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Raymond Lewallen

Framework Design, Agile Coach, President Oklahoma City Developers Group, Microsoft MVP C#, TDD, Continuous Integration, Patterns and Practices, Domain Driven Design, Speaker, VB.Net, C# and Sql Server

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.





Comments

David Hayden said:

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 :)
# May 17, 2006 4:33 PM

Brendan Tompkins said:

WorkingFromHome == LivingAtWork
# May 17, 2006 4:33 PM

DaRage said:

It's time for you to retire my friend:)
# May 17, 2006 4:43 PM

Chris said:

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.
# May 17, 2006 4:58 PM

Eric Wise said:

step 1: go into dedicated work room / home office
step 2: close door
step 3: work

It's not hard, just takes discipline.
# May 17, 2006 5:18 PM

David Hayden said:

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.
# May 17, 2006 5:23 PM

Raymond Lewallen said:

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.
# May 17, 2006 7:00 PM

Craig said:

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
# May 17, 2006 7:06 PM

Raymond Lewallen said:

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.
# May 17, 2006 7:07 PM

Fregas said:

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.
# May 17, 2006 8:17 PM

Daniel Moth said:

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)...
# May 17, 2006 9:01 PM

Robert said:

I hope the person that was paying you to telecommute isn't reading this ;-)
# May 17, 2006 11:08 PM

Scott said:

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."
# May 18, 2006 12:23 AM

Raymond Lewallen said:

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.
# May 18, 2006 7:57 AM

Raymond Lewallen said:

Daniel,

I knew somebody out there would be able to identify with me ;)
# May 18, 2006 11:06 AM

bob said:

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.  
# May 26, 2006 11:04 AM

bob said:

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.  
# May 26, 2006 11:06 AM

Sonal said:

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.
# August 22, 2006 7:36 AM

Watercooler Confidential said:

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...

# August 29, 2006 10:16 PM

Zirconi said:

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.

# November 12, 2007 10:44 AM

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About Raymond Lewallen

Working primarily in the public sector during his career, Raymond has designed and built several high profile enterprise level applications for all levels of the government. Raymond now works as a solutions architect for EMC. Raymond is an agile coach, Microsoft MVP C# and also president of the Oklahoma City Developers Group and Oklahoma Agile Developers Group. Raymond spends a lot of his time learning and teaching such things as Test Driven Development, Domain Driven Design, Design Patterns and Extreme Programming practices and principles, to name a few. Raymond is also an advocate of Alt.Net. Raymond is primarily a framework guy, so don't ask him anything about UI :) Check out Devlicio.us!