Re: Need working-at-home advice

["Brierley, Sean" <Brierley -at- QUODATA -dot- COM>]

Hallo:

I have had mixed experiences with work from home. As a manager, my
supervisor hired a writer to start immediately on a work-from home basis.
The hire was a foregone conclusion before the interview process because of
their relationship (family friend) with the owner, but I did have the
opportunity to do an interview. My request, as a manager, was that
work-at-home would not be available for six months because I needed a way to
gauge the work and output of the employee. Work-at-home started immediately
and I was disappointed with the result--of course, I was already biased
based on the hiring event. I had no way to measure the writer's capabilities
and so measured them, on-the-fly, with my own throughput and assessment of
the task at hand. With no real reporting, per the structure of the
organisation, I was unaware of those setbacks that always reduce
productivity. As a manager, I wanted to get a handle on the capabilities of
the employee before letting them work from home. I would expect output and
quality of work to remain constant and not change from the on-site output.

At another employer, I got permission to work from home. I continued to meet
my deadlines and came into the office to get information and have meetings
that could not happen over the internet/phone lines. Sometimes I was in the
office all week because the subject of my documentation was not available to
me at home. This worked very well for me. I filed "timesheets" by email, had
meetings by phone line, and emailed PostScript files to service bureaus
(used PDFs as blues). I was writing about software and was able to get tech
support about the product, developer support, and other issues resolved
entirely by phone--across two continents. The issue was other employees, who
were not permitted, couldn't, or were not set up to work from home, disliked
my work-from-home. This eventually led to some unfortunate bad feeling.

My experience is that employees who are stuck at work will begin to resent
your working from home. However, I see no reason they will not still do
their jobs and co-operate with your need for info.

At home the biggest distraction is the family. Because you are around the
house, questions, requests, and expectations all assume your availability.
To combat this, I recommend you set up and post office hours. Seriously.
Between certain hours, you are unavailable and not to be disturbed despite
your physical presence in the home. Lunch and coffee breaks are also
scheduled. If this seems tough, that's because it is. I think, though, if
you practice this for a reasonable period of time, you will be able to do
away with the rigidity of the schedule as the culture of work-from-home is
accepted and practised. The TV can be a distraction, too, so put on the
radio first thing.

Make sure, above all else, that you give the impression that you are doing
the same amount of work, or more, than you were doing on-site. Do this by
keeping the channels of communication waaaay open, like Caesar did when away
from Roma. Send weekly activity reports and email a few key people regularly
during the week, even if it's only to say things are on track. The amount of
actual work you do is important, but the perception is also important.

I use PDFs a lot. I review a lot of material on-screen. However, when
printed documentation is the goal, I find I make a tonne more mistakes in
on-line revision and review than I do if I can view printed output.
Strangely enough, I review web sites entirely on line and do not have such a
problem. My advice is that you invest in a good printer (may I recommend an
HP 5000 with the duplexing option--though the PostScript is cloned and not
true Adobe).

I hope this answers your questions and I apologize for not taking the time
to organise my thought more fully, I am two days behind a tight schedule.
BTW, I no longer have the opportunity to work from home and miss it. I am no
more productive here than at home.

Sean
sean -at- quodata -dot- com


>>>-----Original Message-----
>>>From: Bob Morrisette [mailto:writer1 -at- SABU -dot- EBAY -dot- SUN -dot- COM]
>>>Sent: Tuesday, April 20, 1999 2:10 PM
>>>To: TECHWR-L -at- LISTSERV -dot- OKSTATE -dot- EDU
>>>Subject: Re: Need working-at-home advice
>>>
>>>
>>>I'll be working at home 4 days a week soon and this is new to me.
>>>I'll have an ISDN line with access to my Intranet just as if I
>>>was in my office. The office will be available when I am at work.
>>>I'd appreciate anyone who has experience working at home
>>>to help me with the following questions:
>>>
>>>How do you stay away from the refrigerator and TV?
>>>I know - will power.
>>>
>>>Does your boss expect more (or less) output?
>>>
>>>My contacts with SMEs are now mostly by phone or e-mail,
>>>but I wonder if they will work with me the same knowing
>>>that I am at home.
>>>
>>>I expect to be doing a lot of editing. I've always preferred
>>>to edit hard copy and wonder if screen editing is practical.
>>>
>>>Do your co-workers treat you any differently?
>>>
>>>Any other advice and pitfalls to avoid will be much
>>>appreciated.
>>>
>>>As always, thanks for your help.
>>>
>>>Bob Morrisette
>>>wr1ter1 -at- sabu -dot- ebay -dot- Sun -dot- com
>


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