Posts tagged Telework
On Teleworking, Attention, and the Cost of Distraction
Aug 6th
I never really provided any closure to my three days of Telework posts. Those days were definitely the most productive days I’ve had as a developer in a long time. In my role I am often more than just a developer so shunning all responsibility to write code is not possible. The key to successful teleworking for me is still being reachable and responsive and I think I was able to achieve that during those three days. Over the next few weeks I’ll be continuing to work 3-4 days from home through the end of this current project.
Thus far we over-delivered on what we originally promised and found ourselves in good shape on the project. From the project manager’s perspective he was extremely happy with the results and is a supporter of project based teleworking (he already supports it on another project). One of the senior developers I worked with was also at home on a day or two and we were able to effectively work via e-mail and a few calls on land lines. Our tasks required lots of collaboration and we were very successful in that.
Which leads me to the real crux of why I would want to Telework at all. Yes, I like the people in my office and I do enjoy being there. But it is very difficult to control my environment and my attention. I do not have a door on my cube. I have not found a good hiding spot where I can take a laptop and disappear. Other than putting on headphones or hanging a sign, I cannot control access to my attention which leads to distractions.
At the end of the day my "job" is to ensure that we deliver quality software that works for our customers. During a real time crunch, thorough documentation and other process items may get left in the dust because the end result is a system that works for our customers. Some things can be documented after the release. Late software is not useful for customers.
In order for a developer to effectively deliver quality software it requires a lot of attention. Programming itself requires extensive use of short-term memory. Disrupting that is like clearing the ram on your PC, its lost and it will take time to get it back (hang on while I load Lotus Notes again). Large uninterrupted blocks of time are a valuable resource to developers. When those are attained productivity can easily double or more. 4 uninterrupted hours is easily equivalent to 8 hours at the office with distractions.
While these thoughts were floating around in my head Merlin Mann posted this gem about author Neal Stephenson. Stephenson is admittedly a bad corresponder when it comes to answering fan mail. Merlin’s commentary sums up what is at issue here and that is access to a person’s attention. If Neal Stephenson answered all his fan mail, he would never write another novel.
When you can control access to your attention I believe you can achieve more faster but still allow time to people who need your attention. How you do that will make all the difference in the perception of your responsiveness which is the real key to making this successful.
By teleworking I am controlling access to my attention, letting me focus solely on deliverables. Part of my balancing act will continue to be maintaining a level of responsiveness to satisfy even the most demanding of my attention (like my two-year-old daughter).
Three Days of Telework: Prelude
Jul 29th
Tomorrow begins a three day journey of working from home. My employer’s current feelings on the matter are that in certain circumstances it may be beneficial for employees to work remotely. This can be situational (i.e., delivery, home repairs) or project based. There is not an official policy that allows for N number of days a week (like Monday/Friday, etc).
To date I have been able to Telework one day at a time so three days will be the longest stretch. Of course working from home sounds like all fun and games but it is far from it. Without an official infrastructure for communication other than e-mail it is a lot of work to make sure everyone has cell phone/home phone, etc. Other considerations are power loss or Internet connectivity loss. These things all take some overhead to plan for and flexibility on your coworkers part, especially those who are "stuck" in the office.
Beyond the work overhead there is the home overhead. My wife and the kids have their daily routine and daddy being home definitely impacts them. Since I have worked from home a few times already my daughter kind of understands that when daddy is downstairs he is busy. We’ll have to see what the real impact of three days is on my wife.
Some of you that read this may laugh because you’re doing this five days a week already. Others may be turning green with envy. It still seems like for a majority of companies teleworking is not quite an option. I’m lucky to be in a field where I can do my job from anywhere which is usually the first barrier to teleworking. Beyond that there are the cultural and comfort issues that an organization faces when they have people who don’t clock in at the front door each day. Quite honestly, if you can’t trust a person to do their job, you can’t trust them in the office or out of it.
I’m going to go hit the Xbox for a bit. I can sleep in an extra 45 minutes and report to my basement at 0700. Day one should be the same as the other days I’ve done this. Days two & three may be a different story.
