Case 1:
I used to ‘not show up for work’. Here is how it worked with the company (a major computer company).
Being in a group of your peer co-workers works by allowing you to know what is happening and being able to react based upon existing conditions. You share ideas.
Then there were the people who worked from home, as I did for a while. I eliminated distractions and could be more productive. This is NOT a counter argument to working in the office. Even sales people and workers from home had to come t othe office periodically to take classes or join in meetings.
You see, some jobs do not require an office. There are tax professionals who sit in a little booth at Walmart. They do not need to be in a giant office with 30 other tax people at the same time. They still need to account for their time.
In my case, I was salaried, which meant that I had specific times to be online managing things, yet there were times when I went to the office.
My Manager and I set goals (as did every manager and every employee whether in the office or not). You were reviewed upon how closely you attained those goals and your pay might be adjusted accordingly.
When people think of working from home, they think that they are watching TV or outside working on the car. That is not much different than the office workers sitting in the break room or having a smoke break. There is the thought that cigarette smoking reduces stress. What it does is allow you to stop working and ignore problems for minutes at a time, especially when that includes having to walk long distances to get to an approved smoking location.
I was just as productive, perhaps more so, working from home. Rather than a 9-5 job, I could be called upon to fix things outside those hours, and I spent more time doing ‘work stuff’ than many of my office-mates.
Not everyone can manage time on their own, so I say that many people are not appropriate for that, however many others are better suited to being in a stress-free, remote location where they can focus on work without the office birthday get-togethers, fire drills, gossip and mini meetings that really could have been an email and so on. It was told (don’t know if it was true) that a company had an LED clock-like device in the conference room. It was programmed with the hourly wage of the attendees and during the meeting, showed what the cost was for everyone to be there. Also, not having chairs helped keep those meeting relavant and short.
Case 2:
A local limo company here is the primary transportation company for a very large and exclusive resort (4 Seasons) where they charge thousands of dollars a night for rooms. When a guest wants to go to the airport of see the other side of the island, a call is placed to the dispatcher at the limo company. During hours it is a dispatcher or two who handle the calls and tell the drivers which guest to pick up, where they are going, etc. They also monitior which limo is closest to the resort, etc. The dispatchers use telephones and Internet to make this all happen while also updating an online system. Although the dispatchers may be within miles of the Hawaii Resort, they can and sometimes are in Las Vegas or Washington State. Yes they could be in New York for all that matters. You see, they use Internet phones that can ring anywhere in the world, the rest of the data and systems are also online. As long as they are dispatching when they are supposed to and the guests are happy, it does not matter where the dispatchers are physically.
Case 3:
McDonalds in Hawaii tested a system where they orders at the drive-thru were actually taken by a call-center on the mainland. That way if a customer was speaking Russian (for example) the call center could use someone on the team there that spoke that langue where a local restaurant could never do that.
So, yes there is a case to be made for some people to work from home and some jobs which are well suited for that. The thought that ‘everyone’ has to be in one place is rediculous especially with todays technology.
