Six Questions To Ask Before Telecommuting

Lucas123 writes "With gas prices 30% higher this summer over last, telecommuting is back on everyone's radar. According to a Computerworld story, however, IT and telecommuting don't have a great record of success. For example, citing negative impacts on productivity, HP ended its telecommuting policy for hundreds of workers two years ago, and this year, Intel began requiring more than half the teleworkers in its IT group to report to the office at least four days a week. So before leaping, some questions you should ask as a manager if you're considering telework include: How will you define and measure performance? Will creativity suffer? What about employees stuck in the office?"

How likely are your employees likely to slack off?

Frankly, without someone to poke me with a sharp stick now and then, I wouldn't get much done.

I want to telecommute now.

Re:How likely are your employees likely to slack o

That's why I don't telecommute, even though I could - I get nothing done.

Well that and I have no excuse as I live a half hour's walk from work.

Re:How likely are your employees likely to slack o

Frankly, without someone to poke me with a sharp stick now and then, I wouldn't get much done.

I sometimes wonder how much gets done even when people are physically present, there is a lot of solitaire and web surfing going on in many offices. Perhaps with a rise in telecommuting we can switch to getting paid for generating x amount of work done instead of x hours in the workplace. It would lead to huge efficiency improvements, and it seems the only practical way to quantify "a days work" telecommuting.

so you can make $0 while you wait for other people

so you can make $0 while you wait for other people to do there job so you can get your done.

Re:so you can make $0 while you wait for other peo

This is the problem I would worry about. I know I've had to wait for others to do their job (due to their own procrastination, etc) so I could get something done that was due already. Heck, anyone who has done a team assignment in middle school has had that experience.

I have a simple solution to this: every moment I'm working on your project, including waiting on you (and subordinates) because you didn't do what you said you would, I charge you. I'll bill 3 people at once while I wait around. If we pre-arrange that I won't be working during a specific time (because you're busy or whatever) that's fine. But if I am supposed to be fixing your project and I can't because of you, you're still paying.

Of course, you have to be really really good at your job to be able to get terms like that. That's why pretty much no one would be willing to accept those terms. I know I wouldn't hire someone else with those terms unless I really trusted them. And I wouldn't trust them that much without working with them, which I wouldn't do without....

I'm with you. The "let's all bill based on actual work and not just 40 hours a week thing" is great in theory but unless you're the guy everyone else is always forced to wait on it won't work out.

Re:so you can make $0 while you wait for other peo

so I can mow the lawn,walk the dog,read a book,go jogging,build lego creations with my nephews,take a walk in the park,make a sandwich,etc while I wait for other people to do their job so I can get my done. I'd rather it that way then waiting for someone else, while pretending to be busy in a cubicle. Either way I'll likely have to work after business hours if I am kept waiting too long, but if I am waiting in my home, then those delayed hours aren't detracting so much from my home life.

Re:How likely are your employees likely to slack o

Perhaps with a rise in telecommuting we can switch to getting paid for generating x amount of work done instead of x hours in the workplace.

That is fine if you are a worker drone that produces X widgets per hour, or answers Y calls per hour. Having a job that does not lend itself well towards telecommuting is GOOD. It means you are valuable for something more than what can be written down in a procedure and shipped overseas. Personally, I don't want my work intruding on my personal space. Because sometimes work sucks, and when it does my home is where I go to get away from it and relax.

Re:How likely are your employees likely to slack o

You see, what you say is funny, but it's really the employers biggest reason for not investing. They're scared that you'd sit at home and do fuck all.

In fact, in my experience, the people that matter work wherever they are, and the people that don't matter are never going to put in an honest day.

A good work ethic does not differentiate based on environment.

What has a far more negative effect is being treated like shit in the workplace. I've seen so many devoted, committed, hard working employees let their work go south because they finally realised that there is no fucking point; they can spend all year making a difference for one stupid ill informed management decision to put them back way before where they started.

The saddest thing is it's these fucking managers who go home and 'telecommute', and sit around doing no work, who think that must therefore apply to the rest of us.

But the truth is that a bad manager can do fuck all wherever he is, and the worst thing about that is that sometimes that's better for the organisation than them getting their fingers into the pies and fucking everything up.

Re:How likely are your employees likely to slack o

I'm the exact opposite. I work for a medical transcription company, managing a team of voice recognition editors/transcriptionists. I work at home, complete telecommute, and I get lots done. I put in a good day's work, I look for and call out problems, and keep tabs on the store basically.

I have the option of working out on the deck in my yard in summers. If I need to travel for vacation or whatever, I just take my laptop and other gear with me and still catch lines while I'm gone, if I'm really good and bored. Try it, you might like it. To me, work is Slack. Or kill me.

Praise "Bob"!

Re:How likely are your employees likely to slack o

That's the beautiful thing about telecommuting. I've done it. Being free of constant supervision is disorienting at first, but wow, is it ever a relief. It is VERY tempting to watch TV, go hit golf balls, have a few beers with lunch, etc. Eventually, self-preservation kicks in and you realize that you have to get your ass in gear. You become more organized. You plan your day. You learn to push back on spouses/kids/whomever who think it's okay to interrupt your workday with housekeeping requests. IMHO, those capable of it will become more mature employees.

offshore jobs but won't allow telecommuting

As many on slashdot have pointed out in previous threads about offshoring, one of the main drivers of the high cost of living, i.e. a high salary is the necessity of working in expensive urban areas.

Companies are perfectly willing to take non-trivial jobs and ship them overseas, but seem to be extremely reluctant to let workers telecommute, which would probably help in lowering costs, allowing the jobs to stay here.

Really, WTF ?

Re:offshore jobs but won't allow telecommuting

When you offshore, they still keep the whole big office on the other side of the world, you still have slaves and slave drivers in the same place.
If you telecommute, you get one slave with his tv, bed and fridge close by (or nagging significant other and bunch of kids running around) and no one to kick him around when he gets lazy.

Re:offshore jobs but won't allow telecommuting

Companies are perfectly willing to take non-trivial jobs and ship them overseas, but seem to be extremely reluctant to let workers telecommute, which would probably help in lowering costs, allowing the jobs to stay here

Companies usually offshore whole teams or departments rather than individual jobs. The guys in India work as a team under a team lead or manager, sitting together and (hopefully) communicating effectively. If you want to compare it to telecommuting, it would be allowing you to work from home, but only if you'd let your team mates bring their laptops to your place and work with you...

Yuck. 4 click throughs.

Try THIS [computerworld.com] link.

Anecdotes

A while ago, I was finishing my degree while maintaining a full-time job. I reached a point where I needed to take time off in order to concentrate on one of my classes - so I did. In those two weeks, it immediately became apparent to me that I could not get things done at home (too many distractions), nor at the library (I have to pack up everything in order to use the restroom?).

So I made the 45 minute trek into work (each way - 1.5 hours round trip) in order to have a productive place to concentrate on The Code. While this is my own experience, I do realize that others can be productive in the middle of the Sahara or in a dimly lit basement. I'm just trying to provide some contrast to this panacea that everyone is painting with telecommuting.

It doesn't work for everyone.

Re:Anecdotes

One thing I have found is that if you want to work from home, you need a home office. It needs a door, and should have nothing but office stuff. (No TV) Other people in your home need to understand that if someone opens that door, and no one is in need of urgent medical care, someone will be. Many companies that I have seen do telecommuting well require a picture of the home "workspace" for approval.

Milestones

when telecommuting, you will find it VERY difficult to explain being late on any milestone. in office, you are there, people see you 'work', and therefore your excuses (valid or not) has greater acceptance. however when telecommuting, everyone is on the lookout to prevent slacking, and any excuse will have a greater rate of being taken as slacking.

simple as that. milestones, output. rock solid.

anti-telecommuting propaganda

Well duh. Anyone with an ounce of common sense will ask the questions outlined in this story. I can't believe Computerworld felt this article needed to be written. Obviously, companies should have policies about telecommuting. And obviously, not every employee or role inside a company lends itself to working from home. No one is advocating a telecommuting free-for-all.

I'm also disappointed that the article called out two examples of companies that back-tracked on their telecommuting arrangements without discussing any of the success stories--and there are many. I realize this is shameless self-promotion, but last month I wrote an article for CIO.com about a small software company, Chorus, that closed all of its offices in an admittedly rather drastic cost-cutting move, and now everyone at Chorus--everyone--works from home [cio.com]. And you know what, the strategy is working out well for Chorus employees' productivity. The company made some mistakes in rolling out the telecommuting strategy, but overall they approached it sensibly, and it's working.

Let's learn from the success stories and not use the failures to promote an anti-telecommuting agenda.

Thank you Computerword, Yeah baby!!!!

Finally, someone is willing to tell the truth about those deadbeat American IT workers!

As we all know, Americans don't want to work.

Yes! All they want to do is stay home and take care of their annoying little brats or work on stupid crap, like having a life.

Well, this country wasn't built on that bunch of shit!

So, Computerword, with their history of protecting corporate and management self-serving interests (and that's a good thing), is on the ball with this fine article.

A brief synopsis:

Fuck you, you lazy motherfucking American IT worker-motherfuckers!

Management wants face time bitch. Don't make me slap you!

You work from home? You're a deadbeat. You're fired. Fuck you!

I am a manager. I get paid to show other managers that I got bitches working for me.

I don't give a fuck what you do at home. That's "home". That's not work.

I need you bitches to be here so when the Indian outsourcing mofo's show up, you can tell them what the deal is.

I am not paying you to have a life, bitch... Fuck you! ...

Also, other recent Computerworld articles you might be interested in:

How to suck your manager's dick.

How to make your manager feel good about firing you.

How to help the outsourcing company get rid of you faster!

Words of wisdom that don't mean dick: "deliverables", "resource", "timeline", "paradigm shift", "bring it to the next level", Use them!!!

How to get ahead by sucking dick and fucking people over.

How to fuck your workers and have them apologize for it.

Back stabbing for dummies

...

All that and much more.

So, let it be known that satan666, of Slashdot, has overwhelmingly endorsed this fine Computerworld article!

Fuck you and goodnight!

Telecommuting FTW

I'm very pro-telecommuting, but I can understand why it fails for so many people.

Reasons it works for me:

- I'm a developer, and almost all the jobs we see are one-man gigs - it's not a team development kind of company.
- I communicate via email and phone, and rarely attend meetings. I just take the specs and produce the app. Client interaction is very limited, mostly handled by our dedicated sales and support guy (our human shield!)
- I'm self-motivated. If I'm working 9-5, then I'll work 9-5 from home too, and the wife can pretty much pretend I don't exist during those hours.
- I live with the wife, but we have no kids
- I have a ridiculously overpowered workstation, and I know how to use it
- I can focus better with some background music, and the headphone thing just doesn't cut it, compared to my nice speakers
- I actually find the office distracting, since we're all quite rowdy and jocular (think Animal House)
- If a box barfs or panics, I can always hop in a cab and fix it - IF it happens! If it's mission-critical, the appropriate KVM-IP and/or remote-reboot gadgets be acquired.

Turn all of those things around, and you'll get all the reasons why some people can't telecommute. The noise, the distractions, the plentiful opportunities for laziness - some households just aren't suitable for work.

Me, I work all the time. I have private contracts, I build web sites, I produce music - my home is my office. Another little bit that helps is my job is a 10 minute bike or bus ride away, so I don't care about travel time. I telecommute because I like it, and I wish I could do it more because I think I could accomplish more work per week. I'm comfortable at home, no need to buy lunches (not a pack-lunch kinda guy), and since I'm so used to working here, my brain subliminally shifts into high gear - at the office I'm always kinda half-dazed, the environment just doesn't suit me.

One day a week will accomplish nothing. It takes a while to get into the telework mindset, it's a psychosomatic thing - working from home is like trying to change your sleep schedule: the first few days will be chaotic, but over time you get the hang of it and you're back to sleeping/working like you always did.

I could write a book on the topic, but really most of it is just common sense. Make a list of your reasons why you want to telecommute, then make a list of goals or success indicators. If you hesitate while writing either list, then telecommuting is not for you.

Modern Server Hardware

Most modern servers have facilities to do just that.

I do a day from home each week and use remote tools for everything from power resets to OS installs remotely.

The times you have to touch a server itself in a modern environment is infrequent enough you can work from anywhere most of the time.

Re:The most important question is...

Wrong! The most important question is...

Can I do my work in my underwear, or am I expected to video conference? (To clarify you may need to ask: Is it okay if I video conference in my underwear?)

Re:Carpool

For the curious, I'd have to drive 1 million miles at $4 a gallon before I spend as much money in gas as I save on my mortgage.

Well, over a typical 30 year mortgage at 50 miles each way per workday, you'll be driving about 624,000 miles so you're already a good chunk of the way there. Add in to that the additional wear and tear on your vehicles, the probability of gas prices rising further, the likely need to have two vehicles instead of one at least at some point, and this ceases to sound very good to me.

Re:Carpool

Well, over a typical 30 year mortgage at 50 miles each way per workday, you'll be driving about 624,000 miles so you're already a good chunk of the way there. Add in to that the additional wear and tear on your vehicles, the probability of gas prices rising further, the likely need to have two vehicles instead of one at least at some point, and this ceases to sound very good to me.

I didn't check your math, but you are RIGHT about your point. People only think things through the first step, but if you add up the additional costs, sometimes what appears to be a financially smart move actually is not. And don't forget the non-financial costs of living farther from work... having to spend more time in the car, instead of doing whatever you like. And also the fact that you are more likely to get into a car accident, since you spend more time on the road. Or what about the health toll? So you get home later and you only have time to eat fast-food for dinner, or don't have time to go for a jog or work out?

Re:I am a full-time telecommuter

[...] you will miss that commute time as a way to separate your personal life from your work life.

You know, I'd never thought of that before. My commute is 45 minutes each way and I am thinking of work in both directions. It's true though, the 45 minutes into work my mind is preparing for work. The 45 minutes home, my mind is tying up loose ends so when I finally get home, I can switch off. I do write notes when I get home if I think of something while in the car driving, but they're very short notes that I email myself so I can refocus on them the next day. If it were not for the drive, I'm not sure the switching off when I pull into the garage would be as easy.