The New York Times and Psychology Today report on teleworking: Although 75 percent of managers say that telecommuters are just as productive as their in-office colleagues, only 39 percent say that virtual workers are likely to advance as fast as those employees who go into the office every day. Bosses like to look at their employees and see that they look as if they are working. And being physically present in the office means that employees benefit from those chance moments when the invitation to go for a beer after work, or something like that, is extended by the boss.
One "solution" offered in the Psychology Today article would be video surveillance of the teleworker at home or at other remote job sites, so the boss gets that feeling that they can observe their employee. This wrong approach is based on the usual problem of some managers' illusion that the person they can see is more productive than the one they can't.
The right approach is to train managers to decouple their emotional need to have someone within reach to supervise from tangible, measurable outcomes that teleworkers are expected to deliver, regardless of location.
Organizations that train managers to get over their need to see their employees in person will get the benefits of teleworking, like lower facilities costs, energy conservation, and improved employee motivation.
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/08/18/business/media/18offline.html?ref=business
http://www.psychologytoday.com/articles/pto-20070723-000016.html
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1 comment:
You hit one nail on the head.
A related problem is the teleworking puts pressure on supervisors to manage goals, not activities. Some supervisors aren't comfortable articulating the results they want to achieve - just how an employee or a contractor should spend his time. And if a worker achieves the desired result without "hands on" supervision, who needs the supervisor, and how does the supervisor get recognition?
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