Why Can't I Have Flex Time?

This is the final installment of a conversation I recently had with a friend; a manager who has some issues regarding remote employees. You may want to read the post for yesterday and the day before first.

"You know," said my friend, "It's not just the remote employees that are a problem. It's the on site people too. They see the off site employees coming and going, sometimes here, often not, and yet the on site people have to be here everyday. They know that off site employees don't work to a strict time table. They know that off site employees can structure their work and personal lives to suit their own needs. They know that on site people can't do that."

Hmmmm, I thought. Is this really a new phenomenon? As far back as I can remember, employees with set schedules have looked at employees with flex time and wondered "Why can't I have flex time?"

My answer has always been quite clear. "Any employee who works in a job that allows flex time can have it as long as business conditions allow it. But many of our jobs don't have flex time because of job conditions and/or customer requirements. If you work for me in a job that doesn't allow flex time then I encourage you to put your name in for consideration when we do have a flex time job open up. If you are the best person for that flex time job we will be happy to give it to you. If not, we encourage you to apply in the future when other flex time jobs open up. But in the meantime, since your job does not allow for flex time, we expect you to work your hours as scheduled, with reasonable adjustments for personal needs granted if and when business conditions allow it."

About Pelleyblog: We focus on topics of interest to supervisors, group leaders, foremen, department managers, project managers, team leaders, assistant managers, associate managers, office managers, nurse managers, crew leaders, unit managers, and other first-line managers. But managers at all levels, and people interested in management topics are welcome and are encouraged to join us.

Copyright © 2009 Daniel W. Pelley
All rights reserved.

What Are They Doing?

Yesterday's post was my first on dealing with remote (off site) employees. You may want to read that post first.

My friend, the manager we looked at yesterday, continued to lament his problems with remote employees. "For instance," he said, "I have an employee who is a stay-at home parent. I understand our telephone conversations occasionally get disrupted. I understand sometimes my employee is off taking a child to this or that activity. I know that's part of why some people want or need to work at home. But how do I know I'm getting my money's worth? How do I know the time I'm paying for is productive time? Sometimes it seems like my stay-at-home parent does what he/she wants to do, and not what I want done."

My response was: "That my friend is again a management issue, the same kind of issue you can have with on site employees. Perhaps not to the same degree, but it's the same problem none-the-less. On site employees sometimes need time off to attend to personal things. Some on site employees are guilty of working on personal things on company time. On site employees sometimes talk too much, lose focus, get distracted or just plain goof off. And on site employees don't always do what we need done."

"Yes, Dan, but when they are on site I can see it and I can deal with it."

"Not always," I cautioned. "You can be in a meeting and your on site employees can have a field day until just before you get back. And how many times have you been disappointed with an on site employee when something you needed didn't get done? Admittedly, these conditions are usually surface faster and are dealt with more quickly when the employee works on site. But they are also controllable and can be dealt with quickly when an employee works off site, provided you stay on top of things by establishing and monitoring clear expectations of performance.

"First of all," I continued, "I'm glad you recognize that stay-at-home workers can get distracted by stay-at-home things. That's a natural part of life, and frankly a cost of having remote workers. The question becomes one of reasonableness. Are too many telephone conversations being disrupted by children? Then perhaps more on site meeting time is necessary if you and the remote employee can't find any other way to resolve the off site issue. Is your off site employee not available when you need them due to out-of-home child activities? Then create a set of expectations that you both can live with. You could also require the stay-at-home employee to let you know in advance when they don't plan to be at home working.

"Secondly, in terms of getting your money's worth, clear performance measures are necessary for off site workers just as they are for on site workers. For production and paper processing types of jobs, you as a manager need to have a good handle of how many units of work can be done per hour. For project work, you as a manager should have a pretty good idea (and so should the employee) of the budgeted hours for the project. And, most importantly as a manager, you need to know how each employee's performance stacks up against those measures.

"Thirdly, in terms of priorities and job completion requirements, those belong to you. You can delegate those responsibilities if you are happy with the way your off site (or on site) employee handles their workload. But you always have the right to command and demand those priorities and deadlines when you believe it necessary to do so.

"Finally, if an off site (or on site) employee is not performing to expectations, then you need to put on your coaching and/or counseling hat and deal with it. Of course the barriers to performance may be different in a remote environment. But in the end it doesn't matter. The barriers to performance need to be overcome so the employee performs to expectations. After all, you are paying them to do their job properly -- no matter where that job is being done."

About me: Before becoming a full time educator, my career experiences included being vice president of a consulting firm, vice president - finance of a publishing company, vice president - sales support services for a manufacturing company and vice president - operations for a distribution company. As a full time educator working principally in Rhode Island (RI), Connecticut (CT) and Massachusetts (MA). I am pleased to share my experiences and business philosophies with managers at all levels.

Copyright © 2009 Daniel W. Pelley
All rights reserved.

The Remote Worker

There are two topics that I have been wrestling with lately. One is the issue of how to manage millennial employees. As you may know from prior blog posts, I find that issue to be both interesting and disconcerting.

The other topic, which has just recently come to the forefront for me, is how to manage remote (off site) employees. That topic is less interesting to me as I fail to see anything unique or unusual about remote employees that can't be handled with well known tried-and-true management techniques. Indeed, I believe off site employees have been around in various forms forever. Outside sales people. Service technicians. Delivery people. And, to a large extent, the problems of managing off site (remote) workers isn't all that different from situations where people are working on site without a boss being present. Like a convenience store clerk. Or a 2nd shift of 15 people in a manufacturing company with no on site supervisor or group leader.

A few days ago a friend told me he was having a great deal of difficulty with remote employees. He suggested they were quite different and hard-to handle. "Give me an example," I said.

He told me of a stay-at-home employee who constantly disrupts the department with requests to access customer files with information the remote employee needed to do the job. These frequent requests were wearing the department thin, especially my friend the manager. Seems the remote employee usually calls him to look up and transmit the information.

One answer of course is to put all the necessary documents and relevant information into a database so the needed information could be accessed remotely. My friend thought that was a good idea, but his company didn't have that technological capability at the moment.

"Then have your remote person take the files home," I responded, "unless there are other people who need them or other reasons the files can't go off site."

"Not a problem," my friend responded. "He can take files home. But he often gets into a project and doesn't have a needed file or other information."

"Perhaps he needs to come in to the office occasionally to get what he needs," was my next thought.

"Oh, he's required to spend one day a week in the office now," was the response.

"Then why is it se doesn't have the files he needs when working off site?"

"Sometimes he doesn't realize what is needed until he gets into the project. Sometimes I guess he forgets," said my friend.

"Well there's your real issue," I said. "Any person who works at an off site (such as a client site) quickly learns to plan ahead so they can bring what they need to do the job. Accountants know that. Consultants know that. Plumbers know that. It just takes a little forethought and discipline. That's what you need to deal with as the coach. The fact that your off site employee needs to plan ahead so he can leave the on site facility with everything he needs to do his work before the next on site visit. And, if you need to reinforce that lesson, it wouldn't hurt to have the off site employee have the inconvenience of making a special trip back to the on site location when the requests for support are getting out of hand."

About me: Dan Pelley frequently updates his programs to include recent trends and current best practices. You can learn more about his programs by clicking here to visit his website.

Copyright © 2009 Daniel W. Pelley
All rights reserved.