Home > Technobuddy > Archives > 2007 > July > 23 > Entry
DEL.ICIO.USThe Atlanta Journal-Constitution
One of my best friends is a big shot consultant in the high tech industry. He lives here in Atlanta on the weekend but flies off to his current project every Sunday and flies back late on Fridays. He’s treated well - a penthouse and car are furnished at his consulting project. On the other hand, by Wednesday mornings he’s worked more hours than I work in any week.
The guy loves technology and, like I said, his company is in that business.
But when he needed to meet with programmers in India, he got on an airplane. He could have done it by phone, or e-mail, or even used a fancy video teleconferencing set-up. But he spent 18 hours (lord knows what that’s worth at the rates he bills) on an airplane to meet with the programmers in person.
That’s why the story I’m linking to here rings true to me.
A poll showed that 58 percent of workers still think that it is best to communicate face-to-face with their bosses. That’s why - even as the technology increasingly makes it easier for us to jump around the world at the click of a mouse button - I’m betting that offices and meetings won’t be going away any time soon.
What do you think? Heck, what do you do? Do you work in a virtual world of IMs, e-mails and teleconferences - or do you make your way to work on the clogged interstates and endure days filled with meetings face-to-face?
Comments
By Prootwadl
July 24, 2007 2:50 PM | Link to this
I work as a software developer here in Atlanta, and my manager (and also fellow programmer) also works here, so our interactions are normally face to face unless he decides to telecommute on that day.
I can also telecommute to a certain extent, but I choose not to for various reasons (I prefer to talk face to face whenever possible).
However, most of the other folks that we work with on various projects are either in the UK or in Australia, which means we spend a lot of time using other means of communicating with those folks. E-mail for general stuff, IM or the telephone for real-time communications during testing or problem-solving sessions, and face-to-face meeting for important things (design sessions, etc).
It’s a mixed bag, but things seem to work fairly smoothly.
By Prootwadl
July 24, 2007 2:57 PM | Link to this
FWIW, I’ve worked with contractors in Delhi, and the time difference and (at that time) lack of individual telephones on their end made it rather difficult.
We ended up dropping that particlar set of contractors after trying for over a year to make things work.
It was a case of management forcing the contractors on us to begine with, so we never really bought into the concept, but I’m convinced the effort would have failed regardless. It’s too hard to coordinate complex software projects across thousands of miles and an 11.5 hour time differential…