Work From Home People Earn More, Quit Less, and Are Happier Than Their Office-bound Counterparts (qz.com) 217
An anonymous reader shares a report: Working from home gets a bad rap. Google the phrase and examine the results -- you'll see scams or low-level jobs, followed by links calling out "legitimate" virtual jobs. But Stanford Graduate School of Business professor Nicholas Bloom says requiring employees to be in the office is an outdated work tradition, set up during the Industrial Revolution. Such inflexibility ignores today's sophisticated communications methods and long commutes, and actually hurts firms and employees. "Working from home is a future-looking technology," Bloom told an audience during a conference, which took place in April. "I think it has enormous potential." To test his claim, Bloom studied China's largest travel agency, Ctrip. Headquartered in Shanghai, the company has 20,000 employees and a market capitalization of about $20 billion. The company's leaders -- conscious of how expensive real estate is in Shanghai -- were interested in the impact of working from home. Could they continue to grow while avoiding exorbitant office space costs? They solicited worker volunteers for a study in which half worked from home for nine months, coming into the office one day a week, and half worked only from the office. Bloom tracked these two groups for about two years. The results? "We found massive, massive improvement in performance -- a 13% improvement in performance from people working at home," Bloom says.
I need interaction (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:I need interaction (Score:5, Insightful)
Yet your co-workers may want you to work from home so that you quit distracting them.
Re:I need interaction (Score:5, Insightful)
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Depends on the type of work. Work from home is a great idea if you work on isolated tasks. Few problems are like that and if they are a regular part of your work I suggest you reskill as you'll be next to be replaced by someone speaking Panjabi.
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Indeed. These "idea-bouncers" are incredibly annoying. Sure, occasionally you can do a meeting especially for this, but otherwise this is just a disruption. I avoid working at customer sites whenever possible, and when I am not there, I work from home. I think the 13% productivity increase is on the low side. For the work I do (IT Security Consulting and some related engineering), it is more like 100% more productivity, and I am not the only one at my company that makes that experience. Of course, we have a
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Might be conducive to you, but you are distracting others from their work when you interrupt them with your "bouncing".
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Agreed, but the method in which you interact is key. I have also interrupted said "bouncer" stating "Could I get back to you" as well as participated when interrupted. It depends on the circumstance.
I used to work for a company that had a 4 day work week back in late 1990's, it kind of went like this:
Old CEO: "We need new talent, offer a four day work week"
New Employees: YAY!
New CEO: "Where is everyone on a Friday morning?"
Old Employees: "Four day work week"
You see where this is going?
Kids (Score:5, Insightful)
Having kids or a nagging wife means you'd want to waste that 1h30m commuting, sit in a cubicle then waste another 1h30m coming back. For the rest of us, though, extra three hours of productivity or leisure makes such a massive difference that it's hard to find enough downsides.
Some of us go way over the edge -- especially if you can train your boss that's it ok to call you at 4am rather than at the crack of noon; those of us do work hard to maintain the public opinion on programmers :).
But if you require being on the clock, the employeer can get the best of both worlds for any child-less employee.
Re:Kids (Score:5, Insightful)
Having kids or a nagging wife means you'd want to waste that 1h30m commuting, sit in a cubicle then waste another 1h30m coming back.
...bold mine.
Why is "wife" associated with "nagging" more often than not? In my case, I find that I associate "wife" with the words "loving & caring."
I guess I am lucky, no?
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if she truly cared about you she'd nag you sometimes, because you have shortcomings that need external pushing
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That's different from it being the primary attribute.
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Why is "wife" associated with "nagging" more often than not? In my case, I find that I associate "wife" with the words "loving & caring."
Just wait a few months (or years if you're really lucky), and then you'll see.
And with kids, the wait time is negative.
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Just wait a few months (or years if you're really lucky), and then you'll see.
How long precisely is one supposed to wait before it becomes apparent? A few years? Does 20 count as a few?
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I think you're pushing a false dichotomy here. One can want the family around *some* of the time, but not *all* of the time. Or want them around most of the time, but not when you're working or really trying to focus. I can both love my kids and also state factually that they're not conducive to concentrating on a project.
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Personally I just go into a room, close the door, and tell them to leave me alone.
That starts being possible only once the kids go into late teens, and usually not even then.
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Why is "wife" associated with "nagging" more often than not? In my case, I find that I associate "wife" with the words "loving & caring."
I guess I am lucky, no?
You're lucky. There's a good reason so many people associate "wife" with "nagging". It's probably also not a coincidence that the divorce rate is higher than ever and the marriage rate continues to drop.
If you personally associate "wife" with "loving & caring" because of ongoing personal experience, count your lucky stars.
Also, to be fair,
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...The only reason the marriage rate was so much higher in decades past (and the divorce rate lower) was because of social pressure
I beg to differ on this.
As an individual that has visited many parts of the world, I find that many in the so called 3rd world see a union between a man and a woman differently.
Whereas cash is an incentive, there's more "real" love for a partner. It isn't the "me...me" and "stuff" attitude I have seen in the west.
A man may have very little but the woman will stick around. She will do chores "for him", including cooking, washing, bearing kids and so much. This includes "respecting" in-laws.
In the west, mon
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That's not "real love", that's subservience. What you're describing is more primitive cultures where women were 2nd-class citizens and without a husband, basically couldn't survive, or at least would be social outcasts. That's the cost of what you advocate: a miserable existence for half the population. It works out OK for some lucky women who manage to find a decent husband, but for those who get stuck with an abusive one, an uncaring one, or just an incompatible one, it's hell. That's why the divorce
For the same reason 'wife beater' exists (Score:2)
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You mentioned something extremely important - how many hours do we work? Do companies now expect 12 hours a day now that some people no longer have a long commute?
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Yes, children are a pain but they get used to it in the end.
Not necessarily. I have a single-female friend with a son who seems to be completely out of control every time I see him. I can't imagine trying to get any work done with him around; he simply will not listen when he's told to sit down and be quiet because the adults are talking. With so many kids like this having ADHD these days, I don't see how their parents could possible work from home effectively unless they're in school or an institution o
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You don't have anywhere you can put a computer? Even a rodent dorm room has space for that.
I wonder why most companies still hate that. (Score:3)
Re:I wonder why most companies still hate that. (Score:5, Insightful)
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At that time, anybody competent had already left Yahoo, so her observations are not worth much. Her measures then made Yahoo lose the semi-competent workers left for an uniform landscape of incompetence. She did fit nicely into that though.
Depends on where (Score:3)
This has got to be very culturally sensitive. There's lots of social pressures in china that take time and energy away from just plain working. These go away somewhat when you can relax in your own home. Other countries with a more lax work ethic won't fare so well. I'm sure many people will try to game their employers in places with higher rates of corruption in general.
I also doubt this will work as well in places like Brazil, where work is very much a social experience. Being socially active with your co-workers is more than just prevalent; it's the norm. Many people won't give up that interaction. Not to mention an air-conditioned office beats an uncooled home.
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Err...why would you not have A/C in your home?
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Err...why would you not have A/C in your home?
A lot of homes in Europe don't have air conditioning. The house I grew up in in England was well over 100 years old and it didn't have any air-conditioning. In truth, it only really would have been useful a few weeks out of the year. Of course, summers are warmer in England than they were in the 80's now so the number of weeks it would be useful have surely gone up.
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Err...why would you not have A/C in your home?
My previous house didn't have central A/C. The 100 y/o furnace wasn't compatible with it, and it would have cost big $$$$ to rip it out and replace with something newer.
OTOH, lack of A/C is a significant reason that that house is "previous".
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Err...why would you not have A/C in your home?
Colorado weather, for one. It can get hot during the day, but it always cools off at night. Why spend all day paying to keep a house cool if you're going to get it for free as soon as the sun sets? My experience is most of the houses in the state don't have it.
Of course it makes more sense because I'm out of the house for a majority of the warmest hours. If I worked from home all the time, I'd have to reconsider cooling.
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Wow..I've never lived in a house that didn't have it...even OLD 100+ year old houses, had window units put in.
Then again, I've lived primarily in the south of the US or out in Arizona....neither place is really livable without AC.
I can't sleep very well in a place warmer than 71F at night...
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Plenty of people who have a job are still too poor to afford a/c. Many can't afford the electricity for a fan either. American, and even just plain affluent, ethnocentrism born of ignorance is a sad thing.
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Because it's Brazil; didn't you read his post?
Air-conditioned homes aren't that common outside the US.
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Just writing this message to say that I like your .sig
On the one hand you take life too seriously, and on the other, you do not take playful existence seriously enough. Seth
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Work from the local pub instead then.
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Now that is an interesting idea. I have done that from a Starbucks, but a pub sounds more pleasant.
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Personally, I agree. That said, there are some things you can do.
If you have space, set up a home office. You might need to figure out how much of an office you need--I know some people who have set aside a room for work, others who have a particular area in the living room or bedroom where they work, and others who are fine with just a particular computer (this is the "work" computer and nothing but "work" happens on it). I've also seen advertisements for "home offices" that people can build in their ba
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Basically what my boss (he is the CEO) did when he got children. Works very well for him.
Depends on the job (Score:4, Interesting)
The viability of working from home depends a lot on the job, and on the particular phase of that job.
Taking my situation as an example: This week, I attended two physical meetings, but otherwise worked from home all week, because (aside from those two meetings), my current work is preparation that I am doing alone. This is great while it lasts, but it will stop in September, it will stop, because I'll be working with other people.
Some maybe general observations:
- Complex coordination - working out new ideas, or meeting with several people - just does not work well remotely. Face-to-face is a lot more efficient. In work-at-home phases, I still have 2-3 meetings a week.
- Even as a total introvert, I recognize that face-time with people is important. I sometimes go into the office for an afternoon "just because".
- If you are working remotely, it is essential to have appropriate messaging technology. The phone should only be used for urgent stuff, since it interrupts. I get maybe one or two calls per month. Email is king for anything non-urgent. Some sort of simple messaging fits comfortably in the middle: IRC or even SMS.
- Working from home takes a certain amount of discipline, and sometimes it still doesn't work. Yesterday morning was a disaster: I was interrupted for non-work things a zillion times, and basically lost the entire morning. The flexibility to mix in private things is nice, but sometimes it also sucks - I'll be working on the weekend to make up the lost time.
I'm less productive at home (Score:3)
I'm less productive at home.
Yes, I have the wife and kids- but also at work I have a nice large office that I can keep clean and clutter free- and that really helps me focus and concentrate.
At home I don't have a proper room set up as an office- we don't have any room spare. So the desk is just in a corner. It's a dumping ground for all sorts of junk. It's cluttered- and because my wife passes through it's not clean (I swear that woman just goes around dropping trash everywhere all day long- I do love her though lol).
So whereas I'm welcome to work from home occasionally, my house is too small and there's no comfortable spot for me to set up. Also, remote desktop to the office is slow as crap (yes I know other places have better solutions than remote desktop). The office for me is simply more comfortable. When I win the lottery (or the wife finishes college and starts working) and we can get a bigger house I may be able to claim a room that is just for me- and then I may work from home.
Right now- I hate working from home.
Re:I'm less productive at home (Score:5, Insightful)
Right now I'm in a room we didn't get around to refurbishing yet. My desk is a mess, the wallpaper is horrible, and it's generally a bit of a dumping ground in here. I'm fine with it though - when I'm facing the computer, all that stuff behind me doesn't phase me at all.
However, when we were renovating other bits of the house this room wasn't available, so I used to work in a shared work space in town (maybe 15-20 minutes walk from here). That had all the features you mention - clear, empty, quiet, etc. It also had a kitchenette to go to if you wanted a cuppa (so a handy mental break from your desk). That place cost £25/day for an ad-hoc 'turn up when you like' sort of arrangement. I could have negotiated a lower rate if I committed time. Contrast to £32 return train ticket (which then also consumes another 2 additional hours of travel time, on top of the 20 to get to town), and it's actually a pretty good deal.
The thing I most appreciate about home working is the lack of commute. Not having to do that saves me time which means I get time to have breakfast and some playtime before bed with the kids. It also saves me a good deal of stress. Not walking to and fro does mean I need to get exercise in other ways though, which can be one of those things you never get around to without some self-discipline.
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Depending on what I'm doing, my work from home productivity is about the same at home as it is at work.
The pluses for being in the office are easier access to the rest of the development team (I can go ask them questions without using something like Skype or e-mail), and faster network connectivity to my servers that are in the office. The minuses for being in the office are the constant interruptions (the development team and helpless desk asking me constant questions, far more than I what I ask them), the
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I'm less productive at home.
Yes, I have the wife and kids- but also at work I have a nice large office that I can keep clean and clutter free- and that really helps me focus and concentrate.
That's entirely your own fault. My situation is the exact opposite: I have no wife or kids, and my house is quiet. At work, it's a chaotic, noisy mess. I have no control over my workplace at work since I'm not the boss (and even my boss and his boss have no control over this stuff either, sadly). I'd be far more prod
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That is entirely your problem, the lack of organization and separation. It was mine too (wife, 3 kids, farm) so I bought a $110/mo house to use for storage and work. It easily pays for itself and its just a few blocks from where i sleep.
Indeed it is a problem. Not something I can avoid though, and I suspect there are plenty of other people who can't avoid it too. If we could afford more space we would get more space. If I were single it wouldn't be an issue- but having a family means private space is at a premium.
Your $110/mo would be 10 times that price here for a cheap house, especially after I hooked up electricity and internet to the place. Cheapest broadband around here is about $70/month, or about 2/3rds the cost of your work-hou
Survival bias (Score:5, Interesting)
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Well, yes. It also means that you lose top-tier people when you do not offer the option.
Can confirm (Score:3)
Comment removed (Score:4, Insightful)
About that performance improvement (Score:2)
"We found massive, massive improvement in performance -- a 13% improvement in performance from people working at home"
At my wife's company, the work-from-home employees have a higher productivity requirement than the office workers. It's a pain because the kind of work she does probably doesn't lend itself as well to the performance gains seen at other places. She's personally so much more productive than average that it doesn't matter to her, but other employees have struggled with it. She's also a tota
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So they require higher productivity in exchange for not having to provide office-space? That is kind of backwards...
Earn more is the key to the flaw in this study. (Score:2)
As in, companies usually only let you do this if you are a better employee. Higher level office workers and sales jobs are prime examples, not ditch diggers.
In other words, they are selected for the people most likely to earn more and be happier.
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I've read TFA and I can't see where it even says the employees earn more. The closest is this quote:
Been telecommuting for about 7 years. (Score:3)
Been telecommuting since about 2008.
Started out one day a week.
About 2010, went to full-time telecommute.
I'm the admin for the company's network and have everything set up so that I can do almost everything remotely.
And, if it comes to the worst, I can drive in for an emergency.
It's frickin' great!
The only thing is, you NEED to be able to self-start. Because being at home, there are lots of distractions.
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snowbirding (Score:2)
Organization (Score:2)
Survivor bias is very high here (Score:2)
It's not for everyone (Score:3)
Personally I love working from home and do it whenever I can. I find that I have less distractions, I don't have to "dress up", and I don't miss the commute one bit. But I know others that don't care for it. Trying to work from the kitchen table with kids running around is no picnic.
You've got to have, at a minimum, a dedicated office space where you can close the door if necessary. A spare bedroom works just fine. A good headset for conference calls is a must. There is nothing worse than trying to decipher someone on a conference call with a crappy cellphone where every other word cuts out. And the dog is barking and the kids are screaming. When you're on a call, close the door, put on the headset. You will hear others better and they will hear you better.
Where I work we use Skype for IM, WebEx for video conferencing, and SharePoint for document collaboration. I'm not a huge SharePoint fan but collectively it works. The biggest issue is trust. The way I explain it to my team is that working from home is a perk. You don't have to partake but if you do there are certain expectations. Log on to Skype during business hours and check your email regularly. If you need to step out that's fine, just let me know where you are. Above all - get your shit done.
If I see a big drop in productivity or get even the slightest inkling that they are goofing off I have a conversation with them and make it clear that it had better stop. If it happens again, work from home is over for that employee. I haven't had a single team member violate the ground rules and our turnover is very low. When you treat people right they are happy and productive. Simple as that.
100% telelcommute for the past two years (Score:2)
Have been 100% telecommute for the past two years.
I think it has been a win/win for myself and my Employer.
https://www.linkedin.com/pulse... [linkedin.com]
Been working from home for the last 8 years (Score:3)
And I love it. My daily commute is 20 meters from bedroom to study. Well, on some mornings I go drop off my daughter to daycare before starting work, depending on whether it's wife's turn or not.
I work as a consultant, mostly doing network architecture design, UC and similar stuff. Anyway, the company that actually pays me doesn't care about visiting office - I go there every few months to drop off receipts of travel expenses, attend christmas party and that's that. All other travel is to customer premises.
There is a weird trend. I've noticed that in how much driving my car gets. When I started; I drove just a bit under 40000km a year. Now I can barely reach 10000km. Gotta love it - less time spent behind the wheel.
The single biggest reason for this? Skype for Business (Microsoft Lync). These days it's pretty much everywhere. It used to be that I worked a lot from customer sites. Then it changes so that I came to first few meetings with the customers. And these days we do entire projects and sometimes never see "face-to-face" except over videoconferencing. Sales guys still go for actual visits to make the case, but after that it seems that fewer and fewer people care about your physical presence. The only actual work that has been done one site for last few projects has been physical hardware installations.
One other thing caused by Skype: Meetings *always* start on time. It used to be that if you booked a meeting from 2 PM to 4 PM, what happened was that people arrived at the premises at 2 PM. Then you gathered coffee, then tried to usher everyone to the conference room, set up laptops etc. You get to the real stuff starting at 2:30. Now - even when you are on-site there's *always* someone attending the meeting remotely, and he's already gotten the coffee and is ready to start. This causes the folks to be in the conference room and starting the meeting at 2:05 the latest.
Heck, I once attended a lecture where a guy was trying to give a presentation on a big overhead projector but it was broken. So, end result was that he just shared his presentation on Skype and everyone in the room just watched it on the laptop. Kind of pointless to attend.
The only exception to this rule is customers that have strict security requirements and provide no Internet access, but that's more or less understandable.
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Fine, I'll bite even though I really shouldn't bother responding to an AC.
Working from home means I don't spend 2-3 hours in a commute every day. That's 2-3 hours more of quality family time for every single working day. Unless you were suggesting quitting all working and coasting on welfare until the kid turns 18 (or even reaches school age), I fail to see your point about self-actualization. And if you were serious, I'm sure you will do differently with your own arrangements but this is our chosen approac
Worked for our organization (Score:2)
For several years before my retirement we has a widely diverse engineering team. Home base was Berkeley, California, but we had engineers in Seattle, Livermore, CA, Chicago, New York, Washington, D.C. and Iowa. One in each remote metro area except two near Chicago.
We used modern Internet based teleconferencing equipment and every engineer had a desktop system that showed the rest of the group. All were normally muted, but, if an issue arose that required group discussion (or discussion buy a part of the gr
Homeward bound (Score:2)
I loved it! (Score:3)
I did it for 1.5 years as a contractor for Cisco. I have disabilities like impediments, unable to drive, etc. It was perfect for me. I would totally do it again!
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Re:Maybe for a travel agency (Score:5, Insightful)
Not to mention, working from home as a introvert, fantastic, working from home as an extrovert, sure way to go nuts. I worked from home and enjoyed roasting a chicken for lunch, only takes a few minutes to set up at morning smoko and then set the timer and work. You check every time you stop work for your always favourite coffee and snack, always there. Then at lunch out comes the fresh roast chicken and you enjoy a great repast as you have an extended relaxing lunch whilst watching a movie and than back to work. All done in your shorts because you started work as soon as you woke up, no time lost doing anything else, except for a morning cuppa and relieving yourself as necessary. You can get a huge amount of work done by more than enough by 3 oclock even with a long lunch, stop there or work into the early evening and take the whole afternoon off tomorrow.
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Good for your marriage, too--I sometimes think the chief reason my wife hasn't divorced me yet is the fact that she has dinner waiting for her when she gets home from the office every night.
Re:Maybe for a travel agency (Score:4, Insightful)
But working from home all the time? I did that for a while, and even being an introvert, that drove me nuts. After a while you do miss the interaction at the office.
Re:Maybe for a travel agency (Score:5, Interesting)
But working from home all the time? I did that for a while, and even being an introvert, that drove me nuts. After a while you do miss the interaction at the office.
I work from home full time, have been doing it for years. I don't have the option of spending some days each week in the office, because the office is a thousand miles from me (I live in UT, the office is the Googleplex in Mountain View, CA).
I've tried a couple of solutions to the office interaction problem. I agree that you do miss it. The best one (not currently set up for issues of space and layout in the office) was an always-on video conference. We set up a VC station at an unused desk and just kept it logged in 24x7. I had another in my home office which I logged into when I started work in the morning and logged out of at the end of the day.
Most of the time I kept my side muted so they didn't have to hear the noises in my house, and I kept the volume low to reduce distraction, but I could still catch bits of interesting office conversations and join in, etc. I also waved hello to people when I noticed them walking by, etc. It worked quite well. I will get that set up again when conditions in the office permit. I still have the VC system in my office because that's how I do all of my meetings (all the conference rooms in the offices have VC setups).
My other method is occasional visits. I try to get to CA about every other month, usually for a week. My weeks there end up being wall to wall meetings, a fair number of them not with any specific agenda but just to hang out with various people for a while to see what's on their mind, and to share what I'm thinking about. Lots of lunch meetings, too. I also often socialize with my co-workers in the evenings. I've had dinner at several of their houses, with their families. One co-worker is interested in guns so we went shooting one afternoon. Another likes SCUBA, so we took a day and went down to Monterrey. And so on. All of this helps to build good personal relationships for when stuff gets stressful.
I find my on-site time draining because it's so much interaction. But I do it anyway because it does help.
One other thing I do is to carry on a lot of "water cooler" conversations via IM and, to a lesser extent, email, about both personal and professional topics. My first grandchild was born early this week, so I IM'd several of them and emailed the whole team. When I get frustrated or annoyed or unusually impressed by some bit of code or design work, I vent/celebrate via IM with one or two of them. Occasionally we rant about politics, etc.
I think this all works out great. I get to live where I want, have the flexibility that working from home provides (e.g. on Wednesday I skipped out for the afternoon to go see the new Spiderman movie with my sons), and I can use technology to satisfy my need for interaction with my colleagues. Not that I need that much interaction; I'm an introvert.
I'm a big fan of working from home. I actually did it for most of a decade at my previous employer (IBM) as well. You have to figure out how to make it work, but it's awesome. Work/life balance can be tricky for some people. Personally, I just don't draw a sharp line between "working" and "not working" but instead go back and forth between work and personal stuff throughout the day. Others do need that sharp division and have to set strict schedules for themselves. It works if you work it.
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At one job I was paired with a coworker, and as former college classmates, we got along smashingly well. His wife ended up getting shipped half-way across the country, so he went with her and worked remotely. Not only did it drive him insane, but it really was bad for me as well. To keep him sane I often ended up in a windowless conference room skyping with him. That meant I was missing out on our normal office socialization, and also being his emotional anchor as he dealt with a quiet, empty house.
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I think you'll find that a lot of people here have tried it in a collaborative job (programming). It works very well. I mean, have you completely missed how successful open-source projects distributed all over the world have been?
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That is not the fault of the location in which the project is being created, that is the management of the project that is lacking.
Re:Maybe for a travel agency (Score:5, Insightful)
Some jobs are necessarily collaborative, but a lot of jobs are collaborative because people are lazy. I find this is true in a lot of hardware and software jobs that are being labelled as 'inherently collaborative' in companies I have worked for that are on the long fail-boat to nowhere.
The best places I have worked have done exactly the same jobs without collaboration and there really wasn't any need: you go to the docs (in the old days on a disk somewhere, today on a webserver). Everyone implements according to the docs, if it is suspected they are wrong, or if the implementation they beget is not optimum, or does not meet spec for the product then you call a meeting where no one actually has to physically co-exist (often we could not anyway). Issue is debated, if the conclusion isn't obvious then someone makes a judgement call and we move on.
It doesn't work everywhere, I have no idea what the "brocoder" lifestyle at places like facebook and whatever are, or whether they are like they are by necessity, choice or insanity. But occasionally this tries to leak on to the kinds of work I'm involved in, and insanity ensues until someone can amputate the infection.
Re:Maybe for a travel agency (Score:4, Informative)
I see this as not so much as a collaboration issue but a management issue. There should be no reason why they could not contact you with technology that is currently available today to discuss an issue. There are people who must have that face to face interaction in order for them to participate in a project. I never understood that, but they do exist. I have worked on projects that have done both, remote and local, and saw no difference in the outcome. Some people just NEED to physically be there to be happy about the outcome. Me not so much. I find most human interaction distracting when performing my primary job function. I usually ignore them anyway when in the office.
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I have actually found that in management positions you need to be in the office a majority of the time. However the low level people doing the work, have been more productive when they can work from home more often. Especially when you have fewer people in offices, and more people in bullpen areas.
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Well communications issues are easily solved, but the company needs to put a solution in place. They're far more efficient than wandering around looking for the person you want.
As regards productivity, you don't do it enough for it to become second nature. Two or three times a week and you will find you get more done.
The main downside is the hot desking on the days you go into work, especially if everybody decides to come in that day.
Obviously WfH works best for people who in the main work individually. Pro
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Re:Maybe for a travel agency (Score:4, Informative)
You are more than likely an extrovert. You require that physical face to face to feel that you accomplished something. There is NOTHING that can not be done locally that can not also be done remotely (physical labor excluded). Everything you described in your comments CAN and ARE accomplished remotely just as well as when you are physically located in an office building.
Frustrating is not the word that you should be using for your 3 meeting pull ins. That is disruption from your primary task (also called chaos).
Re: Maybe for a travel agency (Score:2, Interesting)
Why does any of that need to be face to face?
And 3 meetings a day? Generally a waste. I've never been in a meeting where everyone needed to be there, staring intently at the product manager or architect as he or she ummed and uhhed their way through a presentation of minimal importance to nearly everyone involved.
Plus, no easy way to recall that information, so it all gets sent out as an email after the meeting anyway.
Re:Maybe for a travel agency (Score:5, Interesting)
Everyone on the teams, work remotely, all across the US, and there is NO problem in getting things done.
This is all IT work. Servers are in data centers we hit remotely, we have teleconferences for meetings...IM for screen shares if needed.
It works great. No problems her, and yet...most of the folks I work with, I have no idea what they look like, or anything about them other than their voices.
Frankly, I LOVE this work mode. I do my job, I'm home for package deliveries (no more getting stolen off porch)...you can be doing things around the house even while on conference calls (yay for headsets)....
And my commute is a blistering walk across the hall from my bedroom to my office.
Frankly, I get MUCH more done at home these days, than I did in the office....and doing it as a contractor is great as that I get to bill for all hours worked.
Sure, I'm available more often...but I always get paid for it too.
Reminds, me, I need to check with my CPA to see if I can write off boxer shorts and t-shirts as work attire.
Re:Maybe for a travel agency (Score:4, Interesting)
I have worked from my home office for about 7 years there are a lot of advantages.
I get payed the same as those that work in the office although I don't have two 30-45 minute commutes so I save a lot on gas but even more because I only have one car. I would need second vehicle if I worked in an office. I'm probably saving at least $6,000/year in gas, wear and tear, insurance, and a payment on a second car.
I don't need to wear a tie and or dress business and I don't shave everyday either because you can't see me over the phone or voip. I don't buy a lot of new clothes like I did when I worked in the office I wear a lot of sweats or shorts and t-shirt.I don't eat out any where near as much because I can grab breakfast in the kitchen and eat it at my desk while going over my email first thing in the morning. I save probably 2.25 hours a day between time spent driving, and waiting to get breakfast from pick a place.
The spare bedroom I turned into my office is larger than most of the offices I've had in an actual office some where just cubicles, though it does mean I don't have a spare bedroom in the house.
I do have to pay for internet but honestly I would have it anyway... it used to be the largest account offered in my area 100mbps they offer 300mbps in my area now but I haven't felt the need to upgrade yet.
A 5 year contract gig? (Score:2)
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It's Federal Govt. contracting....they renew the contracts about every 3 years...and you just get picked up on the next contract vehicle, doing the same stuff.
A little hard to get in, but once you get your foot in the door...no sweat.
I started out working same contracts, but as a W2 employee of the contracting house....but from there, switched later to 1099 with the prime and secondar
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The one thing that may be a bit hard to do remotely is direct and constant supervis
Re:Maybe for a travel agency (Score:5, Insightful)
Well, as someone who works form home 4 days a week, I've found a couple of easy solutions to this:
* Corporate IM. Require all remote employees to keep it running. You find that you're able to reach employees *more* this way, since strolling up to a desk often ends with the employee out to lunch, in a meeting room, off to get coffee, taking a dump, etc. With IM, if they're at the desk (or in many cases such as HipChat, have their phone on them), you can reach 'em. As a bonus, many of these applications (most, really) allow for impromptu 3-way or n-way conversations as well.
* Collaboration software (e.g. webex, GoToMeeting, etc): regular mandatory standups using this software means everyone is in one virtual spot, you can interact just like you can if everyone was in one room, etc. As a bonus, you don;t have to dork around with a cranky projector (instead you just share your screen.)
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Now as a manager, you need to get your ass into the office - daily. Politics and all that BS requires face-to-face. On my part (technical/architectural lead, non-management), I use the one day a week on-site to stack my meetings. Everyone (that I care about) knows I'm onsite that day as well, which actually makes scheduling things with me much, much easier.
Now managing remote workers is a bit different, but if you're having a hard time moving the needle on projects remotely? Well, I hate to say it, but one of these factors is the problem:
* you're not using the right tools
* your reports are slacking off and lean towards the unprofessional
* you need help running and structuring meetings
* the projects are poorly planned/executed
* you're one of those dreaded micromanagement types.
Seriously - those are the only reasons I can think of that require you to keep your reports right there where you can bug them whenever you (or circumstance) require.
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"Exactly! We had a new policy put in place around 1 year ago that allows employees to work from home 2 days per month."
And that exactly what the problem is. There are times when something that is good, when going below a threshold is even worse than nothing.
You don't have the culture, nor the tools, to support working out from office, so those two days are a nuisance. You should try more or less the other way around: about a day a week in the office, all the others from home. That *is* where the advantag
Re: Maybe for a travel agency (Score:5, Insightful)
Ditto here. I work for a telecom company that has become quite remote-friendly the past few years. I do spend a lot of time on the phone / laptop, meeting virtually with others across multiple time zones. The difference I find is that the company has adopted it as an approved way of working (depending on role).
I sit on my little coastal island, manager's three TZs away, and things get done. What's not to like?
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Yes, HP, Yahoo, IBM and the rest ARE WRONG. The management needs to find another method to justify spending multi-million dollar lease agreements for their corner offices.
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Understandable, since there is hardly anybody competent left at IBM, at least in the consulting area. They seem to have really gotten rid of anybody with actual experience ans skill. On the plus side, their daily rates are now down to what anybody else gets and they have lost their nimbus of infallibility, making people see the arrogance and incompetence clearly. They are basically dead, but it will take them a few more years until they die. By then, those responsible will all have activated their golden pa
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Then there's the fact that you don't actually get to shoot the shit with anybody - who are you going to water cooler talk with? Yourself?
That's what internet forums like this are for. I work with a bunch of engineers and even here, I rarely get any quality conversation. People would rather talk about fishing boats than topics I have any interest in. On the internet, I can easily zero in on conversations I'm interested in, and it's far faster and more efficient, because talking is so damn slow and I read