self employment

Rambling Thoughts on These Times

Yesterday I had the opportunity to exercise my Massachusetts civic responsibility by reporting to a county courthouse for possible selection as a trial juror.  Having been before I knew something of what to expect, i.e. long idle periods of wait time, a quick video explaining the responsibilities of the jurors, and the distractions of being in the company of some 20 strangers, each of whom had “better” things to do, and none of whom was completely comfortable in the environment of the jury selection room.

For myself, one of the distractions I brought with me was the latest issue of Entrepreneur magazine.  Entrepreneur is a magazine which I like to scan through to extract “tidbits” to stimulate my brain and I will often find items which relate to something I’m either working on, or which I think will be useful down the road.  Yesterdays “scan” was no exception.  Heres my “tidbits” and comment:

• On Innovation — ref Entrepreneurs Innovate every day - Two points in particular caught my eye here.  For the self employed developer, or the small development group the ability to “Ask better questions” can be invaluable - try it, you’ll like it!  In “Seek Feedback” the statement  “Your main goal is to benefit your customers…” couldn’t ring any more true - especially in these times. 
• On starting a business as a “mature worker” - Not Ready to Retire? - be prepared to get honest with yourself when you answer the question “Am I really a self-starter?” — What?  You haven’t an answer yet?  Then, in my opinion, you probably are NOT a self-starter!
• On frugality - Frugality is back - ‘Let’s look at how we get work done and see where we can make changes.’ - this statement caught my eye immediately!  If as an application developer you have an opportunity to participate in this activity it may provide an opening for changes to or new innovative applications.

The IT Worker Telecommuting

Somehow or another in spite of my best efforts to escape computer-speak when I’m not actively at work it seems that even my personal “life” is laced with computer and IT geeks.  Of course, as I’ve blogged about previously, I don’t really try to separate my “life” into a “work-life” and “personal” life — but I find it interesting that so many of the new people that I’ve met in the past year are associated with computing to some extent or another.  (Of course living in New England with its high concentration of “techies” probably contributes greatly to my experience!)

At any rate, I found myself engaged in a couple of interesting conversations this weekend about working from home, the economy, job environment and IT careers in general.  Of particular interest in those conversations was the subject of “the home office” and “working from home”, and in particular the challenges that are presented with the “home” environment.  Not all of us engaged in the conversation were currently working from home, but a number of us have had the experience and could easily relate to the “stories” and experiences of others.

One of the topics which constantly came up (with associated “stories” ) was the experiences of the “worker” with their “family” during “work” time.  The number one issue that came up was related to the need when “working”, to be left undisturbed, as if they had driven off to an office somewhere.  Of course, for this to truly work for all of the relationships concerned, telecommuting from home cannot be a 24/7 operation.  Clear boundaries have to be set.

However, this is more easily said than done it seems.  Many of the participants in the conversation were feeling especially insecure about their current employment status — and the general consensus is that with such insecurity in the background, there is a tendency to try to work 24/7.  This does not work!  It was suggested by one participant that he thought perhaps that was what the company hoped for when they allowed him to telecommute!

Having employees who work from home certainly can save a company money.  The full-time telecommuter doesn’t require office space, the part-time telecommuter can often share office space — less office space required, less expense.  If on top of that savings the employer then gets greater productivity from the employee - it’s a win!