Re: The Telecommuting myth

[Janet Valade <janetv -at- SYSTECH -dot- COM>]

        Because someone is sitting at their desk does not necessarily mean
that they are productive. If I wanted to, I could be totally unproductive
for 35 hours while my manager was happily viewing me at my desk.  A manager
needs the ability to evaluate productivity by output. Any other measure of
productivity is problematic and prone to error. I know this is sometimes
difficult, for instance with a new type of project or subject matter, but it
is the only reliable measure.

        Personally, I work at work in my current job because it is actually
a better environment than at home. I have a large office in a totally quiet
area so concentration is not a problem. And the SMEs are close by if I need
to drop in with a question. And everything I need is here, as opposed to
needing to look at something that I forgot to bring home. But, I have a
10-minute commute and flexible hours.

        I have telecommuted in the past and it worked well. It depends on
the circumstances. Being able to be working five minutes after you get out
of bed is wonderful. It adds hours to your day. As a manager, I would want
to see output on a regular basis--once a week or so, possibly just for peace
of mind. Certainly if I didn't know the person, it would be foolish to trust
the writing was progressing fine for 6 weeks without confirmation, only to
discover no usable output the day before the deadline.

        Janet

Janet Valade
Technical Writer
Systech Corp, San Diego, CA
mailto:janetv -at- systech -dot- com






> I think this is another one of those "it depends"
> things -- on your working style and how you're most
> productive.
>
> In my personal experience, I've found the opposite to
> be true: when I work at home, I get a LOT done. On a
> particularly hairy project that I worked on at home, I
> spent 9 hours sitting at my computer, on a daily
> basis, with minimal breaks. I plowed through literally
> feet-high stacks of revisions and comments fairly
> efficiently and accurately. This would never happen in
> the office.
>
> My personal working style is digging in very intensely
> and working for solid chunks of time. I am more
> efficient this way because I learn, organize, and
> write better when it's a process that builds upon
> itself. At home, this is possible, whereas in a
> corporate environment it is not. In the office, there
> are many distractions, both good and bad, that keep me
> from staying "in the groove."  I find it a lot harder
> to get back into something once I've been interrupted,
> and the result is that it takes me much longer to get
> the same amount of work done. It's like I'm starting
> the same project over again and need to regroup where
> I was, etc. This is especially true of large,
> complicated, in-depth manuals, etc.
>
> I realize I may be a bit of an anomaly, but I know I'm
> much more productive, and happier, working either from
> home or in a quite, somewhat isolated workspace so I
> can work within my natural "productivity zone."
>
>
> ===
> Monica Milla
> Hedgehog Communications
> "Helping you get your point across"
> Voice/fax: (734) 944-2133
> HedgeCom -at- yahoo -dot- com
>
>
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