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You have to have the genes for it. It's not for everyone. When I was in corporate America, I telecommuted full time for about 12 years. I can honestly say that I was far more productive and I think the teams that I worked with would roundly support that assertion. Let me also give a real example now that I'm with a small, privately held company that hasn't embraced telecommuting. I have about a 45 minute commute to from the office. That's 90-minutes a day. Not a bad drive though. So I'm in the office from about 7:30-5. In on the early side to avoid traffic.
The last thing I want to do when I get home at night is vpn in to work, so I don't do it. Last week I had a telecommute day. I was online at 7am and didn't sign off until 6:30pm. So, the typical in office day is about 9-1/2 hrs, but my work from home day was 11-1/2 hrs- by choice. Now, how do you determine whether I was more or less productive? I was able to do much needed, non-client specific work for 2 hours that I could/would not have done if I'd commuted into the office.
Of course, there are all of the pros and cons that have been listed in other threads, but I know my current employer would get much more bang for the buck if I could telecommute 1 or 2 days a week.
It is a growing option for many companies. It saves on office space, in enviormentally friendly and can offer many advantages to both the company the the employee, but yes, you are right it isn't for everyone. Years ago the company I was working with tried it, the one employee that took advantage of it, spent more time screwing around and she was an outstanding employee as a rule. She just wasn't self disaplined enogh.
My daughter and son in law telecommute a couple of times a week. yes, they work longer hours, partly because their company is so international and there are many 7am or 8pm conferences via the phone, but they do not mind. I will add, they both handle it beautifually.
It totally depends on the individual and the company
I worked "at home" but it was a bit different, I would log on to run reports to generate my work, then do online lookups to get as much info as possible then travel to different deed rooms do my work write reports and fax them in. I communicated with my office via phone, email and fax daily. I loved it because I was so much more effective without having to deal with a middle man giving me my assignments.
I have a few friends and family members and my gf all work from home but several of them are having their telecommuting days cut down to less and soem taken away completely.
I kinda see why this happens. I know some people will make the argument that they get more done at home without the distractions of work, people comming by your desk asking you things and phone calls. However I think no matter how motivated and disciplined you are you cant help the fact that nobody is watching you and your not going to work the same way at home with nobody watching you.
Probably going to take a longer lunch, have the cable guy come do some work, take a walk, walk the dog, run some errands, etc.
Wondering how much productivity is lost by people working at home?
Obviously Im more talking about salaried people as opposed to say running your own business hwere the amount of work you do affects what you make or even sales where if your not working your not earning.
You make a good point. When I work from home I do dilly dally a bit. But, OTOH, what would normally take me several hours to accomplish at work, I can get done in a couple of hours, so it evens out. Especially when it comes to writing. It takes me a while to get on a roll (s?) and when I'm constantly being interrupted at work, I might never get there. At home, it's less of an issue.
I've never worked with a telecommuter who wasn't always distracted with personal stuff. The cable guy, picking up the kids, laundry, etc.
And oftentimes, the telecommuter is just shifting their lack of productivity to other people..."Kodaka, can you retrieve these files and fedex them to me?" "Can you look up this on the server? My connection is slow." "Can you print this and send it to me? My printer doesn't have the right paper or color ink." "Let's schedule a conference call for next week to talk about the information you need right now, and that I could give to you if we were standing face-to-face, and you can sit around twiddling your thumbs for a week and then the boss will be mad at you for the loss of productivity, instead of me."
I'm not one of those people whose not very productive at home.
The lure of the fridge, the TV, the couch and the available internet are too tempting to me.
In the past I'd start out working, then end up in the kitchen a dozen times snacking, online surfing and finally on the couch napping or watching TV. I need the structure of the office setting to keep me on track and focused.
II know some people will make the argument that they get more done at home without the distractions of work, people comming by your desk asking you things and phone calls. However I think no matter how motivated and disciplined you are you cant help the fact that nobody is watching you and your not going to work the same way at home with nobody watching you.
Probably going to take a longer lunch, have the cable guy come do some work, take a walk, walk the dog, run some errands, etc.
I work from my home office for my company about 80% of the time. I will make the 2 hour commute to our one office for a couple of days every month or so, and do travel about 4-5 days a month. But the rest of the time I work from home. I generally put in a full 8 hour day (minimum, it is usually closer to 9-10 hours per day). I treat it like "going into the office". I get up, get dressed and go upstairs to work. I generally find it to be more productive than when I was in the office - I don't get sidetracked by idle chit-chat from running into someone in the hallway; I don't lose time because of an accident turning my commute into an hour+ ordeal.
I generally do not find that I waste a lot of time on non-work items. Yes, there have a been a handful of occasions where I have had furniture delivered, or had someone come by to do a bit of maintenance work. But, by the same token, which is less productive?: Taking 10-15 minutes to let the delivery guy or maintenence dude in and then go back to work, or take several hours off from work to allow this to be done on a weekday? Given that I generally put in close to 50 hours a week (of actual work) as a salaried employee, I don't think I'm slacking off.
I think it depends on alot of variables. I have a full office set up at home with no distractions so I could make it work. I think kids at home while you are trying to work would get you fired, of course corporations brought this on themselves by making 2 incomes the norm to have a comfortable life, the fact of the matter is child care is expensive so unless both parents are VERY high wage earners its a real strain.
This is why I can't have a job from home. Childcare is far too expensive (for the ones worth putting my child in - the others I don't trust) and I have no one to come watch my son so I could retreat to my home office - which being in a noisy apartment building, doesn't provide a noise/distraction free work space. I think it's cruddy that to make it these days, either one high income or two incomes are needed to live comfortably.
Since I don't have a job with certain expectations, any productivity lost is only hurting me. But I think it depends on the person to say how productive or unproductive they will be.
Every mother strives to make her child(ren) her priority and obviously if she's working at home, she can't do that 100% of the time. Most companies who hire telecommuters require a quiet work space which means either mom foregoes that position, or finds someone to sit with the kids during her work hours - or, like I have thought about, scheduling hours at night which some companies are available for.
It's tough, but it all comes down to the factor of money. Money rules the world. If living expenses hadn't risen so badly, parents wouldn't be struggling to find a solution to make ends meet or have a little extra spending money.
I think it depends on what is going on at home and in the persons life (problems with the wife/husband, kids wont shut up, etc) and what their profession is and how much their compensation is.
Agreed. I have no young children or other distractions. I have a home office with all the equipment I need and a door that can be shut if there is anything going on in the house that would be distracting. People who "work from home" with kids in the house or who don't have a dedicated place as their office but instead use the kitchen table aren't going to be as productive as they should be.
It depends. Companies would surely have some kind of checks in place to measure productivity. frankly, who wouldn't? lol.. Knowing human beings are we are, we would slack off.
Most companies with homeworking have some kind of daily quota or monitoring, which I guess would get some way around the problem of slacking.
It depends. Companies would surely have some kind of checks in place to measure productivity. frankly, who wouldn't? lol.. Knowing human beings are we are, we would slack off.
Most companies with homeworking have some kind of daily quota or monitoring, which I guess would get some way around the problem of slacking.
I had neither, and would often speak to my boss for only a few minutes a week. I knew what needed to be done and got it done, plus some.
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