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Striving to Keep Teleworkers Happy
coondoggie writes "Employees who work from home or in remote branch offices often feel disconnected from corporate life and worry they will be forgotten and bypassed for promotions. Managers and employees have to make a concerted effort to stay in touch, experts say. At IBM, Pelino and others set out to improve corporate culture. The company sparked new life into an old tradition: IBM Club, which brings together employees for intramural sports, picnics, movies and other types of social, cultural and recreational activities."
Don't worry. So do the people who work at the head office.
But if a promotion didn't come, I wouldn't be upset. As a teleworker for a local staffing service, I save enough money on gas alone. I have the comfort of my own bathroom, the comfort of my own house, and the comfort of my World of Warcraft video game on my breaks. I really wouldn't trade that to have to travel to the office every day and interact with people, even if it means never getting promoted.
I agree. Managing strip club + hooker expenses via email/phone is simply too difficult.
Much easier to broach the subject over a friendly game of tennis.
This is one of the reasons I finally left IBM. While I worked in RTP, at an IBM campus, I loved it. Surrounded by IBMer's, there were lots of activities and clubs for us to use. Once I moved to a customer site, all that disappeared. Left in a supply closet, reviled by the customer and IBM alike, we festered. Job satisfaction dropped, and so did that feeling of belonging to IBM. Add into that the drastic cost cutting IBM has implemented, and things generally sucked. We all stopped going into the office because of gas prices, and roving bands of irate customers. IBM made no effort to get the local people together. Now that they are trying to breathe "new life into an old tradition: IBM Club" I predict the same old same old. This "club" in unfunded, ignored, and generally cast aside. IBM needs to start investing again in people, not gimmicks and cheerleading.
...At IBM, Pelino and others set out to improve corporate culture. The company sparked new life into an old tradition: IBM Club, which brings together employees for intramural sports, picnics, movies and other types of social, cultural and recreational activities...
Wouldn't it be ironic that the people it is intended to bring together might not hear about it because the notices for those activites is posted in the lunchroom?
Why yes. I am an optimist. Why do you ask?
Hope be with ye,
Cyan
I think you've got the wrong attitude there. Don't see it as a "competition" - see it as a chance to have fun with your workmates. If you look at it as an opportunity rather than a drag then not only will you have a good time, but you might actually get a positive outcome. Turning up to this sort of thing meant my face appeared on the radar of senior management. In a social environment your more unusual abilities can be discussed.
As someone that was an IBM employee and still knows people that work at IBM I can tell you that this is mostly spin. Moving people to work from home is all about the mighty dollar. IBM saves quite a bit in expenses by having people work from home. Also, IBM doesn't really care that much about it's U.S. workforce as it is primarily interested in moving jobs to India. The last announced goal for the workforce in India is 40,000 employees. Little hiring is being done at all in the U.S. by IBM while attrition continually reduces the U.S. numbers.
"4)I have not partied with Andy Dick" -- Matt, Salon.com 11/23/99 "I Anakin"
In the military we call it Mandatory Fun.
"This post is an artistic work of fiction and falsehood. Only a fool would take anything posted here as fact."
Beat the shit out of the managers that make teleworkers have to justify that we are really doing our jobs away from the office.
It never fails, it seems every quarter some moron in Finance or some new manager in some department questions the value of teleworkers and other stupid comments or questions about the people they dont see daily.
When you have to defend yourself in SPITE of your work quality and quantity on a regular basis it kind of makes us really pissy.
Do not look at laser with remaining good eye.
So....now besides going to work 9 to 5 monday to friday and beyond...you go on company branded organised excursions with your fellow employees and their families...at which you all bond and the company tries to let you know about how much they care about you? I'm sorry, but this for me (and I'm sure quite a number of my generation) is pretty much what's putrid about western corporate culture today....when it suits companies, they want to have 'a positive one on one relationship with someone'[personifying probably the least personifiable construct on the planet] whether it be customer or employee, that 'lets them know they care'. When it doesn't and a companies execs want to put the boot in its 'not personal, just business'.[my fellow programmer incidentally reckons the only way to deal with that line is to make it personal]. Western business culture today seems in practice at least to either use the company as a vehicle for overtly oily and condescending overtures to customers or employees, or as a shield to hide behind when extremely irresponible decisions have been made. Its why, if I cn help it, I never want to work for a large company in my life. Once the damn things pass a certain size, they take on a personality all of their own, and it's generally not nice.
It's a fine line...you have to look like a competitor in order to be thought well of by the Fantasy Football League morons but also remember to throttle back your game so that you don't show up your boss in front of everyone. I made that mistake once.
The first year I was working for a former employer, I beat my boss's boss out for first place in a charity road bicycle race. In all honesty, while I knew that the general rule is that you're not supposed to beat the boss, he had been going on and on for weeks about how he "hoped that he would have some real competition."
I've been racing bicycles competitively for years, so there was no doubt in my mind that I could beat him. But I thought that I would just lay back the whole race and then act like I was going to challenge him on the last hill but let him win. Unfortunately, he wasn't quite as good a cyclist as he had been letting on, and halfway up the hill he pulled off to the side and puked.
Needless to say, my employment there was short-lived.
I work full time from home in a senior development position and can relate very much to the disconnected feeling that is discussed in the article, but the solutions that are discussed are addressing the wrong problem in my opinion. The problem is communication but it is professional communication, not social communication that is often lacking.
:)
We have found that short and sweet daily "stand-up" meetings in the morning with only the immediate team members (others of whom work from home as well) are far more helpful than weekly or monthly all-staffs or get togethers. In my experience it is rare that more than 2-3 people actually speak on an all-staff conference call of more than 10 people - how can that help improve communication? Get togethers at a restaurant or park, what have you, are fun and allow for familiarization but they are outside of work and do nothing to improve the day to day communication of the issues at hand.
We have also found webcams to be unhelpful, the concensus being that without eye contact it's just TV. Screen sharing tools like VNC or webex paired with a speaker phone are far more effective when extended collaboration has to happen, while IM takes care of the rest.
As far as the promotions go if the team you're on isn't communicating professionally and producing crap code you have no chance of getting promoted - no matter how many funny jokes you tell at the IBM "Lunch 'n Bowl"
while [ 1 ]; do echo -n -e "\xe2\x95\xb$((($RANDOM&1)+1))"; done
Am I the only one that actually likes telecommuting?
Seriously, there's a lot of things to not like about IBM, but telecommuting certainly rocks. For one, I get to skip an hour of traffic coming and going and save up on the money. My job as a sysadmin is very lax and easygoing, and I'm studying Computer Science simultaneously, which means that the free time that I'd spend in the office I can spend home studying or, God forbid, working naked in my bedroom, or outside in the backyard(you CAN take the laptop outside).
Socializing? You just coordinate your time telecommuting so that you have 2 days in the office so you can spend time with your team (assuming that your team is worth spending time with). I'd tell you, in a day with little stuff to do I'd rather do my own socializing inviting a friend over than spending in with a random coworker.
And sleep. Man, there is nothing better for your health than getting to sleep an extra hour because of not having to deal with the bullshit of getting dressed and driving. Better yet, you can get out and run or do exercise before tunring the machine on.
People who dislike telecommuting are simply not creative enough to know how to deal with it. A couple of weekly meetings in person with the rest of the staff suffices to kill the feeling of disconnection. The rest of the free time and benefits you get by being home are absolutely amazing if you use them right. I get to cook, watch TV, or read whatever I want. Yes, it does take personal discipline to lose the distractions when there's work to be done, but it's damn well worth it.
Cosas de un sysadmin argentino: http://aosinski.phpnet.us/
When I was 100% telecommute I was always terrified I would be promoted and given responsibilities that required me to travel, or else, forced to relocate to a main office.
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