Blog Action Day: Why Aren’t We Telecommuting?

Today is Blog Action Day and the topic is the environment. Yes, that’s a broad topic, but one that offers myriad topics of discussion. Mine happens to be on why telecommuting works. And why don’t more companies let it work?

Some companies, like BMC Software, encourage many of their employees to work from home, aka telecommute. Why? Several reasons, I suspect:

• Cost reduction on office space and energy.
• Cost reduction on subsidized food and drink.
• Higher employee satisfaction.

I’ve worked in the software business for the better part of 24 years. Every company I’ve worked for has paid lip service to the idea of telecommuting, but few actually support it fully. Sure, some companies let you work at home one day a week, sometimes, if you’re really good and you have a good relationship with your manager.

I remember back in 1994, I was on a contract for Borland Software, one of the more innovative software companies at the time. I was commuting in to their Scotts Valley, California office every day from my home in Burlingame, which was about an hour and a half commute in each direction.

I had a good reputation and had successfully completed about a month’s worth of work for them, when I asked about the possibility of completing the contract from home. I was informed that telecommuting wasn’t an option. No discussion. No reason. They just didn’t do that there. Within a month, I had to give up the contract. The commute was too much.

Even when I worked there as an employee a decade later, telecommuting was considered the refuge of scoundrels and slackers.

But, don’t think I’m picking on Borland. Every company I worked for in the Valley was pretty much the same. Even so-called progressive companies like Tandem, Oracle, LSI Logic, and Aspect Telecommunications.

Trust

It comes down to trust. Managers, especially first and second-line managers, often don’t trust their employees. I think many first-time managers are actually afraid of their employees. That’s one thing I dislike about management: the adversarial approach that still runs rampant in corporate America.

Even when employees prove their ability to focus and deliver the goods, managers resist allowing telecommuting. “We don’t want to set a precedent. Just because you’re responsible, doesn’t mean the rest of these people will be.”

What they don’t think about is the negative consequences of punishing the many for the perceived faults of the few.

Things need to change. A quarter of a century after I heard the first rumblings about a new, progressive employment practice known as telecommuting we’re still burning up the highways and fossil fuels to go sit in our cubes all day long. Are we any more productive at work than we are at home?

Office Productivity?

As someone who’s been a consultant, contractor, employee, first line manager, and executive, I have to say I don’t see any evidence to support that notion. In fact, cutting out the ridiculous interruptions and pointless meetings would seriously boost productivity, in my opinion.

Imagine if 10,000 people suddenly started working at home instead of commuting in to Santa Clara, Sunnyvale, Cupertino, Mountain View, San Jose, Redwood Shores, San Mateo, Milpitas, Fremont, Pleasanton, and San Francisco. Let’s say you use up 1 gallon of gas driving to and from work one day. (I know that may be more than some people use, but it’s a lot less than others, so it averages out, I’d guess.)

• 10,000 gallons of gas saved in one day.
• At least 8000 fewer cars on the road that one day.
• Anywhere from 8000 to 12,000 hours of productivity rescued.
• Perhaps as many as 2500 children who get to see their parents a little more that day, contributing to some serious employee satisfaction.

I’m sure some scientist out there could compute the amount of particulate matter that wouldn’t be spewed into our air that day, or the amount of wear and tear on all of those cars.

Any Downside? Sure, But You Can Handle It

Would there be losses? Sure. Restaurants and fast food joints would lose money. They’d have to start rethinking their business models. But let’s get real. Few of them make much money off of the real behemoths in the Valley: Google, Oracle, Yahoo!, and others, because they have fully-equipped cafes that rival and sometimes even exceed the quality of outside providers.

It’s time for managers to learn to trust. If you really have slackers on your team who won’t produce unless you’re watching their every move, then you have a problem that you’re avoiding. Don’t penalize everybody else and the environment to make it easy on yourself.