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I'll try to answer some of Hillary's questions on telecommuting.
As I understand it, there are two types of telecommuters. The first type is
a full-time employee who has convinced his/her employer to let him/her work
off-site (usually at home) at least part of the time, and often all the time
(except for occasional visits to pick things up, drop things off, or just
say "Hi, I work here too...!).
The second type is an independent consultant who is working on a contract
basis, and who has let his client understand that he/she works much better
from his/her home office than on-site. He/she usually drops in every once in
a while, especially at the beginning of the contract, to make sure
everything is in sync.
Provided they are experienced professionals, telecommuters can do just as
good a job as people working on-site. The only thing to keep in mind is to
accept to work on-site for the phases that truly require your presence on-site.
Unfortunately, many companies still feel that they "can't keep an eye" on a
telecommuter. "Who knows how much time they REALLY spend on the work we give
him/her?" What they are forgetting is that it's the result that counts. If
deliverables are handed in on time, and if they are of good quality, then
why not let these people do the work the way they feel most comfortable
doing it?
If they are full-time employees, telecommuters do set objectives and
priorities in exactly the same way as if they were present in the office 5
days a week. As independent consultants, telecommuters also set objectives
and priorities, but only in terms of the project they are working on.
Finally, full-time employee telecommuters have to track their own
performance, since sooner or later, they are going to have a performance
evaluation, and they would be wise to be able to remind the person
evaluating them of all the things they did from home. Independent
consultants are used to always keep track of their own performance. This
often becomes part of their portfolio.
Hope this has helped.
Fabien Vais
phantoms -at- accent -dot- net
At 10:52 AM 6/25/97 -0700, Hillary Jones wrote:
>A few friends and I have some questions about telecommuting:
>
>How can telecommuters be successfully productive off site?
>How are other companies/contractors/telecommuters currently measuring
>their productivity?
>How does this (or does it) differ from the way in-house employees are
>measured?
>How do they set objectives and priorities? I.e., does management do it
>or does the telecommuter?
>Who leads and defines the priorities (similar to above)?
>How do they track their performance?
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