Telecommuting * By Robert Moskowitz
There's an upside and a downside to this whole "vision thing"
of working at a distance. You know, the rise of the virtual organization
and the ever-expanding "global economy."
The good news is that you'll be able to offer your skills and service capabilities literally to every employer in the world, and select the best possible working opportunities from all those offered to you.
The bad news is that you'll be offering your skills and services to all the same employers as everyone else in the world who claims to have your skills and service capabilities, and those employers will be selecting the most favorable offers from among all of you.
Potentially, this gives rise to much the same problem we're seeing now with harmonizing--or synchronizing--the world's environmental, trade, and employment laws: While everything can theoretically be harmonized upward to the highest standards now attained, in most practical cases they somehow wind up being harmonized downward, dragging everyone toward the lowest levels now tolerated.
Given the continuing pressures in most executive suites toward cost containment and profit improvement, it's not hard to imagine what might occur when you're competing for work with thousands of others all over the planet, including people who live in areas where the cost of living--and the acceptable standards of food, clothing, housing, sanitation, and child rearing--are much lower.
That's why the programming communities in Bangalore and other parts of India have become so popular with Information Technology leaders in large corporations here and abroad. Generally, they'll work for half the rate that U.S. programmers will accept, and deliver code that's just as good quality. Look for the same kinds of competitive situations to develop in other fields where geographical location and long distances present no major concerns.
The World Future Society, in fact, is already talking about a future full of "Electronic Immigrants" who compete with (and take good-paying jobs away from) local residents. No one has yet found a way to erase this potential scenario, but any workable solution will probably include some components involved with forging global relationships as well as other components aimed at establishing global employment and contracting standards.
The main reason we're not all competing with people who live ten thousand miles away--at least, not yet--is simply that we humans have still not developed the necessary levels of technological and social sophistication needed to make working at a distance as effective and easy to do as working face-to-face. The Bangalore programmers, for example, perform best on the kinds of assignments that require maximum key pounding and minimal interactions with the clients or ultimate users of their programming product--assignments such as fixing the Year 2000 problem. Neat. Clearly defined. Highly concrete. Very objective.
On assignments like developing new applications or retrofitting systems to meet new customer requirements, however, their performance begins to leave something to be desired.
That's because these kinds of assignments normally work out best when the programmers can have frequent meetings with the end users and interactively develop a clear idea of what the end user actually wants. To the extent that an assignment is messy, poorly defined, and highly subjective, programmers working in close proximity to the end users tend to do a significantly better job than programmers working at a distance.
The same is true in many other "knowledge worker" situations. Most people who regularly deal with fluid, interpersonal, and complex kinds of work generally thrive on face-to-face contact with their clients and the ultimate end users of their products.
When meetings that take place over a wire become as comfortable and communicative of nuances and details as meetings that take place face-to-face, start looking over your shoulder for a lot more competition than you probably face right now. Technology will make it happen-eventually. You can bank on it.
In the meantime, those who have advanced their ability to offer services to a world wide market--through telecommuting and other forms of working at a distance--retain an important and profitable edge over those who can offer their services only to local employers. Make hay while you can, for tomorrow will bring an economic hailstorm of global competition.
In case you're not certain how to develop your distance working skills, here are some points to remember:
1. Practice your telephone, fax, email, and Internet skills until working through these media becomes second nature to you.
2. Take copious notes on every conversation, every promise, every schedule discussed with one of your clients or prospects. Use this information to play a leadership role in making sure all these target dates are met, all these promises are kept, and all these conversations are wrapped up. The whole point is to make communicating and working with you at a distance as easy, comfortable, and effective a process for the person at the other end of the wire as it would be if you worked across the hall from them.
3. Develop redundant connections by having multiple email accounts, multiple Internet Service Providers, and even multiple computers if necessary, because every hour of downtime at your end of the connection will lead to many months, if not years, of concern and reluctance on the part of those who might connect with you professionally.
4. Target the people and organizations who most need your product, services, and skills.
5. Focus your energies on communicating to this group exactly what you can do and how you can help. Communicate this message as directly and regularly as you can.
The Texas economy is well-suited for teleworking, with a proportionately high number of high-tech jobs. Perhaps that's why more than two million Texas households support at least one person doing some of their work at home. To acknowledge this trend and encourage more Texans to unclog the freeways and reduce pollutants, an alliance of Texas mayors, public officials, industry associations, Chambers Of Commerce, and the Texas Work Force Commission joined Southwestern Bell in proclaiming May 7, 1998, as the first Texas Work at Home Day.
With telecommuting now widely recognized as one of the fastest growing movements in the working world, the goals of the statewide recognition day were: 1) To make Texans aware of working at home as a practical alternative to commuting; 2) to allow them to see first hand how easy it is to work from home; and 3) to provide guidance on how to approach the changes required to work at home successfully.
According to Southwestern Bell, thousands of people a day join the home-working movement, and approximately forty million Americans already telework at least some of the time. This includes people running a home-based business, people bringing work home on evenings and weekends, and people regularly telecommuting.
As part of the run up to Texas Work at Home Day, Southwestern Bell asked these and other Texans what they would do with the extra time gained from telecommuting. The top three answers were: exercise (14%), read (13%), and spend time with family and friends (11%).
To showcase "Work at Home Resources," Southwestern Bell is sponsoring a Dream Office sweepstakes. One grand prize winner will receive $5,000 worth of equipment and supplies to create a dream office. The first prize winner will receive an IBM Thinkpad 380, the second prize winner will receive a Motorola StarTac wireless phone, and 10 third prize winners will receive a state-of-the art screen phone with Caller ID capability.
Teleworkers may enter the sweepstakes by filling out the Internet survey at www.swbell.com/workathome or by calling 1-800-700-1100.
Based on Southwestern Bell's knowledge of Texans who work from home, the company offers a variety of work at home telephone service and product packages designed to support different levels of work at home commitments. Each package tailors a set of telecommunications products and services-such as additional phone lines, voice mail, wireless phones, and high-speed ISDN data lines-to fit the special needs of a subgroup of teleworkers.
One intriguing and particularly helpful aspect of Texas Work at Home Day is the development of "Work at Home Resources." This is a free teleworking information center that offers assistance for anyone wanting to work at home more efficiently.
"One of the biggest barriers to working from home is people aren't sure of how to get started, and they have a lot of questions," said a Southwestern Bell spokesperson. "Through Texas Work at Home Day and Work at Home Resources, we want to show people where they can get answers."
Work at Home Resources is staffed by experts who can assist teleworkers with issues ranging from how to install a second phone line to where to find teleworking Web sites and publications. Work at Home Resources is open Monday through Friday, 8:00 a.m. to 5:30 p.m., and Saturday, 8:30 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.
The Texas Work at Home Day Web site features some useful ideas for anyone attempting to telework, whether they live in Texas or not. They include:
Balance: Separate your work space from your home environment, and be sure to take a break away from your "office."
Communication: Even if the company's central office is empty, sending in regular email and voicemail messages can help people recognize the time you are putting in as a telecommuter.
Focus: Don't work at the kitchen table. Create a special area or room for work so you can stay focused.
Professionalism: Make your home office a professional workplace. Answer the phone in a consistent way, and record a professional greeting on your answering system, so your calls get answered even when you're busy elsewhere--just like at the office.
Savings: Working from home can save you money in many ways: commuting costs, real estate rental or purchase costs, security costs, and more. One advantage of a lower overhead is that you can pass your savings on to your customers.
Transition: Before you start work at home each day, it's useful to "make a mental commute" to your home office. Try to put yourself in a professional frame of mind for the day's business activities. Also, inform your friends and family of your working hours so they understand not to interrupt or pressure you when you can't comfortably respond.
Their Web site also contains some useful tips for setting up a home office. These include:
Southwestern Bell's "Work at Home Resources" can be reached by calling 1-800-700-1100 or by setting your Web browser to www.swbell.com/workathome .
Copyright © 1998 by Robert Moskowitz. All rights reserved.