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Raymond Lewallen » Before you telecommute, know why telecommuting is hard
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Before you telecommute, know why telecommuting is hard

The following explains why I never telecommute anymore, and why telecommuters may not get as much work done as us office dwellers.  I used to telecommute, and this is what my day was like:



I decide its time to start working. 
 
As I start toward the office, I notice that there is mail on the hall table. 
 
I decide to go through the mail before I log on. 
 
I set my PDA down on the table, put the junk mail in the trash can under the table, and notice that the trash can is full. 
 
So, I decide to put the bills back on the table and take out the trash first. 
 
But then I think, since I'm going to be near the mailbox when I take out the trash anyway, I may as well pay the bills first. 
 
I take my checkbook off the table, and see that there is only one check left 
 
My extra checks are in my desk in the study, so I go to my desk where I find the can of soda that I had been drinking. 
 
I'm going to look for my checks, but first I need to push the soda aside so that I don't accidentally knock it over. 
 
I see that the sodea is getting warm, and I decide I should put it in the refrigerator to keep it cold. 
 
As I head toward the kitchen with the soda a vase of flowers on the counter catches my eye--they need to be watered. 
 
I set the soda down on the counter, and I discover my reading glasses that I've been searching for all morning. 
 
I decide I better put them back on my desk, but first I'm going to water the flowers. 
 
I set the glasses back down on the counter, fill a container with water and suddenly I spot the TV remote.  Someone left it on the kitchen table. 
 
I realize that tonight when we go to watch TV, I will be looking for the remote, but I won't remember that it's on the kitchen table, so I decide to put it back in the den where it belongs, but first I'll water the flowers. 
 
I splash some water on the flowers, but most of it spills on the floor. 
 
So, I set the remote back down on the table, get some towels and wipe up the spill. 
 
Then I head down the hall trying to remember what I was planning to do. 
 
At the end of the day: No work got done, the bills aren't paid, there is a warm can of soda sitting on the counter, the flowers aren't watered, there is still only one check in my checkbook, I can't find the remote, I can't find my glasses, and I don't remember what I did with my PDA. 
 
Then when I try to figure out why nothing got done today, I'm really baffled because I know I was busy all day long, and I'm really tired.



Posted Wed, May 17 2006 2:17 PM by Raymond Lewallen
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Comments

David Hayden wrote re: Before you telecommute, know why telecommuting is hard
on Wed, May 17 2006 4:33 PM
I hope for the sake of the person who does laundry at your house you are not as easily distracted on the way to the bathroom, too :)
Brendan Tompkins wrote re: Before you telecommute, know why telecommuting is hard
on Wed, May 17 2006 4:33 PM
WorkingFromHome == LivingAtWork
DaRage wrote re: Before you telecommute, know why telecommuting is hard
on Wed, May 17 2006 4:43 PM
It's time for you to retire my friend:)
Chris wrote re: Before you telecommute, know why telecommuting is hard
on Wed, May 17 2006 4:58 PM
btompkins,

So is it true or false?
Telecommuting is perfect for me.  No nasty commute, no distractions from co-workers who want to just shoot breeze.  No need to shut the office door because the “ahole” across the hall that likes his loud music.  But, I also try to be as productive as possible when I am on site.  Maybe it is just about having a focused approach to the day.
Eric Wise wrote re: Before you telecommute, know why telecommuting is hard
on Wed, May 17 2006 5:18 PM
step 1: go into dedicated work room / home office
step 2: close door
step 3: work

It's not hard, just takes discipline.
David Hayden wrote re: Before you telecommute, know why telecommuting is hard
on Wed, May 17 2006 5:23 PM
In all seriousness, I am twice as productive working from home, because there are far less distractions. You do have to schedule your time, plan out your days, and do all the necessary time and goal management that needs to be done anyway, of course.

The time I save on commuting and avoiding distractions in the office just means more quality time spent with the family and on personal business.

In the beginning, I actually had the opposite problem - I didn't know when to stop working. It probably took a good year to figure it out, but now life is so much better than being in a cubicle all day. However, working in a war room, doing pair programming, etc. all day certainly sounds cool, but the price is just too high - it would mean I wouldn't play with my wife and kids as much.
Raymond Lewallen wrote re: Before you telecommute, know why telecommuting is hard
on Wed, May 17 2006 7:00 PM
When I was working from home, I was working 16-18 hour days.  I worked all the time and other things didn't get done.  That was many years ago.  Nowadays, I suppose I've become much more anal about things, and everything around my house is a distraction because I want to do so many things and want them done now.

For me, my office is solitude.  I don't have distractions, nobody coming by to bother me, but have my team all within 10 feet from me.  My office place is fairly quiet, I have a nice set of noise cancelling headphones and never have problems concentrating.  At home, I always want to be doing something else.  Discipline, yes it takes that, but at the same time, I have other commitments to home and family that outweight my commitments to work and I feel compelled to do them when I'm at home.  I personally like going to my office.  I'm more productive and my customer sits 6 feet away, so working is easy there.

I suppose I'm lucky in that way.  You all seem to have problems working on site with distractions.  Where I am, nobody wants distractions so nobody distracts anybody else.  Everybody is very productive.  At home, life in general is a big distraction from work.
Craig wrote re: Before you telecommute, know why telecommuting is hard
on Wed, May 17 2006 7:06 PM
Hayden,

I concur, but i don't want to hear about you playing w/ your wife. :)

In all seriousness, there *ARE* distractions at home, but i am such a nerd, i don't find it that hard to ignore daily life, phone, TV, wife, child, etc. to get the work done.

Craig
Raymond Lewallen wrote re: Before you telecommute, know why telecommuting is hard
on Wed, May 17 2006 7:07 PM
It certainly has a lot to do with personality and attitude.  My personality requires me to get out with the other developers, have lunch with them, talk to them about different things technical and personal and be productive as a constant communicating team.  Certainly there are people who are more productive away from that and by themselves at home.  I know, I used to be one of those people.  I even once had a client REQUIRE me to telecommute from now on and quit coming on site because the weekly goals were always acheived and he was very happy with the progress I made while at home compared to being on site.  Nowadays, my lifestyle and attitude has changed, and I'm not as productive at home as I am at the office.

Just wanted to let people know that before you begin telecommuting because you get distracted at work, be aware that the same distractions occur in the home.
Fregas wrote re: Before you telecommute, know why telecommuting is hard
on Wed, May 17 2006 8:17 PM
One thing we do at work to escape from distractions is to lock ourselves in a conference room.  Basically, myself and 1-3 other developers will grab a conference room, bring our laptops, mice and power supplies and code like mad.  This keeps distractions down to a minimum because other people (managers, BA's, customers, other developers, shit shooters, etc) can't find us, and we're away from our phones.  We become very productive like this because we can communicate very easily with each other as well and see each other's screens.
Daniel Moth wrote re: Before you telecommute, know why telecommuting is hard
on Wed, May 17 2006 9:01 PM
Hilarious :-D

I can totally identify with that story... Seems like your brain works in a similar fashion to mine: as a Stack rather than as a Queue...

BTW, email is my worst enemy... I am always running with 0 unread items and never use flags or follow ups: everything has to be dealt with right there and then when I open it! It takes me 2-3 hours every morning before I launch another application (apart from the links I open in emails I've received)...
Robert wrote re: Before you telecommute, know why telecommuting is hard
on Wed, May 17 2006 11:08 PM
I hope the person that was paying you to telecommute isn't reading this ;-)
Scott wrote re: Before you telecommute, know why telecommuting is hard
on Thu, May 18 2006 12:23 AM
I'm reminded of the Dilbert cartoon that deals with what your family hears when you say "I'm working at home today". They hear, "I am your personal slave today. Killing spiders is my specialty."
Raymond Lewallen wrote re: Before you telecommute, know why telecommuting is hard
on Thu, May 18 2006 7:57 AM
LOL Scott.  Luckily, my wife is very good about not asking me for anything when I'm home.  Its usually other things that distract me, hence, I distract myself.
Raymond Lewallen wrote re: Before you telecommute, know why telecommuting is hard
on Thu, May 18 2006 11:06 AM
Daniel,

I knew somebody out there would be able to identify with me ;)
bob wrote re: Before you telecommute, know why telecommuting is hard
on Fri, May 26 2006 11:04 AM
Another negative of working from home, especially if you're a coder, is that you can't call in sick.  How many people are too sick to sit in their favorite chair.  I worked 7 years with no sick days, and if I had to go into the office, I'd have called in.  One guy I worked with LOVED the 8-5 grind at the office, but he called in sick at least twice a month.  Come to think of it, maybe he didn't love it as much as he said.  Hmmmm

My problem is that I like to work at night.  
bob wrote re: Before you telecommute, know why telecommuting is hard
on Fri, May 26 2006 11:06 AM
The problem that I've seen with getting managers to embrace telecommuting is that they're pretty serious screw-offs.  When they're not being watched, they're checking stocks, playing poker, etc.  So, they overlay their inherent laziness.  I'm definitely more productive at home, but I've certainly cleaned the refrigerator on company time.  It's great to get paid high dollars for scut work.  
The DIP Shtick » Blog Archive » Telecommute? Don’t let your boss read this! wrote The DIP Shtick » Blog Archive » Telecommute? Don’t let your boss read this!
on Sat, May 27 2006 2:23 AM
Sonal wrote re: Before you telecommute, know why telecommuting is hard
on Tue, Aug 22 2006 7:36 AM
I think in terms of productivity, one needs a lot of discipline and focus to ignore the mundane affairs of the household and to concentrate on coding. Having said that, I feel the biggest challenge I see while telecommuting is the management of projects, sometimes I get more work than I can handle, sometimes I am completely free. Maybe it is because telecommuting is not a norm in India and I am bidding on projects online.
Watercooler Confidential wrote Does working from home really work?
on Tue, Aug 29 2006 10:16 PM

More than 80 million workers worldwide worked from home at least one day per month in 2005, up from 38 million in 2000. However, despite all of the technological marvels that make working from home easier, growth of telecommuting is...

Zirconi wrote re: Before you telecommute, know why telecommuting is hard
on Mon, Nov 12 2007 10:44 AM

The way I look at it, it is a matter of self-discipline.  Just like you can write sloppy code, you can also do sloppy work or be sloppy at work - be it at home or in the work place / office.

So, bottom line is this:  if you are a disciplined worker, and respect the fact that someone is "paying" you for your time and work, it is your responsibility as an (adult) professional to devote your time to doing that work, just like you would do working at an office, rather than checking your pile of bills.  We don't have to have supervision all the time, else we'd have "office monitor" positions soon!  Another waste of valuable time and money.

OmegaMan wrote re: Before you telecommute, know why telecommuting is hard
on Sun, Aug 17 2008 5:06 PM

It is sad that you have to warm a chair for eight hours at an office to be moderately productive as a programmer. BTW...not everyone gets a nice office...Oh wait my first job in 89 I had an office, after that it was all crappy social cubes...also at the end of a card table...hmmm should I go on?

I am able to work from my home office for a major bank, get my work done and not have to warm a chair for someone for eight hours. You don't mention the down time in an office where during those times that one has no work, but is expected to be there....nothing like being non-productive in an office, yet that is OK, you are at the office. Its work. Ya right.

I actually interact more, technically with my co-developers than if I was in a cube ten feet away. IM is great, the phone works too.

For some bizarre reason, the bank doesn't want me to work more than eight hours a day...I must be a contractor. Most companies like contractors to have a social life and not work over 40.. Bill by the hour, don't be salaried and your life will be different.

I take away from reading this the attitude of management, if I can't see my people working, they must be ripping us off. This post feels like a rationalization as to why someone won't let their development staff work offsite...

I do see that some people can't be productive unless big brother is watching...sad but true. If a person isn't motivated to work without having to be guided, do you think that they are motivated to be a better programmer? Is that the person you want working on your team anyway?

Just my opinion...I could be wrong.

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