Working from Home

[insite]

1 hour ago, graham59 said:

Working from home requires considerable self-discipline,  to sustain 'performance'.

Good luck to the companies thinking it will work for them.

In my experience,  a physically present whip-in-hand  supervisor is needed, if you plan on making a profit.  

Getting up early in the morning to face the often long and expensive daily slog to get to work , paying the exorbitant rates to have child minding for young couples trying to get on with self improvement and being limited thus as a start also require considerable self discipline and more importantly sacrifice .

With the greatest of respect your experience and that of present youth are entirely different employment domains and practice.

Companies will look to their own interests and bottom lines and it would appear that in this brave new world in which we find ourselves this is apparently taking traction with them.

Not all work requires a " whip in hand " to achieve exceptional performance , reward both sides and profitability where necessary and motivation are powerful tools and were it the case strict surveillance were required there are many technological solutions for that.

Think Amazon who is presently working hard to wipe out the high street shopping and doing rather well at it - marketing and selling , accounting , medical consultancy , engineering , law, realtors  etc etc etc are moving into the virtual realm and in the not so distant future can be semi or fully automated in which case we can all stay at home anyway because machines will be doing our work.

10 years or less back you may or may not have had  serious reservations with shopping online for unseen and untouched goods , , certainly I would have had  , yet today we do it from home without a second thought and that is just for starters.

The times they are a changing ........... and more so now than ever before

 

[fillipino_wannabe]

I can't see it working in the Philippines, I doubt many companies want their employees scrolling on Facebook all day with a chicken in the background whilst their taking a call.

They don't seem to be too bothered about saving on rent either, they could save 80% of their rent costs by moving their office 5 miles down the road out of BGC/IT park if that was a major issue for them.

[Mike J]

When I retired the company asked me if I could work remotely on an as required consultant basis.  We agreed that six months should be sufficient for new staff to become completely trained and knowledge.  The six months turned into 30 months.   A dedicated machine was kept running at company HQ 24 by 7 for me to access via secure tunnel VPN.  Access to that computer then allowed access to all computers and servers, both LAN and WAN owned by the company.   It worked out quite well all things considered.  The only real problem was slow internet on this end and the time difference between here and the US.   They lagged behind me by 16 hours so their 8:00 am was midnight for me.

[Tommy T.]

I forget where I read about this idea, but I embrace it totally...

I believe that working at home for many industries like call centers, accounting, legal and many more is the way of the future. The virus has simply accelerated that trend. Sure, there will be hiccups and bumps and probably some mighty crashes along this way. But what @insitesays rings true to my ears. There will also be in-person situations, of course, but not as much as day-to-day office hours. It does take self discipline but, if you don't work, then you are fired or laid off... Those willing and able to work are welcomed. And think about all that time gained when not commuting?

The step daughter was working in the office until a few weeks after the s*** hit the fan here in Davao. Then she asked about working from home and - I don't think it was her asking that influenced them - the company sent the staff to work at home with modems, computers, screens, headsets - all of it. Everything she does is recorded and subject to review by the main office. She is delighted to not have to ride in jeepneys - especially now that the rainy season has started. She can go to the kitchen for snacks, look out her window and be in her own space. But, most importantly, she is much safer from exposure to potential virus carriers.

They have laid off a bunch of workers due to lack of call activity recently, but she seems to be considered a key employee and they have kept her on. What she does miss is the social time of meeting with co-workers for lunch, dinner or an evening out.

But she still has a job.

Edited June 3, 2020 by Tommy T.

[graham59]

5 hours ago, fillipino_wannabe said:

I can't see it working in the Philippines, I doubt many companies want their employees scrolling on Facebook all day with a chicken in the background whilst their taking a call.

They don't seem to be too bothered about saving on rent either, they could save 80% of their rent costs by moving their office 5 miles down the road out of BGC/IT park if that was a major issue for them.

Agree.

[graham59]

Well I've only been in sales and marketing for several decades, including running sales teams, canvassing teams, and call centres, so what do I know ?

Times may change (and I've changed with them), but human nature doesn't.

 

[Huggybearman]

Any of these changes to home working will be restricted by the weakest link. In Phil’s the weakest link is PLDT or Globe. During the recent GCQ here, with increased demand on home internet, both (we have both PLDT and Globe fiber) have been pretty sporadic to say the least. Especially late afternoon and evening. My wife teaches online and she has lost quite a few sessions due to internet unreliability. 
 

[hk blues]

15 hours ago, GeoffH said:

If the companies can save money (like heating, cooling, rent, furniture and maintenance and still get similar productivity then I can see some heading that way.

Absolutely they will IF they can get similar productivity.  I have my doubts about that part. 

[hk blues]

2 hours ago, Huggybearman said:

Any of these changes to home working will be restricted by the weakest link. In Phil’s the weakest link is PLDT or Globe. During the recent GCQ here, with increased demand on home internet, both (we have both PLDT and Globe fiber) have been pretty sporadic to say the least. Especially late afternoon and evening. My wife teaches online and she has lost quite a few sessions due to internet unreliability. 
 

I hear you - I also teach online.  That said, I have very few issues related to internet itself and If I was to invest in a 2nd line I would be able to get that down to almost zero BUT then I have to consider power outages - the internet back-up in the main box lasts a few hours but my laptop less.  I can buy a back-up for the laptop if I really wanted to I guess.   If someone was really serious about working from home they can probably get around 99% of problems.  

 

[Jollygoodfellow]

16 minutes ago, hk blues said:

Absolutely they will IF they can get similar productivity.  I have my doubts about that part. 

There are a couple of issues that I see for most part of working from home in the Philippines, one is obviously internet speed or reliability. But then you have the environment, for many of us sitting in a nice quite condo or house which is secure its easy to think how working at home would be easy. Many workers live in boarding houses or run down homes, no quiet areas, kids screaming, dogs barking etc which is not good for clients paying call centers to provide a service for them. There are other type of work from home that occurs such as accounting and office work which is perhaps just a bit easier but would depend on ones home environment.