Re: Telecommuting conversation, continued

Subject: Re: Telecommuting conversation, continued
From: Damien Braniff <Damien_Braniff -at- PAC -dot- CO -dot- UK>
Date: Thu, 8 Jan 1998 16:14:40 +0000

Joanne Vinton wondered why telecommuting isn't catching on os "because
managers don't know enough about technology or are concerned about
control." IMO it's more to do with control than anything else. Once
you're a manager you have to manage, often more to the point, be see to be
managing. This can be somewhat difficult if there is nobody around to
manage. You may be busily managing staff off-site but how does your
manager know that - they see no staff, only reports etc generated by you.
And if you don't seem to be doing anything are you really needed...?
I've heard on one company here in the UK where it seems to work. Quite a
few years ago ICL had a lot of female programmers who were getting married,
having kids etc. To prevent the loss of a lot of expertise they initially
introduced tele-working for these programmers - supplied PC/modem etc and
offered limited hours/week/ This kept the programmers in touch with what
was going on (latest developments etc) while ICL held on to the expertise
they had accumulated. As time progressed the hours worked increased to
suit individuals. It was so successful that they extended the scheme to
cover other workers and set up a separate dept to handle the tele-workers.
Not sure if it is still going but a good example of "accomodation"
providing benefit to both sides.

Damien Braniff
Technical Author
PAC International




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