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RE: Telecommuting ( was: Do as I say, not as I do )
Subject:RE: Telecommuting ( was: Do as I say, not as I do ) From:"McLauchlan, Kevin" <Kevin -dot- McLauchlan -at- safenet-inc -dot- com> To:Anne Robotti <arobotti -at- gmail -dot- com>, TECHWR-L <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com> Date:Mon, 25 Feb 2013 11:24:45 -0500
My wife is self-employed, and has a home office (where she works 14-hour days), but she also needs to get out to events and presentations, and to meet customers. Somebody has to be here constantly in case the ancient mum-in-law takes a tumble or has other problems. Lately, I work from home a lot.
I've found out that it's more difficult than you'd think to find lay-person instruction on how to lift a fat old woman off the floor without doing damage (either to self or subject). Lifting a hundred and eighty pounds of jello is much trickier than you'd imagine, and you can't just grab a projection and hoist - when there's virtually no muscle, arms and legs are not all that securely attached.
For the next such event, I have devised a plan involving the old-fashioned sit-up board that we have in the basement. "Here, I'm going to roll you onto this, then I'm going to stand it up with you on it. Your job is to take your weight on your feet when you start to come upright - no sagging allowed - and then catch hold of the door-frame or your walker so you don't go over frontwards..."
Now, the two-by-four braces to the closet wall, to keep the sit-up board from sliding while I lift one end, and ....
If that fails, and the Mrs. is not at home, I'll have to call the paramedics, just to get the old lady upright again - assuming no damage has occurred.
TW-tie-in: Has anybody documented this kind of thing for the health-care/elder-care field? Illustrated comic-book? Video? Where can I get a copy?
Maybe the DuckTape site has something. Hmm.
If there was a fire, I'm strong enough to get her out, but the trade-off might be bruising or dislocation to avoid more deadly consequences.
Mostly, I expect to deal with less dire circumstances, as I already have... but not elegantly... and my back has yet to forgive me.
-----Original Message-----
From: techwr-l-bounces+kevin -dot- mclauchlan=safenet-inc -dot- com -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com [mailto:techwr-l-bounces+kevin -dot- mclauchlan=safenet-inc -dot- com -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com] On Behalf Of Anne Robotti
Sent: February-25-13 7:32 AM
To: TECHWR-L
Subject: Re: Telecommuting ( was: Do as I say, not as I do )
I don't really understand why she has to throw the baby out with the bath water. If the object is to increase the innovation and idea generation that come with face-to-face meetings, why not start with a simple "in office"
day each week or each month where everybody has to be in the office? You could schedule brainstorming sessions and cross-team meetings - I'd go to those meetings, if they weren't a colossal waste of time.
But all I can see that she's going to get out of the current set-up is a lot of *seriously* pissed off people in cubicles doing jobs that they know perfectly well they can do from home. Some people, who've been goofing off and abusing the privilege, might shrug and say, "Well, I knew that couldn't last." But people like me, who take telecommuting seriously and regard it as a privilege that they've earned, are going to have their resumes out.
For years people have been accepting jobs at Yahoo! with the understanding that they would be able to work from home.
I think a totally unintended consequence of this might be that you lose quite a few good people who you actually wanted to keep, and a lot of dead wood stays. She must have been hoping for some attrition as a result of the change, but I'm not sure she's going to get the kind she's looking for.
Anne
On Mon, Feb 25, 2013 at 7:16 AM, Cardimon, Craig <ccardimon -at- m-s-g -dot- com>wrote:
> Marissa Mayer seems to be making lots of missteps.
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: techwr-l-bounces+ccardimon=m-s-g -dot- com -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com [mailto:
> techwr-l-bounces+ccardimon=m-s-g -dot- com -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com] On Behalf Of
> Bill Swallow
> Sent: Monday, February 25, 2013 5:39 AM
> To: Gene Kim-Eng
> Cc: TECHWR-L
> Subject: Re: Telecommuting ( was: Do as I say, not as I do )
>
> Well here's a timely article:
>
>
>http://www.huffingtonpost.com/lisa-belkin/marissa-mayer-work-from-home
> -yahoo-rule_b_2750256.html
>
> Marissa Mayer's Work-From-Home Ban Is The Exact Opposite Of What CEOs
> Should Be Doing
>
> <snip>
>
> The CEO of Yahoo!, who made news when she took the position last
> summer while five months pregnant, announced through the company's
> human resources arm yesterday that employees will no longer be permitted to work remotely.
>
> "Speed and quality are often sacrificed when we work from home," says
> the memo from HR director Jackie Reses, and reprinted by Kara Swisher
> on allthingsd.com last night. "We need to be one Yahoo!, and that
> starts with physically being together."
>
> </snip>
>
> On Mon, Feb 25, 2013 at 2:50 AM, Gene Kim-Eng <techwr -at- genek -dot- com> wrote:
> > Professional employees are not the same as data entry operators or
> > factory workers. When managing professionals I never expect them to
> > be
> sitting at a
> > desk 8 hours a day, I expect them to be wherever they need to be to get
> > the job done. The indicators that they aren't doing that are the
> > same for on-site or off-site workers, namely that there's no flow of
> > information or status updates coming from them and people they're
> > supposed to be interacting with complain that they can't be found
> > when
> they're needed.
> >
> > Gene Kim-Eng
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> > On 2/24/2013 5:06 PM, William Sherman wrote:
> >>
> >> I attribute that to poor management. If an on-site worker was to
> >> disappear from their desk or workstation for hours on end, the
> >> manager would have a talk with them. Yet, many never check on
> >> their telecommuting workers.
> >
> >
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> --
> Bill Swallow
> Writing and Content Strategy Consultant
>http://www.linkedin.com/in/techcommdood
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