Saturday, October 3, 2009
Are We There Yet? Part II
Are We There Yet, Part I
In Part I of this essay I explained where the jobs have gone, and why they're not coming back. In Part II, I hope to explain what to do about it.
Telecommuting is a subject I have attempted to discuss with business professionals, both employers and employees, on a number of occasions. In almost every case, the people I have spoken with immediately refuted the basic premise, and adamantly rejected the concept. The notable exception to this has been independent professionals, who in most cases already work this way. I am good at explaining things, but not at selling things. That's because I have nothing to sell. If you feel that widespread telecommuting is impractical, unnecessary and unlikely, you may wish to skip the rest of this essay.
Resistance to telecommuting is strong. “Managers want to see people at their desks, or they don't really feel like they are working,” say hiring managers. However, pressure to profit, and to cut operating costs, is unrelenting. Face-time becomes less a necessity, and so more of a luxury, every day. Every job that can be virtualized, will be virtualized. Those who will not adapt, be they workers, hiring managers, or senior executives, will be subsumed by those who will. This change is ensured by the unstoppable quest for ever greater profits.
The main unknown at this time is just where the virtual worker will reside. Right now, knowledge worker jobs are flowing to Asia, but this need not be the rule. There is no technological reason these jobs can't just as easily go to Pennsylvania, or Texas, or Wyoming. The idea that Adobe can send an entire division to India, but someone in St. Louis cannot work for an employer in Boston, is absurd. In time, Americans will learn to use the same tech tools the Corporation already uses. Eventually, 'we never did that before' will wear thin.
To make this happen, some mindset changes are needed. Managers will need to manage, and workers will need to work, by objective rather than by procedure. Workers will no longer be able to get by by showing up at a given time and 'looking busy.' Managers will have to know enough about a job to specify reasonable completion dates. Both will need to understand that it's about getting the job done well and on time, not about maintaining appearances.
As I said above, independent professionals have already figured this out. The average employer or employee, will need their hand held though. For some this represents substantial short-term opportunity. It will be necessary to market tools like Webex and eLluminate to the individual, rather than just the Corporation. Training will be needed. Placement agencies and job seekers alike will need to broaden their approach.
The so-called recession is officially a year old. We have already coined the moronic expression 'jobless recovery.' Job losses continue. Those whose unemployment benefits end fall off the radar. But we continue to wait. Wait for the headlines to change, wait for our legislators to fix everything, wait for a miracle to occur. How long will we wait?
I don't know. I'm no fortune teller. I am only an engineer. I only know what works.
Here's one who figured it out:
http://www.cnn.com/2010/TECH/biztech/07/05/Asia.wyoming.insource.teach/index.html
Here are the kind of tips we need:
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/26/jobs/26career.html
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It would be helpful to new readers, here from LinkedIn or elsewhere if you provided a link to Part 1, especially since it's not the post immediately before this one.
ReplyDeleteA good suggestion, voxwoman. It is done.
ReplyDeleteEddie,
ReplyDeleteI'm fairly new to technical writing (about 5 years), having spent my first 25-year career as an engineer. I just finished a 4 month contract where I was required to go into the office every day, I assume because of some of the reasons you mention.
In reality I could have worked at home 2-3 days a week with no problem. But like many companies these days, at least 80% of the staff in this department were in their 20's, new to management (new to everything from my POV), and my manager was not comfortable with me being out of his control.
But since it was only a 17 mile drive, I didn't complain. The disadvantage of working there was the lack of software at my disposal. The advantage was that I had the opportunity to learn more about the company.
I agree with you that managers are going to need to become more skilled at managing people remotely. But seeing the trend toward letting older workers go because the company can hire two recent college grads in their place, I don't hold much hope for that to happen very quickly.
Another factor in hiring decisions is that I believe a 25 year old manager is more comfortable hiring someone their own age and experience level versus bringing in someone older who may reveal to the group just how inexperienced the manager really is.
What I'm coming to here is that an older more experienced person may be more likely to work out in a telecommuting relationship. First, they don't threaten the young manager by being on-site, and second, they are likely to get the work done better and faster than a younger person who may not be as reliable working from home.
Somehow, we need to do a better job of selling the value of hiring an older more experienced and more reliable technical writer.
The ongoing replacement of seasoned veterans with younger, less capable, cheaper people is definitely a reality, John. I began to experience age discrimination in my late 40s. Unfortunately, the laws prohibiting this behavior are unenforceable. As I said in The Horses Are Dead, the moral character of the enterprise has plummeted.
ReplyDelete