Work Is Something I Do, Not Somewhere I Go ...

A friend forwarded an eMail to me, a classic example of "Dilbert-Darwinism", he cited. The letter is from the CEO of his company -- here's an excerpt:

"I believe more inter-departmental communication at [Company] should be a priority because it will give all levels greater opportunity for teamwork. Being in multiple buildings and working different hours are two impediments to getting this done. We will improve on the first of these by consolidating team members in Buildings 3 and 4. To fix the second, the Executive Team has agreed to adopt standard, core work hours, 8:30 AM to 5:30 PM Monday through Friday. This will improve the opportunity for [Company] employees to team with your colleagues in other departments."

Dilbert-Darwinism, I certainly agree. I'm so glad that I'm not similarly shackled at my company.

Work is something I do, it's not somewhere I go.

I've worked very hard to make my entire organization as efficient remotely as they are in the office. I've used platforms like Salesforce.com to give them access to the very best CRM tools over the web: customer / supplier / partner / vendor information, contact info, sales order information, cases & trouble ticket tracking, knowledbase / solution articles, inventory tracking, technical documentation, bug tracking, project management. All accessible to them, 24x7, from anywhere in the world that they can get an internet connection.

All members of my team have laptops and USB headsets, and all of their calls are processed through VOIP telephony applications on their laptops -- so they can be taking calls from the ACD phone system while at the office, logged in from home, or snarfing down a donut at some internet cafe.

GoogleTalk is integrated within our CRM application, so we can broadcast quick questions to each other -- and get quick answers. We carry Blackberrys on our hip, and Blue Tooth wireless ear pieces clipped to our ears, so that if ever we are disconnected from the web, we still have constant communication with the hive -- by phone, email or text messaging.

We have team GoToMeeting accounts, so we can quickly collaborate, train or share screen information. There are very few companies who have done as much as we have to allow their work force to be as seamlessly proficient remotely as they are in the office.

And we work crazy, insane hours. I don't mean just a few of us. I am constantly text messaging or chatting with work colleagues from all areas of the company, long after office hours. I've hosted late night conference calls with a dozen or more colleagues on the line, calls that started in the late evening and drifted into the early morning. And I've collaborated on PowerPoint presentations with colleagues, while we both multi-tasked to get our kids off to school in the morning.

I work in my underwear at home, late at night. I work on a WiFi connection at the park, while my kids climb the monkey bars. I work on a FIOS broadband connection at the cottage, after convincing my Dad he really needed high-speed internet at the family beach house. And yes, I put in an appearance at the office, five days out of seven, for about 8-10 hours a day.

Ask my colleagues and I to be in the office between the hours of 8:30am and 5:30pm? I can't think of anything that would make us LESS productive.