Conference 7.286::digital

Naively, it seems to me like:

    - You gain the time you would have spent commuting.  For a lot
      of people in CA, I would expect this is non-trivial.  If you
      have a 30 min commute each way and never go in any more, that's
      ~ 250*{your hourly pay rate} you're effectively getting back.
      If it's longer, it's more...  At 30K/yr a 1 hour round trip
      is $3750 of your time, and 2 hrs is $7500.  (It's obviously
      up to you how you spend your saved time, but the company
      is willing to pay you at that rate during the day.)

    - You gain the cost of not paying for transit to/from the office.
      A 15mi round trip at .20/mi is $750, 30mi=>$1500, 60mi=>$3000.

      (Note that even for just 30 min/15mi round trip these are >$2500 total)

    - You pay the expense of the "office space" regardless of whether
      or not you can deduct a portion

    - You pay utilities (I don't know what utilities are like in CA,
      but $2500 would more than cover all of our oil and electricity
      for the year, of course it doesn't cover the space issue...)

    - Also, depending on the way you are actually able to work at home,
      you may gain from flexibility (e.g. trading a little time during
      the day for a little in the evening or something), though that's
      probably heavily dependent on what you do.

(Note that a 1hr/30mi each way commute is over $10K/yr accounted for
this way - and the amount goes up significantly if you make a lot more.)
Obviously, this an oversimplification, but people don't always seem
to count both sides of the equation.  (If you live close to your
workplace, that does change things quite a bit...)

[warning - political digression follows]

(I find this somewhat like the "takings" discussions in congress.  While
I tend to agree that there should be some compensation in significant
"takings" cases, it also ignores the increase in the value of properties
when the government does positive things.  People tend to argue that
"takings" should be compensated, but do you hear anyone asking about
the government "taking back" increases in value that result from it's
projects?  There was even an article in the WSJ about how things were
written in so that government increasing prices *to* market rates for water
would be considered "takings" (!)  We hear about takings, but we also
hear about screams when government tries to charge market rates.)

[end digression]

    
    	I don't want to be a wet blanket, but we've had other discussions,
    ad naeusum, about Digital's Home Office program, electricity, taxes, 
    families with little kids (c'est moi) at home, etc.
    
    	Since sooner or later we are all going to be doing it, I believe
    had rather hear about how people cope, tricks they have learned, how
    to efficiently use space when you don't have a lot to give over to a
    HO, how to deal with little kids, etc.
    
    	But to continuely discuss whether an individual "approves" or
    not, gets us no place. It's a fact. Period.
    
    	Please let's discuss how to make the best of it...
    
    	After all NOTES is our country store - after the gossip is out of
    the way, our focus is always supporting our community.
    
    	Thanks.
    
    		the Greyhawk

    Working from home can work.

    I started working from home in 1980 and have been
    ever since.  this was long before I had any kids, and
    the kids have just grown up knowing that they should not
    bother me too much when I'm 'at work'.  Of course, serious
    boo boos (or victories) are okay.

    I've always had 'some room' in my home that I use for an
    office.  It started as the den, then moved to a spare bedroom,
    and when the forth kid needed it, I built a little addition.

    There are pluses and minuses.  Its much quieter than the
    usual DEC setting.  I switched to a software job so that everything
    I need or produce can be poured through a wire.  I use Email
    for almost all communication, the phone rarely.  I think I can
    get a lot more done from home.  I have to work a little harder
    staying in contact with 'customers', but I think that is a
    big problem in all of DEC.  I've lost a LOT of my old
    'buddies'...there is very little in the way of 'old boys club'
    when you work from home.  Its a lot harder for you to have
    'political contacts' from home.

    I suspect my situation is very different from most 'work at home'.
    but I dont know what most HOME program people do.

    I think its now called the Telecommuting Program.
    bob

Trust the Greyhawk to get us back on track...
 
I have been working from home for about 3 years now.  (It is only recently
that it has become politically acceptable to admit this).  For me it works.

I am in Sales Support, and my time (should be) either in front of customers
or preparing to be in front of customers.  I have found that I can be very
productive when Telecommuting (which is the official term for this).

Upsides are:

1) A much more flexible schedule.  I can get work done when it needs to be
   done, and yet still be home when I need to be.  Yesterday my son was sick,
   and my wife had an appointment in the morning.  One phone call to my
   customer requesting a change in time for our meeting, and everything was
   taken care of.  And I did a better job preparing for the meeting because
   I had more time "at the office" to pull some more literature from VTX IR.

2) Fewer distractions.  There are no people stopping by to "just say hi" who
   blow an entire hour of your time.  My (at the time) 6 year old daughter
   made me a sign which says "Welcome in" on one side and "Do not disturb"
   on the other, and I hang this on my door as appropriate.

3) The dress code is much easier :^)

4) No commute to the Digital office, just to then commute to the customer.

Down-sides are:

1) A much more flexible schedule.  The last few weeks have seen me working
   very late every night.  This is an abberation, but one that is too easy to
   fall into.

2) Slow access to the Easynet.  Copying files is an adventure (which is one of
   the reasons I have been working late this week).  I have a 14.4K modem, but
   it still takes 25 minutes to copy down a 1MB file.  And the copy is one file
   at a time, so copying down a group of small files often takes longer than a
   few larger files.  And I only have access to the WWW since I discovered
   LYNX, and then it is only text-based.

I am fortunate that I have the room in my house (of course, I specified that I
have a room like this when we were looking for a house).  And I have not seen
any increase in heating/cooling/electrical costs since I started doing this
full-time.  And as far as business use of my house, my insurance agent (MetPay)
only cared that the equipment which Digital owned was covered by Digital 
directly (ie, I would call my boss and tell her that I needed a replacement for
the VAXserver and the PC which were burned up in the fire, rather than calling
MetPay for the replacement value of the equipment).  Zoning was also not a
problem, since I never have customers come to this place of business.
 
I have 3 additional phone lines: business voice, data and FAX.  They are all
normal phone lines, and I submit the expense for them each month.  I have a
VAXserver 3100, a PC with a 14.4K modem, an LN07, my venerable 320P notebook 
PC, and a FAX machine.  I also have a 2 drawer file cabinet which I picked up
when we closed the West Palm Beach office.

I have good relationships with the local copy shop, which also does my mailing
and FedEx packages.  I will try to find a Kinko's in my area, and get better
acquainted with the other "Digital approved" suppliers of services that I need.

One other benefit that I almost hesitate to mention:  In the last few years it
has been very difficult for me to talk to other Digital employees.  Whenever I
stopped by a Digital office, I would always get drawn into morbid discussions
about the terrible state of the company, how many new VPs we had while our
friends and co-workers were being laid off, what new low the stock just hit,
etc, etc, ad infinitum ad nauseum.  It was thoroughly depressing (much like
many of the discussions in this notes file).  But I found that I could avoid
being depressed, because I would then go out and talk to customers.

Even the customers who were ticked off about something valued Digital and our
products and services enough to want to work with me to make it right.  And 
there was definite joy in either making a sale, or seeing equipment in use to
do people's jobs that I had had a small piece in selling.

So the choice was clear: visit Digital offices and be depressed, or visit
customers and be challenged and valued.

YMMV, but this has been my experience over 3 years...

-- Ken Moreau

    
     Re -.1
    
    Well Ken,
    
    You seem to have your act together.
    
    I too am on the H.O.M.E. program. But I am a full time resident at
    a government site. The only thing I use digital for is a file stop
    for backups and an information repository. If digital would get an
    infastructure together in our area for SLIP access, the file stop
    and IR would be , H.i.s.t.o.r.y. I see others have that infastructure
    already. So the EASYnet moves to the HOMEnet.
    
    Remember you heard it from me first..."HOMEnet".
    
    -Mike Z.
    P.S. Will go home for vacation, or, vacation for sale....

    In NJ, the local cable TV provider is negotiating with Novell to
    provide Internet service along the cable line ( similar to our
    channelworks) so 500 Novell employees can work at home with easy
    access to their network thus office rental is saved.  They are not
    using modems so there is no desperately needs for additional phones.  
    During the daytime, the cable TV load is low (load peak at 8:00 pm) so
    the local cable TV company can capitalize their equipments better.
    Both Novell and the cable TV consider this is an excellent idea.

    A local cable company has done a pilot with IBM employees in Toronto.
    It is supposed to be going quite well.
    
    Ken

    Well, in my group we work *in* the office *and* at home.  I've started
    and ended many days working from the house.  Our manager likes us to
    come into the office.  Sometimes that's impossible; if there's a heavy
    and hot problem at a client site, I can't afford to be out of touch
    that long.  There were some wonderful times where I worked out of the
    house for weeks at a time.
    
    I've got a home office and found by keeping regular times for breaks,
    lunches, etc. I get about twice as much done as in the office.  Added
    benefits are mowing the yard on my lunch hour, throwing a load in the
    laundry on my breaks, spending time with my dog (who loves to watch me
    type...he was an author in another life), saving money on gas, car
    maintenance, lunches, etc.
    
    I also don't have to worry about being non-PC because I smoke, wear a
    "Headhunter Beer" T-shirt, shorts, and sandals, or my office walls are
    primarily decorated with....well, never mind.
    
    The *only* down side for me is I can't cut tapes if they're needed
    without going into the office and I would sometimes miss the
    camaraderie. I'd hold up my hand for the HOME program in a flash,
    all-in-all.
    
    							Tex

    I haven't had an office in a Digital facility since I moved to Houston,
    just over 5 years ago. I'm a field engineer with MCS, and was part of
    the independent "Desktop Services" group that was formed at that time
    (We only supported PC's). Part of the cost control for that group was
    the work-from-home plan.
    
    I love working from home. I'm sitting here right now in my bare feet,
    with a "Dream Theater" CD blasting out of the computer speakers. Show
    me an "office" where I could do that!
    
    I don't miss fighting rush hour traffic. I don't miss office politics
    (like Ken, I find it depressing to be around other Digits most of the
    time). I like the controlled environment.
    
    Sometimes it gets a bit lonely, but then I think back to when I was
    literally chained to a desk in engineering from 8 to 5 every day...
    
    The field is the place for me! Working from home is just an extra
    'benefit' for me. However, I'm a self starter, with a strong work
    ethic. I don't have a problem with getting up and doing what needs to
    be done every morning. Folks that need to have a 'boss' or 'supervisor'
    constantly tell them what to do would not do well in this environment.
    
    I hardly ever even talk to my manager. He knows that I do my job and
    that my customers are happy with the level of service that I provide. I
    know that he's too busy these days for idle chit-chat. So we only talk
    to each other when one or the other of us feels it is really necessary.
    The customer response centers take care of notifying me of new service
    calls (via pager). I've even posted my pager number and home phone
    number in my ELF entry so other Digits can find me, if need be.
    
    Yes, I do often work late at night, because system access is so easily
    available. But that's my choice. I try to do my best for Digital, even
    though I don't feel that Digital try to do its best for me.
    
    The Dream Theater CD is over. Time to put on Blackhawk or Emerson, Lake
    and Palmer... :-)
    
    Home Alone, and loving it,
    
    Harry
    

	You know, there is a business opportunity here..

	Conference Rooms 'R' Us

	Pick up and delivery

	Tape mastering

	etc...

	Wouldn't surprise me to see a Mailboxes etc.. picking up things
	like this.

							mike

RE:.10

I think Kinko's (or someone like them) is looking into setting up video
conferencing at some locations.

-Patrick

    i have found a trick that lets me get by with less phone lines. for
    approx. $75 you can get a Phone/data/fax box that detects what type of
    call and routes to that device. Over time the $75 would be cheap
    compared to the additional phone line cost. 2 lines should be enough
    for anyone.
    
    
    David

    Ditto many of the positive comments in previous replies on being
    a Telecommuter. I started officially on the Home Office program
    back in November 94.  Prior to that I have always had an office
    in my home with a second phone line for access to WATN or my customers.
    Now I have a third phone line which is used as my business "voice" line
    with voicemail set up through PacBell, and some additional equipment
    and a file cabinet.  Most of the time I'm out at customer sites but the
    one or possibly two days a week that I can work from home are precious
    to me because that means one day that I am NOT spending 3-4 hours
    on the road.  Most of my customers are 60-100 miles away from where
    I live and some of that is across L.A. so I averaged a minimum 3 hours 
    a day commute time.  I try to get into the Irvine office once every 
    two weeks or so to get supplies and go to lunch with some of my 
    counterparts. I also check the NOTES files about once a week to
    check on the latest news/rumors.
    
    The three hours that I get back each day I work from home are hard
    to put a price on.... just ask my 8-year old son!
    
    (not to mention the luxury of working in comfortable clothes and 
    not having to wear heels!)
    
    Elizabeth 
                         

RE: .12

>    i have found a trick that lets me get by with less phone lines. for
>    approx. $75 you can get a Phone/data/fax box that detects what type of
>    call and routes to that device. 

The problem with that is that I frequently use 2 of the devices at the same
time.  I frequently talk on the phone while down-loading files, or I will be
on the phone to support while dialed in to a customer site working on the
problem.

To me having less than 3 lines simply won't work.  In addition to the above
problem, customers frequently send me FAXes.  If my FAX line was being used
for either voice or data, I would not have any idea I just missed some type
of communication from a customer (such as a request for a quote where the PO
is just waiting for a dollar amount and a list of part numbers).

Now, if you didn't have a FAX machine, and therefore didn't advertise one on
your business card, you could get away with 2 lines because customers would
know that you don't do FAXes.  But for me I need all 3 phone lines.

-- Ken Moreau

I've been working at home two days a week for the last couple years.
It started out with having a lot of work to do which I could do better
from home (better equipment, fewer distractions, and avoid two hours commuting).
Now it's my normal schedule.

Being in the office 3 days a week gives me plenty of time to maintain
personal contact.  I'd be willing to work at home more and transition to a
shared space at MRO, but my management is hesitant.

For me, the benefits far out weigh the costs both personally and financially.
Telecommuting is not for everyone or every job, but properly applied,
I think it can improve the quality of peoples work and their lives.

I hope more people have a chance to discover this in a way
that is not threatening.  Sitting in traffic, adding
to pollution is not very fulfilling.


I have two phone lines, one for voice (home phone), and one for data
(computer phone).  This allows me to talk while I'm logged in.  The
modem has a silent answer feature that can distinguish FAX from data
and handles each type of call appropriately (both incomming and outgoing).
As an engineer, I don't get many FAXes.  Being able to receive
FAXes anytime I'm not logged in is enough.

I pay for both phones including 20 mile circle calling on the computer
phone to reach the nearest Digital access point.  I never asked Digital
to re-imburse this.  Not driving two days a week is like getting a $40
pay raise (160 miles @ 0.25/mile).

- Peter

    I'm not on the home program, but I"ve been working from home lately -
    writing "C" code isn't something I need to physically be in the office
    to do...
    
    2 BUSINESS phone lines is probably enough...  presuming you don't get a
    lot of faxes.  Dial out on one, and use the other for voice/fax.  It
    would be (is) important to me to keep a personal phone line separate
    from the business ones.  When the business line rings, whoever answers
    it knows it is a business call.  The personal phone line should not be. 
    My personal phone line is unpublished and unlisted, and I would be VERY
    unlikely to give my personal phone number to a customer.  

There is a notes conference for telecommuting in Digital. It is 
rumor::telework and has been around for a few years.