Bill, Your point #1 is one well made, however, I think that some positions could be designated as "telecommutable" and not have issues with EEOC or any other regulatory agency. Then the whiners can just be told "no" and the HR dept doesn't have to worry about repercussions. Heck, if they get ticked off and leave, then the company will probably be better off without them anyway. Who wants a whiner working for them anyway?
As for point 2, I would make the argument that any kind of collaboration that is needed on any application development project can be done remotely. You do not need to be 'face to face' with anyone (regardless of who is involved with the project) and even if you do, just use video conferencing, webcams, etc. The internet lends itself to collaboration and if a company is willing to spend the money on the collaborative tools, then a higher productivity will result because when you are getting together 'in person' for meetings, there is a lot of unproductive stuff that ends up happening anyway. I would argue here that the issue is CHANGE....meetings of 10 people on a design project could be a thing of the past if the right tools are used. I can't tell you how many meetings were wasted, and how much time was wasted when I was in an on-site team. I am a hundred times more productive working remotely and I can meet with anyone by e-mail, IM, phone, chat, web cam conference, or even web presentations and whiteboarding if necessary. All the tools are out there, it is simply an issue of a paradigm shift for hiring managers (and their managers, and their managers, all the way up the pole). I think this is the point Rob was trying to make, not so much that they don't 'trust' their remote employees, but that they just gotta get it through their heads that things are different. Consider when the first computer was used in the office place. Can you imagine the resistance to 'trusting' all of our documents to something electronic? Now, we hardly print anything now adays (unless you are in an industry that still doesn't trust computers, like the legal industry!) :) Dave -----Original Message----- From: McCabe, Bill [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Wednesday, December 20, 2006 12:32 PM To: CF-Jobs-Talk Subject: RE: Where are the Los Angeles Developers? Well, that's not always true. There's a couple major reasons that some companies frown on telecommuting: 1) From HR's perspective, believe me, if you do it for one person, you have to let EVERYONE telecommute at least a portion of the time. This is of course an enormous headache and too many people have ruined it by not legitimiately working from home. Once the floodgates open, productivity plummets. If you can get away with some doing it and others not (without complaining to mgt or HR) then go for it. 2) Like I told Pete, what seems like a position that lends itself well to telecommmuting (Web Development), in certain environments like ours, it is far too collaborative. Our position would have this person meeting cross functionally w/ Marketing and too many other groups so having that person here on site lends far more value. While people assume companies want to restrict telecommuting simply to "keep tabs" or be difficult is not really fair. There are sound business reasons for requiring on-site work, at least for full-timers. -----Original Message----- From: RobG [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Wednesday, December 20, 2006 11:40 AM To: CF-Jobs-Talk Subject: Re: Where are the Los Angeles Developers? Companies want local people because their management can't get it through their heads that working remotely can be productive. These companies have to be able to "keep tabs" on what their people are doing. They don't believe in giving people the freedom to do what needs to be done, "as long as the work gets done on time." I recently worked remotely for a company in San Diego while I was in Montana. I was there for seven months, the pay rate was extremely low (but there is NO CF work in Montana -- and how I ended up there is another story entirely), and then after seven months they inform me that they're cutting their remote developers to outsource them to CHINA because for what (little) they were paying me, they could have a TEAM of people. Talk about cutthroat. It nearly left my wife and I stranded up there; we pulled out all the stops, spent every last dime we had, and moved back to Reno (where my wife's family is) because at least there is work here, though not necessarily CF work. Since then I've picked up one remote gig out of the east coast that is part-time, and a local one working with a design firm that needed a programmer. It's still not as much work as I'd like, but at least it's work. CF work is definitely scarce. I want to get into Java and some other technologies, but haven't really figured out how to make the move yet. Rob ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~| Create robust enterprise, web RIAs. Upgrade & integrate Adobe Coldfusion MX7 with Flex 2 http://ad.doubleclick.net/clk;56760587;14748456;a?http://www.adobe.com/products/coldfusion/flex2/?sdid=LVNU Archive: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/CF-Jobs-Talk/message.cfm/messageid:3211 Subscription: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/CF-Jobs-Talk/subscribe.cfm Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/unsubscribe.cfm?user=11502.10531.11
