From: utzoo!decvax!harpo!duke!ucf-cs!goldfarb
Newsgroups: net.followup
Title: Working at home
Article-I.D.: ucf-cs.729
Posted: Tue Aug  3 19:51:27 1982
Received: Thu Aug  5 04:25:49 1982


Some responses to my working at home query were mailed to me directly
so I thought I'd share them with the net.
========================================================================
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 flextime 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.

==========================================================================

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...

============================================================================

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.

==============================================================================

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 dialin 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.