I worked from home for a day last week.
My company has software to divert my phone extension to any phone number in the world, so when people call my desk number I can pick up at home. Equally, I can ring them and my extension and name come up on their display, though I am at home.
For PC access, we have a corporate extranet which allows me to log directly on to my desktop at the office.
So in essence I can work from home with access to all the tools of the office. I also find I work harder when at home – there is no coffee machine, no-one to have a chat with. To me that’s a good reason to be independent of the office – increased productivity, no wasted commute time – happy company, happy worker.
My boss mailed and asked why I was working from home. “No particular reason”, I replied. His response? “I approve of working from home, please don’t do it again.”
What’s strange about this is I’ve been working from home irregularly for years. But recently I moved jobs – same company, same division, but different team.
The company has a corporate website extolling the virtues of working from home – so what gives? I’ve moved from a team where the management had family and occasionally wanted to work from home so they could be “home from work” earlier in the evening, to a team of childless management who have no concept of work/life balance.
It doesn’t matter how much a company promotes working from home – it’s needs to be universally accepted by the entire management team.
Here’s how to embed working from home in the culture of a firm:
Set an example – senior managers should set the standard by themselves working from home occasionally. Until the CEO logs in from the home office, any promotion of working from home is empty words
Remove the stigma – promote stories of highly rated staff working from home and doing well in their career, not just some low level employee logged in from home who’s clearly going nowhere
Measure the results – several years back many multi-nationals started ranking senior managers on their department’s diversity. Working from home and flexible working options being taken up should be included in these metrics, as they are a great indicator of a positive working environment
Embrace the information age – we information age workers are employed for our knowledge, not our hours worked. Measure the outputs and results of the staff, not the time you see them in their seat
Trust your employees – someone can sit at their desk in the office and do nothing too. Understand that just because your team member is out of sight, doesn’t mean they aren’t getting their job done. People manage global teams all the time and don’t see all their staff – does it matter if they are in the branch office or at their home
When my senior manager told me not to work from home I replied “sure, won’t happen again”. I really meant it. That night when I left the office I made sure to switch off my BlackBerry before I reached the front door of my house.
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