HOME ALONE
Embracing the CyberQuo
About My Blog
2013 is the year I’ve accepted a position with a virtual company. To me, a virtual company provides products and/or services using a workforce that does not have a specific required location. A company who supports and expects the professionals it hires to work from their homes or the client site, or wherever they happen to be when the work needs to get done.
It is my personal belief that the next five to ten years
will see many more companies expect employees to provide their own work-space. Already
the tools are in place to support a virtual work force; email, chat and online
meeting tools are so prevalent that employees at many companies find themselves
driving to offices, only to spend their days communicating online. If there are
no face-to-face meetings in an employee’s agenda, why are they sitting in
traffic to get to the job they could do at home? More importantly, why are
companies paying for office space (and maintenance and phone bills and
landscaping fees, etc.) when many employees would *prefer* to work from home?
Another important point, a virtual company can hire the
person they need, without letting their geographic location play a part in the
employment decision. If that’s the manager you need, but they live in a remote
part of Washington State? Hey, as long as they have phone and internet access,
they can be part of your company!
In my experience, executives who feel being able to see
employees is the only way to assure productivity are executives disassociated from
the actual work being done in their company. Like anything else, excellent
management requires talent, temperament and training and is fairly rare.
Talented managers understand all levels of a project and base their assessment
of the results on the product, not on how often they bump into an employee at
the coffee station.
It will be interesting to see which companies thrive over
the next few years, and which employment policies are discarded and which employment
policies support companies that prove to be winners. As for right now, I enjoy
being part of a virtual company and my co-workers and I are extremely productive.
(thank you very much)
