FWD: Fear, Loathing, and telecommuting

Subject: FWD: Fear, Loathing, and telecommuting
From: "Eric J. Ray" <ejray -at- RAYCOMM -dot- COM>
Date: Fri, 16 Oct 1998 05:37:02 -0600

Name withheld upon request. Please reply on list.

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I have some telecommuting experience under my belt. I call the experience
the good, bad, and ugly. The good experiences were on projects with
companies that could manage off-site workers. Some companies do it well. I
still talk to some of these old clients. The bad and ugly experiences were
in companies were project management was a dark art, communication was
poor, and an offsite documentation project was out of sight and out of mind
despite the frequent phonecalls, emails, and faxes from the off-site writers.

I am not discounting the whole trust issue but a bigger management issue
can lurk in some companies. Perhaps some documentation managers realize
they have too many plates spinning, and an off-site project will get lost
in the chaos.

Now as a new hiring manager building a doc group in a startup company, I am
shying away from off-site contractors because in the lifecycle of the
company we are just not ready for it -- the developers, my management
experience, and the company processes included . Hypocritical since I used
to telecommute? Maybe. I made this call based on my bad and ugly
experiences as a telecommuter and where the development group and my
documentation group is in their maturity. I know that I will miss out on
qualified writers but the management and environmental issues combined with
a hot TW job market in my area supersede all of those issues. I believe in
telecommuting and will hopefully revisit the issue as my doc group grows
and the company processes mature.

Some companies are just better equipped for telecommuters than others.


From ??? -at- ??? Sun Jan 00 00:00:00 0000=



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