Andrew Gabriel wrote:
In article e.net,
Mark Goodge writes:
And are a typical example of what I might call "overhearing-ware", which
makes most offices I've worked in (none in a sales capacity, that's just
an example) hugely more productive.

You overhear your colleague on the phone (or in person) to a buyer, and
deduce quite a lot about what they are talking about. And it rings a
bell with you, so you wander over and say - "why not suggest this
property, it's sounds like it's just what they want".
That's a very good point.

Yes, and it has to be addressed differently when telecommuting.
The act of an off-chance over-heard conversation needs to be
changed into something which is actively sought out. When that's
done, this will work even more effectively, since it won't be
relying on an off-chance event. Typically this would be done by
actively ensuring staff are aware of what is going on across
the whole team, or implementing a system which will automatically
pick up such things.

Also, one thing that seems to be missed by many advocates of
telecommuting is that most people actually prefer to work in social
groups. And, because that's how they prefer to work, that's how

As Andy said, that doesn't necessarily mean sitting next to each
other. It does mean ensuring that the same banter that might go on
in an office still operates across the team. That might be by team
conference calls which allow for non-work related discussions,
team mailing list which permits off-topic banter, team events
where people do get together for bonding purposes, etc.

they're most productive when working. It seems to me that a lot of the
very strong advocates for increased teleworking are those who
themselves fall into the minority of people who don't like spending
much time with others. It's almost a cliche that the IT community is
populated by people with poor interpersonal and social networking
skills and who prefer the company of a computer screen to other
humans. So it's not surprising to find a significant number of Usenet
users (who also tend to fall in that demographic) having
over-optimistic opinions of how easy it would be to convert many jobs
to teleworking.

This isn't my experience. It's true that there's probably a
higher level of mild autism amongst some of the most technically
compitent in the computer industry, but those are not the ones
pushing teleworking in my experience. I've worked both in companies
which push it, and those which resist it. It is pushed by two classes
of people -- finance directors who've looked seriously at it and
worked out how much money is to be saved, and managers who have
realised that a) it significantly increases productivity, and b) it
allows you to employ the best people in the world in the relevent
field, most of whom will not be living anywhere near your offices.

As a manager, I have strongly encouraged my staff to work from home
when they want to, and to work hours that suit them, within the
contraints of ensuring the team provides sufficient coverage during
core hours to meet the requirements of our customers. In a company
where teleworking as a whole was not encouraged (due as Andy said
in a large part to insecure middle management), the hard part was
to stop my staff from feeling guilty about not being in the office,
or not working between 9 to 5. In return for this flexibility, I
would get longer hours, volunteers to do work at anti-social hours
(because it would mean they could take time out in the day to meet
the wife for lunch/shopping, do some gardening, pick up kids from
school, etc). On several occasions, this enabled me to retain
valued staff members who would have had to leave if they were stuck
in a 9-5 office job, and to employ excellent staff who live nowhere
near the office. I also reduce the office overhead by not having
desks for all my staff, impact on the environment by reduced
travelling, impact on staff by reduced stress, etc. The team
cohesion remained rock solid though -- just as though they were
all working together in an office, so it can be done.

There are industries where teleworking can't work, but there are
far more industries where is just hasn't been given the
consideration it requires. I look at the throng of commuters
going up to London each morning, none of whom look like they are
enjoying the experience one bit. I just don't believe most of them
need to do this every day.

Another aspect of this is running teams across continents and
timezones. I've been involved in many such teams, and all the
same considerations apply as with telecomuting, plus the additional
one of not being all being awake at the same time. If you are
building world class teams you have to handle this, as in many
spheres, most of the world experts will not be living in the
same countries or even continents as each other.

I now take back what I said about managers. Good luck to you although
I'm sure you don't need it.