What Keane said," So unless the organisation as a whole has frameworks in place for remote working, I think it's difficult to achieve successfully - for the whole organisation."
Two things to address about that: business culture and the law. First thing: I would go work in the office if it was for a small company. But the problem with small outfits is that they usually don't have the resources to fill specialized roles with experts i.e., requirements, interaction designers, usability teams, graphics people with a graphics degree, etc. and so don't do things from my perspective in IXDA, very well. The last few years, I've been contracting for a large, distributed national company. In any given project meeting there are no more than 3 of a dozen or so participants - each a dedicated expert - who are actually physically located in the same building; many IT groups, in fact, are in India. To make this work, the company has honed the art of working remotely by investing in supportive collaboration tools, all used in conjunction: Outlook calendaring, SameTime IMS, WebEx, national phone conference bridges, SharePoint document repositories, etc. This arrangement is exponentially more efficient: allows recruiting from (and living in any region (I get to stay in San Diego);ensures that all requirements, tasks, work product is documented; maximizes multi-tasking; leaves a document trail of interactions (nice to have an email or IM log handy when it comes to he said/she said); optimizes worktime - zero commuting time, no mass exoduses for lunch and breaks and keeps things impersonal, more merit than personality based. Plus, and it is no small plus, if everyone who could telecommute did, you'd fix global warming, gridlock and dependency on foreign oil in one fell swoop - with existing technology. (Just had to add that because feeling morally superior compared with the car commuter is fabulous perk.) Second thing: My company, like most these days, hires contractors at a 4 or 5 to one ratio compared with employees. It is illegal for a company to dictate either the location, work hours or tools of an independent contractor. So, if, as a contractor, you're being asked to work in a cubicle, the company is violating the law, open to a lawsuit, and has no grounds to push back on you if you tell them you will be working remotely. Any company of this kind of company needs to quickly implement a telecommuting culture or put themselves at risk. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Posted from the new ixda.org http://www.ixda.org/discuss?post=39200 ________________________________________________________________ Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ....... [email protected] Unsubscribe ................ http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe List Guidelines ............ http://www.ixda.org/guidelines List Help .................. http://www.ixda.org/help
