Quantifying The Types of Work
Appropriate For Telecommuting
Even the most skillful, enthusiastic, hard-working, and well-trained telecommuter will fail if the only assignments he or she receives include work that cannot reasonably be accomplished on a telecommuting basis. That's why the companion evaluation to the "Profile Of A Successful Telecommuter" (Issue # 164, May, 1997) you saw in this space last year must be an equally fair-minded evaluation of the work a candidate for telecommuting is typically asked to do.
Because their work generally can't be done while telecommuting, you won't find many surgeons or plumbers in the ranks of successful telecommuters. Receptionists and service workers are also rarities in the "work-at-home" population.
But during the past few decades of steadily continuing growth in the numbers of telecommuters, more and more people in a wide range of front-line, supervisorial, mid-managerial, creative, professional, and strategic leadership positions have chalked up considerable success while performing at least some of their duties off-site.
The general rule is that you needn't forget how to get to the office to become a successful telecommuter--the vast majority of telecommuters stay home to do their work only one or two days per week. The rest of the time, they're in the office like their non-telecommuting colleagues. This "home and away" pattern creates the possibility that you can "time shift" your assignments to place the responsibilities most suitable for telecommuting into full days of work--and telecommute only on days when you do that work.
On this basis, tens of millions of people doing quite ordinary work can find a way to do it very well without physically traveling to their employer's centralized office.
To quantify the kind of work that's suitable for telecommuting within any individual's set of responsibilities, you can use the accompanying Telecommuting Work Suitability Index.
Basically, it's a questionnaire you can administer to a telecommuting candidate, or to yourself (if you're interested in pitching yourself as a telecommuter to your boss). From the answers, you can make a fairly accurate determination of whether or not a sufficient proportion of the job's normal work can be accomplished via telecommuting.
You can administer the questionnaire as often as there are changes in the types of work to be evaluated.
The questionnaire asks for "how many hours" you spend at various types of work. You can guess at these figures, or you can use a relatively simple but accurate "time log" form (available from the American Telecommuting Association, Washington, DC, www.knowledgetree.com/ataforms.html) to make a more accurate determination.
Once you have listed the hours of effort for each of these categories, review the whole list. You might find you've listed more hours than you actually work during a typical week. That's because estimates made from memory are notoriously inaccurate. If you find this happening, you'll get better results when you revise your original answers to reflect more accurately how you allocate your time to the various kinds of work you do.
After you're satisfied with your answers to the questionnaire, read on to see how to interpret your answers.
How many hours per week do you typically spend at each of the following? Feel free to add more categories to describe the work you actually do. For each item, calculate separately the number of hours of work you must do in the centralized office (alone, and with others) and the number of hours in which you could have accomplished some of this work away from the office, perhaps working at home or at a telework center.
The various types of work itemized in the Index are intended mainly to stimulate clearer thinking about the work one does, and whether or not it might be suitable for telecommuting. Similarly, the various columns are intended mainly to stimulate clearer thinking about how one works, and how much of one's work might be suitable for doing as a telecommuter.
There are two ways to look at the numerical totals derived from answers to the Index.
If you take an "absolute, literal" approach, you can say the total number of hours listed in the fourth answer column is exactly the amount of work there is available to do as a telecommuter. If you have listed eight hours of work, that's one full day of work to be done as a telecommuter each week. Listing sixteen hours of work would indicate two days worth of responsibilities each week that are suitable to be done as a telecommuter. And so forth.
But most people are notoriously poor estimators of how many hours they spend doing certain kinds of work. So it's often better to take a "relative, proportional" approach to interpreting these same numbers.
Under this interpretation, you calculate the ratio of hours listed in the third answer column to the hours listed in the fourth answer column. If both numbers are the same, or nearly the same, then half the work involved in this job is probably suitable to be done while telecommuting. If the number in the third answer column is four times larger than the number in the fourth answer column, then about twenty percent of the work is the kind that can be done as a telecommuter.
In some cases, you'll see the number in the third answer column as high as nine, 10, or even 20 times larger than the number in the fourth answer column. These ratios show there's only one full day of responsibilities suitable for telecommuting in every two, three or four weeks of work.
The relative approach to interpreting the Telecommuting Work Suitability Index is probably more accurate, because it tends to compensate for any errors made in estimating the number of hours spent at various kinds of work. Assuming these estimation errors are generally consistent, the accuracy of the evaluation will not be materially compromised.
Generally, you'll find that a relatively large proportion of most jobs can be done while telecommuting. But that doesn't mean all of that work should be done this way. Experienced telecommuters may be able to switch their schedules so massively without losing a beat. But for anyone new to this style of working, too much telecommuting too soon can lead to discomfort, and loss of productivity. Assuming the telecommuter involved is relatively new to this working arrangement, the best approach for most situations is to rearrange and reschedule various responsibilities to create no more than one day of telecommuting per week. Only after the individual becomes comfortable working as a telecommuter, and demonstrates an ability to be fully productive away from the central office, is it prudent to add more days of telecommuting to his or her schedule.
For years it has been believed--and I'm among those guilty of accepting and even promulgating the idea--that one of the biggest obstacles to the expansion of telecommuting has been front-line supervisors. Large numbers of people in these positions are thought to be very uncomfortable with the notion that those reporting to them might win permission to stay home and do who-knows-what instead of coming in to the office where they can be watched and judged.
But according to the email, phone calls, and letters I've been getting recently, supervisors are now far less of an obstacle than the staffers in the Human Resources department. Apparently, significant numbers of these bureaucrats are now taking the position that if they allow one employee to telecommute, they'll have to allow countless others to telecommute, too, and soon the whole thing will get out of hand.
While it sounds like a valid objection, it doesn't hold up under direct scrutiny.
First of all, telecommuting is not a bad thing. Telecommuters tend to be more loyal and more productive, generally making it beneficial for employers if more people began to telecommute.
Secondly, I've never heard a single advocate of telecommuting seriously represent that every employee should be permitted to work this way. Obviously, certain jobs can't be done at a distance from the office. But even more to the point, certain people don't have the self-discipline, the motivation, the proven track record, or even the inclination to work from home during a portion of their work week.
In addition, I've never heard anyone suggest that telecommuting be made company policy without applying some standards and criteria, and without providing some training for those who are going to telecommute (as well as those who are going to supervise them). Well-conceived and well-written standards, criteria, and training will normally provide plenty of basis for keeping the telecommuting movement from turning into a stampede.
In short, the torch of myopia and fear regarding telecommuting now appears to have been successfully passed from the front lines to the back office, where it can conceivably do more harm than ever before.
While the favorable facts may be mounting up, and the tide may be turning in favor of telecommuting, there is still much more work to be done before telecommuting becomes as acceptable in the American economy as any other productive form of employment.
Anyone who wants to explore the possibilities of telecommuting as a way for disabled people to earn a good living should check out a valuable book on this topic.
Questions and Answers About Telecommuting Regarding Persons with Disabilities is a publication of The Independent Living Research Utilization Program, which is part of The Institute for Rehabilitation and Research, in Houston, Texas.
Published by the University of Texas at Austin, it's a guide for anyone who would like to obtain solid information about how telecommuting might provide some income-producing opportunities.
The guide is based mainly on a national mail survey of approximately 500 employers, plus information developed by calling individuals and asking questions, and by extracting useful information from other publications published by potential employers and various departments of federal, state, and local governments.
It is written in a question-and-answer format, so it's fairly easy to follow. There are two versions: the first focuses mainly on information that potential employees with disabilities might want to think about before embarking on a plan to start telecommuting, the other is aimed at potential employers.
To obtain a copy of the guide, call the ILRU at (713)520-0232, or send a request by mail to: Independent Living Research Utilization Program (ILRU), Ste. 10002323, South Shepherd, Houston, TX 77019. The cost is $5. Be sure to specify whether you want the one for potential employees or potential employers.
Have you ever noticed how Peter Jennings, Dan Rather, and Tom Brokaw feel the need to be in front of the place where news is breaking? They all went to Cuba for the Pope's visit. Then came word of a new Bill Clinton scandal and all three immediately departed-two to Washington, DC, and one to New York City. I guess sex trumps religion in the news biz.
But can't these guys pick up a telephone?
Seriously, we all know it's show business--not news gathering--that drives the network to "up anchor" and position their premiere smiling faces in front of whatever location appears relevant on any given day. But think of the anti-telecommuting message this geographic instability conveys.
If these anchors would stay at home and communicate on the air with far-flung correspondents by fax, modem, teleconference, and videoconference, they'd still have all the latest facts and innuendoes at their fingertips without ever experiencing jet lag. Meanwhile, the rest of us might get the message that you can do your job without having to travel long distances just to put yourself on the scene.
Copyright © 1998 Robert Moskowitz. All rights reserved.
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