Is the Downside of Telecommuting the Specter of Outsourcing?

I've been writing a lot recently about the promises of telecommuting related to employee commute costs, retention, company real estate costs and perhaps most importantly - productivity.  I'm still a big believer in what I've written, but have had on my list of things to riff at least one important downside.

It's called politics.  Face time.  The confidence that the work is getting done that can only come from seeing Johnny or Brenda in their cube.

Let's go a step deeper, because while I've thought a bit on this one, I haven't spent a lot of time pondering the impact until I saw a post over at Valleywag that referred to it.  Here's the concept - Let's say you have the opportunity to telecommute, and it's pretty attractive to you.  But, you're concerned about the face time element.  Should you also be concerned about the fact you might be training your employer that they could outsource/offshore your job?

From Valleywag:

"A recent WSJ article and countless horror stories chart the tricky waters that outsourcers must navigate to move jobs outside throat-choking range. Although nervous-nelly IT workers take comfort in these tales, don't forget the basic math of outsourcing: A job that can be done remotely by you from home for $X can probably be done remotely from Mumbai for $X/10. So how do you make your job outsource-proof?

You need to create a role that requires your presence. The only way to do that is to show up — the more, the better.

Some IT professionals got into IT to avoid having to develop their people skills. If this sounds like you, it is time to shift some paradigms. Woody Allen said "80 percent of success is showing up." He should have added "especially when you don't want to." Too many WFH days and you might as well hang a sign on your chair, "Stop paying for this seat! Call 1-800-OFF-SHOR."

That's a real concern, but it underscores what I've said before.  If you choose to telecommute, it's not a call to take it easy.  If you want the telecommuting to continue (and if you want to keep your employment), you've got to do all of us, who are advocates of the power of telecommuting and other alternative work arrangements, a SOLID and become much more productive than you were in the office.

Simply put, if you simply stay as productive as you were in the office, it's not good enough.  You've got to be better, especially so that boomer boss of yours, who was suspicious of the whole thing to begin with, becomes an advocate of you working from home and getting stuff DONE. 

Don't let the outsourcing boogeyman bring you down when it comes to telecommuting.  Hedge your bets on face time if you need to and do a partial schedule - 3 days in the office, 2 days telecommuting.  But, if you want to keep working the 4 actual hours you're doing now, maybe you should stay in the office.

Comments

[Kristin]

I don't necessarily agree with your comment, "[you need to be] much more productive than you were in the office."

My staff has been telecommuting for 5 years; 3 days in the office, 2 at home. As long as we are AS productive as we would be in the office, nobody messes in our business.

In fact, we are MORE productive only due to telecommuting. It's natural that without the typical distractions you have in the workplace, you'll do more work in less time. However, for this to work, you have to already encompass the qualities that make for a good telecommuter. That is, an already very productive, highly organized, communicative, team oriented employee. If these are not characteristics your employees already have, they won't make good telecommuters no matter how much MORE productive they try to be.