[T.B. Yoits]

You can't trust most people when they are not observed in the office.

It's no longer what it was like for you in the 1980s.

We have better oversight online than we ever had in the office. I can see just how long each task was dragged along before being completed, something we could never do with folks swishing paper and "ideas" around in the office.

[MinorityRepublican]

We have better oversight online than we ever had in the office.

It might work at the micro level but it doesn't mean it will work at the macro level at this time right now for all the employees and employers.

[blackdog]

Fair point. Managers must just become performance data analysts on employees though.

An important job for direct line managers is also to let bad ideas die in a way that doesn't create chaos in an organization. That's hard to do with remote workers.

[numberonepal]

Bob Slydell:
What you do at Initech is you take the specifications from the customer and bring them down to the software engineers?

Tom Smykowski:
Yes, yes that’s right.

Bob Porter:
Well then I just have to ask why can’t the customers take them directly to the software people?

Tom Smykowski:
Well, I’ll tell you why, because, engineers are not good at dealing with customers.

Bob Slydell:
So you physically take the specs from the customer?

Tom Smykowski:
Well... No. My secretary does that, or they’re faxed.

Bob Porter:
So then you must physically bring them to the software people?

Tom Smykowski:
Well. No. Ah sometimes.

Bob Slydell:
What would you say you do here?