To Tele or Commute – That is the Question

I have worked both extremes.  My first job after college (certainly before the advent of telecommuting), I worked a consistent 8am-5pm. There was no working from home or taking work home.  Currently, I work from home full-time.  My hours are flexible (within reason), and I could, ostensibly, go for days without seeing anyone other than my husband and our dogs.  All this is to say, my perspective on the matter is complicated, yet informed.

When Melissa Meyer took over the helm of Yahoo! and declared that there would be no more working from home, there was outrage.  Her position (which is shared by many leaders) was that innovation (and the rescue of her company) was not possible without in-person contact in the office.  You know, those impromptu hallway/water cooler chats.  But part of the backlash was that, as a new mother and the CEO, she had the luxury of putting in a nursery next to her office.  This perk wasn’t available to anyone else, and it was seen as her being out of touch with what regular employees needed, wanted or could afford.

13% is the amount an employee’s efficiency can improve when she works from home, according to a 2013 study from Stanford University.  The reason for the boost?  Relative quiet and fewer sick days taken.  (Real Simple, September 2013)

I am not a Millenial, but flexibility appeals to me. That said, working from home all day, every day makes me feel isolated.  It’s difficult to feel integrated into a team that you never see and rarely hear.  On the flip side, when I worked where my hours were scrutinized and strict, that wasn’t ideal for me either (at that point I was in my early twenties; I think I’d be much more open to it now).  I do believe, as the quote above mentions, I can be more efficient when working from home.  However, I found that to be the case mostly when I worked from home one to two days a week.  I was able to save projects that required concentration and limited interruption for those days, whereas, if I was working on a large and busy spreadsheet, I found it better to work on it from my office where I had multiple monitors.

While I agree that important relationships and creativity are nurtured in the halls and breakrooms, there are also the costs for the company of having a full-time staff at all times.  Some companies are cutting costs by encouraging occasional telecommuting with shared desk spaces or a system often called “hoteling” where you can reserve a desk space if you’re going to be in the office.  The question, of course, is how do you balance the ROI of flexible workspaces with the ROI of informal innovation.  I suspect the answer is different for every company, so the answer is likely the good ole business school answer – “it depends.”

In my experience, there’s a great opportunity for balance. As overhead costs become untenable, employees could share work spaces and coordinate their schedules to work from home two days a week, only overlapping at least one day each week.  This allows the flexibility of working from home (potentially increasing productivity by that 13% on those days) at the same time providing the opportunity for those informal conversations to be sparked.  This also allows for team meetings to be held on the day(s) of the week where everyone is in the office.  If you’ve ever been remotely dialed into a team meeting where you’re one of a few remote people while the rest of the team is in the room, it’s frustrating beyond belief – having everyone in the room at the same time allows for stronger relationships and potentially more efficient meetings, so I will always vote for in-person meetings when available.

A rise in productivity doesn’t mean a promotion, however.  According to a recent article in MIT Sloan Management Review, telecommuters move up more slowly than their in-office peers.  (Real Simple, September 2013)

Despite the globalized world where telecommuting is more commonplace, the old adage of “out of sight; out of mind” still holds true.  Bumping into people in the hall or on your way into the building means that you are front of mind.  And let’s be real about it – when you’re front of mind, you’re further up the list for advancement than those who are never physically seen. So while this isn’t terribly surprising, it was not something I was anticipating in my work-from-home job.  In my current role, I feel disconnected from the powers that be and have to work extra diligently to ensure that my accomplishments are recognized by those people.  Never seeing them in person doesn’t help my cause.  Thankfully, I have a very supportive manager who I feel confident sings my praises to his leadership.

As you can see, I don’t have an answer that will work for everyone and every company; I don’t think one size fits all.  There are too many factors to have a binary approach to this.  Different roles require different amounts of in-office work (e.g. engineers making widgets need to be present to make those widgets), different people function better at the office vs. at home (and vice versa), different industries have differently-evolved philosophies on the matter, and different managers have differing opinions on whether their employees could possibly be working well when not in the office.  It’s not an easy decision for a company to make, but I do believe offering some flexibility to allow for working from home occasionally not only allows employees to take care of some things around the house (e.g. waiting for a delivery), but also means that they’ll be in the office some of the time to have that face-time.  It seems to me that addresses most/all of the issues brought up by either extreme.

The key, of course, is to evaluate the quality and quantity of work that employees are accomplishing both at work and at home to determine what works best.  But that requires a well-honed, advanced, and culturally-ingrained performance management process.  But that’s a topic for another post.

Where’d you go?

As you can see, my previous post was in mid-August.  Since then, I’ve traveled a bit.  In late August/early September, my husband and I went on our honeymoon to Croatia and Venice (Dubrovnik is OUTSTANDING). About 48 hours after touching down in the US, I made a quick trip to Williamstown, MA to participate in my first meeting as a member of the Executive Committee for the Society of Alumni of my alma mater, Williams College.  And then, once I finally got home, I dove right into my new job as a contractor for a major international consulting firm.  After that came Thanksgiving in NY, a trip to Missouri to visit my grandmother in her new nursing home facilities, and then Christmas in OKC.

So, all of this is to say, the back end of 2013 was a bit of a whirlwind.  As we move into 2014, I’m going to do my best to post at least once a month, but hopefully twice.  I’ve got a lot on my mind, some great ideas, people, and blogs to share, and I want to hear what you have to say.

Stay tuned.

Status Report – August 12, 2013

As you can see, it’s been almost two months since my last status report (and my last post, for that matter).  It has not been for lack of things to say (I’ve got lists all over my house of books I’d like to mention, sites I’d like to recommend, and topics I’d like to discuss), but rather because I have not devoted specific time to sit down and write.  So when one of my friends and fellow blogger suggested that we make a regular habit of sitting down together and carving out time to write, I jumped at the chance.  It’s a little funny for me (a seriously social being) to sit across from someone in silence, but at least it’s got us writing.

And with that, on to this month’s Status Report.

Physical/Mental Health
I’m giving myself a green light on this one.  I’ve been pretty good about getting in my daily 10k steps (or close to it), but that’s not the real determining factor.  I’ve started playing squash again, and that’s got me really active a few times a week.  Back in high school, I was nationally ranked (#11 in the under-17 division), and I played on the varsity team at Williams College.  But since college, I haven’t really stuck with it.  I go in spurts of loving it and then getting frustrated with myself that I’m not playing as well as I think I should be.  This time around, however, I seem to be coming at it with a different mindset.  My coaches would be proud – I’m typically focusing on the long points and trying to win through good consistent play, not by taking risky winning shots.  I still get frustrated with myself from time to time, but overall, I think I’m really just enjoying it.

Outside of playing squash 2-3 times every week, I continue to do other workouts (cardio, weight-lifting, etc.).  As part of this 90-day challenge I joined at my gym, I’ve got four personal training sessions coming up (purchased at a discount), and I’ll be given another assessment on my heart rates to see if I’ve improved my cardio vascular stamina since the last assessment a few months ago.  I got a new toy (yes, I like gadgets), a Garmin heart-rate watch, into which I can program all 5 heart rates and really be targeted about when I want to burn fat or when I just want to really go anaerobic.   I’m quite excited about using it.  And I wear it when during squash, I see that I burn 800-1200 calories when I play a couple hours of squash.

Community Involvement

This one gets a greenish-yellow light.  Throughout the month of July, I served as the registrar at AGE Computer Lab while the regular registrar was out of town.  I spent about 30-40 hours in July working on creating attendance sheets, registering students in our database, and tracking and processing payments for classes.  I made a run toCostCo at one point and bought a massive supply of creamers and sweeteners for their coffee (they have a coffee break in all their classes) as another donation to their efforts.   still volunteer with AGE a couple hours each week, but it’s not much.  But aside from that, I really haven’t done much volunteering.  I plan on getting back to that in the fall.

Love of Learning
I’m giving myself a greenish-yellow light on this one as well.  I am still reading Mindset by Carol Dweck, and because there were so many passages that I wanted to take note of, I finally just went ahead and bought my own copy so I could highlight it as needed.  I’ve also recently learned about Simon Sinek and his “Start with Why” book and talks.  His Start with Why website shows how you progress from defining your “why,” devising the “how” and “what” that follow, how that model works inside of an organization, and then what to do when you’re struggling to make a decision (hint: go back to your why and determine which action supports that).  It’s an interesting model and reminds me a lot of the Human Performance Institute’s Corporate Athlete program that I participated in a couple times.  I loved the notion of determining your ultimate purpose is and then ensuring that everything you do drives to your purpose.  Not surprisingly, it’s easier said than done, but it’s good to take that time to reflect on what it is you really want out of your life.  The Corporate Athlete also addresses things in a very holistic manner through body, heart, mind, and spirit.  I would love to be a certified instructor of that one day and travel around taking people through that meaningful and potentially life-changing process.  I think it’s really expensive to become certified, but that might just be something that leads me to my ultimate purpose.

Job Search
Good news – I’m employed!  Green light!  Since this last post, I received two job offers.  They were both contract roles, which meant no health insurance and in some cases limited access to some systems, but they were job offers.  And interesting ones at that.  One job, in Houston, sounded like work in line with my passion for Learning and Development.  I’d be working on this companies very well-developed (compared to what I’ve known) catalog of development programs helping to conduct quantifiable assessments of their programs in addition to potentially helping redesign some programs.  And it paid more ($6/hr more), but the problem was, it was in Houston.  They would require me to be in Houston three days per week for the first couple months and then re-evaluate the situation at that point.  They were extremely generous (offering housing, gas reimbursement, etc.) and the work sounded interesting, but I just couldn’t really wrap my head around driving to Houston and back every week and, more importantly, being away from my husband that much.  We are, after all, newlyweds.

The job I accepted really focuses on my project management experience and does make a nod to my training background, but more in a development of training frameworks rather than my actually delivering the training.  The team is hilarious, hard-working, and welcoming, and most of us are dispersed throughout the country, so all of our work is done either over the phone or through an online meeting platform.  My commute is walking from the bedroom to the dining room (where I’ve set up shop temporarily as we clean out our Office, which has become a glorified storage room).  It took a couple weeks for me to get my computer, but I’m getting into the swing of things now.  That said, it is a contract position, and while I would love to be converted to a full-time employee, I realize that the ebbs and flows of business often dictate a change of course, so conversion might not be possible in the near term.  So I’m keeping my eyes peeled, while giving this job all that I have.

Status Report – June 18, 2013

One of the reasons I chose to do status reports is that I believe in transparency.  Having worked in HR, I realize that not all things can be transparent (there is the need for confidentiality at times), but I believe that we can…we should be more transparent.  So many confusing moments can be clarified if all parties had just communicated what they meant, needed, disliked, etc. in the first place.  I believe that people are too guarded and end up hurting themselves in the long run; I’ve seen this on numerous occasions in my professional life.  I certainly strive to be a truth-teller, and will work to help others become more comfortable with the truth, even when it seems like the riskier option.

And with that, some truth telling in my Status Report for June 18.

Physical/Mental Health
I’m giving myself a yellow light on this one.  While the FitBit has certainly been motivating me to take more steps during the day, and despite my initial over-achieving nature, I haven’t reached 10k steps on each of the past few days.  There are caveats (like, I parked my car far away from the gym entrance to get in the extra steps, only to realize that I forgot to put my FitBit on my workout clothing), but overall, the lesson is that I need to be more active.

Progress is being made in other parts of the physical health arena.  I have put together various weight-lifting routines to rotate throughout the week in addition to my cardio workouts.  The balance of creating more lean mass and reducing body fat through cardio routines targeting specific heart rates is the best way to make some headway in the ever-present weight loss challenge.  That said, these workouts aren’t perfect, and I’ll need to tweak them (adjust a weight here, switch out a machine there, and so on).  Of course, as luck would have it, I’ll probably finish tweaking them just when it’s time to rotate them out and do a whole new set of routines (don’t want my muscles to get too comfy).

Community Involvement
This one definitely gets a green light.  I continue to spend a lot of time at AGE Computer Lab and have taken on their social media presence (which only consists of Facebook, right now).  I’ve already seen some action on those posts, but haven’t seen an increase in class registration just yet.  I’m working on it, though.

I have also registered through United Way’s Hands On Central Texas volunteering database.  This service allows me to search through volunteering opportunities in addition to allowing prospective organizations search me out based on the skills/interests I listed in my profile.  I’m excited go through the listings of opportunities…but I’m going to have to balance my time spent volunteering with my job search.  (See Job Search below.)

Love of Learning
I better always get green on this one…it’s my true passion.  And, I’m giving myself a green light this month. Today I signed up for a certification from the American Red Cross on CPR and First Aid for adults and children.  The only thing it doesn’t cover is Pet CPR (which I intend to learn the next time it is offered).  The class is this Monday and is pretty much the full day.  I remember loving Standard First Aid, CPR, and Emergency Water Safety when I took them at summer camp, but that was ::covers mouth with hand mumbling unintelligibly:: years ago.  Let’s just leave it at that.

I also just picked up a book (from my beloved local Austin library) recommended to me called Mindset by Carol Dweck.  Essentially, it discusses her belief that people are either of a “fixed mindset” or a “growth mindset.”  As she describes it, the former is where people believe that their intelligence or talent are fixed traits.  They don’t spend the time developing them.  They believe that those fixed traits alone create their success.  A growth mindset, on the other hand, people believe “brains and talent are just the starting point.”  You can learn and develop and accomplish great things if you have this attitude, and it’s available to everyone.  It sounds fascinating, and I can’t wait to read it.

Job Search
In the spirit of transparency, this one gets a yellow light as well.  I have not been doing all that I should be doing to find a new job.   I do review job search sites on a regular basis, but as anyone who is looking for a job will tell you, that’s only going to get you so far.   I have not done the full-court press on my target companies and have not requested time from all of professional mentors with whom I’d like to chat. That said, I continue to apply to my fair share of jobs (a couple each week), and have some other potential projects in the works.  So all is not lost.

Coffee Talk with Linda Richman

Perhaps I’m dating myself, but one of my favorite skits on Saturday Night Live was “Coffee Talk with Linda Richman.”  Mike Myers was in drag as a middle-aged New Yorker lady with an exaggerated New Yawk accent.  Growing up in Brooklyn, I heard my fair share of those voices.  It was “no big whoop.”

I’ve been having my own series of “coffee talks” in an attempt to learn more about what is out there and what advice some of my mentors have for me.

One such coffee talk was with Allen Sockwell.  For much of my time at AMD, he was the Cheif Talent Officer, and he set a great example.  He was a business person who just happened to be working in HR because he believed in the power of people.  This is how I try to brand myself, so I felt he was a kindred spirit from the get go.  He is now the Founder and Managing Partner of Sockwell Performance Advisors.

He shared with me his process for introspection and determining what his next post-AMD project would be.   There are three facets to what we do: capability, passion, and fit, and we need to consider all of them when looking for the next opportunity whether it be within the same company or taking a larger leap of faith.

Too often, we go with capability regardless of whether the passion is there.  Or perhaps the passion is there, but the fit isn’t right (e.g. a small company with limited infrastructure, but you operate well with more distinct parameters).

But what would it be like if you found that sweet spot?  As with any job, there is going to be balance.  We’re not going to be passionate about every aspect of our jobs.  We might not have the capability to do some pieces (but we can learn!).  Or perhaps certain issues around fit aren’t ideal.

But if we can find a job when the majority of our time is spent in that sweet spot, work is no big whoop.

Timing is Everything – Today’s Endeavors

Well, wouldn’t you know, I was inspired to create this blog just before leaving town for a few days.  That got me off my rhythm, and now it’s been over two weeks since my last post.  That stops today!

That said, just because I haven’t been blogging doesn’t mean that I haven’t been doing things to further my goals in the four categories of physical/mental health, community involvement, love of learning, and job search.

So with that, below are Today’s Endeavors…well, more like This Week’s Endeavors:

1. Physical/Mental Health
   I’m trying to be better about getting to the gym on a regular basis.  Unfortunately, my pilates classes fell through due to low registration, and I was really looking forward to them.  But, I’ve put together my own arms and abs weight training routines and still have my treadmill workouts that I’ve been doing.
   I also got a FitBit Zip to track my steps.  When you have a computer-based job, it’s easy to not take your 10,000 steps (which equals roughly 4 miles).  When you’re in between jobs, it’s sort of a craps shoot – some days I’m all over the place, other days I’m rather sedentary.  So, I wanted to get into the analytics instead of just guessing how many steps I’ve been taking.  Today’s my first day wearing it, and so far I’ve only taken about 3,800 steps.  Good thing we’re going to the Greenbelt tonight to go hiking.  Can’t wait to see what it reads when I’m done.
   All in all, it’s better than sitting on the couch all day, so I’ll count it as a slight win.
2. Community Involvement
   This week I volunteered at the AGE Computer Lab as the substitute registrar while their regular registrar out on vacation. I’ve been doing this for a couple of weeks now and will be for about 1.5 months.  While I could do everything online, I’ve been going into their office, and as it turns out, it has served me well in that I’ve gotten out of the house and had some lovely conversations with some of our “Greatest Generation.”  I’ve also volunteered to take over the social media (at least FB for now) for the Lab, a notion which was greeted with enthusiasm, as they’re over-worked here as it is.
   I also attended Greenlights Board Summit last night.  It’s a great opportunity to learn more about the non-profits who partner with Greenlights with the eventual goal of finding an organization with whom you’d like to create a stronger bond through board service.  I learned about a school down here that is similar to the one I attended in Brooklyn – no grades! (…a foreign concept to most…)  I’d definitely like to look into being more involved with them in the future.  Check them out at Austin Discovery School.  I plan on reaching out to them today.
3. Love of Learning
   This week my Love of Learning endeavors were more amorphous – I reflected a lot on what I had learned from a few chats I’ve had with people here and there, and planned out my editorial calendar for this blog.  I also found a few places where I might take some classes, but more on that later.
4. Job Search
   Since my last post, sadly, I was informed that I didn’t get a job for which I had had second round interviews.  That was disappointing, of course, but onward and forward.  This week has been more informal networking than applying to jobs, for the most part.  This afternoon, I have a conversation lined up about a potential contract gig that would require me to spend a little bit of time in Houston, so we’ll see where that goes.

So those are This Week’s Endeavors.  Stay tuned for some lists of what I’ve been reading, what I’ve been doing, and a status report.

Quick Post: Today’s Endeavors and Status Reports

Periodically, I will post “Today’s Endeavors.”  Those activities will move the needle in one or more of the following 4 focus areas:

1. Physical/Mental Health
2. Community Involvement
3. Love of Learning
4. Job Search

I will also be posting “Status Reports” as to how I’m doing on each of these four areas.  I’ll use the RYG model:

Red Light means problems have already arisen or are imminent.

Yellow Light means problems are on the horizon, but so far everything is on its way.

Green Light means everything is hunky dory.

 

So with that introduction, I’m going to get back to my To Do List for the day.

So what do you do with all that “down” time?

In my “down” time, I am making a point to keep a connection with my community.  I’ll keep a running list of all the places I’ve volunteered while out of work, which can be found via the Where I’m Volunteering link on the right.

Below are the three places where I’ve given my time and efforts in the past couple of months.

• Capital Area Food Bank
  There’s nothing quite like sorting food items.  I think it feeds my love of process.  But the best part of volunteering at CAFB is the immediate gratification of knowing exactly how many pounds of food your shift has sorted and how many lives that will help.
• AGE Computer Lab
  Previously known as the Austin Computer Learning Center, AGE (Austin Groups for the Elderly) Computer Lab is a place where older adults are exposed to technology.  Classes cover everything from basic computer skills (literally…this is a mouse…this is a keyboard) to photojournalism and iPhone apps.  I love serving as a coach there, helping the students to conduct the hands-on portion of the lesson.  Their class structure with one coach to 2-3 learners (in addition to the instructor at the front of the room), really allows for complete understanding by all students.
• Emancipet
  As the proud mother of two furry sons (I met my husband at the dog park), I love having the opportunity to help out our furry community members.  Empancipet, which provides low-cost veterinary services (primarily spaying and neutering), needed and office facelift.  As a part of the group Karma Badgers, started by my friend Narissa Johnson, we removed the furniture, repainted the office, and generally spruced up the place.  From what I understand, it was a wonderful surprise to the employees when they got in on Monday.

And so it begins…or rather, continues

I am out of work.  There.  I said it.  It certainly pulls at the ego a bit to think that you look great on paper and feel that you have done great things professionally, only to be out of work.  But it is what it is.  I need to get over that. 

I’ve been out of work for a couple months now.  At first, I’ll admit, it was kind of fun to have a bit of a “vacation.”  But that got old quickly.  I’ve never really been out of work before.  I was laid off from my job (of 6 years) in September and three days later, I had a new job.  So I got a two week vacation between those positions. 

But, through no fault of either party, my next job just didn’t work out.  I went from a company of 11,000 to 110, which required quite a bit more of a mind shift than I had anticipated.  (As an aside, I now know what I didn’t know and feel much more prepared for a small company experience.)  So after my probationary period as a new employee, we parted ways.  It was their initiative, but I agreed it was not a good fit.  They are amazing at their core business and are a bunch of super smart people, so certainly no hard feelings on my part. 

But, I digress….

I have applied for unemployment (again, bruising the ego), but I am lucky in that I have the ability to be very thoughtful about my next endeavor, as I am now on my husband’s health insurance and we have some savings. 

So, this blog will serve as:

• an outlet for my writing (something I love)
• a journal of my experience with the job search
• a list of what I’m reading/doing to keep those business muscles flexing
• …and more.

And with that, watch this space.  Keep tabs on an Ivy League MBA who believes in her bones that life-long learning is the answer as she struggles with finding her own answers and learning about the process of being unemployed and searching for her next meaningful professional opportunity.