Discussion

JOHN:  “Hi, Melanie. Thanks for the opportunity to meet again."

MELANIE:  “Hi John. Thanks for bringing this forward. As I thought about your entire team, it occurred to me that other members of your team might be in a similar situation. Last week when we chatted, you said that your commuting situation is pretty stressful."

JOHN:  “It really is. I’ve tried to make this work over the last 6 months. I’m taking different routes to and from work so that I can cut down on my commuting time, but I just can’t seem to do it any faster than an hour and a half. I’ve been getting up at 5am and I don’t get home until 7pm each night. It’s definitely taking its toll on me. As I said last week, I don’t want this commute to effect my work in any way. I take pride in doing things thoroughly and on time. But I’ve noticed that I’m pretty exhausted by the end of the week."

MELANIE:  “Well, I have to say that I haven't noticed any change in your performance, but I can imagine that a 3 hour commute can be tiring. I've given some thought to your situation and I think telecommuting could be an option to explore. I definitely want to make sure that whatever we decide makes sense for you and our organization."

JOHN:  “I can appreciate that. How about I try telecommuting on Mondays for pilot period of 3 or 4 months? That seems like a good day because that's when I write the weekly budget report. As it stands now, I already get all the information from my team members on Friday afternoon, and lock myself in my office on Mondays after our early meeting for about 6 hours to complete a final for submission. I could just as easily take it home with me on Friday afternoon and prepare the reports on Monday at home. As you know, it takes about 6 hours to complete the report, so I can devote most of my Mondays at home to that effort. The rest of the day, I can make my weekly calls to the regional budget offices. I usually do that on Mondays from the office anyway, so as far as the Regional Offices are concerned, it should not matter if I make the calls to them from the office or from my home, they would not see a difference either way.”

MELANIE:  “That sounds reasonable. Those are pretty discrete tasks that we can both track easily and you don't necessarily need to interact with others in the office to effectively complete them on time for review. Also, it occurs to me that the meeting you and I currently have each Monday morning to "map out" all the action items for the rest of the week could just as easily take place over the phone. This will ensure that we are still on the same page as far as priorities for the day and for the rest of the week are concerned. Communication on Monday morning is going to be critical to making this work, however, it shouldn't matter if you are here in the office or at home. And similarly, like when you are on travel attending budget seminars, your team membership can always contact you at home during the day if there is a problem that they can't solve together.”

JOHN:  “Sure, that makes sense to me. What about access via email?”

MELANIE:  “Well, you mentioned last week that you have a computer at home but that you need a modem to hook into our server. In preparation for this meeting, I spoke with the IT department and they thought that they could arrange that. It sounds like we can make this work out, but I want to talk about some additional details before we go final on this…”

MELANIE To the audience:  “I think that a telecommuting arrangement can work for both John and the office. John is highly reliable and an overall good performer. I'm pretty comfortable tracking his performance on these discrete tasks and the work production itself will be pretty easy to measure. Once I can get him connected to our e-mail system, I feel that we're in a good position to try out this pilot arrangement for 3 or 4 months and see how it goes. I do think that this is a good opportunity for me professionally. I've never directly supervised or managed someone at a distance before. It will test my management and organizational skills, but I think, in the end that it's going to help me learn to be a better supervisor.”