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."

Comments

Personal Benefits

[KermodeBear]

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.

Re:Personal Benefits

[SocratesJedi]

Meetings in face to face can be more productive and it can be easier to get things done. You really think so? I find that face-to-face meetings are a much more difficult medium to exchange ideas in rather than than e-mail or, when rapid response is required, using IMs or video conferencing software. When discussing in person ideas are often broken before being fully expressed or parties can be subtly influenced by social and conversational constraints. I know that I'm at least much more likely to express disagreement in written form rather than in conversation. Usually, also, I find ideas are sub-optimally expressed in conversation rather than in writing since one doesn't have the luxury of editing to ensure that all the written words actually express the true intent of the thinker in the most clear manner possible. Plus, you can't search reality the way you could e-mail or an IM or (maybe as a future speech-recognition application a recorded video conference?)

I would be a bit curious, actually, to know whether /.'ers think that meetings can be productive. Perhaps my own experience or preferences are not the norm (or perhaps they are?).

Re:Personal Benefits

[jbengt]

Face to face interaction is cery helpful. It's easier to pick up meaning that you'd miss in written correspondence, or even phone conversation. You're more likely to ask a good question and the back and forth nature of conversation makes it more likely that ambiguities will be cleared up. There's an upside to e-mails, though - they automatically leave a written record, which can help a lot a couple of months later.

Face to face meetings are necessary, but productive? They can be productive, especially one-on-one meetings. The more people in a meeting, the less productive they tend to be. A well organized leader helps. You tend to spend a lot of time listening to things that don't affect you. Still, meetings are necessary, and you'll often hear something that no one would otherwise think of telling you that does affect your work.

Re:Personal Benefits

[ydrol]

A lot of meetings are a complete waste of time, especially ones that are regularly scheduled.

I would agree with this, except for one occasion I remember we were on a very tight schedule for the final delivery of a project. The project manager introduced something we called 'Daily Prayers'. Every morning we had a meeting *strictly time limited to 15 minutes MAX* to raise any issues and track progress. Often it just required confirmation that you are indeed still working on the bit you said you would be. It certainly helped us deliver on time, and we actually 'enjoyed' the meetings, they reminded be of the short playbook rehearsal & big hand shake a sports team might to before the game begins..

Re:Personal Benefits

[Doctor Memory]

It's easier to pick up meaning that you'd miss in written correspondence, or even phone conversation. You're more likely to ask a good question and the back and forth nature of conversation makes it more likely that ambiguities will be cleared up. Amen! It's very handy to be able to note when someone in sales/management/marketing's eyes start to glaze over when you're explaining some technical detail. Then you can backtrack and re-explain so everyone understands, w/o having to respond to somebody's "I didn't understand your comment about X" message two or three days (or weeks!) later. It's also handy when your bogometer goes off and you can glance over at someone else on your team and see if they're likewise wary. I also find they're much quicker than e-mail if you just need to clear up some points on one or two topics.

Re:Personal Benefits

[GlacierDragon]

I actually find meetings where everyone calls in from in front of their own computer to be more productive. Part of that is because my team is in 2 different cities so someone will always be on the phone and it's just easier to hear and participate with everyone on the phone. I also find it more productive, though, because you have all your stuff right there and can email each other documents as they come up in conversation or quickly look up any stats (or whatever) that you need. No hunting for a meeting room that's not booked, too. And there are plenty of programs to let you share documents with each other. (Although, I really wish people would learn to "share application" rather than "share desktop".)

Re:Telecommuting = positive social change

[tacocat]

Companies probably aren't primarily concerned with the social implications of work habits. To some extent, yes. But it's got to have a cost benefit attached to it or they simply cannot do it.

I think there is something to be said for this and many people that I work with do this to some extent but only on a very informal and infrequent basis.

I think it would be interesting to implement a rolling work schedule where you only come to work on one or two days a week and work the rest at home.

I personally find that when I do work from home my productivity is rather insane in comparison. I might only work 4 hours on some days, but I'll finish an entire week of work in that time and then spend the remaining 4 hours of the work-day observing the work in action (reading logs) while I watch a movie. A heck of a lot better than it might be at work.

Re:I would love having this option

[zappepcs]

Let me just correct you... to some degree. I agree with all the benefits of working from home, and I do work on infrastructure. Some days you just can't avoid needing face time with the on/off button or CD tray, but other days (maybe 2-3 per week) you can happily set at home and do stuff that you would do in your cube. The trick is scheduling your work so that it can work out that way. I spend a lot of time making sure that I can do most things remotely. Most days that remoteness means doing it from my cube rather than in front of the machine. This also means that many days I can work from home as effectively, if not more so, as if I'm in my cube. Redirecting the work phone to my home phone is useful also. When you manage to do >50% of your work from your cube, you can do all of that from home.

If you work on infrastructure, you know that meetings are generally a waste, and conf. calls can be done from home. What you are left with is balancing the amount of work you do at your desk and what can't be done at your desk. If you work to ensure that >50% can be done at your desk, you have validation for working from home 2-3 days per week.

How's that?

Re:Most important:

[technomom]

The slow-track only happens if the people you work with and your bosses aren't telecommuting.

Here in IBM, 40% of the workforce is classified as "mobile" or "at home". The difference in classification is really just the percentage of time that you travel or work at customer sites. My boss and his boss telecommute. My department consists of people scattered around the globe, some telecommuting, some not. So, there's no real hit to the career for to anyone for telecommuting. In fact, you have to justify having an office these days.

The important thing to remember is not to cut yourself off. Keep an IM session (in IBM it's Sametime) alive while you're around, keep your cell phone on if you're at a customer site, get a good speakerphone, and get the best broadband you can get (for me it's FiOS). Have weekly teleconferences with team members (or more often if needed). Set clear agendas for meetings so they don't drag on and for pity's sake, learn to use the mute button, especially if you are a mouth breather or have kids/dogs in the room.

Telecommuting can work very well if there's a culture for it.

All of global IT is telecommuting

[autophile]

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

O.U.T.S.O.U.R.C.E.

[Tablizer]

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.