Brad Short comes up with key design ideas for Hewlett-Packard printers from a lounge chair in his backyard.
And if he's feeling uninspired, he doesn't hesitate to stop working for a spell. He'll return to his duties later. "Not everyone can be innovative in a very structured, nine-to-five type office environment," says Short, a lead mechanical-design engineer in HP's printer group. At home, "you stop watching the clock", Short explained. "It now becomes more of a focus on getting the task done."
Short isn't alone in having an unconventional work arrangement. In the wake of the dot-com crash, some technology companies clamped down on telecommuting options. But thanks to better technology, employee desires and a focus on results, a number of firms in the industry are giving more workers flexibility in the way they do their jobs.
Telecommuting, flexitime and the like are good for both employers and workers when set up properly, says Ellen Galinsky, president of the Families and Work Institute. These sorts of arrangements are maturing from a mere carrot used to hire workers to a fundamental way of doing business in a global, demanding economy, she says. "Providing flexibility isn't a perk," Galinsky says. "Flexible work [options] are part of effective companies."
Practices such as telecommuting and working flexible hours have been around for decades. But they became more pronounced in the late 1990s, as the Internet and email made remote work more feasible. In addition, technology companies eager to snap up talent during the dot-com rush gave employees a lot of latitude when it came to work. Remember stories of people bringing pets to work?
But after the Internet bubble burst, some companies reviewed their workplace rules as the business world refocused on financial results. Some technology companies decided to restrict their telecommuting policies earlier this decade, says Jack Nilles, president of JALA International, a consulting firm focused on telecommuting. "Strangely, tech companies sometimes are more conservative in this respect," he says.
Such companies are missing out, Nilles argues. Telecommuting increases workers' average productivity by 5 percent to 20 percent, he says. "Most offices are dysfunctional," Nilles says. "Interruptions are unbelievable."
