Executive Clan Chat: Another Look at Telecommuting

Awilliams is our faithful chat participant. Thanks Awilliams! Thanks Mary! And thank you, too, Kimbo. See you kids later!

Lol have a great one everybody!

Thanks Mary.

Thanks everyone! Thank you for joining us in particular, Awilliams.

But only the man or woman works in software development.

And, finally, Beatles t-shirts FTW. OK. Great chat.

Clothing makes the man or woman.

I have to acquire some suitable clothing, I see, if I visit NYC HQ.

Telecommuting is good.  Bosses shut up.

Well. How shall we summarize this chat before moving on with our lives?

You have.

Will be wearing items of Yankees apparel during post season.  If I haven't already mentioned that.

I know. I am a boundary pusher.

Yes, Mary. Bealtes Tees are preferred. I still want to wear my Golden Girl's t-shirt though. Maybe when you come for a visit.

You wash black clothes?  That's radical.

But preferably a Beatles T shirt

I feel uncomfortable to not be in my all-black uniform today but I have to do laundry.

I have to go to brooklyn later, is the UN traffic gone?

T shirt of choice; jeans, sneakers.

Sounds like IE is getting a dress code of its own.

Don't want to outgrow my snazzy Beatles T.

LOL @Nicole!

God I hope not.

Any more growth spurts coming up?

Just kidding!

Yes, I've been a UBM employee since I was 7 and I've enjoyed working with Mary every moment. She was especially helpful during my growth spurts.

<glad I'm in a home office right now.>

LOL!! Welcome back, Nicole!

I'm glad you guys continued to bring me up while I was gone. Good work.

What I've learned from this chat is that clothes may or may not make the man/woman.

Not old as in chrono age!

As cheerful as she does about everything else (we have to talk about her while she's not here; she'll check later).

I wonder how Nicole feels about being old..

@Kim, no. But I feel Nicole is an old, trusted colleague anyway.

"some of the folk in our division I have known and worked with for over 20 years"  I am assuming this doesn't include Nicole.

Also, you can get tax relief on a separate work space in the home.  In NYC anyway.

@Mary not usually

Awilliams: do you work at home?

Perhaps it's something that comes with experience.

That's just my view. When I am at work, I feel like I'm at work.

If employers realize that telecommuters are keeping hours as they would in an office, it really helps to maintain the division. It's also important to have a separate work space in the home.

@Awilliams: I think it depends on how the home office handles things. I worked for a company years ago that virtually demanded employees to be on call all the time. It did not work well.

But some of the folk in our division I have known and worked with for over 20 years.

I've also heard problems where people who work from home have difficultly of sperating work time and relaxing time, as their space becomes phsycially confused by both... the mobility factor doesn't seem to help this as "everywhere" is work

@Awilliams: I think office comradery is vital. Part of it is the communication we maintain daily.

@AW, my own impression is that instant messaging and the regular chats helps this team stay in touch.

And not practical for everyone.  The marketing team here always seems to be dealing with boxes of "stuff".

what about other more intangiable things, like office comradery?

It really is.  A truly virtual office would save an enormous sum of money.  I am not sure we'll all quite ready for that though.

In other words, office space in places like NYC is hugely expensive to rent and maintain.

@Awilliams: I think studies show it saves significant operational cost if done right.

Does telecommuting save the enterprise significant monies?

I think my personal ideal would be a mix of telecommuting and office work.  It is good (for me) not to feel remote.  Of course, that doesn't really help the employer with saving on overheads.  On the contrary.

Go for it, Nicole! Talk later.

Hey guys I have to dismiss myself to take a call, but I hope to return!

I think it certainly helps to be slightly better dressed than average.

@Mary in a word Yes, I'm finding it to be a good thing in general. Opens doors too

@Kim: Yes, working in an office requires a lot of clothes, really.

@Awilliams: So you think it may be good to be more formal and well dressed in general, not just at work?

@Mary Software Engineering o_O I just think formal is good

I remember the change to office casual was very expensive.  Once you own suits, dressing for men used to be a cinch.  Clean shirt.  Tie.

Office casual meant a bunch of different outfits.  Women probably understand this.

Ah! Gotcha.

@Mary,  I meant for my interview with Terry.

Some of the men at McGraw-Hill kept a jacket of sorts hanging in their offices.

@Kim, except when you had to change into the suit, right?

I was in Brooklyn, so I had a flannel shirt and a woolly hat. 

@Awilliams: Why are you thinking of dressing up more? What line of work?

Haha. When in doubt, N Ferraro was in all black. And yes, Kim wore a suit and tie. Freaked me out.

At the law firm, we kept a suit on hand for unexpected client meetings.

Terence may have been in shorts and flip flops, being in California and all.

I'd be curious to see if there was a trend for people being more formal. I know myself I've given much thought to suits or at least sports coats

@Kim, yes. Whenever you're dealing with "clients," dress matters. Since journalists don't usually deal with clients (hopefully, anyway!) they don't need to pay so much attention.

I dressed nicely for my interview.  I think N. Ferraro was all black as usual.  As far as I know, Terry was in his pajamas when he interviewed me.

What we did surely didn't require us to be well dressed. Allowances were made.

One thing I like about UBM (good to say something nice) is that I was explicitly told that the company recognizes a diversity of work cultures.  Marketers, number crunchers, journalists are recognized as different beasts.

People expect you to be half cracked. But we always dressed halfway decent if interviewees were visiting.

I'm not suggesting any research has been published.

But years ago, I figured out that journalists aren't expected to dress like regular businesspeople. You're allowed a lot of leeway.

@AW.  I bet some of the bigger firms have taken a look at this.  I was working at a large international law firm when it converted from formal to smart casual.  It was a big deal.  Great concern about impact on clients.

@Awilliams, in a word, no.

@Kim: I experienced that last week when I had to work offsite on Friday. For a few minutes, the wireless wasn't working. That sends me into a panic.

Does anyone have metrics on the level of professionalism in an office based around dress code?

Of course.  It's all dark suits after October 1.

@Nicole: Not nice!

But I live in an area where animal print tunics over sweat pants are sometimes worn at weddings and funerals

Yes, availability is certainly important.  We have a way to go with the technology.  Very frustrating to be out of the office and suddenly you can't log in to the network for some reason or you have password problems.

(Psst Kim when Mary comes let's start wearing suits to throw her off.)

I am so glad y'all dress down in NYC. When I get there in a couple of weeks I won't feel weird in my usual getup.

@Kim: Sometimes, though, it's important to be available for phone calls etc. When I used to do more reporting, I found I had to be "in the office" and available.

And Beatles t-shirts.

This summer, I have been spending some days in a mix of red/purple/pink.  Cheers me up.  And is scarcely susceptible to challenge when I am surrounded by shorts and flip flops.

Punch in, punch out...

That's how I feel, Mary.  Management just needs to get comfortable with the common-sense idea that there are better ways to benchmark performance than where someone is, what they are wearing, whether they just walked the dog, or whether they are sitting up straight.

I recall working with time clocks

@Kim: I am very jealous. I love red shoes.

@Kim: Do you wear red pants and shoes?

Oh no. Red shoes are very bad for traffic.

@Kim: Yes, those barriers have been coming down, which I think is good. It makes for a more integrated life in some ways.

How about the red shoes??

Actually Kim your pieces statistically get more traffic when you write them while wearing red pants. Been meaning to tell you.

Mary, what I had in mind is that the division between being "at work" and "at play" seems to me to be breaking down.  Not in all sectors, of course.

That's not to say I start at the exact time!

We had to wear dress shirts and ties to high school, to prepare us for the business world. We all rebeled in college and by the time we got to the professional world our high school dress code was more intense than most offices

@Nicole.  Correct.  I am expected to write my pieces whether my pants are red or grey.  The same would be true whether I was in the office or at home.

For the record, I have a Maine T-shirt, jeans, and hiking socks on today...

@Kim: So what's wrong with starting work at a given time? Maybe I'm compulsive, but when I don't start on the exact time it bothers me for some reason.

Wait-- we had the option of wearing slacks on Fridays.

As one who is wearing a Sergeant Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band t-shirt, jeans, and converse to work today I can't say I feel I'd be any more or less productive in something more business-like. Just less comfortable.

@Nicole: I guess it's old fashioned of me. And I never had to wear a uniform. But we did have to wear skirts in school until I graduated high school.

Mary, I think that model of time-keeping is surely out-of-date. 

@Kim: Actually, some people I see out and about look like they're in pajamas.

But the point about "mindset" reminds me of when I had to wear a uniform to high school. Teachers always hated "dress-down" days because they said the students acted more casual when they were casually dressed. I never agreed.

When you decide you'll start work at a certain time, with your shoes on as my dad used to say, you bring an attitude of businesslike readiness.

Also, in these days of casual dress, I don't know why pajamas matter.

Of course, there are days when I wouldn't really want my colleagues to see me. But that happened when I worked in the office too. Bad hair days, just bad mornings, whatever.

Good point about video messaging.

@Nicole: No, it doesn't matter. But when video messaging comes into play, it will matter. And I think a certain mindset goes along with getting dressed for work.

But this survey from CareerBuilder.com didn't do the telecommuting cause much good.

Is the definition of telecommuting changing?

@Mary yeah pretty much, it can be very helpful to be able to walk over and see someone vs trying to explain back and forth through email/phone.

I want to throw this out there just for debate's sake: Does it really matter how people choose to dress if they're working from home?

I think there are definitely some jobs that can't be done as well from home.

Welcome to the chat, Awilliams.

Hi Awilliams: You mean, you need to have live people involved when you're developing software?

If not for a fancy office, at least in a fashion I culd bring to the post office.

I think telecommuting can often cause frusterations when what you really want to do (during software development) is just sit down at a screen with the person and show them.

I'm here. And I'm dressed!

Thanks for the intro, Mary.

Mary does not want to be cast off as a pajama-wearing telecommuter.

Hello