Tele-shirking

or Thought(less) Leadership?
Rob Bamforth, Principal Analyst

Quocirca Comment
The recent announcement at Yahoo! about cutting down working from home and getting employees to come into the office seems to have put a virtual cat among several distributed pigeons. It might be that there are a number of remote, disgruntled and disaffected employees who are simmering remotely out there in distant cyber space who are not getting the message about how the business needs to be changed, but this appears to be a very public way to conduct change management. One thing is sure, it has brought many opinions, fears and prejudices about work out into the open. First there is the feeling among many who do not or cannot work from home, that all those who do must be tele-shirking, i.e. not really working but being subject to a thousand and one distractions was that the doorbell? Ill just vacuum the hall and make another cup of coffee. This feeling also pervades many managers; after all, if you cant see each and every one of the workers, how do you know if theyre really working or not? This may sound a bit oldfashioned shop floor or weaving mill with an overseer or foreman at one end of a line of workers, literally keeping an eye on them as they work. But, a quick glance around most modern offices and business park facilities will show glass-fronted offices for managers and open plan seating areas for the workers. Plus ca change? On the flip side there is the understandable fear of remote workers that those in the office get more real time and therefore influence with the boss. This might translate into better opportunities for pay rises and promotions for those able to maximise their visibility and more frequently get the ear of their manager. Surely technology fixed this? After all, those working from home will be connected via the internet right into the heart of the corporate enterprise IT systems, they will most likely have mobile phones and may even have video conferencing, desktop sharing tools and unified communications. They can phone, email, chat, text, video call, collaborate with a whole variety of tools in or out of the office as much as they like and with open IP networks pretty cheaply. So much so that one company banned the use of email for internal communications as it seemed like employees were doing it too much. So why should it really matter where people are? Past Quocirca research once indicated a fear of loss of organisational culture if people were working too much while mobile or at home, and some commentators think this might be what Yahoo! is trying to address. However, simply bringing a number of individuals who were simmering at home back together is unlikely to stimulate upbeat and innovative water cooler conversations, but more likely a seething cauldron of gripes. The underlying problem is unlikely to be either one of technology or location, but management. Thats not just the day-to-day operational stuff of goal-setting, nurturing, mentoring, delegating, support, feedback, correction and reward, but also the higher level direction of who we are, why were here and what we do. This does not mean a meaningless buzzwordladen mission statement that people smirk at, but a credible corporate culture that employees can relate to, sign up to or decide is not for them and move out. It can be as simple as dont be evil or as prescriptive as a training program, but either way it has to be consistent, applied from the top of the organisation to the bottom and understood by everyone. That underpins the relationship with customers, suppliers, partners, peers, subordinates and managers, which then has to be supported by the right operational management tools. This is

Tele-shirking or Thought(less) Leadership?

http://www.quocirca.com

2013 Quocirca Ltd

the crucial bit that makes it all work, or not and this is one area where the development of management skills has been lacking in recent years especially people, time and process management. Technology can then play a part in supporting that, but only if people are taught how to use it not the functional aspects they pick up or eventually read from manuals, but how to get the best out of it to perform a specific task. At one time companies put their staff on courses to develop soft skills, with many of them geared towards some particular technology or communications medium. Time management for using their new Filofaxes; responsive communications e.g. how to answer the phone politely and in under three rings; take ownership of any issues; how to conduct effective meetings (hint: search online for John Cleese meetings).

Some may laugh and say this sort of training is no longer relevant to todays busy workforce, but the inability to control communications overload, collaborate effectively with colleagues, manage remote or distributed workforces seems a little too widespread. Simply throwing more communications tools at employees, or even allowing them to bring their own, is not the answer on its own, but taking them away is not a step in the right direction. This article first appeared http://www.computerweekly.com on

Tele-shirking or Thought(less) Leadership?

http://www.quocirca.com

2013 Quocirca Ltd

About Quocirca
Quocirca is a primary research and analysis company specialising in the business impact of information technology and communications (ITC). With world-wide, native language reach, Quocirca provides in-depth insights into the views of buyers and influencers in large, mid-sized and small organisations. Its analyst team is made up of realworld practitioners with first-hand experience of ITC delivery who continuously research and track the industry and its real usage in the markets. Through researching perceptions, Quocirca uncovers the real hurdles to technology adoption the personal and political aspects of an organisations environment and the pressures of the need for demonstrable business value in any implementation. This capability to uncover and report back on the end-user perceptions in the market enables Quocirca to advise on the realities of technology adoption, not the promises. Quocirca research is always pragmatic, business orientated and conducted in the context of the bigger picture. ITC has the ability to transform businesses and the processes that drive them, but often fails to do so. Quocircas mission is to help organisations improve their success rate in process enablement through better levels of understanding and the adoption of the correct technologies at the correct time. Quocirca has a pro-active primary research programme, regularly surveying users, purchasers and resellers of ITC products and services on emerging, evolving and maturing technologies. Over time, Quocirca has built a picture of long term investment trends, providing invaluable information for the whole of the ITC community. Quocirca works with global and local providers of ITC products and services to help them deliver on the promise that ITC holds for business. Quocircas clients include Oracle, IBM, CA, O2, T-Mobile, HP, Xerox, Ricoh and Symantec, along with other large and medium sized vendors, service providers and more specialist firms.

Full access to all of Quocircas public output (reports, articles, presentations, blogs and videos) can be made at http://www.quocirca.com

Tele-shirking or Thought(less) Leadership?

http://www.quocirca.com

2013 Quocirca Ltd