From: utzoo!decvax!harpo!duke!unc!brl-bmd!wmartin
Newsgroups: net.followup
Title: Re: Working at home
Article-I.D.: brl-bmd.285
Posted: Thu Jul 29 13:12:34 1982
Received: Fri Jul 30 06:21:11 1982


There are current government work-at-home programs; the only one
I know anything about is a prototype one here at my agency --
the USArmy Development and Readiness Command Automated Logistics
Management Systems Activity (USArmy DARCOM ALMSA for short).

We have two categories of work-at-home personnel -- handicapped
and regular. There is one handicapped individual, paraplegic in
a wheelchair; he does his work on a microcomputer or on a dial-up
terminal at home during normal business hours and comes in once
a week. (He gave up an amount of subsistence equal to his salary
to become a productive worker once again.)

The regualr employees have leased lines and workstations in their
homes, and perform their work during non-prime time, accessing the
contractor host computers over the ARPANET. These were current
employees who volunteered for the program, and all seem to be happy
with the arrangement. (One turned down a promotion in order to
stay in the program.) They either work an eight-hour chunk of time
at night or in the evening, or split their shift into two chunks.
These are all programmers, who also do documentation and document
production on these facilities. They are now operating under the
Augment/NLS environment, but are in the process of moving to a
UNIX environment.

We've had some local publicity on the WAH (Work-At-Home) program;
one of the local TV news teams did a feature on the handicapped
WAH individual, I think in relation to a series on handicaps.

There are lots of nit-picking legal issues involved; there are
questions related to liability, workmen's compensation, supervisory
controls, productivity demonstration, etc. That's why this is
still a prototype program, even though our top management is
strongly behind it. The Headquarters legal staff has to be
convinced that all difficulties have been overcome.

I, too, would like to see contributions on the net from anyone
who works at home (other than self-employed) as their normal
workday.

(Forgot to mention above -- the regular WAH personnel come in
once every two weeks, unless training or other special requirements
interrupt their WAH schedules.)

Regards, Will Martin