Telecommuting
The more I consider this topic the more confused and frustrated I get. We now have technology that will allow people to work virtually anywhere in the world, yet many of us are tied down to our desks. This is especially germane to my line of work, system administration or computer programming. In both cases I access machines that are (or can be) no where near my location, yet I get my job done. Often times my communication is in the form of email or instant messages. I use remote tools to manage systems, and access version control repositories sitting on a server that is sometimes located in a Data Center in another city! Now with Voice over IP we would no longer need phones to converse, and with broadband access we could even run cameras on each machine to create virtual meetings.
I know there are reasons and excuses offered for not doing this, but I do not see why we cannot take advantage of this more often. As far as tracking performance managers should already be checking repository logs to track progress, and if teams used email and wikis as collaboration tools mangers would have one more method for keeping an eye on performance. I will note that I would miss the ability to walk into the office of a fellow programmer and pick his brain on a particularly challenging problem, even using a white board or paper to diagram the problem/solution.
In an economy where we are shipping departments to other continents I am stunned and flabbergasted that we will not work harder to develop better work from home options for geeks. I cannot help but wonder why these technologies are going overlooked. I know that I work better from home, as there are less distractions (ironic, but true) and it kills me that the technology exists but I cannot seem to convince anyone to make it happen. What a funny world.
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As someone who has worked remotely on both large and small projects, I must say that telecommuting rarely lives up to the ideal. For that matter, it rarely works at all.
One of the few times it did work, I had to spend a week in New York with all the remote members of the team. We spent that week going over every aspect of the project and how we would handle our remote involvement, and we did it in excruciating detail.
Even then, one member was fired only two months into the project for not being able to follow the guidelines stipulated by the group.
Still, I look at the telecommuting situation as a problem to be solved. There are problems, and I expect that, but I would love to see those problems ironed out.