I think the main issue here may not be supervision, but professional development.
In the book "The Mythical Man-Month", classic but still true book on the job we all love dearly, there is the parable of the manager who observed that their expensive programmers were "wasting" a fair amount of time each day picking up their listings from the printer room, so instead had them delivered by the office messenger. After that change, productivity declined to the puzzlement of the manager. After some analysis, it was discovered that when programmers went to pick up their listings, they also exchanged valuable tips and solved each others problems. When that interaction was discontinued, that productivity aid went away, and the slowdown occurred. When it was restored, things picked up again. In my opinion, that basic premise is still true today. I still work from home on weekends and early mornings and an occasional evening, but the interactive in the office and at lunch is irreplaceable. It could be done, but I would be a worse programmer for it because of all the items that my colleagues share in hallway meetings, etc. Tom -----Original Message----- From: IBM Mainframe Discussion List [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Linda Carroll Sent: Wednesday, June 14, 2006 2:50 PM To: [email protected] Subject: Re: Continued Corporate bias against Telecommuting? Telecommuting.... I have been able to enjoy this feature of my position for the last six years and it has worked extremely well. There are some drawbacks - you don't see your buddies at the coffee machine in the morning, but you can work in your pj's if you desire. Your meetings are more likely over the phone, but that is why we have speaker phones and the "mute" button. Can actually work on more than one task at a time and if you need to work late, the drive home is easy - usually a walk down the hall. As the technology age advances, and managers trust their employees to work without direct supervision, we should see an increase in the number of people who do work (telecommute) from remote locations. Have to admit, it's sometimes nice for a change to visit the local coffee shop and work just as efficiently from there as from my home office. Thanks, Linda J. Carroll Mainframe Capacity Planning Linda Carroll/Alpharetta/[EMAIL PROTECTED] Email: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Office: 404-921-5216 Tie Line: 930-3712 The choice is ours, in every moment. - MJ Ryan ---------------------------------------------------------------------- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the message: GET IBM-MAIN INFO Search the archives at http://bama.ua.edu/archives/ibm-main.html
