Re: The telecommuting myth

[Tim Altom <taltom -at- SIMPLYWRITTEN -dot- COM>]

I know what you're saying, but I disagree. There are indeed two types of
people, I think, but they're not introvert/extrovert. They're team/isolated.
And the difference isn't so much personality-driven as management-driven.

I think that a good many of us are convinced that we're destined to be
professional floaters who can move smoothly from one company and product to
another. Today we're at TI, tomorrow at Motorola. That's fine for companies
that feel that way too, I suppose. When a company encourages an employee to
be an interchangeable part, then that's the type of person it will attract.

But I'm of a different mind. To me, the very best environment is visionary,
in that everybody from the cleaning crew to Mahogany Row is ignited with the
company fire. It's an experience like no other. The military calls it "unit
integrity". The synergies that are created transcend the total of the team
members' abilities. It infuses deep and enduring pride in the workforce. It
goes beyond a product, or a place, or a time. Long-time Nordstrom employees
know it. In every company there are frustrations, politics, shortages, bad
days and disappointments. For those in a visionary company, however, it's
not this product or this department or this brand or this year that's
important; what's important is the vision itself. This kind of hegemony
can't be forged out of telecommuters. Telecommuters write doc and code;
visionaries write history.

If you haven't experienced it, then you may not know what I'm talking about.
But for those of us who have, we'll always talk about it as long as we live.
And for the very luckiest of us, we'll work for a place like that still. And
for a very, very, very few of us, we'll create such a place.


>In my experience, introverts are GREAT telecommuters. They are perfectly
>happy sitting at home, seldom talking to a soul, just cranking out work.
>They can be good team members, but don't get their "charge" from it. An
>introvert can go long periods of time without talking with other people and
>be very happy about it.

Tim Altom
Simply Written, Inc.
Featuring FrameMaker and the Clustar Method(TM)
"Better communication is a service to mankind."
317.562.9298
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