Does Telecommuting Make You Invisible? 275
jfruhlinger writes "Telecommuting provides many joys, including the ability to stay in your pajamas all day and the chance to work with a cat on your lap. But it does have some major drawbacks, perhaps none so serious as the fact that, if your co-workers are for the most part in an office, they can forget you exist — which means you don't get credit for your work as you deserve."
Visibility is an issue for all (Score:5, Interesting)
At the company I work at we don't have much of the software necessary to track the performance of employees. When I got promoted I got a nice big cube in a corner, away from everyone else. Very soon after getting moved I started getting accused of not being on the phones, not doing my work, blah blah blah. It aggravated me to no end, I was screaming mad about it, but that didn't help.
I did eventually solve my visibility issue.
The solution was chocolate.
I now keep a candy jar in my cube and have let everyone know they can come by my cube at anytime and help themselves. All complaints have ceased.
Gov't: As if I got credit before. (Score:3, Interesting)
I used to drive 3+ hours a day to 'be in the office' with my peers. I'd work extra to bring improvements for the team to fruition, since we weren't allowed to do them as part of 'work'. I didn't get credit then, so I couldn't get less credit from home. After I told them I'd be in the office one day a week, I still only had interaction with my peers one out of three days in the office. My employer has a terrible track record for recognition. My congratulations on 10 years of employment: was an email sent almost a year late.
If you like having no creative input, if you enjoy toiling in obscurity, if you enjoy petty bosses who poo-poo your ideas only to bring them up as their own 6 months later, work for the government.
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Don't get me wrong: I know interaction is a two way street. I used to put in the effort to be TEAM oriented. Unfortunately, the team doesn't actually work together (we each get our own projects) so the effort was unrecognized and wasted.
Exactly (Score:5, Interesting)
If you are trying to climb the corporate ladder, the more "visible" you are the better. You want management to think of you -- and often. Get up and walk around, up and down the hall, make smalltalk (this is crucial), and try to make yourself a permanent icon. Your work performance, dare I say, isn't nearly as important as your social skills.
On the other hand, if you are destined to be stuck in dead-end job for the rest of your life (like me) -- for whatever reason -- then it would be pointless to burden yourself with all of the above. Do the exact opposite. Avoid social contact. Make sure they know you did the job, and then disappear. (The ladder-climbing types will love you for this -- they don't like competition.) Consider your work nothing but a paycheck, and subtract every minute you spend on it from your real life.
Sounds negative, doesn't it? Welcome to the real world.
Re:Expanded answer (Score:5, Interesting)
Not just government, any job which consists of a lot of overseas work (anything in HW engineering, unfortunately). Trying to make times work between US east/west and central time zones, India, china and/or malaysia means telecommuting.
I couldn't pick half my coworkers out of a lineup. I also don't have this "credit" problem, I know who did what based on long chains of emails. My boss knows the same.
I can't say now that I have kids, that I like telecommuting as much as I did before then (or may like once the kids are in school all day), but most of the arguments I hear against it always have the smell of bullshit.
Re:Expanded answer (Score:5, Interesting)
There is a reason that the expression 'out of sight, out of mind' came about. And it says it all. In general... in the greatest general terms, it holds true. And in the current context this generality is what applies. People won't think about you if you aren't there... unless of course you don't do your work. And even that isn't a guarantee these days. It is like IT, no one cares if you are there unless something goes wrong. And at those times, if the powers that be can't get to you in a way that is convenient to them, they will find someone who is better able to accommodate them.
We're talking real life real people here, not computer code. The answer here has to appeal to the greatest common denominator, not the least (we don't need to always satisfy the edge case). Just the same as crossing the street. You look both ways because most people won't be able to stop in time if you step right in front of their car [obligatory car analogy satisfied]. So the answer is yes, you are more invisible if you aren't there. You won't be included in quick meetings to solve problems that pop up, you won't get credit for helping get over many critical issues that require personal attention. You will be an invisible work horse. Yes there are exceptions, but not everyone is or can be an exception; just like not everyone can be above average.
Re:There is probably truth to that. (Score:0, Interesting)
Until the department manager is asked to name people to downsize, nobody in the room remembers the last useful thing you did, and you don't even hear rumors that you should make the case for yourself, since you don't have lunch with your co-workers.
A lot of important information is exchanged over lunch and coffee.
Problem being, here on Slashdot, the response to that is most likely "Well, if they don't acknowledge your obvious genius (like mine) and sing of your praises every day, then either you need to find a new place to work away from those ungrateful plebs who don't deserve your talents or you're too incompetent at your job anyway and deserve to be fired".
Then, follow that up with a ten-paragraph disjointed rant^H^H^H^H"study" on how much better introverts who never have any human contact outside a computer screen are and how stupid and wrong you are for suggesting that actual human interaction is anything but antiquated in the modern world, complete with snarky remarks about how you must be old/a luddite/a technophobe/Amish, and you've got the hivemind's reaction to your post.
And that is an advantage... (Score:5, Interesting)
A buddy of mine has been "invisible" for 5 years and skipped all the downsizing. His direct report was let go and he still get's a check every 2 weeks. he has no idea who he is supposed to report to for the past 18 months, and had heard NOTHING from the main office, so he simply does his job and collects the checks. the company cellphone and VPN accounts still work, and HR still is paying him and covering insurance.
Being invisible is a good thing at times.
Re:Visibility is an issue for all (Score:4, Interesting)
I should have just gotten a Candy dish and that way he would stop by at random points during the day when we were working or heads off.
Working from home == invisible (Score:5, Interesting)
I'd still rather work from home versus commuting to a cube farm, but note it does present some challenges since people can easily forget to include you in meetings, decisions, conversations, etc.
Re:There is probably truth to that. (Score:5, Interesting)
Again, that risk is real, but it's a cost of the benefit of working from home. Different strokes for different folks! Sometimes the work from home guy is making less because it was part of his salary negotiation. In that case, he might be the one to keep his job.
On the flip side, I found that by being in the office I'd engage in casual conversation. These became important because you gain a better feel for how people use the system you work on. A lot of questions about implementation are avoided because you seem to just "know" the expectations a little better. Osmosis, I guess. Also, there are always small bugs that people never bring up because they don't think they are important enough for a trouble ticket. These only come up in non-related conversation. "By the way... I noticed this issue.. let me show you". These kind of interactions provide opportunity for a software developer to take initiative and improve the system in ways that matter.
Re:There is probably truth to that. (Score:2, Interesting)
The telecommuter isn't taking up a cubicle.
He doesn't clog up the toilet.
He won't have a heart attack in the office.
He doesn't need a parking space.
He doesn't suck back gallons of coffee.
He doesn't add to the fire code limit of how many sardines you can pack into the can.
Physical presence comes with a cost and presents a liability.
Given 2 equal employees I'd axe the one at the office and keep the one at home.
If the lack of a physical presence is detrimental to your business in any way (people don't know how shit works, people don't know who to go to, etc.), then the two weren't really equal, and you're doing it wrong.
Re:Expanded answer (Score:2, Interesting)