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Location: East of Seattle since 1992, 615' Elevation, Zone 8b - originally from SF Bay Area
44,585 posts, read 81,186,228 times
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What's the benefit to the company? We have many people working remotely, most just 2-3 days a week, but some all the time. In my case, as a manager I work from home rarely when there is a good reason for it, such as snow, but I have people that I allow to telecommute when doing work that requires a high degree of concentration. Without interruptions they can do the work faster and more accurately. A high percentage of our IT people work remotely, but they are handling multiple locations, so except for meetings there is no advantage to being here at the headquarters. They also require more concentration.
The single thing you have to show is what the benefit of working remotely is for them. Unless you can demonstrate that you and your reports can do your jobs better or save the company money, they won't go for it. Unfortunately, many companies still value face time. Also, managing two people IMHO is harder to do remotely than 200 people as there wouldn't be any on-site management between you and them.
I just approached my boss about this with my company a few months ago and was approved. I work in a different industry than you however. Overall I feel my company is more progressive in this arena, however, whether or not your management lets you do this is pretty much up to whether or not those specific managers are progressive or not. In my case I felt it totally boiled down to an issue of trust; do they trust I will get my work done? That's the bottom line thing my boss discussed with her boss when this was brought up.
For me, I pushed the benefit of productivity as my selling point. Keep in mind within my company though, many people are already working remote. My colleagues are across the entire globe and not all of them are close to an office they can go in but one thing is for sure; we've never had an issue with someone attending a call or meeting or getting something done. Maybe I won't understand so many people's hesitation with the whole remote thing until I become a Manager and get direct reports. Our Team is so busy I never see the people I work with in my office. I see my boss's boss about 6 times a YEAR and she's a 30 second walk away from my desk. I only see my boss for our 1 hour once a week departmental meetings on site and it's only the 2 of us in that conference room as everyone else is off site.
My Team's Director is in NYC and my peers on my Team are in Barcelona, Paris and San Francisco with 1 other locally in Chicago with myself. As part of my job I manage countries and I don't even manage ones close to me; I'm assigned places in Asia right now. (I'm the only one managing places very far away from me.)
I say all of that to say that often times my work day may start at 6 am (answer a few emails before leaving the house), I get on the train for 2 hours and often times open/close my laptop 3 times before getting to work (on the first train, on the second train and on the shuttle to the office). Then I continue working til 4ish and do the same thing-2 hours on the train of interrupted work rushing home to head up calls/meetings with people in other time zones. I don't have a 9-5. I am available ALL the time. If I'm dead tired and it's midnight and my phone dings from someone in Tokyo, I answer the email. I've carried my work laptop on every vacation I've taken in the 3 years I've been here.
With that said, I was starting to feel a little burnt out. That's not how I worded it though. I discussed how productive I'd been despite the long hours, commute and the fact I'm the only one managing places like 14 hours ahead of me. But my company is also pushing this whole 'work life balance' initiative thing right now, so I also was honest that I only live in my current city for the job, how much I loved it and want to stay with the company and do more, and how I could increase productivity by moving back home.
That would mean pretty much totally uninterrupted time to work (with the added implied benefit of being back near my mom, family, friends and my entire support network). Because my company is starting to focus on the whole work/life balance thing I think this was a good time. I also mentioned I could fly back as needed and would also remain open to moving back in the future (although I hope that's not needed).
My boss was on board from the beginning but I think perhaps she could tell I was feeling a little burnt out in the discussion (I would never say that's how I'm feeling). Maybe she was concerned I'd leave if this wasn't approved? I don't know and don't know how management above her felt about it but all I can say is a few others in my department I don't work with have gone remote as well so in the end they ended up approving it.
I agree with the poster that stated to read the 4 hour work week as well. I haven't read it yet but plan on doing so, but I did flip through it one day in Barnes and Noble and it gets very specific about how to approach this exact situation.
So what is the benefit to the company to you working remotely? And what are you expecting to be the benefits to you (both personally and professionally)?
I personally am not managing people but if I got a new manager here in Chicago they could be locally/in the office or they could be half way on the other side of the world. It's just the way things are where I currently work. Where you work may be different. Is this something others there have done recently? If so can you talk to them about their approach? Are you working with people in other time zones? Remote based working is becoming more common in places where work is conducted globally I feel like.
I will say this: I'm actually moving for similar reasons; to get more of my personal life back that I (coincidentally also) left in Atlanta. But I don't have on rose colored glasses when it comes to the work from home thing; I actually expect it to be harder in some ways. In a perfect world I'd pick up my current company and just move it to Atlanta so I could continue to have a few days in the office as I will miss that little bit of interaction that I do get.
I just wanted to throw this out there too...and please don't be offended because that is not my intent. I'm definitely not the biggest poster on CD but your username sounds familiar. I could be confusing you with someone else but I thought you didn't like Atlanta? Sorry if I'm mistaking you with another poster. I'd just say be sure the things you want back in ATL are good enough reasons to move back. I contemplated this decision for over a year. The cost of living is higher than when I left 5 years ago. The traffic is MUCH worse just when I thought it could never get worse. Some of my relationships have even changed over this time of absence. I will not be going back to all of the same good things I initially thought I would be when I moved away 5 years ago. (Originally that was my goal-earn more money and come back within 5 years.) I don't even see myself living in ATL the rest of my life anymore.
But I wanted to work remote to show I can do this and still be productive, as if something happens to my current job I may be looking at similar other remote-based positions because I have a long term goal of doing more global travel and maintaining a higher level of location-independence. So I'm willing to try this out.
My boss was on board from the beginning but I think perhaps she could tell I was feeling a little burnt out in the discussion (I would never say that's how I'm feeling). Maybe she was concerned I'd leave if this wasn't approved? I don't know and don't know how management above her felt about it but all I can say is a few others in my department I don't work with have gone remote as well so in the end they ended up approving it.
I agree with the poster that stated to read the 4 hour work week as well. I haven't read it yet but plan on doing so, but I did flip through it one day in Barnes and Noble and it gets very specific about how to approach this exact situation.
So what is the benefit to the company to you working remotely? And what are you expecting to be the benefits to you (both personally and professionally)?
I personally am not managing people but if I got a new manager here in Chicago they could be locally/in the office or they could be half way on the other side of the world. It's just the way things are where I currently work. Where you work may be different. Is this something others there have done recently? If so can you talk to them about their approach? Are you working with people in other time zones? Remote based working is becoming more common in places where work is conducted globally I feel like.
I will say this: I'm actually moving for similar reasons; to get more of my personal life back that I (coincidentally also) left in Atlanta. But I don't have on rose colored glasses when it comes to the work from home thing; I actually expect it to be harder in some ways. In a perfect world I'd pick up my current company and just move it to Atlanta so I could continue to have a few days in the office as I will miss that little bit of interaction that I do get.
I just wanted to throw this out there too...and please don't be offended because that is not my intent. I'm definitely not the biggest poster on CD but your username sounds familiar. I could be confusing you with someone else but I thought you didn't like Atlanta? Sorry if I'm mistaking you with another poster. I'd just say be sure the things you want back in ATL are good enough reasons to move back. I contemplated this decision for over a year. The cost of living is higher than when I left 5 years ago. The traffic is MUCH worse just when I thought it could never get worse. Some of my relationships have even changed over this time of absence. I will not be going back to all of the same good things I initially thought I would be when I moved away 5 years ago. (Originally that was my goal-earn more money and come back within 5 years.) I don't even see myself living in ATL the rest of my life anymore.
But I wanted to work remote to show I can do this and still be productive, as if something happens to my current job I may be looking at similar other remote-based positions because I have a long term goal of doing more global travel and maintaining a higher level of location-independence. So I'm willing to try this out.
Good luck to you and keep us posted!
Good post. I am the person you were thinking about. I had to leave for my own sanity post divorce and for a job.
Yeah, I abandoned this thread because I didn't present it properly to begin with. I just said I work in "Investments" because what I do is hard to explain to most. I work for an Independent Trust company (think bank with no lending). I don't have sales responsibilities and am strictly an Investment Manager. In other words, I select the investments and build the portfolios. I also meet with clients to discuss how they're doing.
I agree with you about Atlanta. I needed to leave 4 1/2 years ago for a job. The friendships I had before I left have changed and I've also lost a lot of friends (consequence of divorce). However, I consider Atlanta home. If/when I move back that may change, meaning I may not be there forever. I'm open to other cities as well, I just know I have to get out of the city I live in currently. If I did move back to Atlanta, I would work in a physical office, not at home. I might have more flexibility to do that a couple days a week, but in general no. I just want to be back in a city where I can succeed on a personal level because career success isn't as fulfilling without personal relationships (friends and a wife, in my case).
As it stands now, I've given up on it happening with my company. We've had the conversations about it and they're stalling. I was supposed to get an answer end of 1st quarter. If I had to make a prediction, I'd say March 31 comes and goes and nothing is mentioned. I've decided to let it go and just look for another opportunity.
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