Maybe Telecommuting Just Isn't Meant To Be
from the need-that-bridge dept
For years and years, we've discussed various trends in telecommuting, noting earlier this year that high gas prices and public transit strikes might help push the trend even further. However, the problems of telecommuting continue to mean that it's just not for everyone. The NY Times notes that, even in the transit strike last week, many workers who could have telecommuted preferred to brave the cold and go into the office. There are a variety of reasons given -- from the traditional need for "face time" to the basic separation between home and work life. For many, it appears, the "commute" is more than just the function of getting from home to the office and back again, but a mental separator to keep work out of home life. That's one issue that's not so easy to break down with technology. Still, it will be interesting to see if that's more a generational issue. I would imagine that today's multi-tasking, instant-messaging, text-messaging, listening-to-music, watching-tv, surfing-the-web all at once kids might not have as much need to separate home life from work life.Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.
Techdirt is one of the few remaining truly independent media outlets. We do not have a giant corporation behind us, and we rely heavily on our community to support us, in an age when advertisers are increasingly uninterested in sponsoring small, independent sites — especially a site like ours that is unwilling to pull punches in its reporting and analysis.
While other websites have resorted to paywalls, registration requirements, and increasingly annoying/intrusive advertising, we have always kept Techdirt open and available to anyone. But in order to continue doing so, we need your support. We offer a variety of ways for our readers to support us, from direct donations to special subscriptions and cool merchandise — and every little bit helps. Thank you.
–The Techdirt Team
Reader Comments
Subscribe: RSS
View by: Time | Thread
No Subject Given
However I do find it difficult to seperate work from home. I do end up mixing the two during a normal work day. I plan to lease a single office out with a friend who also works from home. This will give us the option of going to "work" or staying at home.
I think that's the best solution. If I can goto work, I can. If i'd rather stay home, I can.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: No Subject Given
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Difficult, indeed?
I need to make sure my company gets their money's worth, but my family needs me during the day, so I generally work late to balance out work/home.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Telecommuting
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Telecommuting
As far a separating the work life from the home life, there are many ways to do this, put together an office in your home, this area must be one you only use for this purpose and do not go into it until your scheduled work time. Have a separate phone line that you only answer during business hours, forward your office line to your home line and remove the forward at the end of the work day, enjoy a leisurely lunch (outside the home) with other telecommuters in your area or friends.
Happy new year!
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Telecommuting
I also have a work phone line that I ignore after hours.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Telecommuting
During that time, I went from getting hardly anything done, to being more productive at home than in an office environment. A major factor in being able to do that was "training" myself and my family to respect the office area I set up in my home. When the door to my office area is closed, my wife and kids know that I am working and should not be disturbed. If the door is open then dad is available for any family needs, even if he is technically working on stuff for the client.
Unfortunately, that contract eventually came to an end. I haven't had the good fortune to find another client that will let me work like that on a regular basis, although the place where I am currently on contract has allowed me to work from home a couple of times when the weather was particularly nasty.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Telecommuting for years n loving it
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
No Subject Given
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: No Subject Given
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: No Subject Given
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
telecommuting rules!
If there is a meeting because thing can be solved faster if everyone was present personally, then it happens ones a week or so.
If there is a support call - there is no reason why I can't take at home.
The only problem that I have is that the remote software is not fast enough and some network related transactions take more time than in the office. But as speeds go up with newer technologies, I see that more and more people will find it more appealing to work from home rather then waste time on commute.
And I can things set up much better in my home office than any company would care to do it for me.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Telecommunting Does Rule
If I'm at work wasting time, why the hell don't I just go home and waste time? Half the people just sit there and IM or email their friends...
Plus beer for breakfast is AWESOME!
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Not allowed to telecommute
They have policies in place that contractors aren't allowed to telecommute. 99% of my work is done via phone, email, and web conference. I even effectivley tellecommuted before the policy was reinstated (apparently someone got caught abusing the relaxation of said policy, or someone who didn't like telecommuting complained). There are days when the only reason I get up from my desk is to onload and offload coffee. The only reason I'm at my desk is because I'm a contractor. The only reason I'm a contractor is that some bean counter doesn't want to pay benefits for all the people that work here.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
No Subject Given
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Telecommuting
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Telecommuting
I also live on my computer, imming, planning, reading, working my own site, communicating, all for entertainment or personal use.
I hate working from home. At 33, I definitely need a seperator between the two places, and would like to keep as much work at work as possible. At the same time, if I had three more rooms and could designate one as a place for work and shut the door when I was done, telecommuting would seem more "doable," but I'd rather keep work at the office, for the sake of staying sane.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Telecommuting
Please contact me at sue.shellenbarger@wsj.com. Thank you!
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Dislike working from home?
I saw your post and found it very interesting. Although most people like telecommuting, I think it's difficult for others, depending on their home situation and other factors.
I'm a newspaper columnist and I'm actually working on a column on this topic -- corporate employees who dislike working from home.
I'd love to talk with you about this. Please send me an e-mail at sueshell@comcast.net and I'll introduce myself and explain my interest. I hope to hear from you soon!
Best regards,
SS
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Observations and Comments
1. Some telecommuters end up working an extra 2 hours a day because they are not commuting to and from work. Does that mean you only work 4 days a week? Do you get a credit for those additional 2 hours?
2. One person says they are very productive at home, however, they have to work late into the evening. If you are so productive, why do you need to work late into the evening. Being productive means that you should be spending less time on tasks.
3. Continuing with productivity, some people are only productive at home because they have created a space, aka an office, preferably with a door, in their home, that lets them shut out the rest of the world (including the home world). Perhaps if businesses built more offices and less cubicles in the workplace, productivity would increase.
4. Naturally, with little to no distractions, one is more productive, but some of the people citing the lack of distractions as a positive also spend some time in a real office. I guess it depends on the nature of the business, but it sounds like that some face to face time is required in order to be a successful telecommuter.
By no means am I condoning telecommuting. If done properly, it can be a very productive choice. Given that telecommuters tend to be people with a better-than-average high-tech knowledge, I would expect the comments on this forum to be biased in favor of telecommuting. Not saying that is a bad thing, but one has to consider all issues and viewpoints. Enjoy your virtual trip to work and back ;)
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Coworking: Structure and Community for Developers
http://codinginparadise.org/coworking/
We run it as a simple co-op structure, pulling in enough money to cover the cost of the space. We are located in San Francisco if you'd like to drop by and see what we are up to. People can try it out for free to see if they like it.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Todays kids
[ link to this | view in chronology ]