Comments on: Commuting is crazy!

By: JayGA

JayGA — Wed, 13 May 2009 18:59:00 +0000

Actually, I am an engineer and work mostly from home doing embedded software development. I’ve been doing it for about 2 years now. Unfortunately, the only way I could accomplish this was to become self-employed. My employer didn’t want their employees doing this sort of thing. However, my former employer didn’t want to lose me, so that got me under contract. They equipped me with VPN and equipment for development.Advantages:I’m getting paid hourly (so paid overtime).Very flexible schedule. I can get work done around the house and yard, and work late at night if I have too. Can really crank the work out sometimes.Disadvantages:Communication issues to the point you feel a little left behind at times. I usually go onsite twice a week. Being able to sit down with other engineers over a whiteboard is invaluable.Paid hourly – well, sometimes it’s hard to get the hours in. When VPN goes down, it can be a pain.When onsite equipment goes down, you can’t just reach over and reset it.

By: Nigel Jones

Nigel Jones — Wed, 06 May 2009 15:31:00 +0000

A very well reasoned response Kyle. I especially like your “I’ve always tried to find opportunity in what others find distracting”. However, note that I wasn’t advocating that engineers work from home every day. I think 1-2 days a week would be optimal for many jobs. With this approach I think you’d still get the benefits you advocate, while achieving the productivity boost I mentioned.

By: Kyle

Kyle — Wed, 06 May 2009 02:46:00 +0000

While I’d like to be able to go to my own bench in the basement and crank something out when I’m under pressure, I am glad it is not the norm. I think an engineer can exert a lot of positive influence by being present in the workplace. Most importantly, the engineer is often the voice of the customer on the factory floor. Just keeping your eyes and ears open when you are fetching a tool can help find problems and potential improvements. It also often falls on the engineers to make technical and non-technical employees familiar with the company’s technology. No matter how well you have documented your product, a technician will remember what you have to say when they ask you questions about it. Finally, engineers are often in the best position to identify opportunities for a company. An engineer may find something valuable in a vendors that may otherwise be turned away by purchasing, or from a customer that sales may not think is a good fit. These advantages may not help you with your budget or schedule for your current project but I’ve always tried to find opportunity in what others find distracting.

By: GregK

GregK — Sat, 04 Apr 2009 13:59:00 +0000

Times changes rapidly, if your manager is not from the same era is almost impossible to understand such subtle issue.Employee who realize such ‘obvious’ issue after some time simply start working on its own, or like consultants or similar if only possible.