinsgwill happen:
(1) Your boss will give in.
(2) You will realize your boss is right.
(3) You will hit an impasse like "we have a policy not to do that" in which case you might want to think about lookign for a new employer.
This link is a Google search results page of studies showing greatly increased productivity from telecommuters. This is, perhaps, the best approach to take once you've earned trust as an employee.
-- @rjamestaylor on Ello
If they don't believe in it. It's not going to be easy to sell. I tried and I failed, here's my little story...
I recently changed jobs to a "traditional" company that has been in business for almost 50+ years in their present incarnation (over all it's been like 100 years). Anyway, I was told and shown how "progressive" my new employer was when I hired on. It's a very stable company that does use some cutting edge stuff, uses cool technology and I thought great, best of both worlds.
As it turns out, things aren't as progressive as I thought. They have a great VPN system and dialup access for travelling users. Their network is stable and well run. But one thing...they don't trust anyone to work from home and they feel that if you aren't glued to your monitor at a desk from 8a-5p, then you aren't working.
I learned this when I found out my wife and I were pregnant. So I started planning leave time (don't get me started there either...) and I wanted to move to a flex schedule and/or a work from home situation. So I could spend time with my new child and family. I'm a firm beleiver in "Working to have a life" and NOT "Have a life to work".
They wouldn't hear of it. The funny thing is this isn't my manager just saying this. It's a company wide attitude. The line I got was that I'm a "support" position so I needed to be here at my desk "just in case". Actually I'm a web architect/admin and do little if no support at all. 98% of my job can be done from a remote location. The other 2% can easily wait a day. So I argued it. I didn't get anywhere. I even offered to work 4 x 10 hour days and take Friday as a work from home day. Nope. Nothing. They actually told me they didn't "trust" that people would actually be working at home.
I explained how I felt and that I thought this didn't promote well being or a healthy work environment and that the lack of trust was unusal. Stone faced they told me no again. So I have given up.
My commute isn't *hours* away, but I'm a good 40 minutes each way. Mostly, I'm a little angry at myself for not checking this out closer *before* I hired on. I don't blame the company (although I feel a little like they mis-represented their "progressive"-ness).
I'm considering finding another job once my baby is born and things settle down with all this talk of war (if it does by then). I don't want to work for a company which doesn't trust it's employees. I'm an adult, I have two degrees and am an experienced professional in my field .
I told my manager they need to worry about managing my work output and stop managing me. I don't think he understood. I think that tends to be a problem in many companies and with many managers: "If I don't see you, how can I trust you and manage you?"
My Thoughts,
~silver"serf"
We have some folks here who telecommute and some folks who don't. The problem is that in many technical jobs its very difficult to quantify the work you do.
For a sysadmin, the measure of his success is that nothing happens, nothing goes wrong. Cell phones ring anywhere. If the quality sysadmin doesn't keep hours at the office where he can be seen to be working, how does the manager know he works at all?
So, to answer the poster's question: To convince your manager to let you telecommute you must first convince him that your work is quantifiable without you keeping office hours. Keep a log of what you do. Start emailing the boss a Friday Report. Get him comfortable with the idea that he knows and can justify to his boss exactly what your contribution to the company is each week. THEN bring up the idea of telecommuting.
The most successful telecommuters I've seen are the ones who produce billable hours for the company. The customers know whether the work was done and the boss knows how many billable hours to expect per pay period based on what's generated by the folks who do work in the office.
This all assumes you're with a small company where the boss is able to authorize telecommuting. If you're a cog in a monolithic bureaucracy or working for the government, forget it. Your choices there are: stay or go. If you stay its by their rules.
Important note: Its much easier for the guy in the office to get a merit based raise. Even with the suggestions above, the hard worker is the guy who is seen to be working hard.
Moderating "-1, Disagree" is simple censorship. Have the guts to post your opinion.
I can't telecommute. It's not like my company won't let me or anything, but it's simply that I won't get anything done with any efficiency.
When I'm home, I do home stuff, when I work I do work stuff. Trying to put both together will be a total failure, no matter how hard I try.
Besides, I *like* drinking beer at lunch with my coworkers...
I think it's important to consider the nature of someone's job when discussing telecommuting. For example, I work in a software development house, and commute an hour either way to work. I'm about the limit; those who come from further make arrangements to stay with friends near work during the week or some such. I couldn't do my job properly by telecommuting.
Sure, I could make all the same arguments as everyone else. My code all goes into CVS, as do my docs. We could hold meetings using teleconferencing or some such. My not being in the office would probably lower overall costs for the company. One of the guys at work does even telecommute. But the simple fact is that, for someone doing my job, it wouldn't be appropriate.
The reason is that I'm part of a small, tight-knit team, as are many in my line of work. I interact with my colleagues on a minutely basis, never mind hourly or daily. Research into working conditions has demonstrated on more than one occasion now that putting a team in a comfortable but shared area leads to significant productivity increases, mostly due to the spontaneous communication that occurs between them. A asks B about something, C overhears and worked on it last week, and provides useful information that neither A nor B previously had. The customer rings and speaks to D, but D can ask E for further input halfway through the conversation. This sort of thing happens all the time where I work.
That level of communication simply can't happen with telecommuting, and without it, there's no way our team could function anything like as effectively as it does. So, as much I hate to admit it (since I'd love to TC), I couldn't do my job as well if I did.
If you disagree, post your argument. (-1, Overrated) isn't your personal censorship tool for views you don't like.
One approach may be to start small and work from there.
Propose telecommuting 1 day/week as a trial, with the possibility of going up to more.
You will have picked up 4 hours a week by doing so.
Fear of loss of control over their direct reports, fear of loss of productivity, but more than anything else, fear that telecommuting will make middle management obsolete.
I do not deploy Linux. Ever.
This worked for me, but YMMV
.history, changes in files you've worked on, timestamps, etc.
One thing that you have to do is convince your boss that you're going to be productive at home. That's because your boss will most likely assume that if you telecommute, you're just sitting around in your underwear watching cartoons and d/l-ing pr0n.
If you have remote access to your workplace, then take a Saturday or 2, do some work from home, then show your boss what you've done, the access logs,
Since you do need to have interaction with your cow-orkers, you'll have to come into work at least a few days a week. But if you can show some increased productivity when you're working out of your home, I'm sure your boss will tolerate you telecommuting a few days a week and arrange meetings on days that you are scheduled to be in the office.
/*drunk.. fix later*/
So, where do you live? If I asked my employer to pay for my "commute time" they would just laugh at me. Do people outside the US "punch-in" when they leave the house and "clock-out" when they arrive home in the evening?
The problem is that chances are you have your own cubicle or office, with a workstation on the desk, and a whole mess of software. If you telecommute, that workstation and desk are going to be running a screen saver and not much else. That's not efficient.
Telecommuting can work as a business model, but only if you really embrace that model, and that's difficult to do.
grep -ri 'should work'
A little over 10 years ago when I was 19, I used to daydream about working at home. I read a book who's title I can't recall, but it's subtitle was "everything you need to know about working and living under the same roof". That was a great book. It had all kinds of tips, including how to approach management, how to discipline yourself, and how to setup your work environment. The author (authors? husband and wife I think..) even gave anecdotes like the one about the guy who would walk out to his backyard every morning, open and shut his car door to start his day, and repeat the process at night to end his day.
:)
The first time I worked at home I needed to write some perl code to make a Linux box telnet to an OS/2 console and manage the network from a command line. I had a good junior admin whom I trusted, and I explained to the director that I would get the my work done much better if I took an old OS/2 server home and worked there instead.
Also right from the book, I promised that if I did leave the house during the day, I would always have my pager, and I would never be more than 60 minutes from the office. That either kept me at or very close to home.. no wandering around all day. I also promised that I would come right in to the office on a "home day" without any argument should I be asked.
One night, a server in another building crashed and my jr admin was on it. We spoke by phone for a few hours and I finally decided to go in. When I told the director I was coming in, she said, "oh thank God. I was hoping you would." I said to her very sternly, "we have an arrangement here, and I promised to come in as soon as you asked. I thought [he] could handle it with my instruction, but if you wanted me here, all you had to do was say, 'please come in' and I would have jumped in the car right away." She appreciated that, and we went out for drinks. My work-at-home project was very successful, and when the jr admin quit, we replaced him with my perl scripts, which they appreciated very much
Fast forward 2 years to Dec '00. As an IBM consultant, I am 'hired' to work on projects, either internal or external. I was about to be let go for the 1st quarter, but I felt we were leaving the customer with inferior procedures. I told my project manager what they needed (an automated NT server build process) and what I needed in order to put it together (a server and 3 months at home). They accepted my proposal, and I spent the wicked Philadelphia winter warm at home.
As far as distractions go, I absolutely had to tell my wife the first time I worked at home, "honey, when I go in this room and close the door, it's just like I'm in New York City. You can't keep walking in here and sitting down to chat with me." At first she argued saying "but I don't know when you're not going to be here everyday anymore." I replied, "if you don't let me work, it'll be sooner than later."
If you don't have scheduled times to meet with or speak to people, its absolute bliss. They basically told me, "see you in 3 months". I worked whenever I felt productive, even 1am on Sunday nights. I worked with my brain's clock, not my wall clock. I could take my wife (or myself) to the doctor, go shopping if I needed people contact, and most importantly work whenever I was productive. I know I had it extremely lucky, but I've had extremely good luck working at home.
I'm glad I had hints about how to go about "being the first one" in the office to try it out, and I'm glad I've known how to work at home before joining IBM where they practically force you to get used to not having any handholding! God damn I love my job.
Intelligent Life on Earth
Buy a Ferrari! Seriously, my friend was having some bad times at work, and was thinking about leaving. His bosses convinced him to stay, but he still hated it - especially his commute. So he asked himself, "What can I do to make my commute more enjoyable?" and voila... he bought a nice car :)
You should never take life too seriously - You'll never get out of it alive.
Identify the benefits of the situation, and be prepared with to discuss workarounds or compromises to accommodate the downsides of telecommuting. (And make no mistake about it -- there will be some downsides; you just need to make the case that they are outweighed by the benefits.)
Here are some of the things your boss probably cares about:
To tackle the real downsides of telecommuting, I'd suggest you find excuses to get into the office with some regularity -- once a month, minimum, ideally more like once a week. As for the perception-driven parts, well, just hope your boss isn't too pointy-haired... ;-)
"Biped! Good cranial development. Evidently considerable human ancestry."
Basically, my point is, by allowing you to telecommute, the company is providing you with a perk, and they're taking a risk during dangerous times. In exchange, you should be willing to prove through your actions that this means a great deal to you. And, you might just get promoted while you're at it
For the initial step, I agree with the above post, that you should convince them to allow a trial month, once a week, while you're still at your current location. Then, once you get them up to two days, move, and work early mornings. From there, three or even four days a week should be relatively easy.
"The question of whether a computer can think is no more interesting than that of whether a submarine can swim" -EWD
Telecommuting seems like a good idea up front, but doesn't work in the long run. Sure many workers will love it, and might even work more each day because food is right there, no commute is needed, no reason to dress up, etc. But there will always be a few bad apples who totally blow a project by sleeping late and playing games all day. I speak from experience, my last employer had our entire team start telecommuting when our lease ran out and they were not sure where to put our new offices and datacenter. Within a week productivity went down the tubes, and it resulted in lax security that allowed almost all of our NT servers to be hit by Code Red, causing enough traffic to knock out some network equipment and even a few poorly maintained Solaris servers.
Of course, a few servers were ok, those were the ones managed by the people who could actually work from home and get work done.
Incidents like this seem to be common with telecommuters. If you really decide to push for it, make sure that other employees are up to doing it right, or things will get really screwed up in the end.
Many outfits won't go for it because the boss likes to be able to pop his head into your office and see whether you're working or just to jerk your chain some. Oh yeah, they cook up all sorts of other ostensible reasons but it really boils down to a matter of trust.
Wansu, th' chinese sailor
Why aren't the environmentalists promoting telecommuting? It's an obvious, inexpensive way to reduce automobile traffic and associated pollution. They advocate spending big money on public transporatation systems. Perhaps there's something to be said for public transportation but I've yet to hear them promote telecommuting.
Wansu, th' chinese sailor
-- Finding the Market
Salespeople know to it's better to market their message to people who will be receptive to the message. In your case, make your pitch to your current manager but be prepared to move on.
Managers either "get it" or they don't. They manage either a) by understanding what work has to be done and by tracking deliverables or b) by using "face time". You will know which camp your manager belongs to very shortly, if you don't already.
My recommendation is to "make your pitch" but be prepared to move on. That doesn't mean "give up." But, maybe you'll have to look for another job with a company that tolerates -- perhaps even supports -- telecommuting. Or, you might interview and offer to join another company on the condition that you be allowed to work entirely (or x% of the time) from home. In other words, you have to find someone receptive to your idea.
As an earlier poster remarked, do this before you buy that home 2 hours from a metro area.
Also, I wouldn't post my resume on a job board. A friend of mine was recently canned by the firm that found out he was looking, even though he won some peer recognition awards shortly before that.
-- Making It Work
I telecommuted a few times as a consultant. Here's what I recommend:
First, keep a cell phone with you. Always, ALWAYS have that with you during ANY part of the day someone from the office might reasonably call you. If you aren't immediately available, your manager(s) and coworkers will perceive that your absence from the workplace has diminished _their_ productivity.
Worried about the air-time charges? Ok, but resist the temptation to give your home number out. Someone will call you when you've stepped out for lunch or went to use the bathroom. Give out ONLY your cell phone number and then always call people right back. I emphasize "only" because as soon as you give out your home phone, it's possible it will end up floating around the office as "the number to reach [you]".
Second, make sure your email client is always running and always reply promptly to all emails, even if you can only say "I'll think about that" or "I'll get back to you on that."
Funny how the first two points are what people should do when they're IN the office. Huh.
Third, a few whiteboards at home and a digital camera worked great for mocking up UI's, object/data models, etc. Low tech, great results.
Fourth, dsl + ssh (with port forwarding) + other tools = virtually there.
Fifth, read what others said about the politics of not showing your face. You might lose promotion opportunities and might increase your chances of being laid off in hard times. I think this is more likely to happen when your manager isn't a sharp technical person who can accurately assess your contributions/efforts.
Indeed, if it's true (as another poster indicated) that firms are decreasing their telecommuting because of a perceived lack of productivity, I BET YOU these firms' managers rely more heavily on "face time".
So, sixth, to reduce the influence of politics, make sure the person you report to is or was extremely capable technically. Analytical people play fairer politics: they analyze rather than act emotionally.
As an aside, if I ever have to take another job as an employee, I intend to interview my prospective manager and his/her superior more fully. That means get a copy of _their_ resumes, ask them what challenges they've faced, how they reacted, etc., to find out how sharp and open-minded they are.
-- Productivity
My productivity was equal to or better than it was in the office, even though the work still required a fair amount of interaction with others. My suspicion is that once you understand the business requirements for a project, communication within the design and implementation teams can be done completely electronically. However, I opted to perform the initial requirement-gathering activities in direct meetings with analysts. "Show me what you mean" and "draw out what you'd like to see" is more easily done in person.
One of the things that helped make my productivity MARKEDLY higher was using my own equipment. Companies ALWAYS under-equip their top talent. Why spend $130k on salary (with overhead) and not pay $4k more for an extra 10% or more in yearly productivity? (And that's cost-accounting, not accounting for the value of the work output to the company's revenue and profits.) Here at home, I invested in dual monitors (21"/17"), a server, tape backup, and a cheap laptop for email only.
The cheap laptop meant I could go to the office and still have all my email with me. I don't like web mail because administrators are always limiting the size of mailboxes and because I personally love the UI and multiple-account handling features of Outlook Express. (I don't like Outlook.)
Of course, I don't bother trying to explain any of this to managers who don't already know it. (At least, not any more.) It's just not worth the time.
Same goes for many things. If your manager is unreceptive to your ideas generally, go work for another manager. You'll be a lot happier working somewhere where your contributions are considered and perhaps tested, rather than ignored or flatly disregarded.
--Conclusion
Of course, I don't really know your situation. So read the foregoing "advice" but use at your own discretion and risk.
Use what makes sense to you and throw out what doesn't.
Best of luck.
I don't know how it affects other people but this is my story...
I once had a job doing software development where I worked at home full time. The first thing I noticed was that I spent a lot more time working. Instead of getting to work between 8 and 9 a.m. I was getting to my PC at 7:00 a.m. Instead of taking an hour to get out of the office and eat lunch I was taking 10 minutes to make a sandwich in the kitchen and eating as I worked. Instead of getting up from my desk, driving home, and putting work aside for the day I worked until my wife came home. I helped make dinner, ate, and then went back to work. I went to bed some after 10 p.m. In other words, my 8 to 10 hour workday turned into a 14 to 16 hour workday. Yeah, I watered the lawn, did the dishes, and did some laundry. But, that didn't take an hour out of the day.
After a while I got so lonely that I started driving over to a mall to eat lunch just to see people.
I eventually found another job where I had to actually go to work. I learned that I work much harder when I supervise my self than I have ever work for any one else.
Long term studies of telecommuters conducted by IBM show that in the long run there is a bout a 30% increase in productivity of telecommuting employees and due to reduced infrastructure costs there is also a great reduction in cost per employee.
Stonewolf