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Some managers and executives are concerned that telework will be disruptive to the office
routine. Not knowing whether people are at home, in the office, or on a break seems
chaotic.
In fact, managers can know where workers are just as well when they are working from home
as when they work in the office. Instead of walking down the hall looking for an employee,
a manager can use the phone or Instant Messaging (IM), which is actually less disruptive to
others in the office. With the right tools employees might even be more accessible.
If managers utilize electronic methods to communicate with all employees then it won't matter
who is in the office and who is working from home.
To help maintain connections between home and office, the manager may want to utilize
work calendars accessible to all in the office or department so everyone will know
who can be contacted and when. A less technical solution is for teleworkers
to send the manager an email when they start work and another at the end of the work day.
Remember, employees working from home are still "at work" and should be just as accessible
as those down the hall.
What may be lost when many employees telework most of the time, is not communication, but
social interaction. That can be addressed by requiring teleworkers to attend staff meetings
or having occasional social events where all employees are present. There are also tools
to promote social interaction and teamwork. If managers feel that creativity and work
quality are suffering from lack of in-office interaction, they may want to cut back on
how many days employees can telework. Anecdotal evidence suggests that once people learn
to use collaborative tools, much of the interaction they thought could only happen in person
can still occur.
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