Virtual Assistance - ALD Group

Telecommuting: has its time come?

Home Office Computing survey of Fortune 1,000 companies and government organizations - includes related articles negating telecommuting objections, persuading supervisors to allow telecommuting and a profile of senior editor Nick Sullivan's telecommuting experiences

"Telecommuting is not for every organization, but 80 percent of the objections supervisors have are based on myth. They visualize an employee sitting on the couch drinking beer and watching game shows during work hours."
With a wave of misinformation clouding employers' views of telecommuting as a viable, attractive, job-enhancing, money-saving option, the idea of letting employees work from home may still have a long way to go. Although our survey revealed less-than-stellar growth and adoption of formal telecommuting programs, bit by bit, corporate America is slowly coming around to new ways to work. And for the bold few who do take the big step, the payoffs can be enormous.
Nolan of Pacific Bell sums up the future of the workat-home movement: "Often telecommuting sneaks in the back door, not in the form of a company-wide policy, but in a pilot program initiated by a respected corporate renegade. There is always someone in an organization--in some quarter--who is willing to give it a try. Then the idea may catch on."

CONFESSIONS OF A TELECOMMUTER
Does HOME OFFICE COMPUTING senior editor Nick Sullivan have the best of both worlds? Here he tells us about the up side--and down side--of telecommuting.
"You've got it made!" Or, "What a great deal!" Most people say something like that when they hear that 1 work on staff for a magazine from home and still collect a regular paycheck, raises, bonuses, and other benefits. I would count myself among the 89 percent who are very satisfied in our Telecommuting Survey. But sometimes I feel like a lonely planet circling the sun, far from the seat of heat and power.
I live in Massachusetts-by-the-sea in an old cow barn, where my wife and I both work more or less full-time from home offices. I travel 200 miles to the central office in New York City once or twice a month,
This arrangement has allowed me to spend infinitely more time with my children (they're now in second grade and kindergarten) than I would have as a typical commuter. I see them at breakfast, after school, for dinner; 1 cart them to birthday parties, gymnastics, doctor appointments, and so on. 1 would count my involvement with my kids as the number-one benefit of telecommuting. Especially during the chaotic preschool years, my accessibility also gave my wife a greater chance to pursue her own career.
The second-largest benefit is that I generally reel more in control of my work than I did as an office worker, I can set aside time to complete projects, without worrying about being called into a meeting. I say "generally" because my day can just as easily be disrupted by phone calls as anyone else's. Between the lack of a commute and the lack of distractions. I have extra time that commuters don't for after-work or lunchtime exercise, bike riding, gardening, or making music. Of course, if you saw my garden or heard my music you wouldn't attach much importance to this statement.
What about drawbacks? Communication has sometimes been a problem, but not an insurmountable one on a magazine dedicated to making the best use of electronic mail and fax machines, Phone calls from friends of my children or neighbors are always a hassle. But these distractions do give me a sense of place, a sense that my lonely planet is indeed inhabited.
I must admit to adding one potential distraction to my life--a drum set in the corner of my office. Now there's an advantage to telecommuting. As a mature and experienced telecommuter, however, I feel I can be trusted to resist the urge to paradiddle my way through the afternoon.
The major drawback I have is the planet syndrome, being removed from the action--a feeling shared by many of the people who responded to our Telecommuting Survey.
Sometimes this manifests itself in a nagging paranoia that I'm just out of the loop; other times I feel as though I'm on a treadmill I can't get off. That is, I feel that I can't get promoted to a new level of responsibility because that would mean managing people--and there are no people here to manage. I know that at headquarters people have learned to manage by results, which is why I can sit in a cow pasture and work at a computer. But I don't think that today's fastchanging organizations are quite ready to allow remote employees to manage others by results, which is the only way they could manage. I'm not even sure they should. Until communications between remote and central offices improve another notch or two, it may just be too impractical.
So, is telecommuting all it's cracked up to be? Despite communication problems and the rest, I'd have to say yes. When people say I've got it made or I've got a great deal, I may shrug ambivalently, but secretly my happy heart thumps like a bass drum and I'm crashing my cymbals with joy.

How to negate the most common objections to telecommuting
You won't be here to assist other staff members. I can be available by telephone and fax at all times.
It would break up the team. Team meetings will be planned in advance and will be more productive as a result.
Our customers expect us to be at the office. Since most of our customers call us, they can just as easily talk to me at home.
It would be too distracting for you to be around housework that needs to be done. It'll be less distracting than being in the office. with constant meetings, coworkers stopping by my office to chat, and unscreened phone calls. Having large blocks of uninterrupted time will allow me to concentrate more on certain projects such as report writing. 1 will be more productive.
You wouldn't try to take care of your kids while you work, would you? No. If I work at home, my access to child care will increase and I will actually have more options.
How will you get your mail and phone messages? I will call in for my phone messages. I'll pick up my mail periodically, and really important items of mail can be faxed to me,
You won't be supervised. The amount of time I am being supervised now is minimal, 1 can be evaluated based on my results rather than on the process of achieving those results, which is how someone in my position should be evaluated.
We're not ready for this. What if everybody wants to do it? You don't have to commit to letting me do it forever, or starting a company-wide policy. Let's just give it a try for six months and then evaluate. You can use my experience to help draw up guidelines.

CAN WE TALK?
How to persuade your boss to let you telecommute
Learn the technology. The success of telecommuting rests on electronic communications. Become an on-line expert; use your fax like a weapon. Showing the initiative to master technology could make your case stronger.
Write a proposal. Detail how you envision working at home. Plan rebuttals for the objections your organization is likely to raise . Also include a sample week's work plan and, if necessary, a recommendation of how your duties can be quantified and evaluated.
Get input ahead of time. Poll coworkers and managers in other departments you work with. Has anyone else tried to telecommute?
Collect success stories. Search for stories on other people who telecommute, especially people with jobs similar to yours, The more proof you have that others have done it, the better your case will be.
Make it temporary. Propose that you telecommute for a trial period; no final decisions need to be made. Set up criteria in advance that will be used to evaluate the success of the trial.
Try, try again. Don't threaten to quit if it doesn't work. If your boss is resistant, ask for specific reasons why, so that you can counter them next time.


Alicia Díaz
ALD Group -  Virtual Assistance
www.aldgroup.com.ar
adiaz@aldgroup.com.ar

Tags: Telecommuting, home office, telecommute