February 19, 2014 at 8:32 pm
Comments posted to this topic are about the item The Remote Balance
February 20, 2014 at 1:51 am
A present headache is trying to employ agile methodologies across geographically disperse teams. One of the things about agile is that it encourages all participants to be co-located and that include business and technical people.
The daily stand-up is obviously difficult as is making the Kanban board suitably visible. The whole point of a wall with task cards on it is that it gives visibility to anyone who may walk past.
I'ts not an insurmountable problem but there is a bit more to remote working than setting up a VPN connection.
February 20, 2014 at 2:21 am
I wonder if more remote working will facilitate freelancers to take more part time work e.g. Company A needs a specialist so asks for 2 days a week of Consultant X's time, Company B also requires 2 days a week so asks for 2 days a week of Consultant X's time so when Company C comes and asks for 2 days a week of Consultant X's time they have a choice whether to work longer hours to make it equivalent of a 6 say working week or push back saying that they do not have the capacity at the time. I have seen people work like this between completely isolated projects within the same company, however, not when working from home for different companies. Trust would be key.
Gaz
-- Stop your grinnin' and drop your linen...they're everywhere!!!
February 20, 2014 at 2:31 am
David.Poole (2/20/2014)
A present headache is trying to employ agile methodologies across geographically disperse teams. One of the things about agile is that it encourages all participants to be co-located and that include business and technical people.The daily stand-up is obviously difficult as is making the Kanban board suitably visible. The whole point of a wall with task cards on it is that it gives visibility to anyone who may walk past.
I'ts not an insurmountable problem but there is a bit more to remote working than setting up a VPN connection.
I agree but there are digital equivalents of the cards on the wall websites out there. I bet there is loads more that what I have come across. A simple read only guest login available to all stakeholders and the public visibility is there.
I would say time zones is more of an issue. The modern classic in the UK is working with people in Chennai (5.5 hours ahead) and the USA (5-8 hours behind). This requires excellent communication in terms of clarity, responsibility and expectations. With the right people it can be done. Just not easily 😉
Gaz
-- Stop your grinnin' and drop your linen...they're everywhere!!!
February 20, 2014 at 6:44 am
I do telecommute but my biggest obstacle is conducting a Needs Analysis. There are some industries/situations where you have to wallow in the weeds - i.e. be face to face to pull out those obscure business rules by their proverbial roots.
Sometimes the foreman on the shop floor has to show me the widgets with all its variants - how when one widget isn't available, another widget from another family (or families) can take its place IF the customer orders the associated retro-fit kit.
Even if I believe I've done the best needs analysis I can possibly do, there are always going to be followup PMs, emails, phone calls, etc. and as fast as the communication can get from one to another, there is still that latency of people not able to get back to you instantly. Sometimes it's a holdup, sometimes it's situation where you can work on another part of the project.
Right now, I am in the home stretch of a project and I am at the location every other week until we are up and running - once this pig is running and any bugs are worked out, then I can go back to full time telecommuting..... until the next needs analysis....
February 20, 2014 at 7:19 am
I would love to work remotely. Anyone willing to let me work from Hawaii? 😎
I would be willing to work around any time zone differences. 😀
To the other point of being connected all the time, I agree you need to be able to let work go to enjoy life. I know of some VP's that have said to me that the president of their company expects them to be available 24/7/365. There is no way I want to be in a position like that. If I'm on vacation you will not hear from me until I get back. But as someone else told me "That's why they get paid the big bucks." It would take a lot of money for me to agree to be connected or available all the time.
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we travel not to escape life but for life not to escape us
Don't fear failure, fear regret.
February 20, 2014 at 7:26 am
One of the largest benefits of being able to work remotely is not having to "stay late" to fix a high priority issue. Yesterday, an issue ranked at the highest priority landed on my desk at 2 pm. It's going to take 10-15 hours of my time to fix. I still went home at 4:30 pm like normal, spent some quality family time, then around 8 pm I logged in and went to work for several hours.
Another benefit is being able to maintain Inbox Zero, which in my case is more like Inbox Zero Unread Messages. 🙂
February 20, 2014 at 7:29 am
I would love to work from home wherever that may be...hawaii sounds really good though 🙂
Only drawback for myself when working from home is that I ususally end up working more hours than if I was in the office. Others tend to work less since they have more time to do other non-related work stuff.
February 20, 2014 at 7:42 am
I've been telecommuting since mid December. The loss of the 110 mile round trip is so great. That is two hours I get back.
The downside is that with all the weather this year I don't get to call off because I can't make it to work. 😛
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Jim P.
A little bit of this and a little byte of that can cause bloatware.
February 20, 2014 at 8:16 am
Great topic!
About half of the company I work for works from home. I've been working from home for over 5 years now, full time.
I love it but there are definitely some challenges. Sometimes its hard to focus, sometimes I just "miss" the social interaction of an office. I also find working from an office a real challenge due to noise and distractions around me. However, having co-workers to vent to at the watercooler or over lunch can be a good stress outlet and I don't have that.
On the flip side, I am working from Arizona during our (Canadian) winters while my friends and fam deal with a mountain of snow, so I'll deal somehow. 🙂
I think we need more remote workers to help reduce our environmental impacts for starters and I've often thought that having more "temp desks" in offices would be a good thing for both people, business, our roads, and our environment.
Chris.
February 20, 2014 at 8:38 am
Our company's IT developers work almost exclusively from home. We use the Team Foundation Server Scrum tools and Lync to communicate over the network. Anyone can see the scrum board or burn down chart because it is located in TFS. I can communicate, camera to camera, with anyone one or group on the development team. I admit it is not as easy to collaborate as it was going to someones desk but if a team member is busy I can send them an email of my ideas for the eventual discussion. Sometimes writing down my idea has merit because when I have to explain it I truely have to understand it and can see some pitfalls already.
I live in the Seattle area and there is the Puget Sound between me and all that work in the Seattle. My commute to Seattle is 4 hours a day and Redmond and Bellevue is 5 hours because of the traffic. One company I worked out a 10 hour work day so I only had to commute Mon - Thurs and even then I got to work at 5:00 am so I could leave by 3:30 and miss most of the traffic.
Instead of sitting in traffic I go to the gym, coach little league, play golf, work in the yard. And if inspiration hits me while I am on the eliptical thinking about that bug I could not resolve I can always log in when I get home and see if it works.
February 20, 2014 at 9:50 am
Gary Varga (2/20/2014)
I wonder if more remote working will facilitate freelancers to take more part time work e.g. Company A needs a specialist so asks for 2 days a week of Consultant X's time, Company B also requires 2 days a week so asks for 2 days a week of Consultant X's time so when Company C comes and asks for 2 days a week of Consultant X's time they have a choice whether to work longer hours to make it equivalent of a 6 say working week or push back saying that they do not have the capacity at the time. I have seen people work like this between completely isolated projects within the same company, however, not when working from home for different companies. Trust would be key.
That would be great if more companies would employ that kind of approach.
Jason...AKA CirqueDeSQLeil
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February 20, 2014 at 9:55 am
David.Poole (2/20/2014)
A present headache is trying to employ agile methodologies across geographically disperse teams. One of the things about agile is that it encourages all participants to be co-located and that include business and technical people.The daily stand-up is obviously difficult as is making the Kanban board suitably visible. The whole point of a wall with task cards on it is that it gives visibility to anyone who may walk past.
I'ts not an insurmountable problem but there is a bit more to remote working than setting up a VPN connection.
We use Trello at RG. It's slightly cumbersome being remote, though if I remember to check it often, it works well.
February 20, 2014 at 2:17 pm
Working for a government entity we are not allowed to work from home as much as other industries due to a variety of issues. However, I do have one story to offer. One of our database admins who did not have permission to work from home and I were in a conference out of state. While we were busy at the conference one of the database servers back home failed. The admin worked from out of state on the phone and using his laptop for three and a half hours to restore service and reconfig the server. He was able to get it done and to do it quickly. And as a result it has always seemed odd that he could be trusted from 1500 miles away out of state, when he could not be trusted to do the job from 15 miles away while working at home.
M.
Not all gray hairs are Dinosaurs!
February 20, 2014 at 3:51 pm
Steve: Thanks for the editorial! Amen! Disconnect every now and then! And I agree/have had similar experience as many of the posters here. I've always striven to live close to "the office" - i.e. walking distance <3 miles - but that "Hawaii" idea is sounding better and better all the time! And more feasible! Thanks again!
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