Working from home: Making the case, and making it work
Telecommuting is far easier now than it was even a few years ago. Here’s how to make remote work feasible for your staff and even profitable for your organization.
Several years ago, a loyal longtime employee told me her boyfriend had taken a job in New York City-and that she was going with him.
I panicked: What were we going to do without her? How would we replace her? How long did we have?
Then she threw something at me I hadn’t considered: She asked whether she could work from her new home.
Today, that wouldn’t be a big deal, but back then, we weren’t set up for anyone to work virtually.
She made a great case, though, and I really didn’t want to lose her, so we went for it.
It wasn’t easy.
How it rolled out
Because we were still server-based, we had to send her files, she’d make changes and send them back, and then we’d save the final version to the server.
The video chat capability that is so common today wasn’t affordable back then, so we had her on conference calls for meetings, which is never good for anyone. And she overcompensated—a lot.
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