Re: The Telecommuting myth

[Donald Le Vie <dlevie -at- VLINE -dot- NET>]

Has anybody (contractors specifically) tried quoting flat fees for projects
worked on and completed off site? I do that with my "moonlighting projects"
and clients seem to be happy with that alternative. What kinds of success or
horror stories does anyone have quoting flat fees vs. quoting hourly rates?

Donn Le Vie
Integrated Concepts

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Jill Burgchardt [SMTP:jburgcha -at- PESTILENCE -dot- ITC -dot- NRCS -dot- USDA -dot- GOV]
> Sent: Wednesday, July 07, 1999 5:15 PM
> To:   TECHWR-L -at- LISTSERV -dot- OKSTATE -dot- EDU
> Subject:      Re: The Telecommuting myth
>
> Caroline writes:
>
> >  The real reason I'm writing is that I have
> > had some experiences with contractors who have routinely billed me for
> > unproductive time spent working at home. I'm not saying that I think
> there
> > has been malfeasance or fraud; I'd handle that in a very different way.
>
> (The folowing questions/comments aren't really intended as questions for
> Caroline, but for any manager who struggles to evaluate productivity of
> off-site
> personnel.)
>
> It's hard for me to see how this could be measured.  If it isn't a case
> that has
> the appearance of malfeasance or fraud, what indication is there that the
> time
> at home was less productive than office time would have been?  Are the
> tasks
> broken down to such clearcut, measurable units that the time estimate is
> easily
> predictable?  Is the manager measuring how long he/she could do the job
> with
> legacy knowledge and expecting the same performance level from a
> contractor?  Is
> any learning curve time anticipated?
>
> Is it a problem with assignment of tasks that could not be completed off
> site
> and therefore necessitated billed "trip time" to clarify items? On what
> basis
> does one decide -- "it's not fraud but it's unproductive time"? Is this
> perception/suspicion founded on fear or reality?
>
> I can work at home when I want to, but do so only in limited spurts. I
> choose
> the work that I take home carefully--things that are pretty obvious and
> measurable to anyone who might care. I'd like do analysis work at home
> where
> it's cool, quiet, and roomy enough to spread out my papers. Instead, I do
> more
> visible things. I was told that a former employee here was often seen out
> and
> about town on days that she was supposedly "working at home."  So, I make
> sure I
> never run into perception problems with anyone who might have trouble
> evaluating
> the number of hours I should have spent on analysis or other hard to
> measure
> tasks by not doing those tasks at home.  I like being able to provide the
> warm
> fuzzy of numbers--pages indexed, topics developed, revisions entered, etc.
>
> I've never been questioned about what I accomplish, but I also don't want
> any
> anxious manager worrying that I'm "unproductive" at home. I'm lucky, a
> contractor would only have the luxury of taking assigned work.  While
> there are
> certainly unscrupulous peole who are less productive at home and who do
> abuse
> it, how do honest people fight the perception that this is the rule rather
> than
> the exception?  And how do managers find ways to evaluate this
> objectively?
>
>
> Jill Burgchardt
> jburgchardt -at- pestilence -dot- itc -dot- nrcs -dot- usda -dot- gov
>
>
> From ??? -at- ??? Sun Jan 00 00:00:00 0000=
> =
>


 From ??? -at- ??? Sun Jan 00 00:00:00 0000=