[Cialug] Programming telecommute

[Matthew Nuzum]

Oh, another great point that Jim's account brought to mind: If most of a
team is co-located and there is only one or two who telecommute life will
stink. People will forget to invite you to meetings, the tools for
telecommuting (chat room, etc) will be non-existent or unused by most of
the team.

If you do telecommute, try to find a team where a lot of people on the team
also work remotely.

On Fri, Oct 24, 2014 at 1:46 PM, Jim Cole <jrcole at gmail.com> wrote:

> I'm currently on my 16th year of telecommuting for the same company
> that I've worked for for 18 years. My entire team of 15 people does
> is. We're all around the country..most were hired as telecommuters. I
> even have people who live in the town the products are based out of
> that work from home...they could drive the 10 minutes to the office
> but there isnt a point. I would say of my companies 40-50K
> employees..probably 30K telecommute. It reduced the office footprints.
> My old cube became a place to store dead drives for a while and then
> was completely eliminated when we leased out half the floor.
>
> It has its plusses..I'd switched to 'everyday is PJ day!' for a
> while..no need for business casual attire...my commute involves
> walking down a floor to my office, its dang quiet here. I live near
> Van Meter on 5 acres but I have a nice fast internet pipe.
>
> It's drawbacks: It can get lonely..I talk to people on conf calls,
> webex calls or google hangouts. I've thought about co-working in DSM
> but really..you want me to leave the house and pay to work
> somewhere?!?
> If the internet goes down  I'm screwed..I'll end up driving to WDM to a
> Panera.
>
> I started this way back on Modems.. I used to work on-site in
> datacenters around the country flying out of the twin cities on
> setting up new HP-UX and DG boxes..my wife was in a masters program in
> Mankato and I wanted to move down there.  I didnt want to make the
> drive to work when I didnt fly. I asked if I could work from home when
> I wasnt traveling..they said yes, probably because they didnt want to
> lose me over it. I then moved around the country over the years..out
> east..out west and finally back to the midwest..iowa. I've stopped
> traveling now..only travel maybe twice a year if its some huge
> emergency that cant be solved remotely and conferences.
>
> The flexibility is nice but yes, turning it off is a problem. I'm back
> in school going for a IT Security degree so that helps..otherwise its
> not hard to end up working all day and all night with a break to have
> dinner with the family in there.
> My wife is a teacher so she's grading at night and stuff too.
>
> I put up with a lot of dysfunctional crap from my company at a
> management level..the pay is decent and I get to work from home. Take
> either away and I'd be out of here and wanting to work with some of
> you guys but honestly..I think I'd find the move 'jolting' and it
> would take time to adjust to it again..you mean I have to shower
> before noon?!? come on...
>
> -Jim
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-- 
Matthew Nuzum
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