From: marke@ultra.com (Marke Clinger)
Newsgroups: misc.jobs.misc
Subject: Re: Earning a living in the country
Date: 7 Sep 92 17:37:30 GMT
Reply-To: marke@ultra.com (Marke Clinger)
Distribution: usa
Organization: Ultra Network Technologies

In article <1992Sep6.202017.20257@dartvax.dartmouth.edu> waltervj@coos.dartmouth.edu (Walter V. Jeffries) writes:
>
>Well, as much as I would like to believe in this, frankly, it doesn't
>work well in general.  I have tried this repeatedly with people (employees)
>and the problem is that most of them just don't get the job done.  They
>good off.  Most people are not able to structure their own time and 

This is definately a barrier in getting this home-office idea off the
ground, however I work in an executive suite which is very close to my
home, walking distance. I find this much less distracting than working
at home.

>work well enough for this to work for them.  If they were able to do that,
>then they would also have what it takes to run their own business and 
>should do so, so if you feel you have the discipline to work productively
>at home, get out on your own, take the risks, and reap the rewards.

This is definately something I see happening in my area. There are tons
of little one to 10 person companies in Boulder. Doing everything from
magazine publishing to biotechnology research. I have run my own company
in the past (part time) and made some pretty good money at at it. Right
now in my life I haven't been able to find the right "thing" to do to
start a business. One just doesn't wake up in the morning and say "hey
I am going to start a bread factory and when I build it they will come".
Then there is the question of where does the money come from? Sure,
there are answers to all of these and I pretty much could get over all
of the hurdles, but after working for start-ups for 8 years and running
I am not sure if I want to be the person with the worry and burden of
will we make payroll? 

>But, don't ask someone else to take all the risks.

The "corporation" is already taking all of the risks, why not one more?
With proper management you should be able to tell if a remote person is
getting the job done or not. Base part of the person's pay on meeting
certain milestones. This is a complex problem since support people often
don't have tangiable milestones to be reached. Just because someone is
working out of an "office" 100 miles away doesn't mean that they stop
communicating! There is the phone and e-mail. Lots of communications
can be done this way. An in the case of the guy you drives 86 miles to
work, he spends a day or two working at the corporate office and the 
rest of the week working at home.

Now, for people like me and the guy who lives in oregon and works half
way across the country who have to get on a plane to get to anyone (I
am in boulder, the customers I support are in the chicago/detriot the
sales rep I support is in Dallas, and the company HQ are in San Jose,
CA) we must become accustomed to using the telephone. Getting out of
touch with people is giving the work at home philosphy a bad name. I
have expereinced this. From April to June I was so busy that I barely
had time to breath. I was in a different city every week (which would 
have happened no matter where I lived) talking to prospects. I spent
a day or two a week in my office just barely meeting the obligations I
made while on the road. It didn't matter where I lived, I would have 
been as busy, would have been able to get just as much done, etc.
Until I properly communicated this to my management they thought other
wise. I was shocked to find out that they thought I wasn't as busy as
I was. Communication can't be avoided or stopped when working from
home, but must be increased.

>Well, if your only purpose is to reduce your commute/work hours then
>you might be better off:
>1) Moving closer to your job.

No thanks...that is the point here. We put up with the commute and other
hastles to live where we want, not where corporate America dictates.

>2) Getting a job closer to home.

This is an option, but often hard for those of us in high tech. The
University system is the best bet for this, but it is hard to get
the first job in this area and they don't typically pay well.

>3) Reducing your expenses so you don't need as much income and can
>   work fewer hours.

Ah. Here is the real key right? Reduce your expenses so you don't need
as much income. Most of us who want to work at home or work near where
we want to live don't necessarily want to work 20 hours a week. I am
not content unless I work at least 50 - 60 hours a week.  50 - 60 hours
of real productive work, add onto that news and other activities that I
do at work for fun and it adds up. I just don't want to work 50 - 60
hours a week and then tack on 10 to 20 hours of commute. What eventualy
happens is that work suffers and those commute hours start coming out
of the hours I would normally be working.

Now, I know what you are going to say because it has been said to me 
before. I worked with a group of outstanding individuals at Sun in the
late 1980's. We typically worked 70 to 80 hours a week, with some 90+
hour weeks. We had fun, we at two meals a day together, we got stuff
done. A consultant who was married to one of the members in the group
said to us "if you guys are willing to work this hard, you should go
out on your own. If I worked this many hours I would be making a half
million a year." 

So what is stopping me? My major motivation (right now) is not making 
money, but doing a certain kind of work. My company has been making 
gigabit networks for sale into Universities, NASA, DOE shops, and very
high end workstation users. I am afraid I can not start a company in 
this area. So right now, I get to live were I want, do the work I want
to do, and live with the uncertaintity that the company will finally
decide they don't want me out here in the sticks anymore and move me
back to CA. At which point I will have to make a decision on one of the
tree basic motivations: work, quality of life, and family.

Starting a business is not only an issue of money, ideas, and the
normal factors. It is a function of your up bringing. Most of the
people I know who have their own business have come from families that
have encourage this, have a family safety net to fall back on, or come
from families that have worked for themselves.

The real heros in Corporate America are those who came from poor
working class families who took the risks and started their own
businesses, and succeeded at it. It is an amazing different mind set
that says I will make my money by drumming up customers from I will
make my money by working for a company. The motivations behind each
mind set are drastically different.

Todays economy is certainly providing a boast for changing this mind
set. Working for a "major" corporation used to provide the worker with
a certain amount of job security. That is gone in todays economy. I
have seen companies lay off extremely good and talented people because
they needed to cut the number of employees to turn a profit. Companies
are dealing with a larger number of qualified employees looking for
work so they are going to be less tolerant of the employees who want
something a little different from the norm. So those of us who want to
live where we feel "life is good" will have to do something else. Cut
expenses, build a business, leave high-tech... decide what is more
important what we do versus where we live. It will be interesting to
see what type of impact this has on our society. 

As I mentioned earlier, Boulder is a draw for entrepreneurs, just stand
in the chamber of commerce for an hour and listen to the people from
all over the west coast who are planning on moving their business to
boulder. I know of two  people that have started businesses before and
are now moving to boulder...one will bring his business with him, the
other will decide what business to start when he gets here.

What impact has this had on the Boulder economy? Just try to buy a
house and you will find out. Prices have gone up over 40% in some areas
in the last two years. New housing starts are in the 300 to 600K range
when just two years ago 150K was tops. Houses sell in less than 24
hours, two years ago those same houses where on the market for 6+
months. 

So one social impact is on the cost of living here. Another is on the
type of people living here. Many of the older people are passing on or
moving to a lower cost area, opening space. For such a liberal
community the demographics are sure out of wack. Will Boulder become
a getto of business owners? research scientists (who will no longer
be able to purchase houses)?

It will be fun to watch....

There I go rambling again...my apologies, but I feel that stiff
collared corporate officials are going to change the face of our
economy in a way that is less predictable than by letting people work
at home. Maybe it will be for the better? Lots of competition, lower
prices, better service, maybe we are all in for a treat!

Marke
-- 
__________________________________________________________________________
Marke Clinger					Ultra Network Technologies
Western Region Systems Engineer			1942 Broadway Suite 213
marke@ultra.com					Boulder, CO 80302
Newsgroups: misc.jobs.misc