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."

Well, doesnt this just sound like fun for everyone

[mixnblend]

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.

Promotions

[Anonymous Coward]

If it is a promotion you want and are not getting here is what you do. Call the boss on the phone or
run into the office to talk to him. Tell him you would like to be promoted to such and such whatever that may be. One of three things will likely happen, he will either say no, say yes or try to passify you with some BS which is the most likely course of action. Now if he says no or throws you some BS you have two courses of action.

1. Sit at home for the rest of your life and do your job like a good little boy or
2. Find somebody else willing to give you that promotion and more money to boot.

If you suck then you are best off sticking with number 1. If you have skills that should be rewarded and are valued then number 2 is your course of action.

You are in charge of where you want to go with your career, nobody is gonna look out for you except
yourself.

I have found myself in a similar situation a manager that want's to keep me in my current position
forever since I am the best at it and it would be hard to fill that position. Well guess what, his desires are not my desires so it is obviously time to rid myself of the relationship. Took me a whole two days to find somebody to step up and give me both the position and the money I want.

the problem with IBM culture is...

[Anonymous Coward]

...if you're not a full time employee, you are shit. If you have a yellow stripe on your badge (contractor) you can't participate in most of these activities.

In North America anyway, most of the front line people that get the real work done are contractors. Employees are just team leads to allow first line managers to have the responsibilities of a second or third line manager.

Some places are better than that

[msobkow]

I've worked several companies that not only encourage telework, they require it. Most people call it "tech support", and making yourself available in that capacity is not a bad thing for the career. It just means you spend your life carrying pagers and cell phones, contractually guaranteeing response times that tie you close to home and network.

But face time is important. If no one sees you or knows what you do, you don't exist. Come budget time, neither does your paycheque.

Re:IBM Club?

[RedneckJack]

In my old job, a lot of the leadership hired in were from IBM (old school - suit days). It was a "live to work" culture. Since working in that group, it affected your life outside of work. You were expected to show up for company social events especially with the interaction to the community (PR items). You were exepected to refrain from certain recreational activities (legal) such as motorcycles, four wheeling to name a few. On the company social events, even though you were on your own time, you were epected to abide in the company dress code. On vacations, you were not only expected to get approval to take time off (given anyway) but also you had to leave contact information and where you were at at all times. You also had to get approval to leave town.