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July 1, 2005

Remote vs. Face-to-Face

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Posted by Dave Desforges

Half Sigma commented on my last post to say that remote work is not a good idea, as client meetings should always be face-to-face and:

Work is not about doing the work, it’s about marketing the work. After all, we are moving to a marketing economy. People simply don’t pay attention to a voice over the telephone as much as they do to a person in front of them. If no one you work for is paying attention to you, don’t expect to get promoted. Don’t expect to accomplish anything that requires you to get other people to help you.

I don't believe working remotely, doing a good job, and making sure others know you're good are mutually exclusive. Even if you're in sales or direct customer support, you don't have client meetings all day, every day. And unless all those clients happen to be located right next to the office, wouldn't your time between meetings be more productively spent reading email over a cup of coffee at a WIFI hotspot than driving back and forth to the office? You can spend the face-time where and when required, but it doesn't mean you can't work remotely as well.

As for marketing time in the office when you ARE there - good luck finding others, because they're likely not there either. People working remotely (at least part of the time) is the norm today in most workplaces. Your boss may not even be located where you are (mine is 3000 miles away). Yes, it's much easier to work with others once you've met in person. Yes, you need to market yourself and your work. Yes, people need to be aware of what you do and the value you bring. The difference today is: we all need to learn to do it differently than in the past. It's not going to be a hallway conversation that gets spread by other hallway conversations. Maybe, instead, it needs to be an email to the entire team explaining this great new thing you developed, so they all know what you've been doing for the last few weeks. Being part of geographically separated teams is not going away any time soon. I figure it's in my interest to understand how to make that work best for me, and hopefully provide useful advice to everyone else along the way.

Comments (1) + TrackBacks (0) | Category: Distributed Work


COMMENTS

1. Jeff Hobbs on July 6, 2005 12:24 AM writes...

I agree with Dave's assessment... I was able to sell a difficult concept to a reluctant senior manager over 2 meetings... both virtual. I was able to implement a half million dollar project with a total of 8 hours of face time with the project team. It is easy to think that you rely on face to face because it is all we know. Keep an open mind and success will be yours. Great blog, I will visit often.

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