Re: Offsite Management

["Shrock, Kelley" <KSHROCK -at- COSSYMWEST -dot- CO -dot- SYMBIOS -dot- COM>]

In contrast to some of the other responses you've received, I've enjoyed 2
1/2 years as  a "mostly offsite" manager/team leader.  I work from home
three days per week and come in the other two.  One of the employees in my
group works at another location about 120 miles away, as does my boss.
 Everyone has become accustomed to calling me at home during office hours
and communicating with email.  I'd say it works great for us.  But there are
some specific things that have made this a successful venture.  Here are a
few:

     - I worked full time on site for about 5 years before making the jump
to offsite work.  I was an individual contributor during that time, but our
group did not have any official leadership - we all reported to a marketing
manager.  I had some solid understanding of the company's products,
technologies, politics, and personalities before moving offsite.  Otherwise,
I'm sure I would feel pretty lost a lot of the time.

     -Our company has major facilities in three cities in Colorado and
Kansas.  Working with people outside the office is very familiar with my
group and the departments we work with.

     - I supervise 6 associates:  4 very senior writers, 1 new writer with
lots of other job-related experience, and a production editor (desktop
publishing specialist) who worked for years as our administrative assistant.
Some of the writers work offsite part of the time as well.  We have very
little turnover in the group, and the writers work individually on projects
with product teams that consist of development,product management, and other
departments outside our group.  All are also very strong performers and
don't require much, if any, supervision.  I could not have made this
arrangement work without such a competent, experienced staff.

     -I work regular hours and days, so everyone knows how to reach me. I
check voice mail and email at least every 2 hours.  I've given out my home
number probably more than I'd like, but even coworkers from other
departments don't hesitate to call me when they need to and no one so far
has abused the system.  We do 360-degree feedback as part of our performance
management system, and I've had specific comments that my offsite work does
not limit my accessibility or responsiveness.

My responsibilities during this time have included performance management,
budgeting and expense tracking, signing timecards, approving expenditures,
assigning work, fighting fires, and "other duties as required."  In
addition, I've continued to work on writing projects part of the time.
 Overall, this has been a great situation.  I believe it's the first time it
has been tried at my company and I've appreciated the opportunity.  So, I'd
say offsite management CAN work - but only under certain conditions and with
hard work from the manager.

Good luck,
Kelley Shrock
 ----------
From: Eric J. Ray
To: TECHWR-L -at- LISTSERV -dot- OKSTATE -dot- EDU
Subject: FWD: Offsite Management
Date: Tuesday, June 23, 1998 9:58AM

Name withheld upon request. Please reply on list.

*************************************************


I would be interested to know if anyone has, or feels it is possible to
manage a pubs department while working off-site either part time or full
time.  Does the size of the department affect one's ability to do this?  Or
do you think it just is not a good idea?