Re: The Telecommuting myth

[Donald Le Vie <dlevie -at- VLINE -dot- NET>]

I've had similar experiences, especially questionning the long-term
telecommuting arrangements. I've been through all the separation anxieties,
lack of contact with peers, etc. And being the social creature I am, prefer
onsite for the long haul. However, I do like having the option to work at
home 1 or 2 days a week should I ever need to exercise it. There are times
when you need to get away from all the distractions in the workplace
environment and flee to the quiescent atmosphere of a home office (assuming
the absence of kids and live CNN broadcasts of some country being bombed
back to the Stone Age).

I once worked on a 6-month contract for an out-of-town client (I live in
Austin, TX; client was in Waco, TX) where I could work from my home office
and only had to travel to Waco (about a 90-minute drive one way) once a
month for a day or two for meetings. Client put me up in a nice hotel and
covered all other expenses upfront. I used a utility called Reach Out that
allowed me to work on a virtual workstation at the client's office from my
home office. After that contract, I was ready for some onsite work and
interaction with fellow carbon-based life entities.

Oh, one good thing about working that contract from home. From the
second-story window of my home office at that time, I had a pretty good view
of goings-on up and down our street. I lived in a very low crime area where
vandalism and the occasional B&E were the talk of the neighborhood, but not
much else. One day, I noticed 3 kids acting suspiciously out front. One kid
sat on the curb in front of my house looking up and down the street every
few seconds while the other 2 disappeared from view. My dog was curled up
under my desk asleep, but suddenly became alert and growled in a low voice.
I went downstairs and caught the other 2 kids trying to break in to my front
door. They all ran when they saw me approach the door. Short version: After
calling the police and describing the kids, they were picked up shortly
thereafter trying to break in to a house down the street.

Donn Le Vie
Integrated Concepts


> -----Original Message-----
> From: Lydia Wong [SMTP:lydiaw -at- FPOINT -dot- COM]
> Sent: Wednesday, July 07, 1999 4:53 PM
> To:   TECHWR-L -at- LISTSERV -dot- OKSTATE -dot- EDU
> Subject:      Re: The Telecommuting myth
>
> Caroline Briggs wrote in response to this ongoing discussion:
>
> <big snip>
>  . . . , but putting it quite bluntly, I think that that it's really easy
> to
> take
> advantage of your employer if you're not actually on the premises. Please
> flame politely.
> <end snip>
>
> I haven't been able to follow this entire discussion, but I'm pretty
> interested in it (my husband and I are about to move about 30 miles away
> from my office--I'm hoping to telecommute a few days a week). The company
> I
> work for is very flexible about letting us work from home. In fact, one of
> our developers works from home all the time. I've worked at home some, and
> to rebut Caroline's remark, I can be remarkably productive at home. In
> fact,
> with no phone ringing, colleagues to chat with, etc., I find that I have
> to
> remind myself to take breaks (for mental and wrist/hand health) every hour
> or two, or all of a sudden I've been sitting at the computer for 3-4 hours
> with no break.
>
> However, much as I enjoy telecommuting informally, as I have done, I
> question whether long-term telecommuting would be effective for me as a
> writer. Not that some writers in some situations can't manage it, but
> personally, I feel that a part of my job in our company is to be a
> facilitator of communication within as well as outside the company. If I'm
> not in the office at least a certain amount, I will miss out on
> opportunities to network with my colleagues (both developers and other
> writers, not to mention QA folks, sales people, and tech support staff).
> Also, I won't overhear that one conversation that clues me in to what's up
> next for a product, or be able to offer suggestions when a developer is
> rethinking some new feature, or realize that the sales staff's work on the
> web site can be incorporated in or supplemented by the documentation I'm
> writing.
>
> Perhaps part of this problem stems from our small-company atmosphere. We
> have little formal planning or documentation of processes, and our sneaker
> network is heavily used. However, I can't help but feel that this is the
> situation for many writers out there.
>
> Michael Andrew Uhl said "Office politics is an important part of a
> professional's life, for better or worse."  I would perhaps re-label
> "office
> politics" as "personal interaction." Ultimately, I think it's a mistake to
> discount the importance of working face-to-face with our coworkers.
>
> Just my 0.02!
>
> Lydia
> ------------------
> Lydia Wong
> Technical Writer
> FarPoint Technologies, Inc.
> www.fpoint.com
>
>
> From ??? -at- ??? Sun Jan 00 00:00:00 0000=
> =
>


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