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I think about location independent working and how to make it work for people all the time and it all started a few years ago when I realized 2 things:
1) My productive hours are from 7AM - 2PM. I can be productive again around 8PM.
2) I got a lot more done on days that I had the flu enough to stay home than I did in the office.
This got me to thinking about how many hours I spend getting ready to go to an office during my productive time and how many hours after I was chilling in my office but not necessarily getting much done. I also felt stifled by going to the same place day after day after day. It can be very uninspiring.
When I bring this subject up people almost always say "yes, that would be great but it wouldn't work in my industry" and I used to accept that as an answer. Now, I'm not so sure that it can't work for any industry. * The only industry this wouldn't work is in a retail setting where people need to physically check people out, make a latte, etc.
Since technology has come in and bowled over the workplace as we know it, people are much more connected. When I stopped working for someone else and opened my own business I realized that my network didn't change very much because my network existed online. I can change jobs or cities and I still e-mail the same people every day that I always did.
Granted, the freelancers and small businesses will be the first ones to catch onto location independent working because the overhead of keeping an office, desks, phone lines, etc. will force them to consider co-working or remote working. I think the bigger companies will follow eventually.
1) Productivity will go up. If people don't have to go to an office every day, office drama will decrease significantly. When I started adding up the coworkers birthday lunches, pointless on the spot meetings, and hallway chatter, I now wonder how I ever got anything done at all. By eliminating the social aspect of the office, people will not only get more done but they will then spend more social time with friends and family.
2) Companies Can Charge Less. The overhead that advertising agencies have to charge is enormous because everyone works in house. The same goes for a lot of other industries. What I've been trying to do is set up a core group of people that make up my company and when a client tells me what they need I contract those people accordingly. This means that when I don't have projects where I need a designer, they don't need to come and kill time at the office. This keeps my pricing very competitive.
3) Gen Y Will Demand It. Gen Y wants to know how everything fits into their life. They look for jobs that allow them to use the internet skills they have grown up with and that allow them to pursue their interests. Gen Y travels more than previous generations and will want to know how this fits into their job. Sound spoiled? I don't agree. I'd rather hire someone who has thought of a trip they wanted to take, pitched it to a company who agreed to pay them to blog about their experience, and come back with ideas, writing skills, and a knowledge of how to create work out of their experiences than someone who showed up at the office every day.
4) The Family Unit Has Changed. It took me a while to realize this one but it is relevant to this subject. Our families don't live as closely knit as they used to but things still need to get done. Most people don't have grandma cooking meals, or aunts doing laundry, or fathers next door to fix leaks. I was starting to feel like I simply couldn't get it all done and spend 60-70 hours physically at an office each week. Office hours are primo "get things done" hours so these errands had to wait until the weekend which meant I couldn't go and visit my actual family. Flexible work schedules mean we can answer e-mails while we wait for the plumber on a Tuesday.
I'm interested in hearing other thoughts on co-working or location independant working.Is anyone trying this?
Here are some other places to read about the subject:
Location Independant
Coworking.com
Free Pursuits
Wise Bread - Location Independent 101
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Comments
11.02.09
You are exactly right. I am in this situation. I work for an organization that went virtual 11 years ago. Most of us work from our homes (we have two small offices each staffed by two customer service people). I've been doing this 2 1/2 years and I've been more productive than ever.
PS. My most productive time is 1 - 4 p.m. and 7-9 p.m. I do some work in the morning, but mostly just making sure everything is going smoothly. Why bother to do any heavy lifting at 9 a.m. when I can do it at 1 p.m. faster and better.
11.02.09
I actually really talk about this a lot with a lot of my friends. It is similar to the consulting idea, but more thought out and widespread. I actually really agree that coming to the same place every day is extremely - extremely!!!! - uninspiring. I was also wondering what this would do to kind of break down social connections, how would we avoid this problem?
11.02.09
Suzanne - I completely agree, why force myself to do things when I know I could get them done at 6PM much better? I'm glad to hear that this set-up is (and has been) working for people.
Beth - That's a good point. I have had to do things a bit differently since I started working this way. For example, attending networking events. Since I don't have the built in network that you get with an office you'll have to really make a much greater effort to make those connections. Fortunately, I think the "networking event" is getting a good make-over these days as well and they are becoming much more fun to attend.
11.02.09
Great article! I work for an association that is very big on flex scheduling and allowing employees to work from home when needed (some have a long commute and others have kids). It seems that everyone's more social when they're home whether it's by calling into the office or sending out an abnormally high amount of e-mails. The few times I've opted to work from home, I've been notably more productive. Maybe it's because I feel the need to produce twice as much work since no one in the office can actually see me work.
We use tools like Yammer and Skype to stay in touch with each other when not in the office, and mandatory face-to-face meetings once a month help keep everyone on the same path. The biggest hurdle we had to overcome is making sure we don't lose the connection with our members. Of course, now that we're all constantly accessing our e-mail at home we have noticed a lot more after hours conversations (which we can now proudly promote as a great membership benefit).
11.02.09
My last job at a software company completely changed the way I thought about work. The concept of obligation towards a pre-defined location hasn't made sense since. People who are location independent are some of the best employees because or their ability to communicate and execute successfully without direct physical supervision.
Let's keep the conversation going in the Location Independent Group!
http://www.brazencareerist.com/group/location-independent
11.02.09
In answer to your question, no it is not possible for many careers. Anything that relies on collaboration or manufacturing is not amendable to the work from wherever or whenever theme.
11.02.09
JRandom - With all due respect, I disagree. The collaborative tools that we now have available make this a more and more viable solution. Skype, Yammer, Basecamp, Campfire, and so many other project management tools (not to mention gotomeeting and video meeting tools) mean that we can not only collaborate better but with more people and people even farther away.
11.02.09
It's difficult to get old-world employers on board with this kind of scenario, even though it has been demonstrated time and again to be more beneficial to them. The fear of not being able to lay eyes upon a body at a desk seems to be terrifying to managerial types in most cases.
I hear stories every day of people getting their remote work agreements pulled because management wants someone at a desk between the arbitrary hours of 9 to 5.
Of course I also hear as many of people leaving to work for themselves, too :-)
11.02.09
I'm a big fan of location-independent work, and my industry (user experience design) is probably one of the leaders, or trending leaders, in this field.
However, you've got to be really careful. I'm finding that a lot of work I do adds value in terms of being part of a whole, not my individual contribution. In other words, good interactive design is (or should be) more like TV production instead of novel-writing. This is very difficult to do well via remote tools--and believe me, I've used all of them. Typically if it works, doing it face-to-face would have taken far less time and required less rework. Also, participants tend to have a substantial bias in favor of their own efforts, i.e. they have an incentive to believe remote working is better despite what the actual results were.
Working at home also tends to destroy the "chance encounters" that serious research shows are essential to creativity. Your best bet (like I'm doing now from my home office) is to deliver a short speech and hope someone replies with one of their own :)
One interesting trend is the growth of "co-working centers," which I recommend to other freelancers and consultants. These are typically big conference-type centers with WiFi, faxes, etc. You pay a few hundred bucks a month to show up and work with other freelance types. The model is popular among tech types and entrepeneurs, leading to a lot of interesting collaborations and opportunities.
11.02.09
While I agree that this is possible for many more workers than it's currently available to, I think that the idea that retail is the only job where this isn't possible is not quite correct. As JRandom mentioned, manufacturing requires that employees actually be onsite to manufacture the products, and manufacturing is most productinve when the assembly line is up and running at the same time (not just when the employees feel like working.) Security is another job where the employees actually need to be onsite to perform a service at a set time. Many public service jobs such as police, fire, transportation operators, parking authority personnel, etc. need to actually be available to work when the work needs to be done. Many in healthcare services (doctors, nurses, radioligist, etc.) need to be available when the work needs to be done, not just when they are most productive. Can you imagine, "Ma'am, your scheduled C-section isn't until tomorrow at 2PM when I'm most productive, so you're going to need to hold that baby in until then..." Finally, the hospitality industry is another industry where I could see this type of flexible scheduling not working out.
I think that knowledge workers often forget about the large swaths of people who do not have the type of flexibility and ability to work from wherever - there are still many jobs that don't involve typing away at your protable computer.
11.02.09
Caitlin, when you can get a $450,000 CNC milling machine to move around well enough and cheap enough to put in the back of an employee's truck, then you've got something. Manufacturing that requies major equipment will never be "work anywhere".
Additionally, with just-in-time supply chain practices, the "work anytime" just isn't going to happen. A steady flow of parts and assemblies are needed, because it doesn't make sense financially to load up the inventory with stuff that isn't going directly to creating the product in the short term.
Finally, the tools you mention are inadequate for use in engineering, especially when you need collaboration on something as complex as a 40 Gb 3D animated SolidWorks 2010 drawing that engineers from 3 continents need to collaborate on simultaneously.
11.02.09
The Real Anonymous and JRandom - I did caveat my original post with the retail industry setting where people have to be present in order to physically make something. I would include the other 2 industries that you've mentioned (manufacturing and some healthcare professionals). However, doctors do have some leeway in their practices when they go into certain fields.
Anyway, I still think that these are the exception and not the rule. Most office based industries can benefit from working more remotely and offering more flexibility to their employees.
For me, I don't care how often I see an employee or if they have a haircut at 2PM or need to pick up their kids at 3 and then work later. As long as they get the job done I'm happy.
11.02.09
I'm loving this post! Most days I find myself leaving the office for lunch, just to get away. It's very stifling to sit in my office for 8 hours. I like moving, getting fresh air and letting my mind wonder, this is when I think the best! I'm always rejuvenated when I get back from lunch but then the afternoon wanes on and it becomes more difficult to focus.
Often times I find myself working after I get home from the gym, after cooking or walking my dog because I have that fresh perspective. Working from home, even a couple of days, would be so liberating!
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