Re: OT: Working from home

From: Stephen Andert <StephenAndert_at_firsthealth.com>
Date: Wed, 13 Jun 2001 14:59:25 -0700
Message-ID: <F001.00328A31.20010613150540@fatcity.com>

Mark,
Well, in order to give you my 2 cents worth, lets answer those in order:

— Accountability: Work needs be get done whether in office or at home. If it gets done and db's are running well, it shouldn't matter where it gets done from. This is very hard for some managers to understand and one of the reasons I left my last job. If the manager is open to results-based management, this won't be a problem. We also overcome some of this by over-communicating when working at home. For example things that don't generally warrant an e-mail when in the office, (like adding space to a tbs that is causing IWatch to chirp) get a quick "FYI, I took care of X" while working from home.

— Communication: Our telecomm guys set us up so our phones can be set to ring at home. Thus for the in-office user who calls our 4-digit extention, they don't even know we are sitting at home in shorts/t-shirt. You also need a second line so you can be connected all day and still answer your phone.

— Unforeseen problems.
1) What to do it remote access is down? If ETA is all day, drag yourself to the office. If 1-2 hours, read white papers/manuals, work on status report, project plan or anything else that you can do with software on your home pc.

2) What if a meeting is scheduled on your work at home day? Have someone conference call you in. That is widely accepted in our company as we have a lot of projects that involve people at different locations. — Specific company benefits:
1) happier dba's = less turn-over. Personally I work from home 1-day per week and enjoy the extra time and gas saved from not driving. I also like wearing shorts and t-shirt.
2) In many bigger cities, bigger companies are required to work on reducing the number of "single occupant vehicle miles" driven by their employees. Generally companies will encourage carpooling, bus riding, etc, but they also get credit for regular telecommuters. In some areas, this is actually a huge motivator for companies.
3) I find I generally start work earlier and stop later when I'm at home. Also lack of typical office interruptions makes this a good time for anything that requires concentration.

HTH
Stephen
>>> mwillett_at_sunnen.com 06/13/01 03:00PM >>>Hi
All,I have a few off-topic questions for those of you who are allowed to workfrom home either occasionally or on a regular basis. My department isputting a proposal together to present to management and we're looking forany information you could provide. How did you handle accountability? Howdid you handle communication between work and home? What were some of theunforeseen problems that you encountered? Were there any specific companybenefits? (This appears to be more a benefit to the employee than to thecompany.) Thanks to all who can
reply.MarkProduction:
    In Progress:Oracle 7.3.4.4
        Oracle 8iOracle Apps (Fin/Mfg)
10.7SC    Oracle Apps (Fin/Mfg) 11.5.3Sun Solaris 2.6            Sun Solaris 8
(2.8)Mark WillettCorporate Database

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