Right now, I just couldn’t imagine actually having to commute to an office just to sit around and type at the computer all day.
via James Snell on Telecommuting.
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Right now, I just couldn’t imagine actually having to commute to an office just to sit around and type at the computer all day.
via James Snell on Telecommuting.
7 replies on “Reasons for working from home”
I understand the sentiment, and we have one remote employee, but communication becomes an issue, as does collaboration. The bottom line is that there are synergies you get from working around people that you’re going to lose if you work remotely.
However, if you limit the author’s situation to “just to sit around and type at the computer all day,” then sure, it works. But it’s not often that that’s all someone does all day.
@Deane –
The potential synergy aspect is probably the single best argument for having everyone in one location. But even that isn’t without it’s downsides.
The upside to having remote people is a much wider workforce to draw from. Also, it’s clear that some positions are more suited to telecommuting than others. Folks who have to meet face to face with customers need to me local to your market or do lots of travel, or both.
I do agree that there are times when having everyone local is a good thing. Fortunately, my work allows me a fair degree of independence. The team that I do work with is distributed globally so even if I did drive into an office I’d typically be on the phone or instant message most of the time.
@James –
The global issue is also interesting. I’m in Utah and I’ve got co-workers in Australia and Europe, so there are times where I stay up late to sync up with them on specific issues.
I suppose the time sync issue could be viewed either way, on one hand it requires some odd hours to fit in communication, but also expands the talent pool to draw from.
When I first started with IBM, the employee directory listed my work location as being on the east coast even tho I’m located out in California. My wife and I were woken up many times at phone calls from new coworkers at 5:00am. We had to put a stop to that quickly and I learned to turn off the ringer on the phone until about 7:30.
That’s one nice thing about working at Automattic where everyone works from home, easily 99% of my communication with co-workers is done over IRC, Skype, Email, blogs, internal ticket systems and wikis. I’ve had real phone calls, but those are definitely the exception.
To offset that we get most of the company together a few times a year. Nice to have some real face to face time.
sometimes i miss birthday parties in the conference room….. with everyone standing around awkwardly and singing off-key.
**sigh**…
a big plus is no office drama, politics, rumors, gossip. All that stuff is eliminated which leaves you more time to concentrate on work.