Seeking work-life balance? 9 balance-friendly Austin jobs available now

By Mauri Elbel

Special to Statesman Solutions

If you are looking for a more balanced life and career, you’re not alone.

“A recent survey we did of over 800 job seekers found that the number one reason they were looking for a telecommuting or flexible job was to find better work-life balance,” said Sara Sutton Fell, founder and CEO of FlexJobs.com.

The key piece of advice she is offering those seeking greater work-life balance? Start looking now because jobs offering better work-life balance opportunities are out there––FlexJobs.com currently has a list of nearly 14,000 flexible jobs, some of which are based in Austin and many other positions across the country that don’t require relocating.

But the first step in the process is to determine what kind of job flexibility will help you achieve greater balance. While Fell said work-life balance can be feasibly found in almost any industry and at any career level, each individual must first understand what type of job flexibility and environment will help him or her reach it.

“The first thing is to determine what sort of job arrangement would work best for your situation,” said Fell. “You can’t start to search for jobs if you don’t know what you’re looking for, after all.”

Once you determine whether you want a work-from-home job, a part-time schedule, a contract job, a flexible schedule or some combination of those, then start searching. And Austin seems like a great place to look.

“An attribute that we are seeing more of in many of our companies here in Austin is trust,” said Barbara Salisbury, a professional leadership coach and owner of Forward Focus Coaching here in Austin. “They trust their employees to be responsible and to take ownership over their own results, schedules and career growth. There is no need for a time card in this environment and they want you to do what you do best.”

Companies that thrive on this self-management principle are diligent in their hiring process and looking for individuals that can express a shared vision of success for their company so that they can in turn release them to basically own their schedules and be responsible, she said.

“Fat companies used to be able to micro-manage their employees,” said Salisbury. “But many people are tired of that style of management, and frankly, many companies can no longer afford the management staff to do so.”

Fell said certain industries offer more opportunity for work-life balance than others, and the top 10 fields with the most flexible job listings are: medical and health, administrative, customer service, education and training, sales, accounting and finance, call centers, computer and IT, writing, and marketing. Within these categories, positions range from teachers and nurses to accountants and public relation professionals.

“These jobs all lend themselves to work-life balance because they offer flexible schedules, they can be done from home, they’re often contract or freelance positions, and they can be done full-time or part-time,” Fell said.

But when looking for flexible jobs, especially telecommuting jobs, Fell warned that scams do exist. If a job sounds too good to be true, asks for personal or confidential information or requires you to invest or pay to land the job, it is definitely a scam, she said. Research the company first to make sure it is legitimate before applying.

And if you do happen to be in the market for a new job that levels the time you spend working and living, here are a list of nine current jobs from FlexJobs.com known for their exceptional work-life balance attributes. Here Fell lists out the balance-friendly qualities of seven Austin-area jobs and two national positions you can do from Austin, and in most cases, your own home.

9 Great Work/Life Balance Jobs Currently Available in Austin

Job Title: Senior Vice President of Major Gifts for the American Heart Association

Job Description: Senior level executive will prospect and grow donor pipeline and manage donor relationships and affiliate partnerships to ensure sustained growth from major gifts income. Prefer candidate to have stewardship/cultivation experience. Home based option.

Balance-Friendly Qualities: “Even though this is a large role with a lot of responsibility, it’s a full-time telecommuting job which means the job seeker will avoid long commutes, have more free time, and have more control over the structure of his or her day,” said Fell.

Job Title: Entry Level Financial Data Analyst for Special Counsel

Job Description: Entry level finance/accounting data analysts needed to perform heavy data entry and internet research. A bachelor of arts or science in business and/or finance preferred, or equivalent work experience required. Contract position.

Balance-Friendly Qualities: “This is a great opportunity for a recent college graduate looking for flexibility because it’s a freelance or contract position, which gives the job seeker more control over their schedule, hours and methods of working,” said Fell.

Job Title: Texas Sales Representative for Ole Imports

Job Description: Leader in Texas fine wine industry wanted to work with distributors and call on accounts to ensure that sales goals are met. Requires a degree, at least one year direct wine sales experience and extensive travel. Work from home.

Balance-Friendly Qualities: “Work-from-home sales positions are in high-demand by employers, so this sort of job is a great way for a professional to find more work-life balance in a growing field,” she said.

Job Title: Senior Programmer Analyst for Pharmaceutical Product Development, Inc.

Job Description: Performing as a senior computer programmer, the senior programmer analyst will develop tools, create programs, and maintain program/process efficiency. Must have five years programming, database management, and clinical research experience. Full time, telecommute.

Balance-Friendly Qualities: “Computer and IT jobs are some of the most available in the telecommuting and flexible job niche, and this type of job often comes with a flexible schedule or the ability to set your own hours,” Fell said.

Job Title: Administrative Assistant for the Princeton Review

Job Description: Educational service company seeks assistant to: answer phones, sort and distribute messages, order supplies, and track teacher/student attendance records. Prior experience in education and one year admin preferred, and MS Office proficient. Part Time.

Balance-Friendly Qualities: “A part-time position is perfect for anyone who wants or needs to keep one foot in the working world while stepping into other roles such as parent or caregiver, or who needs a lighter schedule because of disabilities or other responsibilities,” said Fell.

Job Title: Benefits Counselor for Lincoln Financial Group

Job Description: Benefits counselor needed to explain employee benefits in an easy-to-understand manner. Sell financial services and products at the employer’s site. Ensure compliance with federal regulations. Three to five years of similar experience needed. Part-time; on-call; 90 percent travel; home office.

Balance-Friendly Qualities: “In this human resources role, you have the opportunity to work part-time from home, so you can maintain your career and have time for personal responsibilities and interests as well,” Fell said.

Job Title: Area Director for the American Foundation for Suicide Protection

Job Description: Area director will be responsible for running the signature event for an area chapter of a national nonprofit organization. Bachelor’s degree and experience with event planning and nonprofits is required. Work from home with some travel required.

Balance-Friendly Qualities: “This is an excellent example of how telecommuting can work for employees and employees,” said Fell. “The employer, in this case, is a national organization who is able to expand their reach by hiring local talent to work from home. The employee will gain a job with a national company but not have to worry about relocating and can work from home instead.”

Job Title: Telephone Triage Nurse for Alere (U.S. national position)

Job Description: The telephone triage nurse will possess an Illinois RN license and five-plus years of direct patient care experience. Bilingual skills desired. Responsibilities include working with patients and providing healthcare assistance. Full time; telecommute.

Balance-Friendly Qualities: “Healthcare is the number one career category for jobs that offer work-life balance, with more jobs available than any other category,” said Fell. “Nursing is one of the big occupations that is open to telecommuting and part-time schedules, and nurses are able to continue helping patients from the comfort of their home offices.”

Job Title: Secondary English Teacher for Connections Academy (U.S. national position)

Job Description: Secondary English teacher with multiple state certification, online teaching experience, and a masters highly desired for a part-time position teaching online instructional courses. Will telecommute from a home office.

Balance-Friendly Qualities: “Virtual schools are becoming increasingly popular as a means of educating students who are in some ways at-risk or special-needs, and this has opened the door for teachers to find telecommuting positions,” said Fell. “Teachers can conduct lessons, tutor students, administer tests, and help children grow in a virtual environment with part-time or full-time schedules.”

View the original article here

Yahoo! Telecommuting: Productivity Expert Mary C. Kelly Defends Work-at-Home

DENVER, Feb. 28, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- As businesses debate anew the merits of telecommuting in the wake of the Yahoo! public relations controversy, Productivity Expert Mary C. Kelly, PhD, says the issue comes down to accountability and leadership.

"If managers and supervisors are doing their jobs by keeping their employees accountable, then telecommuting is a non-issue," said Kelly, an economist and leadership coach who presents keynote speeches and training sessions for financial services companies, associations, and conferences.

"Yahoo! CEO Marissa Mayer should set the expectations, give managers the authority to take action for non-productive employees, and reward the people who are producing great results," said Kelly, author of "360 Degrees of Leadership."

"Telecommuting is cost-effective and remarkably efficient if key components of accountability, trust, and performance are in place," said Kelly, an internationally acclaimed leadership expert and business communication expert.

"Telecommuting saves money for both employees and employers.  Employers don't have to provide office space, phones, desks, or utilities for employees who work from home," she said.

Employees don't have to spend money on work clothes, lunches out, or waste time and gas driving to and from work.

It should be the perfect situation, but both sides have to work to make telecommuting profitable. 

Managers of telecommuters need to make sure that the work is completed, and that telecommuters are as much a part of the work team as those who physically show up.

Employees need to guard against the out-of-sight-out-of-mind syndrome.  There may be a perception that working from home involves long naps and extensive gym time, so employees have to work to reassure managers with meeting deadlines, delivering results, and effectively communicating.

"Employees have to understand that working from home seems like a great option, especially for those caring for another person, but it is still a job," she said. "Part of doing a job well means being responsive to their supervisors or company requests for information (which was the catalyst for Yahoo) and fulfilling all requirements of that position."

Telecommuting also means employees still need to show up for meetings, answer client questions, perform site visits, and be present any time the boss asks.

Canceling a telecommuting arrangement could cause other problems.

"Reneging on a promise to hire people as telecommuters by adopting a blanket policy seems unfair, especially if the employee spent thousands of dollars to buy office equipment, or turned down other job offers that offered telecommuting," she said.

"People who have not been doing their jobs should be counseled, put on improvement plans, or released," she said. "Great workers will be wildly productive wherever they are.  Poor workers will not."

For information about Mary C. Kelly's keynote speeches or leadership consulting services, go to www.ProductiveLeaders.com.

About Mary C. Kelly

With over twenty years of leadership experience and a diverse background leading teams in the U.S. and abroad, Dr. Mary Kelly makes productivity and leadership a reality for all levels of an organization. She trained over 40,000 military personnel and led multi-cultural teams in 11 countries.

Dr. Kelly delivers tools that increase productivity and profits.

She is a renowned leadership coach, speaker and author, specializing in maximizing available resources. She has extensive experience in human resources, finance, insurance, organizational leadership, and project development.

She is a graduate of the United States Naval Academy and spent over 20 years on active duty in intelligence and logistics. She has masters' degrees in history and economics, and a PhD in economics.

She is the author of 10 books, including "Master Your World" and "15 Ways to Grow Your Business in Every Economy."   

View the original article here

Why Marissa Mayer Banned Work-From-Home at Yahoo!

NEW YORK (TheStreet) -- Based on the reaction, Yahoo! (YHOO) CEO Marissa Mayer is a complete idiot.

Kara Swisher of All Things D broke the news with a leaked memo: Yahoo! will stop allowing employees to work from home. Despite widespread (and unfounded) reporting that this is a hard-and-fast, black-and-white policy, a source tells me a procedure is likely in place for exceptions.

In the memo from Swisher's story, notice this line: If this [policy] impacts you, your management has already been in touch with next steps. From what I understand, the "next steps" are not a simple either/or, work in an office or quit.

I know of at least one employee who has petitioned direct management. This employee expects to hear back from Mayer in 30-60 days to see if the CEO approves a request to continue to work at home. This employee is a productive Yahoo! veteran. In some cases, Mayer might have no other choice but to grant exceptions.

Swisher followed up her scoop by surveying the tech landscape inside and outside of Yahoo!. This spawned two primary conclusions:

Marissa Mayer sucks. Or she's merely looking to create a culture of collaboration that (A) lacks at Yahoo! and (B) will spur the type of innovation we see from Google (GOOG).

Of course, general sentiment slants in the "Mayer sucks" direction.

Even the famous urbanist, author of The Creative Class and University of Toronto professor Richard Florida, thinks Mayer made a bad move:

As much as I love Florida and respect his work, he misses the point as well. Or at least he speculates past what might be the lead.

Florida claims the "good [Yahoo! employees] will leave, mediocre will stay." That's quite an assumption. If a CEO instituted this policy at a company other than Yahoo! -- one with relatively solid morale and startup culture intact -- he might have a point. Why come down on people operating on all cylinders and getting the job done?

If you're a Steve Jobs fan, you realize what's happening here. Mayer is cleaning up something Jobs always feared at Apple (AAPL): A bozo explosion.

Over the years at Yahoo!, incompetent people hired more incompetent people who went on to hire even more incompetent people. These B-players maintained the status quo, while implementing all of the perks Silicon Valley and other tech staffers have come to expect and enjoy. At Yahoo!, working at home became expected, not a convenient consequence of competence.

Mayer is simply making another move -- in a long series of moves -- to clean up the mess. Firing people is a pain in the ass. And layoffs look bad.

Do you really think Mayer did not, in some way, communicate with the A-players (or at least their direct managers) ahead of making this move? She's using this "edict" to further streamline a bloated, self-entitled and largely ineffective segment of the workforce. That much should be obvious. And, based on what I mentioned earlier in this article, there very well could be exceptions. It will be interesting to see how Mayer handles these things case-by-case.

There might be contractual obstacles. Or solid employees who work in a city nowhere near a Yahoo! office.

As such, valuable A-players who work at home -- and are caught in an unfortunate crossfire -- know the score. It would not surprise me if Mayer (quietly) makes alternative arrangements with the A-players or asks for their patience and compensates them for their troubles in some other way.

Certainly, I am speculating just like Mayer's detractors, but, frankly, it's far more logical and rational speculation. I consider very real contexts from which Mayer might have made this decision. I do not cast her off as a bumbling fool who made an errant move. That's not the Marissa Mayer I have watched lead Yahoo! for the last 7-8 months, presiding over a roughly 35% increase in her company's stock price.

If Mayer misfired at all, it was by not properly anticipating how the media would spin this thing in the court of public opinion. Everybody from Richard Florida to Richard Branson couldn't run fast enough to jump on the bandwagon. Branson, another guy I have endless respect for, surprisingly simplifies the situation when he says, Give people the freedom of where to work and they will excel.

Sorry. As loyal as I am to Virgin America, I can't buy that. Has Branson paid any attention to Yahoo! over the last decade or so? They hardly constructed a culture of excellence.

As Twitter follower Mick McDonnal stated so concisely: If you are not familiar with current culture at Yahoo!, you're not in a position to criticize.

I thought the current culture was quite evident, but I guess I was wrong. Here's hoping Mayer stands her ground and handles this adversity in Steve Jobs' style. In this case, if she asks and does what Steve would do, she'll end up doing what's right.

Follow @rocco_thestreet!function(d,s,id){var js,fjs=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0];if(!d.getElementById(id)){js=d.createElement(s);js.id=id;js.src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js";fjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js,fjs);}}(document,"script","twitter-wjs");

--Written by Rocco Pendola in Santa Monica, Calif.

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SkipTheDrive.com - For Work-At-Home Telecommuters

Interested in a professional work-at-home job? SkipTheDrive.com connects job seekers, who are looking to telecommute, with employers.

Cleveland, OH (PRWEB) February 27, 2013

SkipTheDrive is a brand new job board for those looking to telecommute; tailored towards connecting job seekers all over the world with companies all over the world. What is a telecommuting job? This kind of job allows people to work remotely, such as from the comfort of their own home, coffee shop, etc. Also known as "virtual employment", it is the perfect option for those who want to develop their work-from-home career, avoid daily commutes, have more time at home with their family, earn supplemental income in addition to their daily jobs, or work as freelancers and independent contractors.

Corporate trends are changing. The way people do business has become more and more virtual over the years. In order to stay current with the trends, companies have created a number of telecommuting jobs that can be completed remotely so long as one has the necessary skills and a trusty computer to do the work. SkipTheDrive aims to be at the forefront of assisting the growing virtual business community. Their virtual job board, offering both full and part-time positions, is more direct and personal than standard job boards because it is tailored to fit this specific niche.

It is completely free to register on the site, with absolutely no charge to job seekers. For employers who choose to post jobs, SkipTheDrive currently offers incredibly reasonable rates at $29 per standard job posting and $39 per premium job posting. Every employer's job posting will be tweeted live as they come in. All members and visitors are invited to follow SkipTheDrive on Twitter and Facebook so they can be updated with the latest job postings and industry news. Job seekers can also sign up for email alerts that will notify them when newly posted jobs match their criteria.

Professionals seeking positions on SkipTheDrive can expect to see many job postings coming from the software/web development industry, health care, engineering, recruitment, workforce analysis and customer service. There is no limit on what jobs companies can seek telecommuters for, so expect to see a broad spectrum of jobs!

Register today and start on your new career path. It’s time to get out of the office and “skip the drive!”

View the original article here

Study: Cut chores + tech boost = health drop

Since the 1960s, women have been spending more and more time in formal work environments, which means less time at home, doing housework.

Thanks to technology, those who do stay home and choose to do household chores have a much easier time than women did in the '60s. Combine this with the sedentary nature of many modern jobs, the free time that technology affords us and the prevalence of televisions, computers and tablets, and women's health is negatively affected -- and is affecting the health of their children -- according to a recently released report.

"The premise of the study is that humans have engineered activity out of every domain of daily life ... from the workplace to the home ... but we are not suggesting that women should be doing more housework," said Dr. Edward Archer, a research fellow with the Arnold School of Public Health at the University of South Carolina in Columbia and lead author of the study.

"Our 'world' no longer necessitates moderate or intense physical activity. Therefore, women (and men) need to allocate more time to deliberate exercise to overcome the decrement in daily activity," he said.

The study draws from a 2011 study, based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data, that concluded that fewer jobs in the workforce requiring constant movement and heavy lifting than they did years ago, along with more time at work spent sitting behind a computer or on a phone, resulted in increased body weight in men and women and led to higher rates of obesity. However, that study focused on men and women in formal workplaces and didn't account for people who work from home, keeping a household, according to Archer, and the majority of these people are women.

The new study sought to complement the 2011 data by examining the lifestyle changes and physical activity of women at work -- and working at home -- over the past 45 years.

Archer and his colleagues gathered data from an extraordinary archive of "time-use diaries" written by thousands of women beginning in 1965 as part of the American Heritage Time Use Study, which documented the hours women spent in various activities throughout their day.

The study examined how many calories the women were probably expending in each of those tasks, and how the physical activity and energy expended each day changed over the years.

The results weren't surprising. According to the study, women spent an average of 25.7 hours a week cleaning, cooking and doing laundry in 1965. In 2010, that number was down to 13.3 hours per week.

In addition to the amount of time doing active things like housework, the study found that women also reported spending more time than ever in front of screens, whether televisions, computers or tablets.

View the original article here

Yahoo! cancels work-at-home policy

Published: Feb. 26, 2013 at 7:48 AM

SUNNYVALE, Calif., Feb. 26 (UPI) -- U.S. Internet giant Yahoo! said it was ordering its employees who have been working at home to report back to their company offices.

In a note posted online, Yahoo! said some work qualities are enhanced by having employees in the same location.

"Some of the best decisions and insights come from hallway and cafeteria discussions, meeting new people and impromptu team meetings. Speed and quality are often sacrificed when we work from home," the posting said.

The New York Times reported Tuesday that analysts studying the issue have concluded that innovation improves when workers interact with each other but productivity goes up when they work from home.

"If you want innovation, then you need interaction. If you want productivity, then you want people working from home," said John Sullivan, a professor of management at San Francisco State University.

Besides the loss of innovation, "A lot of companies are afraid to let their workers work from home some of the time or all of the time because they're afraid they'll lose control," said John Challenger, chief executive of Challenger Gray & Christmas, an outplacement and executive employment agency.

But some see irony in Yahoo!'s decision. Chief Executive Officer Marissa Mayer was hired from Google when she was 37 and pregnant, leaving many to believe she would be an advocate for flexible work arrangements.

Secondly, Yahoo! is a child of Silicon Valley and an Internet company, which is in a large way responsible for the cultural switch that allows, the Bureau of Labor Statistics says, 24 percent of workers to do at least part of their jobs from home.

Mayer, however, is following Google and Facebook on this, the Times said.

Both of those technology firms prefer workers to work at company offices, although some work from home on a "case-by-case basis," the Times said.

View the original article here

Work at home? There's no place like the office

Thumbs down: Kyrie O'Connor finds Marissa Mayer's order appalling. E1

SAN FRANCISCO - Working remotely has long been a sort of utopian vision of employment. And today, with computers and smartphones able to connect us, we can easily escape arduous commutes and cramped offices and get jobs done from the comfort of the couch or even the beach.

Yet the idea has not caught fire as many had thought it would since digital communication began to pervade life a decade and a half ago. While statistics show working from home is on the rise, it doesn't seem to match pace of technological evolution. U.S. employees who worked remotely at least one day each week increased to 9.5 percent in 2010, from 7 percent in 1997, according to the latest figures available from the U.S. Census Bureau.

No telecommuting

This week, the ranks of remote workers got a little smaller, but in a very big way, when reports surfaced that Bay Area tech giant Yahoo has told its thousands of employees their telecommuting days are over, according to a leaked memo.

"To become the absolute best place to work, communication and collaboration will be important, so we need to be working side by side," said the memo, whose contents were confirmed to Bloomberg News by an unnamed Yahoo employee. "Speed and quality are often sacrificed when we work from home."

That any company in 2013, let alone one whose business is connecting people through the Internet, would make such a decree set off a debate on the wisdom and usefulness of such seemingly old-school thinking. But at bottom, the real question seems to be: Considering the technological tools available to today's workers - instant messaging, email, Skype, Facetime, Hangouts - why is working from home is still considered such an "alternative" solution?

Joseph Pastore, a professor at Pace University's Lubin School of Business, says it's nearly impossible to supplant the basic unit of communication in an office setting: the efficacy of a simple conversation.

He said working remotely "is not always going to work as effectively as you think. Most of life's experiences are human experiences. There's so much about what we do - to the extent that it's conversational and interactive."

It's what some term the "water-cooler" phenomenon: The truly critical details of a job are the in-between moments where casual conversation spurs projects and initiatives that end up delivering real value for the business.

Another reason the workplace remains the workspace of choice is simple personal preference. Some people just work better around others.

Clearing deadweight?

In the case of Yahoo, many see the long- struggling Internet giant as bloated and needing to tighten its belt in order to compete with a new generation of tech heavyweights. By telling workers to show up or ship out, as the memo indicated, CEO Marissa Mayer, who took over in June of 2012, may be able to clear a little deadweight.

Still, several observers jumped on Yahoo's case.

Billionaire entrepreneur Richard Branson, for one, said Mayer's move perplexed him.

"Give people the freedom of where to work & they will excel," he tweeted.

Mayer's former employer, Google, and social networking giant Facebook, likely smelling blood in Silicon Valley's hiring waters, were quick to reiterate their own work-from-home policies.

From a policy point of view, statistics seem to be on their side. The 2012 National Study of Employers, a report backed by family and workers' rights advocacy groups, noted that some 63 percent of companies allow - though not necessarily encourage - at least some employees to work a portion of their time remotely. That's up from 34 percent in 2005.

Getting the job done

But talk with just about anyone at Google, Facebook or at other Silicon Valley workplaces, and they'll admit that while an occasional day at home is fine, being in the office is usually more productive.

Increasing gasoline prices and crowded highways may make commuting more painful, but in the end, most managers will default to the bottom line, Pastore said.

"The mere fact you're saving a little money and time won't supplant the fact you're not getting the job done," Pastore said.

View the original article here

Yahoo! Telecommuting: Productivity Expert Mary C. Kelly Defends Work-at-Home - PR Newswire (press release)

"If managers and supervisors are doing their jobs by keeping their employees accountable, then telecommuting is a non-issue," said Kelly, an economist and leadership coach who presents keynote speeches and training sessions for financial services companies, associations, and conferences.

"Yahoo! CEO Marissa Mayer should set the expectations, give managers the authority to take action for non-productive employees, and reward the people who are producing great results," said Kelly, author of "360 Degrees of Leadership."

"Telecommuting is cost-effective and remarkably efficient if key components of accountability, trust, and performance are in place," said Kelly, an internationally acclaimed leadership expert and business communication expert.

"Telecommuting saves money for both employees and employers.  Employers don't have to provide office space, phones, desks, or utilities for employees who work from home," she said.

Employees don't have to spend money on work clothes, lunches out, or waste time and gas driving to and from work.

It should be the perfect situation, but both sides have to work to make telecommuting profitable. 

Managers of telecommuters need to make sure that the work is completed, and that telecommuters are as much a part of the work team as those who physically show up.

Employees need to guard against the out-of-sight-out-of-mind syndrome.  There may be a perception that working from home involves long naps and extensive gym time, so employees have to work to reassure managers with meeting deadlines, delivering results, and effectively communicating.

"Employees have to understand that working from home seems like a great option, especially for those caring for another person, but it is still a job," she said. "Part of doing a job well means being responsive to their supervisors or company requests for information (which was the catalyst for Yahoo) and fulfilling all requirements of that position."

Telecommuting also means employees still need to show up for meetings, answer client questions, perform site visits, and be present any time the boss asks.

Canceling a telecommuting arrangement could cause other problems.

"Reneging on a promise to hire people as telecommuters by adopting a blanket policy seems unfair, especially if the employee spent thousands of dollars to buy office equipment, or turned down other job offers that offered telecommuting," she said.

"People who have not been doing their jobs should be counseled, put on improvement plans, or released," she said. "Great workers will be wildly productive wherever they are.  Poor workers will not."

For information about Mary C. Kelly 's keynote speeches or leadership consulting services, go to www.ProductiveLeaders.com.

About Mary C. Kelly

With over twenty years of leadership experience and a diverse background leading teams in the U.S. and abroad, Dr. Mary Kelly makes productivity and leadership a reality for all levels of an organization. She trained over 40,000 military personnel and led multi-cultural teams in 11 countries.

Dr. Kelly delivers tools that increase productivity and profits.

She is a renowned leadership coach, speaker and author, specializing in maximizing available resources. She has extensive experience in human resources, finance, insurance, organizational leadership, and project development.

She is a graduate of the United States Naval Academy and spent over 20 years on active duty in intelligence and logistics. She has masters' degrees in history and economics, and a PhD in economics.

She is the author of 10 books, including "Master Your World" and "15 Ways to Grow Your Business in Every Economy."   

SOURCE Mary C. Kelly

 

View the original article here

The Home Office in the Spotlight - Wall Street Journal

Jobs may get done when employees work from home, but careers are made in the office.

Yahoo is set to implement a new rule which requires all employees to work in the office only, a move that could impact hundreds. Rachel Emma Silverman joins digits. Photo: Getty Images.

The outcry surrounding a decision by Yahoo Inc. —led by new Chief Executive Marissa Mayer—to end work-from-home arrangements has shown just how strongly many companies and employees have embraced remote work, but it also underscores tensions between workers' need for flexibility and their need for visibility. Companies tout working from home as a benefit that helps recruit and retain talent over the long term, but workers may be missing out on the personal contacts that get them promoted.

Marissa Mayer via Twitter Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer tweeted a picture with her baby in October

Yahoo employees who work from home will have to start packing up their lunches and reporting to the office for duty. But new research suggests there may be a good reason for them to show up: a future. Quentin Fottrell has details on The News Hub. Photo: AP.

Clichés about the water-cooler aside, many managers say having workers in the office makes sense, given greater emphasis on collaboration and group projects. And despite studies showing that home-based workers may be more productive than their cubicle-bound peers, remote workers must also combat the perceptions among managers and colleagues that they're not spending the day goofing off.

At S&T Bank, based in Indiana, Pa., managers are experimenting with work-from-home arrangements for some employees, though it hasn't been easy, said Becky Stapleton, S&T's director of human resources.

Sometimes when people are working remotely, "you wonder if employees are being as productive as they could," said Ms. Stapleton. "Or, are they being more productive? As a manager, you have to be actively engaged in their work."

Some firms use monitoring programs to track what home-based workers are doing online, so that managers can gauge how much time is spent on each task.

At Salesforce.com Inc., a large share of the company's roughly 10,000 workers can sign on from home, said Monika Fahlbusch, a senior vice president.

The software company has developed Chatter, similar to Facebook for the workplace, to coordinate projects. Managers can keep real-time tabs on whether staffers have updated budget reports, answered questions about a new client or whether they've been idle. "It's very obvious when someone is not engaged," Ms. Fahlbusch said.

At technology-consulting firm Acumen Solutions Inc., certain consultants work from home, but only after "they have a proven track record," said Shally Stanley, a managing director in its McLean, Va., office.

At prior employers, Ms. Stanley observed some home workers "lose focus," either missing deadlines because they didn't check in enough or failing to grasp a delay's impact on colleagues.

Face to face contact is particularly important for new employees, or for teams whose members are unfamiliar to one another, said Michael Boyer O'Leary, an assistant management professor at Georgetown University's McDonough School of Business. He added, though, that remote employees can be just as productive as co-located teams, depending on how well they are managed and the job functions involved.

Brett Caine, a senior vice president at technology company Citrix, said that there are challenges to managing remote employees, especially for inexperienced managers who may not have built trust among their teams. "Nothing in life and work replaces face to face," he said. But he noted that about 86% of the company's 9,000 employees work remotely at some point during the week, working wherever they considered was most suited for the task. Some employees, for example, will telecommute for deep-concentration tasks, but go into the office for collaborative work, such as brainstorms.

Some managers say the office just holds more opportunities for the accidental encounters that can lead to new products or relationships.

"Unplanned interaction is so valuable," said Naveen Jain, CEO of Inome, a Bellevue, Wash.-information technology company with roughly 400 employees, some of whom work from home on occasion. "I don't care what technology does—there is something about being right next to a person."

Having employees in the office can also lead to faster decisions and communication, because workers can more easily reach out to their colleagues, said Dan Yates, CEO of Arlington, Va.-headquartered energy-technology company Opower. Almost all of his firm's 320 employees work out of the company's four global offices, which are equipped with videoconferencing technology allowing workers in different offices to simulate face-to-face contact.

Noting that some of the best insights arise in the hall or cafeteria, Yahoo's human resources chief said in a company memo that "speed and quality are often sacrificed when we work from home. We need to be one Yahoo, and that starts with physically being together."

A Yahoo spokeswoman declined to discuss internal matters. "This is about what is right for Yahoo, right now," she said.

During the nine years Stephen Piper worked from his home in Providence, R.I., he made efforts to foster connection with his far-flung co-workers, even organizing "virtual beers" with his team on Friday afternoons.

Mr. Piper, 38 years old, a director of sales operations at a major information technology firm, would grab a beer from the fridge, set up a conference call, kick back and wait for his colleagues to join in and talk about work or raise problems, he said.

"We didn't have Christmas parties," Mr. Piper said, "so there were customs we had to invent to be powerful managers in a virtual environment."

The biggest challenge for many home workers is that they labor to combat perceptions that they have cushy roles, or that they're not getting as much done—a reason why remote workers have reported longer hours in some research.

Phil Libin, CEO of Evernote, a 290-person note-taking app company based in Redwood City, Calif., said he prefers his employees come into work though staffers can also work from home. Those who do sign in from home, though, are expected to do as much, if not more, than those in the office.

"To an employee, I would say that [if they're working at home] understand you're signing up to work harder," he said.

Studies suggest that those who work from home are happier in their jobs than the average cubicle drone, but it comes at a cost. While productive, home workers are 50% less likely to get a promotion than those who come into the office, according to a study published last week by Stanford University.

The researchers, who spent nine months monitoring a work-from-home program at a 16,000-employee Chinese travel agency, concluded that the lack of face time with bosses caused careers to stall.

"Home workers can become forgotten workers," especially when it comes to bonding with senior management, said Nicholas Bloom, a professor of economics at Stanford and a co-author of the study. Being an engaging presence in meetings and dealing with work conflicts are key skills for getting ahead, he added.

Three years ago, Mr. Piper decided to spend more time at the office, traveling to headquarters at least once a month and coming into a branch office several times a week—partly because he had three noisy children at home, and partly because virtual beers only go so far.

"When the time comes for promotions you need to be on somebody's radar," he said, "and it's important to show yourself across the company so people know who they're talking to."

—Joann S. Lublin, Lauren Weber, Melissa Korn, Pui-Wing Tam and Leslie Kwoh contributed to this article.

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