{"id":457,"date":"2011-06-19T18:33:51","date_gmt":"2011-06-20T01:33:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.mezeske.com\/?p=457"},"modified":"2011-06-19T18:33:51","modified_gmt":"2011-06-20T01:33:51","slug":"telecommuting-has-benefits-too","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/blog.mezeske.com\/?p=457","title":{"rendered":"Telecommuting Has Benefits, Too"},"content":{"rendered":"

Recently I\u2019ve run across a few arti\u00adcles (on Hacker News<\/a> and else\u00adwhere) about the draw\u00adbacks of telecom\u00admut\u00ading. I agree that there are draw\u00adbacks, but I believe that they can be coun\u00adter\u00adbal\u00adanced by the ben\u00ade\u00adfits under the right circumstances.<\/p>\n

The Right Circumstances<\/h4>\n

Not every per\u00adson is cut out to telecom\u00admute, and not every job is suit\u00adable to be per\u00adformed remote\u00adly. Furthermore, there are many tools avail\u00adable to make telecom\u00admut\u00ading much more effective.<\/p>\n

The sin\u00adgle most impor\u00adtant traits for a telecom\u00admuter to have are strong writ\u00ading and com\u00adpre\u00adhen\u00adsion skills<\/strong>. There are no two ways about it; a telecom\u00admuter is going to engage in a lot of writ\u00adten com\u00admu\u00adni\u00adca\u00adtion. You can\u2019t yell over the cubi\u00adcle wall to ask for a quick clar\u00adi\u00adfi\u00adca\u00adtion. Since they are not phys\u00adi\u00adcal\u00adly present, any com\u00admu\u00adni\u00adca\u00adtion with them requires a small amount of over\u00adhead. Thus it\u2019s impor\u00adtant that each bit of com\u00admu\u00adni\u00adca\u00adtion with the telecom\u00admuter be clear and concise.<\/p>\n

The ever-present com\u00admu\u00adni\u00adca\u00adtion over\u00adhead implies that jobs which require more fre\u00adquent com\u00admu\u00adni\u00adca\u00adtion are less suit\u00adable for telecom\u00admuters. The best jobs are those in which a lot of \u201cheads down\u201d work needs to be done. These are the kinds of jobs where even if the employ\u00adee were phys\u00adi\u00adcal\u00adly present, they\u2019d want an office with a door that shuts tight. Many nuts-and-bolts, back-end soft\u00adware engi\u00adneer\u00ading jobs fall into this cat\u00ade\u00adgo\u00adry. For instance, writ\u00ading a device dri\u00adver requires large chunks of up-front com\u00admu\u00adni\u00adca\u00adtion, but after that it requires deep con\u00adcen\u00adtra\u00adtion and few inter\u00adrup\u00adtions \u2014 per\u00adfect for a telecom\u00admuter. Other jobs, such as project man\u00adage\u00adment, require con\u00adstant com\u00admu\u00adni\u00adca\u00adtion and incur a much greater telecom\u00admut\u00ading overhead.<\/p>\n

Finally, tools are instru\u00admen\u00adtal in mak\u00ading telecom\u00admut\u00ading work. In a soft\u00adware shop, a good Wiki sys\u00adtem allows for col\u00adlab\u00ado\u00adra\u00adtive doc\u00adu\u00admen\u00adta\u00adtion. A bug\/feature track\u00ading sys\u00adtem helps keep every\u00adone in sync on pri\u00ador\u00adi\u00adties. File shar\u00ading, phone con\u00adfer\u00adenc\u00ading, source con\u00adtrol, desk\u00adtop shar\u00ading, VPN<\/span> sys\u00adtems \u2014 all of these are absolute\u00adly crit\u00adi\u00adcal to enable a telecom\u00admuter to do their job.<\/p>\n

The ben\u00ade\u00adfits of telecom\u00admut\u00ading only apply ful\u00adly when the above cir\u00adcum\u00adstances are met. It\u2019s easy to see how telecom\u00admut\u00ading could leave a bad taste in some\u00adone\u2019s mouth if it was attempt\u00aded with the wrong per\u00adson, job, or tools.<\/p>\n

The Benefits<\/h4>\n

Better doc\u00adu\u00admen\u00adta\u00adtion.<\/strong> One of the major draw\u00adbacks of work\u00ading with some\u00adone far away is that you can\u2019t walk up to their desk and pick their brain. Sure, you can call them, but once you\u2019ve resigned your\u00adself to the over\u00adhead of a phone call, more like\u00adly than not you\u2019ll just send an email or instant mes\u00adsage. But there\u2019s a hid\u00adden ben\u00ade\u00adfit to this: more knowl\u00adedge ends up writ\u00adten down. Informally, you end up with more knowl\u00adedge in your email or IM<\/span> his\u00adto\u00adry. More for\u00admal\u00adly, you have more oppor\u00adtu\u00adni\u00adties to write doc\u00adu\u00admen\u00adta\u00adtion. A good telecom\u00admuter knows when an email thread has become over\u00adgrown and needs to be dumped into a Wiki article.<\/p>\n

Higher through\u00adput.<\/strong> For soft\u00adware jobs that require extend\u00aded peri\u00adods of deep con\u00adcen\u00adtra\u00adtion, telecom\u00admut\u00ading can often pro\u00advide the best work envi\u00adron\u00adment. This can require some effort on the remote employ\u00adee\u2019s part (e.g. estab\u00adlish\u00ading a no-inter\u00adrup\u00adtion rule with the kids), but when it\u2019s pulled off suc\u00adcess\u00adful\u00adly it can be orders of mag\u00adni\u00adtude bet\u00adter than being cramped up in a cubi\u00adcle next to a sales\u00adper\u00adson who\u2019s con\u00adstant\u00adly on the phone.<\/p>\n

More hours.<\/strong> The lack of a com\u00admute and the ease of mak\u00ading a quick lunch at home save a lot of time for a telecom\u00admuter. When a doc\u00adtor\u2019s appoint\u00adment comes up in the mid\u00addle of the day, it\u2019s eas\u00adi\u00ader to jus\u00adti\u00adfy work\u00ading late to make up for it, instead of tak\u00ading per\u00adson\u00adal time off.<\/p>\n

More flex\u00adi\u00adble pay.<\/strong> The mar\u00adket val\u00adue for a tal\u00adent\u00aded engi\u00adneer dif\u00adfers between, say, the Bay Area and Wisconsin. The cost of liv\u00ading and mar\u00adket demand vary dras\u00adti\u00adcal\u00adly between dif\u00adfer\u00adent geo\u00adgraph\u00adi\u00adcal areas. A busi\u00adness in an expen\u00adsive metrop\u00ado\u00adlis can save tons of mon\u00adey by hir\u00ading a telecom\u00admuter from an area where it\u2019s cheap\u00ader to live. This can ben\u00ade\u00adfit the telecom\u00admuter as well, if the busi\u00adness, for instance, splits the dif\u00adfer\u00adence between the local and remote mar\u00adket salaries with the employee.<\/p>\n

Conclusions<\/h4>\n

In no way am I try\u00ading to pre\u00adscribe telecom\u00admut\u00ading as a panacea or some kind of mag\u00adi\u00adcal effi\u00adcien\u00adcy boost\u00ader. But, as a telecom\u00admuter myself, I have seen it work out real\u00adly well first\u00adhand, and I feel the need to point out the fact that it does have a few tan\u00adgi\u00adble ben\u00ade\u00adfits. Like any oth\u00ader busi\u00adness deci\u00adsion, though, it should\u00adn\u2019t be cho\u00adsen with\u00adout care\u00adful thought and planning.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Recently I\u2019ve run across a few arti\u00adcles (on Hacker News and else\u00adwhere) about the draw\u00adbacks of telecom\u00admut\u00ading. I agree that there are draw\u00adbacks, but I believe that they can be coun\u00adter\u00adbal\u00adanced by the ben\u00ade\u00adfits under the right cir\u00adcum\u00adstances. The Right Circumstances Not every per\u00adson is cut out to telecom\u00admute, and not every job is suitable [\u2026]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"wp_typography_post_enhancements_disabled":false},"categories":[3],"tags":[6,29],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.mezeske.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/457"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.mezeske.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.mezeske.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.mezeske.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.mezeske.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=457"}],"version-history":[{"count":21,"href":"http:\/\/blog.mezeske.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/457\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":478,"href":"http:\/\/blog.mezeske.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/457\/revisions\/478"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.mezeske.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=457"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.mezeske.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=457"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.mezeske.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=457"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}