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Subject:RE: Commute/Flex work options a Deal breaker? From:Keith Hood <klhra -at- yahoo -dot- com> To:techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com, "Donald H. White" <dwhite -at- jrtcllc -dot- com> Date:Mon, 30 Jun 2008 10:41:59 -0700 (PDT)
I was kind of thinking out loud about options when I came up with the web came idea. I think the reaction to the idea is a pretty good indicator of its lack of viability.
For myself, I don't think it would really bother me any. I would consider it no more an intrusion than working in a cube where the boss can come through at any minute to see what I'm up to. I've worked places where the supervisors did sort of make the rounds at least once a day, but it was never on a set schedule. As for a web cam cramping the style of someone who wants to work in pajamas...yeah, that would not be a good idea there.
My main thought here was, coming up with something that could help promote the idea of working remotely by doing something that would address the managements' concerns about productivity and cost-effectiveness. Some bosses would resist the idea of remote working because they are concerned that workers would not really do all the hours that are billed. In such a situation, before that company could implement any kind of remote working arrangement, that concern would have to be addressed. If not by a visual link of some sort, then somehow.
--- On Mon, 6/30/08, Donald H. White <dwhite -at- jrtcllc -dot- com> wrote:
> From: Donald H. White <dwhite -at- jrtcllc -dot- com>
> Subject: RE: Commute/Flex work options a Deal breaker?
> To: techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com
> Date: Monday, June 30, 2008, 10:55 AM
> I have to think (HOPE) that no one would seriously suggest
> the use of a
> webcam so that a "boss" could check to ensure the
> remote worker isn't
> "sloughing off." Employees and contractors
> working on-site aren't subject to
> webcam surveillance in the good, old cubicle!
>
> First, the assumption that a remote worker sloughs off is
> insulting. Perhaps
> some do; most don't. In fact, most remote workers I
> know work longer than
> their on-site counterparts.
>
> I suggest that, if bosses are busy surveying their workers,
> remote or not,
> by webcam, then the bosses are sloughing off their own
> work. And, if webcams
> and the expensive communications transports needed to
> sustain 8-12 hour
> connections are needed for all, or most, workers, then we
> have problems far
> more complex with which to deal.
>
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