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7 Things the Boss Should Know About Telecommuting
Esther Schindler writes "An article on CIO.com presents input from several telecommuting IT professionals about the benefits that working from home brings to the enterprise. They suggest some processes that help remote workers interact with other team members, and discuss the irritations that twist telecommuters' shorts in a knot. In short, it's what employees truly want the boss to know about telecommuting. Two sidebars also discuss tips for telecommuters who don't want their careers to stall because they're 'out of sight, out of mind,' and the out of pocket expenses that the company and telecommuter need to divvy up."
... about me when I telecommute:
7. I have "Take This Job And Shove It" looping in iTunes.
6. Sometimes I follow links in Google that don't show up at the office when my "Safe Filer" is "On".
5. I work so hard at home that I need a break every hour.
4. Comedy Central replays the same stuff all day long.
3. My desk at home is very clean (in direct contrast to the pig sty in my office).
2. My cats are excellent proofreaders.
1. I'm naked.
Telecommuting has the potential to reduce pat/maternity leave, reduce the amount of time kids are left in the hands of babysitters away from their parents, and keeps parents at home during the day. This would represent significant beneficial social change. I'm surprised it's not mandatory.
occultae nullus est respectus musicae - originally a Greek proverb
I am able to telecommute two days a week right now. I enjoy this for several reasons:
1. I don't have someone stopping by my cube every 30 minutes interrupting my concentration for casual conversation. That is very annoying. At home I don't have this distraction and I'm able to get more work done.
2. Since I started working from home two days a week, I have save myself 2 hours of driving time a week. Less gas, less wear and tear on the car, and a lot less frustration dealing with traffic! That means a happier employee.
3. I can curse and scream as loudly as I please when somebody does something stupid. It's a great stress reliever. In the office, well. The HR department would have issues if they heard what I wanted to say half the time!
4. Comfort! Cube farms suck. If I'm comfortable you know I'll be more productive. I can sit out on my porch in the warm weather and enjoy FRESH AIR AND SUNLIGHT while I work with my laptop. It is a huge, HUGE plus over florescent lights and stale office air.
5. I save money on laundry. (o:
Overall, I'm a lot happier and more productive when I'm at home working.
On the flip side, it is useful to be in the office once in a while too. Meetings in face to face can be more productive and it can be easier to get things done. Other than meetings though, I really don't see the point. Offices are just too depressing and distracting.
Love sees no species.
But it really only works for programmers. On the infrastructure side, you really have to be on site for a lot of things (correct me if I am wrong.) I work in a small company where I wear many hats so sometimes I need to interrupt a maintenance task or project to fix someone's PC. I'd love a telecommuting position but that would mean a radical change. I'd really like to find a telecommuting help desk analyst position. It would be worth even a small pay cut for having such flexibility
Telecommuting supplements working at the office, not replaces it. People still want/need that face-to-face contact. There have been plenty of stories posted about how telecommuting can really put you on the slow-track for promotions and also reduces the opportunities when you accedentally come across a gold-mine of an idea thru means of mis-communication.
Currently I can swing one day a week from home, in the near future I am hoping to work exclusively from home.
The hardest thing about working from home is trying to explain to family and friends that you are trying to work. When they know you are at home, then tend to treat is as if your on vacation, and its ok to call and small talk or pop-in.
My tips
1. Background noise - Parents, shut your children up! Nothing sounds more unprofessional than hearing kids yelling in the background. This goes for barking dogs, parakeets, laundry room, the kitchen and taking a conference call from the local pub.
2. Get a dedicated phone line for office work with a vmail that has a professional greeting. No "Hi, Jim and Linda are unable to answer the phone right now..."
3. Don't milk the expenses. In fact you'd be better off not charging any expenses as it is a factor when it comes time for layoffs. Software licenses are a different matter, but you may want to consider your own license if you develop on the side.
4. Be available/no sneaking out.
5. There are no set hours. It's not 9 to 5, and being flexible for your customers across timezones puts you at an advantage over cube jockeys with a commute.
6. Avoid day trading.
7. Don't become a hermit. Meet up with the local coworkers for lunch at least once month.
I been a programmer for many years. I am disabled (problems using my hands and arms) and can't drive at present. I live the SF Bay Area. Think I can contribute to many companies, but does anyone have any ideas about getting hired? This is the barrier I've encountered.
I'm a level three support (phone jockey) for a pretty large ISP. Customers ask all the time if I'm working from home. Drives me nuts; I'd love to, but i'm in a cube farm on floor two.
Well, its not quite a mop, and its not quite a puppet, but man.. So to answer your question I don't know.
http://www.cio.com/article/print/108501
rentacoder.com
every day http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Random
I am currently deciding if I want to accept the offer for a job that would have me work from home (Europe) completely, for a company in the US. The decision is not easy, because of the reasons mentioned in the articles. Another point to keep in mind is, that with me at home it will maybe put more stress on the relationship to my SO. I'm still undecided...
Could be worse. Could be raining.
If your company deals in IT spread all over the globe, then the company's IT workers are already telecommuting. They're just living in your office space 8 hours a day. NOW do the math!
--Rob
Towards the Singularity.
Spoken like someone who wishes he could do it but is sat staring at the white wall of a cubicle like a mindless cog in a vast, fathomless machine he has no hope of controlling or enjoying.
I work from home, in the sun, 10 minutes from the sea, set my own schedules and use the internet to keep in touch with all the envious drones in the city.
My lazy ass is up at dawn for a swim before I start my day's work and I can't stop smiling.
All Telecommuting means , is that you can be replaced by someone in some other country, for about 15% of your total wage.
It's fine for low-level IT people, and simple programmers, some professions aren't as 'fortunate'
I live in Florida and my job is in Vancouver.
It's not just social benefits, but the environmental benefits of massive telecommuting would be huge! I telecommute 4 days a week. I can tell you that I drive about 1/4 as much as I used to. That has to be better for the environment. I still think if our (California's) governor wants to hit a home run, he could appeal to individual residents, family groups, environmentalists, AND big business if he would get a tax break for businesses that have over a certain percentage of telecommuters. Family groups would love the extra time that parents get to spend with their kids. Individual residents would spend a smaller part of their day dedicated to work, as they wouldn't be commuting. Environmentalists would love to have the number of miles cars in the state drive cut in half, as well as not needing to expand roads, since having few cars on the road means our current roads would be big enough. And what business doesn't like to have a nice big tax break. This would also lead to expansion of our telecom business, as telecommuters would need, and be willing to pay for better internet access.
The only problems I see are those interests that want us consuming as much fuel as possible. Obviously oil companies wouldn't want a state like California to cut it's fuel consumption in half. That would be a huge revenue hit. The state might also dislike the reduced revenue from fuel taxes as well. I would think that the reduced cost of road infrastructure would off set that though.
Not true, i work from home on the weekends, to avoid the drive to do 'after-hours updates'. And it qualifes as 'comptime' so i dont bother going in the following monday.
And to clairfy, i didnt say it NEVER makes sence, only that its rare.
---- Booth was a patriot ----
"2. Since I started working from home two days a week, I have save myself 2 hours of driving time a week. Less gas, less wear and tear on the car, and a lot less frustration dealing with traffic! That means a happier employee."
The nation saves on gas instead of going with hybrids, DST and invasions of third-world countries.
I don't want to telecommute because one's boss may start to figure that if you can work from home, then so can someone in Asia or Russia for one-fifth the cost.
Table-ized A.I.
...if they're all in different parts of the world. Then you are forced to use online tools to get people coordinated. What usually happens is that on a team you have several people colocated in the same location, which needs to communicate with indvidual workers or teams in a different location. What happens is that information is explicitly or implicitly shared with the people on-site, but never put into the tools so the telecommuting workers are completely blindsided. That is also a big problem with offshoring or outsourcing, that the teams talk past each other. Paricularly if you're the odd exception you'll find that no, we're not all "telecommuting".
Live today, because you never know what tomorrow brings
"Customers ask all the time if I'm working from home. Drives me nuts;"
Maybe it's the sound of crying cowork...er, customers in the background?
I did it for about a year and a half and almost went insane. Sure it was nice to take vacations off the record and work from neat locations all over the US, or to go swimming and other recreational activities and "getting paid for it." The downside was I was home a lot.. my girlfriend got tired of seeing me at home so it was taking a toll on the relationship.. if I woke up late or felt lazy then I'd be on my laptop all day with nothing to show for it, still trying to bust out code at 2-3 am.. seeing nothing but a laptop screen for 15+ hours a day (due mostly to my terrible time management) and not going out as often really sucked. I used to hate when they called me to fly into the office, but I began to look forward to it.. being able to grab some drinks with coworkers, checking out cute office girls.. having a reason to get dressed up. Maybe I'm lame and in dire need of a social life, but that's just my two cents.
I, for one, don't want to be known as Ruth Marx. The name sucks. Oh, yeah, that possible identity theft thing could suck, too. :)
What are other aspects of this kind of work? Sure, it could save time, money and nerves. But it could also cheat you out of meeting that cute girl standing next to you in the bus, by the water cooler or somewhere else.
If you are a workaholic you could start losing track of time and work yourself out like a slave - you could end up losing friends, family, etc. Besides, I can just imagine the problems of proving I've been working overtime.
It is always better to be a first grade version of yourself than a second grade version of someone else.
Unless you work for youself, as a contractor, whatever - telecommuting is career suicide. There are exceptions, but that's the rule, IMHO.
..don't panic
My previous boss viewed telecommuting as a supplement rather than a substitute. See, we had flex time. You could stay up as late working as necessary, so long as you were in by 8am. Telecommuting was viewed as "overtime lite". He wanted us to report telecommute time separately from time spent at the office.
Wansu, th' chinese sailor
If you can do the job from home, so can a guy in Bangalore who charges 1/5 of your salary.
If you were blocking sigs, you wouldn't have to read this.
Office phone (VoIP)
Most/all of the broadband data
Allotment for office equip: Printer, Router, etc. up to a fixed dollar amount
Monthly office supplies, paper, ink, etc.
Use a corporate credit card and submit expenses monthly
I do this and the only noise I get is about the high price of printer ink. But it's from their preferred retailers so screw them.
Are you insane?
You're spending less money on commuting including cost of commute itself, stress associated, cost of food, etc.
Your employer is spending less money on your office space.
You're spending less time hassling with inner-office politics.
Your employer is spending less time on setup and maintenance of facility.
You're spending more time on actual work.
Your employer is spending more time on actual work.
Also, please note that while most telecommuting involves working from home, it also means being able to work off-site in general. If you've got a business trip to E. Timor and you're a veteran telecommuter you can still handle your work while there. That beats having the work gather dust or having to hire a temp or make someone else drop their own work to handle it, etc.
Please make a note of the massive amount of physical media we move in physical space containing data that could easily be transported via electronic means. All of those CDs, DVDs, letters, etc. Add up all of the costs of production associated with them. Now add all the costs of transportation associated with them. Now subtract all of that waste and put it on the wire instead. Now STFU and log off permanently if you really believe telecommuting is pointless.
If you're disabled with respect to your hands and arms... how do you code?
I normally use a mouthstick to type and a "foot mouse" to move and click.
Regarding being mod'ed down as offtopic, TFA mentioned a disabled programmer - I was following up on that person.
After telecommuting for 15 months I'm actually glad to be back in a cubicle.
/. feeds in the lunch hour tho.)
1. Regular salary (my tele-contracts are freelance)
2. No family distractions or nagging chores
3. Less incentive to goof online (still check
4. Can't take work home with me. (seriously, I'd be fired)
5. Did I mention being paid on time every month?
6. Pretty ladies in 3D still better than pretty ladies in 2D and backlit.
7. And finally, I have no willpower to keep to my own schedule. Life's short, live each day, yadda yadda... That's why I'm so behind. 8-)
Thats all great, really.
But the number one thing they will realize, is that if you working at home works, someone working in India for 1/6 the wage will work just as well.
Don't be stupid people, if your boss is letting you telecommute, they are just beta testing offshoring.
.
- Adam L. Beberg - The Cosm Project - http://www.mithral.com/
Once you're doing it every week though you should really look at the reasons you don't like going to your work place and try to fix those problems rather than running away from them
If you like your office more than your home, I'd worry more about that says.
Weaselmancer
rediculous.
University of Phoenix might be considered by many to be a joke, but the concept is sound, just needs better execution.
I do not deploy Linux. Ever.
Telecommuters hack off the Boss's HP like nobody's business, HUTTAH!
+5, Truth
I could never have done that in my actual job. The life was limiting in that I couldn't exactly take the kids to a bookstore or library, but it wasn't hard, and certainly didn't require the sustained attention and effort that an actual job entails.
Additionally, I've always wondered, if being a parent is a full-time job, who made Oprah so rich? I mean, someone was watching her shows all those years, and someone watches enough daytime TV to make it a profitable advertising medium. To me, being a full-time parent would be hard mainly because it's boring and limiting, not because it's actually full-time. It doesn't require the sustained attention and activity of a job, but you can't go out and do things as if you had nothing to do. My then-wife's biggest problem was that she didn't get to talk to grown-ups all day, unless you count the other housewives, who were also going crazy from the same problem.
That being said, both of my kids were (and still are, strangely) well-behaved, healthy, and relatively low-maintenance. Talk to them, listen to them, feed/clothe them, and they're fine. I've known parents whose kids had health problems that made their care actually a full-time job, and I don't presume to ever say anything about their situation, because I respect what they have to do. But I've always felt that this whole "parenting is a full-time job", much less the famous "the hardest job in the world" is a bit overblown.
I've spent more hours than I want to think about in Silicon Valley traffic (some things work best in meatspace) reflecting that the great majority of people around me have home computers comparable to what they use at the office and network connections. . . so why are they around me driving at 5 miles per hour belching fumes, contributing to air pollution and global warming when they could be at home online actually getting something done? Why am I paying as a taxpayer for multilane freeways that enable people to do this? Why are companies buying employees computers and renting / leasing / buying office space when they don't have to?
This makes the 20th year I've spent telecommuting. I started at an engineering gig telecommuting with a MacPlus and a 1200 baud modem before there was a word for what I was doing, turning my work in via company BBS. Now I write about technology... and telecommute with a dual core AMD on a box running linux with a broadband connection. I think I've missed one deadline in that 20 years.
Telecommuting works.
Tech Public Policy stuff
it just sux for a game studio. From my experience anyone working from home on a game project becomes out of the loop and to get a game done on time requires easy communication. Getting up and talking to someone about something in the office increases productivity so much. My friend once worked for a startup that was connecting on the internets only and that failed. some of the programmers were in completely different time zones and that took a drain on the project and communication was terrible. So until we can have star wars holograms or a holosuite at home to simulate everyone being at the office together i think telecommuting sux for a studio. Oooh with a holosuite the office wont have to look sucky. No cubicles and everyone can enjoy some sort of awesome view or something.
Balderdash!
According to the article, two of the things your boss should know are:
- it takes a particular kind of worker to be a successful telecommuter
and
- if telecommuting is an option for one employee, it should be available to all
This sounds like it would be a problem.
Any company that even considers outsourcing should first consider telecommuting. Telecommuting DOES reduce an employee's overhead, both in time and money. In many places, an employee would much rather work for an extra hour rather than waste it in traffic. In return, they don't have to buy so much $3.00/gal. gas. As TFA pointed out, it's much easier to find good people when they don't have to move to accept the job, and if they can choose to live where they want, they don't have to demand a king's ransom for a salary just to afford a decent place to live near work.
Telecommuters, unlike outsourcers are likely to be in a reasonably close timezone and share a common language and culture. when it comes to work, that alone can fix a great many communication problems. If you have an international customer base, there are benefits to having each country you sell to represented in the development team. That's how you learn that the "perfect icon that instantly conveys it's exact purpose" means nothing to most of your potential user base (for example) or that nobody in France would actually say that the way your prompt does even if it is technically correct.
One advantage that hasn't really been discussed is flu season. Most people who come down with the flue get it from coworkers. Productivity will be improved by not having as many sick employees. Even part-time telecommuting will tend to encourage employees not to come in when they think they might be getting sick and so misery need not insist on company.
In 10 years of telecommuting, I have had the flu exactly once and I was even sort of productive while I had it.
In addition to the other reasons management may be against telecommuting, I suspect that deep down they believe that if you're not suffering, you're not working. The cramped windowless cube farms with harsh lighting and the bad coffee are there to make sure people are "working" rather than enjoying themselves.
Keep something like a chess clock at your desk to keep track of your work hours. Just don't hit it for every minor interuption or you'll be working more hours than you would in the office.
and I find that sometimes it works well, and other times it is much less successful, and if I knew what made the difference, I'd write a management book and be rich.
In one case, we had developers, quite experienced (but not with our shop), working on new development remotely. No face-to-face, as it was too expensive to travel a long distance. At first there were problems with the VPN and connectivity in general, later on there were perceived delays responding to user change requests. In the end, even though there was a good cost-benefit ratio financially, the management overhead just got too large and we let them go.
In other cases we had people who were more familiar with the shop, more local (and thus able to swing by the shop even for relatively trivial reasons) and who were able to provide superior turnaround working 80 or 90% from home. For management change reasons (new executive management - read non-IT execs) we're phasing out as much telecommute work as we can.
I'm OK with this, although I regret the morale impact on a few of the workers. We're getting more new development rolling, and the same amount of support (adjusting edits, fixing inconsistent data resulting from weak or poorly designed edits, new columns, etc) so we're staffing up and having more face-to-face working sessions with the main users.
I think that the contact with the responsible user community (the users designated to design function on the software development project) suffers the most in a telecommuting situation. We don't build design specifications so much as we work very closely with the functional engineers while strengthening prototypes into real scaling systems, and that's hard from off-site.
I'm not sure what to think of the proposition that if you can do your work from home, it can be done by someone in SE Asia. The communication problems with foreign-born workers is much smaller when you're sitting next to them than when they're on the other end of a conference call - this I know from experience!
I will say that we once bought some off-the-shelf software that was being enhanced based upon the planned functionality (as opposed to what it could do today) and the vendor was a virtual company, the phone number was a commercial help desk, and no two people were in the same state, and their development (while very slow to get where we needed them to be) was well executed, and their ability to respond to error reports or enhancement requests seemed reasonable.
Both my friends who telecommute and my staff who telecommute are more successful than not, the contractors keep getting renewed, my staff gets the job done. My $0.02 on this.
The article is interesting, and will be helpful to someone coming to the issue without experiencing much like this.
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The telcos should do it first, I mean oh god some times you call the telco for support and it's noisy as hell in the background. They got the resources, technology and maybe some smart people, let them local-source the csr's to their homes, that also double as outage/bandwidth-problem indicators. This also goes for wireless.
Next do it with all the call center jobs. They already outsource to india, why not outsource back to local people. One thing I hated about working for an outsourced company was management didn't give a crap about the client other than service levels. So improve the service levels by having X many people cover the base coverage, and Y parttime/multi-department people cover the usage spikes. Works better than 'on call' since by the time someone commutes, the spike is over.
OH and watch RV if you want to see telecommuting gone wrong.
"Basically, resistance to telecommuteing is a result of not being able to unilaterally pile more work upon their employee which they could do if they were physically present in the office."
Well they should allow telecommuting. Stealing the office supplies is much harder.
" STFU and log off permanently" You first, pinhead.
Work at home breeds lazyness and costs in lost productivity as only lazy people do it on an ongoing basis. Get back to your office and get back to work.
---- Booth was a patriot ----
7 years ago the posts on these stories were 100% in favor of telecommuting. Now they're probably 50% against it. What happened? It seems the jobs which allowed telecommuting went to Mongolia and the remaining jobs involve a capability that is only available in the office. Maybe it's some kind of network, test environment, or prototype hardware that only exists in the office.
As predicted, the jobs which don't require being in the location are gone and the posts confirm the truth.
I don't wanna be a manager. So this is great news for me.
It occurs to me that the type of IT job that can be easily done from home is the type of job that could easily be done from India.