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Teleworkers called back to the cubicle

PATRICK WHITE

From Monday's Globe and Mail

Latest comment posted at 1:42 PM EST 21/12/07

Will working from home become a thing of the past? ...Read the full article

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  1. Joseph Whistle from Canada writes: For security, what they could do is encrypt the data, and use a combined decryption session key that's valid for a period of time and can only be obtained when connected to the network through the VPN. Data then becomes accessible and processable.
  2. karen l from Canada writes: Working from home should be okay, but maybe it depends. Last time I dealt with Telus, I got someone who was apparently working from home. It took longer than it should have to get my business done because he couldn't hear what I was saying most of the time, and he didn't seem able to concentrate on what he did hear. In the background on his end it sounded like there were 10 people in the room, including a crying baby.
  3. The Workfarce from Canada writes: Work has to hurt or else it isn't real work. Teleworkers are a threat to the Puritan work ethic that rules North America. A threat to the traditional master-slave relationship that made America great. If it irks it works. If it looks like pleasure, they'll take your measure.
  4. Bill Needle from Canada writes: Teleworking needs bosses who are leaders and project managers - skills that are painfully short in Canadian businesses and extinct in Canadian bureaucracies. Most organizations cannot develop or even tolerate these skills but rely on micro-management and intimidation.

    It will take another generation before this type of work catches on in a meaningful way. It's all in the Dilbert books unfortunately.
  5. Northern Girl from Nunavut, Canada writes: Jeepers. I used to work at UPS doing data entry and every keystroke was recorded and speed records kept and reviewed every week. So, if UPS can do that, surely the micro-managers should be able to instal that type of software on home-workers' laptops to track exactly what they are doing and show whether they are getting the Bang for their Buck that they want. Workers wouldn't like it but is it any worse than having your boss hovering behind you?
  6. Joseph Whistle from Canada writes: Perhaps a periodic score should be measured, as to how well someone is performing at home. If you're in a room with 10 people with a crying baby in the background, and can't concentrate on the service call, that'd result in a low score.
    If you're sitting in a dedicated home-office, and you're handling the service call with full concentration, you'd get a high score.
  7. A. Nonymous from Compensation, United States writes: This isn't so bad, This forces employers to provide egronomically correct workplaces, and comply with various health and safety issues. I'm sure the former home office workers will not hesitate to bring these issues to the attention of management.

    Maybe when forced to correct a few thousand health and safety / workplace standards, management will think twice of reining in otherwise productive employees, and forcing them to work in substandard conditions.

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