Yahoo! CEO Marissa Mayer stirred up the business media with an edict to abolish telecommuting among Yahoo! employees. Despite the fact that online collaboration tools have never been as effective as they are today, Mayer claimed the decision was about creating a culture of collaboration. She also claimed her decision only affected about two hundred people, but elsewhere Mayer complained about empty parking lots, as well as rows and rows of empty cubicles. Lastly, Mayer claimed it was about productivity, but her CFO’s analysis of VPN logs indicated the decision had more to do with a conviction that telecommuters were displaying a poor work ethic. Mayer’s policy forced several employees to put their small children in day care, but Mayer herself had a private nursery built right next to her office.
Because of the controversy surrounding the Mayer edict, observers have taken a keen interest in the value found (or lost) in both the conventional office and the home office. As someone who works from home often, I am familiar with both the benefits and pitfalls of telecommuting. These same pitfalls are felt to varying degrees by every multi-site enterprise. Here are six ways to reduce or even eliminate those pitfalls, either as an individual exercising these behaviors, or as a company fostering a corporate culture that expects these behaviors from everyone.
Regularly Reach Out to Someone New. The key here is to reach out when not required and to mix it up to include multiple departments and even people at partner firms and industry associations. About six months after I joined one company, a mid-level marketing executive with whom I had no direct dealings invited me to spend twenty to thirty minutes on the phone with her for the sole purpose of fostering lines of communication and idea flow. I learned a lot about the day-to-day life of a marketing executive and I have no doubt she gleaned plenty from me as well. More importantly, we established a professional connection that has extended well past both of us leaving that original company.
Gain Proficiency with All Available Collaboration Tools. Many businesses are purchasing collaboration tools or collaboration add-ons like Salesforce.com’s Chatter. Admittedly, I do not like some of these tools. But others—instant messaging with desktop sharing—are proving to be particularly useful. As a creature of habit, I tend to stick with what is familiar unless forced to do otherwise. A key to maximizing team productivity is to require that everyone becomes proficient—not merely trained—with each of the collaboration tools available. Since not all companies make this a requirement, make it a personal policy you both stick with and advocate.
Schedule Virtual “Water Cooler” and “Cafeteria” Experiences. With a speakerphone, you can share lunch break with another telecommuter. Admittedly, it is more awkward at first than sharing lunch in the company cafeteria but spending unhurried time together adds value that everyone should recognize. Likewise, it is very easy to send an email to someone that says something along the lines of “We haven’t spoken in a while. When you need a break from what you are working on, give me a call and we’ll chat informally for five minutes.” The trick is to step just outside one’s normal comfort zone to make these interactions happen. Even in a conventional office, one can insolate one’s self within a cubicle’s walls. To gain greater team effectiveness, it is important to reach beyond what comes naturally.
Have at least one “Office” away from the Home Office. There is something about the “buzz” of the office that drives creativity. Many startups are discovering the benefits of renting co-working spaces, as well as the less costly benefits of working out of the local coffee shop from time to time. By spending a morning or afternoon working out of a local coffee shop, one has the opportunity to connect with other “WiFi Warriors” from the community and extend one’s professional network.
Maximize Opportunities to Visit the Conventional Office(s). Everyone who telecommutes visits a conventional office at least occasionally. While the reason may be a particular meeting or event, it is important to maximize the opportunity. Schedule other face-to-face meetings and sit in as a “guest” in other meetings. Schedule lunch and if time allows, schedule breakfast and an after hours get-together as well.
Recognize Telecommuting Does Not Always Work Effectively. As an optimist I tend to think the best of people. But over time I have learned that some people simply cannot telecommute effectively—at least for certain responsibilities. If you are such a person in such a situation, find a way to stop telecommuting or find a position where you can be an effective telecommuter. If you are the manager of such a person in such a situation, raise the issue and resolve it earlier rather than later.
In my experience, most people do their own job well. The distraction-free home office may be the ideal work environment to maximize personal productivity from time to time or even regularly because interruptions are minimized, and no time is wasted commuting. Unfortunately, I’ve also observed that most people do a terrible job doing those things that enable others to do their jobs well. The best managers recognize this problem and focus most of their energy maximizing team productivity and team morale, while eliminating detrimental self-serving behaviors.
A potential sticking point happens when a company has an official “in the office’ policy, but then makes exceptions that appear unfair. A small number of employees work from home, but everyone else needs to comply with the official policy. Yahoo!’s across-the-board policy is certainly better than such half-hearted policies. So perhaps Mayer’s across-the-board conventional office requirement may be the right choice for Yahoo! in order to recover the company’s lost edge, at least in the short run. But in the long run Mayer’s rigid edict ultimately treats Yahoo!’s employees as children rather than adults in a way that I believe will drive away the most promising team members who know how to telecommute without locking themselves into a home office bubble.
No comments:
Post a Comment