4 signs your telecommuters are slacking

December 29, 2008 by
Filed under: Employee computer use, In this week's e-newsletter, Latest News & Views, Telecommuting 

Gas prices may have eased up, but telecommuting is still an option many employees are exercising. If managers see any of these four red flags, it may be time to herd those workers back to the office:

  1. Productivity drops and doesn’t go back up. There may be a transition period where telecommuters learn to be as productive at home as they were in the office. But if it lasts more than a few weeks, the arrangement is probably not the best fit.
  2. They don’t answer messages. One caveat of letting employees work from home is often that they’re required to be available at all times during the work day to answer phone calls, IMs and e-mails. If the employee frequently won’t respond — and doesn’t have a good excuse — that’s a bad sign.
  3. They respond, but it just doesn’t sound right. Crafty home-based slackers have started using computer programs (like this one) to hide the fact that they’re away from their desks. These applications let users create general, automatic responses to e-mails that come through their in-boxes.
  4. Initiative goes out the window. It’s common for ambitious employees to become complacent once they’re no longer in the office all day. But home-based workers should still be expected to willingly take on new responsibilities and do more than just the bare minimum.

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Comments

One Comment on 4 signs your telecommuters are slacking

  1. TJ on Thu, 15th Jan 2009 9:56 pm

    2. Hi Sam,
    I read this article somewhere else, but appreciated the info.
    Have you done any stories on where productivity of telecommuters goes up? There was a recent piece at bnet.com that talked about the growth in Results-Oriented Work Environments as a concept. And although it implies it is for the office enviro, it would work equally well in a telecommuting option. Ultimately, what is it we want from our workers — a punched timecard or results?
    TJ
    http://www.shiftboard.com