Re: The Telecommuting myth continues

["Jeanne A. E. DeVoto" <jaed -at- JAEDWORKS -dot- COM>]

At 3:15 PM -0700 7/8/99, Barry Kieffer wrote:
>The software team is putting in 60-hour weeks to complete the project. Jack
>or Jill TechWriter is also putting in 60-hour weeks - AT HOME - none of the
>team members ever sees the tech writer.

If the software team members are also telecommuting, none of them see each
other working hard in the cube farm, either. Do they assume each that
they're the only one working? This is not my experience.

For that matter, in most corporate onsite work, writers aren't situated
close enough to the engineers to make their 60-hour weeks intuitively
obvious, even if they *are* willing to spend that much work time in that
environment. Which brings up another point:  is being seen in the office,
typing, the only way to make it clear to someone else that you're working?
How about communicating with the other team members? How about delivering
drafts on time? How about being a valuable resource? How about submitting
good bug reports? Can none of these aspects of teamwork stand up to "being
seen"?

>You will get the response: "Yea, right, sure you were... working hard while
>running errands"

If you get that response, your team has other, much larger problems than
where everyone's desk is located. Problems which will not be solved if you
dutifully try to get work done in a cubicle.

--
jeanne a. e. devoto ~ jaed -at- jaedworks -dot- com
http://www.jaedworks.com


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