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Subject:Re: Commute/Flex work options a Deal breaker? From:"Collin Turner" <straylightsghost -at- gmail -dot- com> To:su_duncan -at- yahoo -dot- com Date:Wed, 25 Jun 2008 09:41:20 -0600
Susan,
The past several years I've worked with options to work from home
several days a week. I'm with you. My current job doesn't offer
this...yet. It's been quite a transition!
Sure...company funded PR....but an eye opener and great fuel for
anyone wishing to approach their employer about creating more options.
On Wed, Jun 25, 2008 at 9:37 AM, Susan Park <su_duncan -at- yahoo -dot- com> wrote:
> I'm fortunate to work for a company that hires very few on-site employees. I've been working remotely for about 2 years now, and I love it. My work is project based, and at any given time, I have about 2-3 projects. No one is standing over my shoulder micromanaging me--as long as I meet milestone dates and keep my project managers apprised of my status, it doesn't seem to matter when, where, or how many hours I work per week. My annual salary is probably a bit lower than market rate, but it's worth it to me to be at home.
>
> Now that I've had this experience, if I had to find another job, would the commute/flex work options be a dealbreaker? I hope I never have to find another job, but if I did, it would be with an eye toward another telecommuting situation.
>
> Susan
>
>
> --- On Wed, 6/25/08, Keith Hood <klhra -at- yahoo -dot- com> wrote:
>
> From: Keith Hood <klhra -at- yahoo -dot- com>
> Subject: RE: Commute/Flex work options a Deal breaker?
> To: "techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com" <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com>
> Date: Wednesday, June 25, 2008, 11:20 AM
>
> It would depend entirely on how broke I am. As for incentive, I don't need
> any more. I always look for chances to work by remote. So far I've never
> allowed it to be a deal breaker. But if I were working job A onsite every day,
> and job B came along offering remote work at the same pay or close enough,
> I'd be out of job A so fast I'd leave a hole in the air.
>
> I have been firmly convinced for years that 95% of what we do can be done just
> as well at the end of a phone line as in a cube next door, and most of the real
> reason for insisting that TWs work on site is hierarchy thinking by people who
> have a vested interest in showing their bosses how many head they have in their
> herds.
>
> I've tried for years to promote the idea both where I've worked and in
> general. I've come up with some fairly detailed business cases about the
> financial advantages to the companies - less need for physical plant so lower
> electric bills, less liability; fewer commute miles per head so less pressure
> from the EPA, etc. So far it's all fallen on deaf ears.
>
> Remote working would require a major shift in thinking (and personality, in a
> lot of cases) on the parts of the bosses, and they don't want to be forced
> into any changes. For a lot of them it's a visceral thing. A lot of them
> see remote working as a challenge to or a reduction of their authority, so
> they'll resist it to the bitter end.
>
> Plus, I think a lot of companies got burned by telecommuting in the late
> 80s/early 90s when the tech stock bubble was building. A lot of companies who
> were anxious to build quickly and were hiring frantically let a lot of people
> set up telecommuting in order to get them on board quickly, and a significant
> number of those people sloughed off too much. I've heard stories about
> workers who would set up batch files that would automatically send something
> pointless over the net at set times, so it would look to anyone monitoring
> traffic like they were working while they were actually out at the lake. So
> some companies once burned, twice shy.
>
> To be fair to the employers, making a remote working setup viable requires
> workers with somewhat greater than normal dedication. It's hard enough
> finding workers who have the dedication to show up in the cube by 9 every day.
> Finding someone who's reliable when the boss isn't standing over his
> shoulder is a whole new matter.
>
>
>
> --- On Wed, 6/25/08, Melissa Nelson <melmis36 -at- hotmail -dot- com> wrote:
>
>> From: Melissa Nelson <melmis36 -at- hotmail -dot- com>
>> Subject: RE: Commute/Flex work options a Deal breaker?
>> To: "techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com"
> <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com>
>> Date: Wednesday, June 25, 2008, 10:58 AM
>> It would depend on the entire work situation. My present
>> boss does not offer flex time. He is of the mode of
>> "it ain't work, if it ain't done in a
>> cube!" Fortunately for me, I live a mile away so it
>> does not really enter into my situation. I did turn down a
>> position in DC (about 25 miles away) that offered no
>> flexibility, and did not even seem to understand that
>> subways break down and sometimes you are just late.
>> Therefore, I think it does depend on the whole job
>> situation and environment! As a born and raised Utahn...I
>> am tickled to see the governor do this, I think it is going
>> to have to happen more and more as gas prices make commuting
>> more and more expensive.
>>
>> Melissa
>>
>>
>>
>> > Date: Wed, 25 Jun 2008 08:53:15 -0600> From:
>> straylightsghost -at- gmail -dot- com> To:
>> techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com> Subject: Commute/Flex work
>> options a Deal breaker?> > As a Tech Writer, many of
>> us know that our work affords us some>
>> "flexibility" in the normal work routine:> *
>> Tele-work> * Flex Schedules (Four 10 hour shifts/wk,
>> etc.)> * and so on...> > I pose a question to the
>> group...> > On Friday, the Governor of Utah will
>> announce that ALL State offices> will switch to a 4 day
>> work week (10 hour shifts) and close on Friday.> This is
>> to meet the needs of State workers and reduce strain on
>> the> Commute (which is a serious issue in this
>> State).> > Here's the question:> > Would
>> you go to work for a company that refused to budge (with
>> no> proper explanation or reason given) or offer any
>> flexibility in work> schedules? Even with such a
>> precedence being set on a governmental> level?> >
>> Would influence your decision if you were looking for a
>> job?> Would it be incentive to seek out anot
>> her job with more flexibility?> > Just
>> curious...> > -Collin>
>> ________________________________> collinturner.com>
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