Posted on 07/13/2017 8:12:15 AM PDT by posterchild
I'm also much more productive when working from home. We use Skype and Zoom for collaboration tools and they work great. I prefer working from home.
Sounds as if they are getting tired of paying top dollar for some people to sit at home playing video games and surfing the web.
You see so much of that going on even in the office in a controlled environment that there is no question it is a big problem with those working from home (or from Starbucks).
When I worked for a major electronics firm I was the only person on the design team who was based in Arizona. Everyone else was either in Indonesia or India. That meant that meeting times could be at 4:00AM or 11:00PM or other odd hours. There was no reason to have an office at the plant and due to the odd hours and location of the other team members ... going into the office was not productive in the least. Also the position required long simulations (10-14 hours) that needed monitoring and interfacing. FAR more productive to do the monitoring from the remote office. In my 38 years in the electronics industry I have worked most of it from my home office. I have worked in huge multi-story buildings in Silicon Valley where I have been the only person on an entire floor and even in the entire building at times (not even a receptionist). Traffic in and out of Silicon Valley can take 1-3 hours each way from even the closest bedroom community. I know cause I did that commute for over 20 years. By the time a person gets to the office after a long commute they are usually already tired and not as productive as they would be if they spent even half that commute time working remote. Sorry but those hours are better spent working from home. One face to face meeting a week should take care of any in-person interfacing that may be needed. So in many cases it is NOT more productive to come into the plant every day. I haven’t even mentioned the sociological impact of a 8-10 hour job coupled with a 2-6 hour commute.
I’m in Florida about 7-8 miles from the office and I almost never go. Like you I’m in Software though more corporate babysitting of an expensive COTS tool that I’m expert in (IBM product in fact haha).
Too much diversity for me. Someday I’ll have to start showing up I guess.
In the interest of reducing traffic congestion and carbon dioxide emissions, every government working in the U.S. whose job is capable of being teleworked should be required to telecommute.
Once that order has been implemented, those jobs should be outsourced to the Philippines.
I got that diversity thing you speak off LOL. I worked in the office for 14 years before I picked up and left for FL. They said please stay and work from home. So I did.
I've been working from a home based office for the last 10 years in both leadership and individual contributor positions and wouldn't have it any other way but you're right - you have to have the correct mindset to do it and be successful.
I have two HD Video Conferencing units in my office, along with Skype for Business and WebEx on my dual screen laptop docking station and a voicemail to email app on my office phone for when I am traveling. I make a "to do" list on Sunday evening for the week and then update it at the end of every day for the next day.
For many people I imagine the temptation to do the gardening and run errands is alot but your commission check will reflect that!
Not in the case of IBM. Requiring most of their remote workforce back into the office is by design known as "Reduction by Relocation".
Its purpose is to easily motivate a portion of their workforce to self-terminate (quit), thereby eliminating severance and (in many cases) unemployment benefits.
IBM knows full well that a portion of their remote workforce will rather leave the company then move their families to an IBM office in a different city and/or state.
It is just a cost savings move, done under the lie of Better Collaboration.
As always, watch the money.
I do Helpdesk work and sit in a cubicle talking on a phone. I wish to work at home in a more comfortable cubicle. All I need is a desk and computer and phone and a Lazyboy.
I sometimes work weekends and am by myself. I like it.
I had in the past had co-workers who talk very loud, are rude and do not shower everyday. I would not miss that collaboration.
The Russians are looking for better collusion, too.
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