Flexible Working Good, But Mistrusted

usefool writes "iTNews has a report commissioned by Toshiba Australia, which stated flexible working (the ability for people to work from whatever place offers the greatest suitability and productivity for the employee and their employer) offers up to six times the level of return through the cost savings associated with fewer overheads, parking, technology and recruitment and training costs. However it is perceived as difficult to monitor and supervise, therefore not always practised by employers."

Comments

The bourgeoisie doesn't trust us

[Anztac]

So we have something that's massivly economically feasable, but it would pull some control out of the hands of the bourgeoisie. I wonder why this bothers "managers".

Maybe because they're afraid we'll figure out we don't need them.


Yes, I know this is a simple and almost disingenuous statement and the language is clear cut "us and them." :: shrug ::

Re:The bourgeoisie doesn't trust us

[bstarrfield]

You've got a good point. Most corporations currently spew out lines talking about how "everyone is a member of the team, employees are our most valuable resource, we want you to develop as an individual, yada, yada...". If employees work at home, a fundamental construct (hierachical management) is called into question.

Nearly every organization (both government and business) is replete with layers of management and administration that must do something to justify their continued existance. Having employees work from home - directing their own tasks, planning their own days, working whatever hours are necessary to complete their jobs, essentially eliminates mid-level management, a large part of Human Resources (what a tragedy), facilities, etc. More people would be actually producing instead of well, I'm not sure what management actually does (increase transaction costs?).

Fundamentally, your challenging the assumption that professional workers need "leadership" to get their tasks accomplished. Once people figure out they themselves are capable of directing their own work, they may begin to ask terrible questions such as "why does the PHB earn $120k and I earn $45k when I do the work?" Even worse, people may figure out that working themselves to death in the office is not exactly the best way to live life - they may stop working twelve hour days, weekends, whatever, and simply do their assigned tasks.

Freedom! What a goal! Realizing that your office is not your life, wow.

This is a Double, Double Edged Sword

[thecampbeln]

For the employees, this sounds like a rocking idea (well, really, it is). You'd not have to worry about traffic, parking, or the noisy bastard in the cube next to you. BUT, the technology enabling employees to work from home is the exact same technology that enables outsourcing of that same employees work across oceans.

For employers, they are untrusting of their at home employees because they cannot run task over them all day, making sure they're getting their work done, etc. BUT, this same paranoia is probably helping to keep these same managers from outsourcing the same work over the same fears.

So, put this all together - if an untrusting manager tries out the work from home approach, and finds that it does indeed cut costs as well as have the same (or greater) output, then why not cut costs a little more by using cheaper employees across an ocean?

Personally... I think that once managers (and employees for that matter) are able to grasp the idea of working from home, it will revolutionize the work place. I can do a hell of a lot more work in 6 hours at home then I can in 8 hours at the office (well, 8 hours + 1.5 hours of commuting, so 9.5 hours of "work"). The employers could save bank by letting me work from home, and only coming in on a day or two a week for face to face meetings by letting someone(s) else use my cube the other 4 days a week. I also personally believe that outsourcing will garner some really bad press sooner rather then later, scaring off many businesses from the practice. Don't believe me? Ask your local hospital =)

Re:This is a Double, Double Edged Sword

[bigsteve@dstc]

There are big differences between flexible working and outsourcing. For example

• Flexible working retains management control of how things are done, where outsourcing largely surrenders it.
• Flexible working retains key knowledge / skills within the organisation, where outsourcing quickly results in their loss.
• You can always pull in a "flexible working" employee in for a face-to-face meeting. With (offshore) outsourcing, this is often not an option.
• With "flexible working" employees, you can resort to the civil/crimoinal law; e.g. if an employee leaks IP or confidential customer data. With outsourcing, it is much harder to sue, especially if you have outsourced overseas.

Re:This is a Double, Double Edged Sword

[nvrrobx]

I absolutely agree with you. I was self-employed and worked from home for almost a year. There were some fantastic perks (I'm a night owl. I enjoy coding at 2 am.) but there were some dramatic downsides.

In my current job, I share an office with two other people. This leads to some annoyances, but also some great collaborative efforts. We bounce design ideas off each other, for example.

You really do start to miss human interaction after a while. I think it's also harder to evolve your skills when you're by yourself. It's always interesting to hear a peer's viewpoint on an emerging technology, etc etc.

I would go back to working from home a few days a week, if possible, but not full time. I'd lose my mind.

XP feels the same

[gnovos]

I've been doing hard-core "turn the knobs to 11" XP for a while now, and I feel quite the same feeling as this... We've proven that we can offer bug-free code, on time, every time, in a manner that allows new employees to come up to speed in days as opposed to weeks, but still, it just "feels" wrong to most management that the increased productivity is completely ignored...

It doesn't matter that we've gon from 6 month release cycles of mostly bug-fixes to one week cycles of new features, nor that we've gone down from two or three critical bugs a week to a total of TWO medium level bugs in two years. Those numbers are meaningless to the upper eschelons... but having two programmers working at the same machine, now THAT's a definite "problem area" that they feel needs to be addressed.

both

[austad]

Both my last job and my current job allow me to work from home. I come into the office when I have a meeting, or go to a client's office when needed. Otherwise, I sit at home. I don't even have my own desk at work.

I get more work done not having to stare at a gray or beige cubicle all day, I can crank up the tunes, and if I get sick of sitting at home, I can go to a cool coffee shop and get things done.

A couple of my friends do the work from home thing also for two different, but very large american corporations. They both love it. They get their work done more quickly, and they don't have to deal with traffic.

Probably one of the greatest things about being able to work from home is that you can also get things done that are not work related, like wait around for a repair person, let the cleaning in, pay your bills, etc. I know this would sound to an employer like you were goofing off, but there is some downtime when you are waiting for a phone call or email so you can continue what you are working on, or when you've finished your work for the day and are waiting for something else to come up.

I no longer spend every waking minute of my day "getting stuff done." I spend my 8-10 hour day doing work for my employer and getting menial tasks done, and when I'm done at 5 or 6, I relax. My stress level has dropped like a rock, I no longer feel like I don't have enough time to live my life, and consequently, I'm likely more productive since I've just stopped worrying about things that I don't have time to do. The article a couple of days ago about stress causing $300 billion to employers every year is spot on, and a good way to solve this problem is to allow employees to work from home.

If an employer finds that people aren't doing their job when working from home, either make them come into the office, or fire them and hire someone more responsible.

Re:Telecommuting cost me money

[Anonymous Coward]

Why do you consider 'stepping away to get a drink' as not work-related? Would you stop your billing time doing the same when in the office?