From: utzoo!decvax!ucbvax!C70:human-nets Newsgroups: fa.human-nets Title: HUMAN-NETS Digest V5 #75 Article-I.D.: ucb.1699 Posted: Wed Aug 4 22:51:44 1982 Received: Thu Aug 5 06:34:01 1982 >From Pleasant@Rutgers Wed Aug 4 22:28:19 1982 HUMAN-NETS Digest Thursday, 5 Aug 1982 Volume 5 : Issue 75 Today's Topics: Administrivia Preliminary Announcement Working at home (9 msgs) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: 4 Aug 1982 2210-EDT Subject: Administrivia From: Pleasant at RUTGERS During the transition from the old moderator to the new one (me), I managed to foul up the issue numbers. Issue 72 does not exist because of this. I am also aware that some sites are receiving several copies of the digest. Unfortunately, until some local distribution list maintainers return from vacation, there isn't much I will be able to do about this. I hope to have this problem straightened out by the beginning of next week. ------------------------------ Date: 30 Jul 1982 1224-EDT Subject: Preliminary Announcement From: JMCKENDREE at BBNB This is a preliminary announcement of the New Jersey Institute of Technology Continuing Education Program. It is of particular interest because students will not be expected to attend class on campus but will telecommute via a computer terminal. A mail response to the short form at the end of the announcement will assure a person's being put on the mailing list for NJIT's course catalog with full description of courses offered (both regular courses and these computer-mediated seminars). CONTINUING EDUCATION PARTICIPATORY SEMINARS via COMPUTER TELECOMMUNICATIONS A new kind of seminar taught on your schedule, in your home or at your workplace, with teachers and experts from all over the country, and with more personal involvement than any continuing education class you have ever taken before is now being planned by the New Jersey Institute of Technology. These seminars will be taught through computer terminals or microprocessors connected to a nationwide easy-to-use computerized conferencing system. Students will take part in on-line classes, ask and answer questions, and communicate as often as they need to with the instructor and other students. They may do this at any hour of the day, any day of the week that is convenient for them. The New Jersey Institute of Technology is proud to introduce this innovative program planned for 1983. We expect to offer programs during three semesters: spring, summer and fall. More than 20 courses will be offered in this program relevant to managerial, professional and technical areas. Among the topic areas planned are: PROFESSIONAL WOMEN & THE WORKPLACE COMPUTERS & SOCIETY WHAT EVERY MANAGER SHOULD KNOW ABOUT ARBITRATION THE DELPHI METHOD MANAGERIAL WRITING CREATIVE WRITING DECISION SUPPORT SYSTEMS LOCAL AREA NETWORKS TECHNOLOGICAL FORECASTING COMPUTER LITERACY MICROPROCESSORS APPLE II PROGRAMMING PASCAL PROGRAMMING TRS-80 PROGRAMMING HUMAN COMMUNICATION VIA COMPUTER OFFICE AUTOMATION In many subject areas advanced seminars as well as introductory or survey seminars will be offered. The catalog of seminars will be available in November of 1982. These three month seminars will be offered for approximately $600 for enrollment in one course and less than $1000 for two courses. Special sessions and tailored courses can be arranged for companies and organizations seeking "in house" electronic seminars. If you wish to receive the catalog or seek other detailed information fill out the form below and return to the New Jersey Institute of Technology at the address indicated. REQUEST FOR FURTHER INFORMATION List in order of preference the first four (4) seminars which are of interest to you: (1)_________________________ (2)_________________________ (3)_________________________ (4)_________________________ Other preferences_________________________ Your Name____________________________ Title________________________________ Organization_________________________ Business Address_____________________ City__________ State_____ ZIP________ Business Phone_______________________ Home Address_________________________ City__________ State_____ ZIP________ Home Phone___________________________ Age Group (Optional-Please Circle) 20-25,26-30,31-35,36-40,41-45,46-50,51-55,56-60,61-65,65+ Please return entire page to New Jersey Institute of Technology, Division of Continuing Education. 323 High St., Newark N.J., 07102. Please pass duplicate copies to interested associates. ------------------------------ Date: 3 Aug 82 18:59:43-EST (Tue) From: Ben GoldfarbSubject: Working at home I submitted the following article to Usenet and I have received quite a few responses that I believe the readers of this list would be interested in reading. I shall forward them separately with apologies to those who already read some of them on Usenet. ================ I understand that DEC has started allowing its employees to work at home to some degree, but the details given me were sketchy. Obviously many many firms have no problems with people working at home as long as they make the obligatory 9-5 appearance at the office, but apparently DEC has initiated something more interesting than that. I am interested in knowing just what type of arrangements DEC has made as well as what other companies are doing along these lines. Ben Goldfarb Uucp: ..duke!ucf-cs!goldfarb ARPA: goldfarb.ucf-cs@Udel-Relay [The following messages are the replies to this message. They are separated so that digestification software will work properly - Mel] ------------------------------ Date: 30 Jul 82 18:09:25 From: duke!dennis Subject: Re: Working at home I've been working at home for several months now, not because of any management program, but because office space around here is pretty tight, and the air conditioning at the office has been notably absent. I'm involved with a fairly large project using the IBM PC, and have one at home with all the goodies I need to work. I have no such regularly structured hours for it, as Will's people do, and I only show up at my boss's office when there's a meeting or some such that demands my presence. All in all, I regard it as a very positive thing; I can keep my own hours, and can easily stop work and watch Star Trek (twice a day here) or M*A*S*H (four times a day, plus prime time) (no, I don't watch them ALL). Since it's all stand alone (except for reading my mail and news via a terminal program that was my first effort, IBM's offering being worthless), I don't even need a dedicated phone line. Also, I've recently gotten married, and working at home enables me to be with my wife all day; we get along well being together all the time. The space requirements at home are not great; I have a desk covered with hardware and printouts, and a printer on a small table next to the desk, and a bookshelf filled with those damned IBM PC manuals (at last count, 15 of them). I'm on a monthly wage (ie, no time cards), and my paycheck is deposited directly to my bank, so those things don't require me to go to the office. I've always been a loner as a programmer; the couple of times I entered into a team programming project, I got too irritated with the other members to work easily with them (I refuse to allocate blame; I know I'm pretty fussy about things that may or may not matter). I heartily recommend it, and hope I can continue to work in this way. ------------------------------ Date: 2 Aug 82 09:26:18 From: duke!harpo!decvax!pur-ee!ecn-pa.scott Subject: Re: Working at home Those interested in working at home might find the following book interesting. The thesis of several of the contributing authors is that a *lot* of the time spent by scientists and engineers (you can decide which one you are!) is in communication. Most of that is spent in informal dialog with colleagues. There are often very complex communication networks among members of working groups, and certain members act as gateways between groups. All in all, it makes for very interesting reading. They *didn't* consider time spent doing exactly what you are doing now, i.e. time spent on a computer terminal reading news. Maybe news acts as a substitute for some of the informal communication. Any thoughts on the value of shooting the breeze as part of your job? The book is: Communication among scientists and engineers. Heath Lexington Books 1970 501.4/C737 (at Purdue, at least) OCLC #97550 Scott Deerwester Purdue University Libraries ------------------------------ Date: 1 Aug 82 13:51:26 From: duke!unc!smb (Steven M. Bellovin) Subject: Re: Working at home I don't find working at home to be an unmixed blessing. For one thing, it's often too easy to get distracted by things like my SF collection. If I'm not in the mood to work on something that *must* be done, being at home can be the worst thing for the project. More importantly, when I'm working at home constantly I get lonely. I don't find 'mail' to be a substitute for face-to-face conversation, either professionally or socially. I need the informal personal interactions to keep me functional, and a terminal just doesn't cut it. (To be sure, when the net is down for a few days I miss my contacts with all you folks out there in network land as well.) --Steve ------------------------------ Date: 1 Aug 82 08:31:28 From: duke!decvax!cca!mclure@sri-unix Subject: Re: Re: Working at home - (nf) For all of you interested in "tele-commuting", I recommend Toffler's THE THIRD WAVE, and its chapter "The Electronic Cottage". As far as I'm concerned, Toffler is a real soothsayer in that chapter. I've been a tele-commuter for the last 3 years. In my case it's fairly trivial to go to work. I live a block from SRI and spend 3-4 hours per day at the office and the rest of the time (and a lot more) at home. However, even if I didn't live so close, I doubt that this division of time would change very much. However, I can see how tele-commuting might not be everyone's cup of tea. Some married folks yearn to "get away" from unpleasant home environments. Others might find the office environment better suited to working on a computer if it requires frequent high-bandwidth interaction with co-worker. Electronic mail often just isn't fast enough! But for programmers, I think tele-commuting is a gigantic win if they have quiet surroundings and find the noise of offices distracting. The things I appreciate about working at home are: 1) no noise 2) good music 3) good food 4) other activities during lapses in programming Because of these, I can work at a single task much longer than if I'm at the office. Stuart ------------------------------ Date: 27 Jul 82 21:08:23 From: duke!harpo!presby!aron To: harpo!duke!ucf-cs!goldfarb Subject: working at home I work for a small software house here in Philadelphia in software development. I've been working here for two years. From the beginning they had a policy of providing technical types with home terminals (we have a VAX/11/780/VMS system). My first child was born around the time I started working, and my wife's part-time job was scheduled to begin three weeks after the baby was born. So I asked if I could stay home two days a week, to look after the baby while my wife was at work. Given the company's flex time policy, and given that 90% of my work was done sitting at a terminal, I argued that there was little reason for me to actually come in to the office. My managers agreed to a trial. Well, two years later, I'm still working at home two days a week. I'm still the only person in the company who has this arrangement. One of my co-worker's wife is expecting in October, but he hasn't expressed any interest as yet in working at home. Another colleague would like such an arrangement when she starts her family. I've found that on days I work at home, I often get more done since when I work, I really work (instead of BSing with the gang). It has been a tremendous help to my wife, and I feel I am a full partner in raising my son and (new-born) daughter. I have had four different managers since I started this arrangement (things move quickly in small companies) and not one of them has expressed any complaints or doubts about the arrangement. Unfortunately, our company has been going down the tubes recently, and we were just bought out by a large conglomerate. They have promised not to upset current work-environment policies. I hope they keep their word. aron shtull-trauring harpo!presby!aron ------------------------------ Date: 28 Jul 82 10:06:23 From: duke!decvax!ittvax!freb To: decvax!duke!ucf-cs!goldfarb Subject: Working at home I work at the ITT Programming Technology Center in Stratford, CT. In our group (a research outfit), we can work at home anytime we like, as long as we don't miss vital meetings, etc. We have even been given terminals, modems, and dedicated phone lines for use at home (ITT picks up the tab for everything). Sure is nice - I'd recommend it to anyone who can convince the management... Karl Freburger decvax!ittvax!freb ------------------------------ Date: 30 Jul 82 03:16:31 From: duke!harpo!cornell!bob To: harpo!duke!ucf-cs!goldfarb Subject: DEC work policy Well, I haven't been keeping up with DEC internal policies for the last few years, but I do know that the "work-at-home" policy has *always* been in effect for programmers. I have quite a few friends in software development for DEC working on 8's, 11's, 10's, 20's. Many of them have been there since the PDP-8 was the hot machine (i.e. pre-11 days). One of the attractions of working there has always been that DEC is extremely lax in work requirements. They merely insist that you get the job done. Furthermore, they have been so lax that some of the folks I know there tried to see how long they could get away with doing absolutely nothing. I believe it went for a few months before someone realized what was up. Perhaps the major source of the trouble is that nearly everyone at DEC is a manager -- all chiefs, no Indians. Where did you hear of a new policy being initiated?? I'd like to know what it is. Bob Harper P?S ------------------------------ Date: 30 Jul 82 18:13:58 From: duke!harpo!decvax!ucbvax!menlo70!sytek!msm To: menlo70!ucbvax!decvax!harpo!duke!ucf-cs!goldfarb Subject: Working at home I would be interested in the results from your "working at home" query on net.general. Could you please either post the results to the USENET news, or mail me a copy? As far as Sytek (Silicon Gulch, California) is concerned, while people are supposed to show up (at whatever hours they choose, as long as they can still interact with others with whom they must work and get their work done), occasional working at home days are acceptable. In my case, I live 37 miles (one-way) from work and will sometimes not come in but work from home (using dial-in lines for computer access and then downloading/uploading things to/from my home micro system). We have most all our equipment on a broadband-cable local network (LocalNet, which we manufacture), by dialing in to it, I can still run development systems, various test equipment, etc. as well as our Unix systems. Michael S. Maiten Sytek, Inc. Mt. View, CA ------------------------------ End of HUMAN-NETS Digest ************************