In the wake of Yahoo! and Best Buy removing the working from
home option for their employees, I have been asked about my perspective on the
concept of telecommuting. Any of you who have worked with me know my answer: if
the job is conducive to working from home, then provide this option to your
employees, whether it is one, two, or more days per week.
According to a November 2012 CareerBuilder survey of over
3,900 full-time employees in the nation, 33% stated that "Ability to Work
from Home" was an important factor in their job satisfaction and job
retention.
From an employee perspective, this is a very important
factor to me personally as it provides the flexibility I need to function
optimally in the learning and education field. I am able to work without
distraction, produce much more efficiently, think more clearly, not to mention
the benefit of having no traffic stress in driving to and from the office.
From an employer's perspective, I have managed teams that
included administrative assistants through senior managers and cannot imagine
not providing the opportunity for them to work from home. They are
professionals and as long as they are available for meetings when necessary,
respond to emails and calls, and accomplish their projects timely, I have no
concern whether they work from home, a coffee shop (as long as protect any
confidential data and the laptop itself), or in the day or evening. Being
flexible so that each person can function at their optimum for the team and the
company is more important to me as a leader, than is requiring them to be in
the office simply for "face time" and "monitoring", which
are by the way, very antiquated methods of treating professionals.
In the survey I conducted for "The Power of Leadership
Civility" section of the book I coauthored, The Power of Civility,
participants stated a number of ways that leaders demonstrate civility. Two of
these can be applied to the issue of working from home.
One, is "being respectful." Allowing team members
to work from home is a sign of respect, of saying "I believe in you,"
"I respect you as a professional." Second, "expecting and
trusting that employees want to do their best." A professional is a person
who takes their job and responsibilities seriously no matter where they happen
to be working. Demonstrating trust in your employees is an important leadership
quality.
When leaders demonstrate civility, turnover and employee
stress are reduced, and productivity and trust are increased. These factors are
much more important to me as a leader than is simply face time in the
office.
Treating employees like young children who need
close monitoring is not a very respectful approach to working with employees in
today's world of technology. If a business is doing poorly, it is not because
people are working from home. Rather, there are other causes, such as poor
leadership, poor quality service, poor quality products, competition,
corruption, lack of innovation, the economy, and more. Could the leaders of
Yahoo! and Best Buy be looking for what might be a "scapegoat" rather
than tackling the real issues leading to poor company performance? This leads
to an unfortunate consequence (perceptions or real) of workplace incivility,
not just within their organizations, but externally as well.
