I worked at Microsoft for 11 years. One particular woman who “worked from home” was making well into 6 figures and no one knew what the heck she was doing. She called into meetings with her kids in the car and at one point even called into the office from the gym. You cannot tell me she was earning her keep and I know there are 100s maybe 1000s more like her there.
Working from home should be an option to have only when it is necessary. Like when your pipes break and you have to be there to meet the plumber. Otherwise if these people can be in the office, they should be there. The fact that this CEO bundles for Obama has little to do with it and personally, I don’t care if she paid her own money to build a nursery at the office. That said, the PR here is very bad for her.
I tried the working from home thing, couldn’t stand it, I need to get out of the house.
You clearly are a low-paid widget-maker or just a drone.
You have no idea how the real world of technology works. I am measured on what I do, not where or even when. As long as I meet the deadlines and deliverables who cares if I did it at midnight while watching cartoons in my living room?
As for the woman you are so jealous of, what business is it of yours how much she made or how she made it? She convinced someone she was providing VALUE and worked out an accommodation perceived as worthwhile to her company.
You are one tiny-minded, jealous, control freak!
Working from home is successful with some employees. But the employees that abuse it are more likely to push the Discrimination Button if you try to reign them in. Gutless managers will just punish everyone rather than deal with the abusers.
Presence does not equal perfomance. Good managers and leaders focus on results, managing based on delivery not on where their employees happen to be sitting for 8 hours every day.
Her actions here are a sign of a management culture that has lost control of it’s workforce, but represent a desperation measure (and likely an overreaction) to fix the problem at the expense of morale and loyalty.
It wouldn’t surprise me at all if this were an attempt to renew the culture and workforce through “voluntary” attrition that can allow fresh blood to be brought in. Very high risk, but also very high potential reward.
I work from home. My company was offered the choice of losing my services entirely or letting me work from home. Since I had knowledge they valued and a proven record of getting stuff done, they kept me on.
I treat my work from home as professionally as my office time. If I’m calling in for a meeting, my toddler goes and plays on her own, elsewhere. Just because some people need adult supervision to get their jobs don’t doesn’t make it true for all of us.
I've been working from home since 2008 and have no intention of ever going back to an office. Your example is likely failed management. My employer is very happy with me thank you very much. I have a job to do (as do my counterparts who work in the office). If I don't accomplish my work it is pretty obvious. In reality, I've gotten numerous promotions and have consistently been ranked very well during my performance reviews.
What ends up happening (at least in my case) is that I get to my "office" prior to my co-workers and push away from my desk later. You see, I don't waste time or resources traveling to and from work every day. I don't have to leave by 4:30 to catch the train. In the end, I'm sometimes the only one who is working at 5:30 because everyone that works from the office is in transit home.
If you can work from home, I would highly recommend it. It takes discipline, and a dedicated space. I have a door I can (and do) close when others are home. The woman in your example was obviously abusing her situation and a good manager would have been able to nip that in the bud. You cannot do parenting while you are working from home.
I concede that you may not have what it takes to work from home. Perhaps you require constant supervision. For each his own I guess. Just don't try to force your limitations on others.
I've been doing this successfully for a while now and my wife will be joining me shortly. Once that happens we will be able to have a lot more freedom in our lives. We can work from anywhere we wish as long as we have reliable broadband. Sure glad my boss is not a little tin-pot dictator like you appear to be.
Interesting you bring this up... At my company, at least for the IT dept, the rule is you will show up at the office... Period. Which is why it took me 40 minutes to drive 3 1/2 miles to work last Thursday, and nearly 2 hours to drive home, during the heavy snow in Kansas City.
However, with the 2nd heavy snow storm in less than a week, management agreed to let IT try working remotely, and so far it's worked pretty well.
But for our department, unless there are extenuating circumstances, we work at the office. Period.
Mark
Why do you care where she is or what she's doing while she earns her paycheck? Why do you care how much she makes? You sound like a bit of a liberal control freak yourself. Maybe a jealous one to boot.
In my line of work, I’ve found that the ideal is to work from home two days a week. That allows me to work uninterrupted while still maintaining contact with colleagues.
Going to an office five days a week when the work could be done remotely is wasteful and indicative of ignorance, laziness, or managers who cannot judge employees by results.
Working from home should be an option to have only when it is necessary. Like when your pipes break and you have to be there to meet the plumber.
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People should take their PTO to meet the plumber. That’s what it is for. How you getting any work done when the plumber has to ask you a bunch of questions?
There are jobs that require no presence in the office due to the nature of their work. Claims processors and service reps come to mind. All their work is on the phone and on the computer. Their boss is but an instant message away.
The person you described (the woman making 6 figures without anyone knowing what she does), that’s not a work from home issue, it’s a management issue, as in the manager is not holding the individual accountable.