A New Era of Telecommuting, Part Two
With the Blizzard of December 26 and December 27, 2010 wreaking havoc with personal and transportation schedules, many who would have otherwise commuted to offices, spent the day after the holiday weekend telecommuting. It’s possible their productivity was interrupted by shoveling snow or keeping an eye on children playing (this being a vacation week after all).
While working from home can bring fewer interruptions and better concentration, there are times when there are clear signs that even the most experienced remote employees may need to consider heading back to the office. Bryant Rice, who is based in San Francisco and heads the North American government sector for DEGW, a strategic business consultancy suggests being alert to these changes.
Work is becoming more difficult without the resources of the office readily available.
Your colleagues are slow, or are not responding to your requests for information.
You don’t feel you have the support or attention of your manager.
There are disruptions at your remote location which you cannot control.
Tags: design, employee attitudes, productivity, telecommuting
December 29th, 2010 at 12:59 pm
While the snow melts, it’s important to realize that there are technologies and protocols that can mitigate the conditions that I outlined below. It’s obvious to us at DEGW that the benefits to remote work, or telework outweigh the challenges. Office resources are often available through VPN’s (virtual private networks) or “cloud” applications albeit at different transmission rates. IM (instant messaging) when coupled with agreed upon response times can provide virtual connection to your manager or team mates at rates that are often better than in-office interactions. Finally, disruption at home is sometimes inevitable. That is also true at the office. A simple chat with your housemates can establish places or times where noise and interruption are held to a minimum. It does work. This year’s blizzard is mirroring the productivity gains and office continuance that Washington DC saw in “snowmaggedon” in February of 2010. In fact, I just got off a conference call with 3 stranded colleagues.