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."

another opportunity for 'sports'

[hotrodman]

Yay.. Another opportunity to have the athletic drag the non-athletic of us into 'competitions'. I'm not even fat or out of shape....just tired of Little Leagues that extend into your golden years...
  - E

Ex: IBM'er, comments may contain opinions!

[jeaster]

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.

Re:another opportunity for 'sports'

[Xaria]

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.

Easier to change jobs than get promoted

[Animats]

A basic problem with "telework" is that promotion within the company is unlikely. But job changing is easier.

Re:Don't worry.

[Salvance]

Do teleworkers actually think they'll receive promotions? At the companies I've worked for, 9 times out of 10 the teleworker is working from home to have a better work/life balance, not because the employer asked them to. As bad as it sounds, promotions typically come to those who are willing to drop everything for their employer.

Wh..what?!

[Shads]

>Employees who work from home or in remote branch offices often feel disconnected from corporate life

I thought that was the PRIMARY benefit! What more could you want? Do yer job, do it right, do it in your PJs.

Re:Don't worry.

[Anonymous Coward]

DING! DING! DING! He got the right answer!

Exactly. Anyone that thinks you get promoted for good work is a nutcase.

you get promoted by knowing people, smoozing the executives, sacrificing your family and life for the company.

Anyone that puts family or themselves first NEVER get promoted.

Yes, I do know that this is fact, I was there and did that. 2 marriages and my health lost before I realized that climbing the corporate ladder is not worth it in any way. Yeah you get the 6900 Sq foot house on the golf course, the pair of Z06 vettes in the garage and that BMW 7 series.... but all you get to do is look at pictures of that stuff and maybe visit it 2 weekends a month, except the BMW that you drove into the ground at 260,000 miles in 7 years to only impress the other guys at work and honestly is no better than a decent buick but cost you a crapload more and lost 90% of it's value. Oh dont forget you are nearly eyeball in debt because you have to have that "image" working!

Promotion? that's their nice way of saying "Hey we would like to screw you harder while making you say thanks!"

Upper manager jobs get filled by friends. Not by hard work or skills. I chased that herring for 14 years.

Get a decent paying job AWAY from the big cities where a house is sanely priced, cost of living is sane and you can live 15 minutes from work (GASP!) your life is better. FAR BETTER.. I'll take a $44,000 a year job in a small town over a $250,000 year job in the city any day.

Re:Don't worry.

[mabhatter654]

at a company like IBM they have many Field Service or Support Engineers spread out where they live in their geographic region, but might report to the office 100 miles away. They're either fielding calls from all over the world for their specialty, or they're running from customer to customer...

My Brother and his wife did the Sales and Training thing for a while.. the company was in OK.. so each person worked from home and flew to the customer all over the world. Unfortunately, they had many of the same issues... disconnected from the office by living near family.. but flying all over so they never see family either!!

Dignity with distance

[m0llusk]

Sometimes being a part of office culture can open opportunities for conflict, and teleworkers may have the best longevity because they are spared the indignities of office noise and too much closeness.

Disconnected

[mattwarden]

Isn't the point of working from home to be "disconnected from corporate life"?

Not Again....

[Anonymous Coward]

Here come the "corporate culture" wonks, yet again. I love how an entire industry of HR consultants and managers have bought into, and actively promote, this notion of corporate culture as something that can be "improved" or changed. Generally it only goes downhill over the long run once these kinds of initiatives are enacted, because most people see it to be what it really is: a feeble attempt at controlling employees emotions and psychology to make them feel personally accountable for business success or failure. Let me know how that works out and how you feel after the next round of layoffs...

Re:Don't worry.

[Timothy Chu]

> I used to spend all my free time at work and put in whatever hours the boss asked
> for. Now I find I get taken much more seriously now that I have learned to stand
> up for myself.

I think that you can only now stand up for yourself BECAUSE you put in your time and got the experience. Anybody who starts a job without demonstrating their skills/dedication/etc to the job is not going to be taken seriously.

Am I the only one?

[Daishiman]

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/ [phpnet.us]

Re:Carpal Tunnel & Tool to Measure Typing Rate

[Mateito]

Do you have Carpal Tunnel or just muscular strain.

You should go and see a physician immediately... not post to slashdot.

Your company will have insurance against this, but you need to show that you sought medical help appropriately or the insurer may find ground to refuse payment.

Re:Carpal Tunnel & Tool to Measure Typing Rate

[Anonymous Coward]

Well played, sir. Only a teleworker who's obsessed with his work could simultaneously get FP and be on topic. If I hadn't burned my last mod point on him, I'd mod you up too :)

Re:Well, doesnt this just sound like fun for every

[b0s0z0ku]

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?

The problem is that in su*burp*ia, you often don't see a lot of faces outside the company since everyone's working different hours, taking care of kids, whatever, and in most suburbs, people don't even walk on the street that much. So it isn't a matter of disconnection from the company as from life in general. If more people lived in cities and smaller towns rather than in uptightass developments, maybe we'll make some progress there.

-b.

Solution? Overcompensate!

[freeze128]

I'm a full time Office guy. I ALWAYS come into the office (because that is where my job is - You can't repair the computers when you're at home).

Just today, one of our Account Management Reps (who usually works from home, but comes into the office 1-2 days a month) came in and brought Soup, Cake, and christmas cards for everyone in the office.

She loves to cook, and she loves working at home, and the people who work in the office get positive reinforcement for working in the office.

Of course, there are the occasional remote users who never bring munchies, and only call to bitch that comcast sucks.... but screw them.... No soup for you!

Re:Don't worry.

[macp]

I had traditional office and was booted out as part of a company cost saving measure. Coworkers that sat on company sites or at customer sites were also asked to work from home. Sometimes working from home is NOT a personal choice, and it has its positive or negative ramifications for the employee and his or her family, the customers and the company. It's a myth that working from home always brings you better work/life balance -- it often negatively affects work/life balance, in that your home is your office, and you never seem to get to leave it. It's especially bad for those people who just can't turn their minds off at the end of the day OR are on 24x7 call -- you can easily go from working a 40 hr. week to working 50 or 60 without ever getting out of your pajamas. It becomes a corporate expectation, and about the time it gets personally ridiculous is when you start having to manage the details of your life ("been on the frigging phone since 5am, I guess I'll take a shower between my 10:30 and 11am call?") around your work to keep the global outsourcers from clawing after your job... which they'll do anyway if you're 100% remote.

I admit that working from home gives employees *some* flexibility in their schedules, depending on their job roles, but I think a lot of people put in more hours at their kitchen table or desk than at the office in conference rooms or around the water cooler (figuratively speaking), not to mention the commute time. It torques me to hear people complain about home office workers like they don't do $#!% all day while they're yukking it up in somebody's office, wasting their own little 9 to 5 away.

Re:another opportunity for 'sports'

[Anonymous Coward]

>This is not the USSR
The Cold War's over, man! We live in AMURICUH! STFU FACIST BOSS I DONT WANNA PLAY SPORTS THIS IS AMURICUH!

Honestly, lighten up. They aren't forcing you to do anything. If you don't want to play softball, don't play softball. Don't get pissed about the company spending resoruces to provide you, the workers, with a break from the every day grind. Maybe you'll even find out that a few co-workers are alright guys after all.

Re:Don't worry.

[OfficeSubmarine]

I totally agree on that one. I nearly killed myself out of loyalty to my last job, literally. One of the best companies on the planet, but not worth giving up even a minute of my family life. The idea that it's not family, but money or work status that will bring happiness is the biggest lie our culture tells to its children.