Who needs the office?
What’s the big deal about being in the office every day? It’s a yucky morning in Manhattan and I’ve been sniffling all weekend, so I decided to spare myself and everyone I might potentially infect by working from home. (Which, incidentally, is probably what most sick people should do, experts say, instead of playing the contagious martyr.)
But rather than lie around watching Judging Amy reruns, as would have been the case in the old days, I’ve been sitting here - at my desk, in my house - writing and working for a few hours. I just had the urge to hear “Zombie,” that old Cranberries song, really loudly, so I put it on. And then it occurred to me, had I been in my office, not only would my hallmates want to poke out their eyes, I’d probably be put on the equivalent of office suicide watch. (You know, where everybody suddenly starts stopping by to say hi all the time, and asking how things are “going”?) But here, not only can I listen, I can sing (badly), and even do a little dance. And the burst of joy it gives me will probably equal at least two productive hours.
Which is more than I can say for the little dance I have to do in my head when I’m listening to my iPod in my chair at the office. And I guess that’s the thing I’ve realized about working from home. It may seem more relaxed, but somehow, I feel like I work a lot harder here than I ever do anywhere else. Maybe it’s the quiet, or the fact that I can wear jammies all day and be as smelly as I want to be, or the ability to eat Cheetos without shame. Or maybe it’s just that I can structure my time how I want, like going to the gym in the middle of the day when nobody else is there and writing till the wee hours.
Actually, truth be told, I’ve never actually written a feature story in my office. As I (over) shared in the Gen Y story, every single feature happened right here in this chair, in the same ratty Tommy Hilfiger pullover I’ve had since high school (gross, I know), mostly between 6 p.m. and 3 a.m. What does that tell you?
Of course, that doesn’t mean that I’m against the office altogether. Face-time with higher-ups and other colleagues is important, and no matter what Internet daters tell you, I think it’s kind of hard to build meaningful professional relationships solely over e-mail and IM. But for all the time we spend at our desks gossipping, thinking about lunch, and generally twiddling our thumbs (i.e., not in pursuit of those networking goals), it seems to me that those of us who know we work best elsewhere - whether it’s home, a cafe, or a park somewhere - might be better off there. Even my friends who prefer to work in the office often come in on weekends to get things done because no one’s in, which suggests to me that in its true weekday form, the office isn’t even an ideal space for office-lovers.
That said, I have the privilege of asking these questions because I have some very forward-thinking bosses who know they don’t want to be around me in this “writerly” state. But I’m not alone. According to a recent WorldatWork survey (see here), the number of “teleworkers” - the 21st century version of telecommuters - grew to 28.7 million in 2006, including the self-employed. That means about 20% of the workforce works remotely at least once a month.
Good for them, but what’s it like for you guys? Can you “telework,” and if you do, are you more productive at home or at work? Is this a generational thing? Or is it just the truth about the office?
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Do you have a great story about your alternative work-space? Is your company doing innovative things in this area? Or are you stuck in an office wishing you weren’t, at a company that doesn’t get it yet? My colleague Anne Fisher is working on a piece about our changing relationship with the office, so if you’ve got a great story along those lines, drop her a note at afisher@fortunemail.com. Thanks, guys!
Work from home anywhere from 1 to 4 days a week. I’m a boomer, kids are gone so it’s me and the cats when I do stay home.
Nice to turn music on and not have to wear a headset.
And I’m probably more productive there than at the office, where it’s a noisy cubeville right out of Dilbert.
I am also allowed to telecommute at work whenever the need arises. I cherish the ability to go to a cafe or home at 2pm and finish the rest of the workday in a more productive environment. It makes me a much more satisfied and balanced individual to know that I can work efficiently and productively with the full trust of my management. Sometimes, as Nadira pointed out, the buzz of the office is directly at odds with the necessity for peace and quiet to complete an assignment.
Previously, I worked for a company like SB described in his/her post, where management had a general mistrust for telecommuting. My feeling is, companies that are not open to some form of telecommuting have a competitive disadvantage in recruiting top talent, as the best and the brightest want to feel there is a mutual trust between employer and employee.
His/her concerns show a lack of confidence in the ability to manage employees that are not present in the office. The challenge of managing a cohesive team with telecommuting is really no different than managing teams that travel a significant percentage of the time.
In our case, we make sure to be on-site for a team meeting once a week to touch base. And when we are in the office, we are happy to help each other out and knock heads on the issues we have encountered during our “solo” days. It’s better to save up those questions anyhow instead of constantly disturbing each other’s work, as tends to happen when we are all present.
There is no “waste” of our client’s money in the increased productivity and enthusiasm that comes with knowing you are the master of your own time. At the end of the day, we all feel a sense of ownership over our work that is empowering and unique because we control entirely how we get the job done.
Like many of you, i get way more done at home. I work more hours over the week. Even a few on weekends. Take a few breaks during the day to re-charge and think.
As for staying in touch, we all use some form of instant messenger that shows when somebody is at their computer and that allows us to pop them a quick question.
W/ price of gas, the impact on the environment, more companies should consider allowing people w/ jobs that are applicable to work from home.
Another Gan Xer here working at a real-estate investment company. With kids at home there is not way I could get anything done at home. I do have quite a few employees who are asking for some telework flexibility. As much as I would like to make this available for my top performers here are my concerns.
1. In this rapidly changing environment it is difficult to gauge what is a full workload. If my employees are not here will I be able to know if they have a full load or if they are just stretching the work to fill the time?
2. The idea is very much the opposite of the company’s current culture. A bit old fashioned, perhaps this is rooted in the idea we are investing other people’s money.
3. I feel we may loose some of the interaction between team members that allows them to share best practices and ask questions of each other on the fly.
4. I need an answer in half an hour. How will I know I can get it. (I know poor planning but it happens)
Help! I would love to make it work but I need to get past the challenges I am currently facing.
3.
When I worked for Lucent Technologies, I loved working from home and not for the reasons you think. I was actually more productive and there were less distractions and the atmosphere was more relaxed. It took me half the time to complete tasks than if I were at the office.
Does anyone ever get lonely? I work like mad when I’m at home, but I definitely miss the human interaction as opposed to email and IM.
to a greater extent I agree with the story. Either when I fell sick or couldn’t make it because of of some other matter to work, I managed to do lot of work including most of the forward looking stuff.
Secret I suppose is you get less disturbed and you do have piece of mind. Make no mistake you can do equal number of follow up etc via e-mail, IM and of course good old phone.
However specially from where I come from I’m blessed to have an ADSL connection so that I’m online when ever I’m at home. But most of the people will face the infrastructure problem.
Even my ADSL connection can be annoyingly slow at times!
When i worked for in marketing at proctor & gamble, i would always love working late at night and on weekends in the comfort of my home but when i started my own business, found myself lacking discipline at home, spending too much time on the internet, watching televison and so on….. I realised that the office enviroment kept me disciplined but once you have total freedom, now boss hanging over you, you will struggle with discipline. I decided to dress up in a shirt and tie everyday and frm there onmy discipline started coming back as time went on.
My company allows telecommuting. However I find that the baby boomer generation can have a hard time with it. They want in exact detail what work you will be doing when working from home. However when I’m in the office I can go all day without anyone asking me what I’m doing. They only seem to care when my butt is not occupying the seat at my desk. They don’t get that a warm body at a desk in the office doesn’t equal productive work. Employees can play solitarie and surf the internet in the office just as easily as they can at home.
I wish work were more like college, where work assignments were like homework projects. Wouldn’t it be nice to be given work, a deadline, and then be allowed to work on it whenever and wherever you want as long as it gets done well and on time. One can dream… Many times I think I’m not suited for corporate America. Unfortunately at this point I haven’t come up with a better alternative for a paycheck.
I am a District Manager Gen Y-er for a Fortune 500, transplanted and covering 4 states in the Southeast. Between deciding to drive 5 hours to Richmond in the middle of the night to avoid traffic, and holding late-into-the-evening dinner meetings, hours are no longer hours (or shorter hours for that matter… horrible joke)! I’ve been in the office proper into the 9pm or 10pm hours… giving me the ability to work with focus and without distraction, and some time to hit the gym and take my wife to lunch in the middle of the day. Don’t forget… the cell phone will always find me, no matter what time of day. In fact, why be at home or the office at all… why not just take a few hours at your favorite cafe or bistro and crank through some work with a change of atmosphere?
Dead on… starting with the Cranberries. That one must be blasted.
I find the most productive hours to be the wee hours of work (7-9am) and the late ones, um, 7-9, though, of course the goal is not to hit the evening session too many times.
The middle is kinda muddled sometimes with necessary logistics (i.e. setting up real work or clearing the brush that prevents it.)
At home, I believe the work is more productive as long as the set-up is clean: high-speed, multi-phoned, etc.
There’s this other thing I’ve noticed, though - the urge to get ahead of even the remote insinuation of goofing off. I don’t mean the silliness of reflex emails…a la… Your “Office Space” boss, now virtually standing over you and asking for a correct TPS report and you sending the got-it-right here email trying to beat an arbitrary 2 minute rule.
I mean just a natural disposition toward evidenced accountability based on real work, not games.
That’s fun at work…
I just got out of a meeting with my boss asking about his thoughts on my telecommuting! I write software and frequently log into my work machine from home anyway. I find that I am far more productive if I’m at home because I am alone and it is quiet. I also save an hour a day in driving if I work from home. Some coworkers say they work less when working from home but I feel I get far more done. I think it’s great. I only wish I could do it more often than I get to.
Old Cranberries song?
Anyway :o)
After college, my biggest crisis was not so much learning how to work in an office, but rather how to work during normal business hours. There was (and actually still is), something comforting about the quiet of the middle of the night when it comes to doing thought work.
Maybe a compromise? Go to the office, but only between 8 pm and 4 am? Then play during the daylight hours?
Telecommuting kept me from going poor during college (2002-2006) because I was able to work between classes and at home without having to drive 30 minutes to work. Full time student + Part time telecommuting (25 hrs/wk) = one happy Gen Y’er!
Now it comes in handy when I need to stay home for the electrician or delivery 
I’m a Gen Xer working as a software developer for a Fortune 500. I find that my success with (and nervousness about) teleworking depends on what kind of work I’m doing. If I have a large project with many steps, I am more productive at home because I feel compelled to constantly update my manager (I’m done with step X, I had a few problems, I solved them in this way, now on to step Y). If I’m in the office, I don’t feel so compelled to keep my boss up to date. However, if I’m researching something or spinning my wheels and things aren’t happening, I don’t feel comfortable at home because there’s a ‘dark cloud’ over telling the boss, ‘Ok, I’ve been doing this for 4 hours, no progress…’ This is the time when occupying a chair in the office is better. Even though I’m putting forth the effort, I’m results oriented and not getting results makes me nervous…
Another telecommuting post!! But where are these jobs (like computer programming)!! In Montgomery, Alabama they cannot be found.
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What started as a quirky Fortune cover story on Generation Y in 2007 has turned into a full-time job covering the fastest growing segment of the American workforce for Nadira A. Hira. But it's on The Gig that she's been able to speak directly to the much discussed, much maligned, and she thinks, very much underestimated Yers themselves, reflecting with them on everything from finding meaningful work to hiding meaningful body art. Herself a Yer, Hira has always been interested in engaging her peers, from her time writing for MTV News' Choose or Lose 2004 campaign, to her work spreading the Gen Y story as a speaker and television personality, from CNN to VH1 and back again. A recipient of the NewsBios 30 Under 30 award, showcasing business journalists on the rise, the would-be poet, sometime bartender, and professional sports fan, calls downtown Manhattan — and The Gig — home.
Pat, the point is that the job doesn’t have to be in Montgomery just because you are! I use a job search engine that has a button to restrict the search to jobs that allow telecommute. Of course, it will return about a tenth the choices, but they are out there. The biggest issue is to be able to define what is delivered when. Lots of jobs are just too interactive for distance work, but lots, like programming, writing, etc are ideal for task level deliverables. If you and the boss agree it should take about 40 hours for a task, it should be done in a weeek; or there should have been issues identified, changes confirmed, and a new date set. That said, it does seem like MBO means management by observation. A lot of management seems to be walking around seeing who has their fingers on a keyboard. The answer is elusive, and (sadly) often takes moving to a different company.