more on HP cuts back on telecommuting

[David Farber <dave () farber net>]

Begin forwarded message:

From: Tom Gray <tom_gray_grc () yahoo com>
Date: June 6, 2006 7:18:26 AM EDT
To: dave () farber net, tom_gray_grc () yahoo com
Subject: Re: [IP] HP cuts back on telecommuting

Prof Farber -- for your IP list if you think it
suitable

Teleworking is a major aspect of the types of
communication applications that are being sold today.
However another type is based on the idea of knowledge
sharing. In HP's case an HP president was quoted as
saying "If HP only knew what HP knew". This is the
concept of the knowledge sharing organization in which
workers can learn from each other by observation. John
Seeley Brown of Xerox PARC in this book on the subject
"The Social Life of Information" described how Xerox
maintenance technicians learned from each other in
informal interactions in their offices. He also
recounted how a clerk in the office became an expert
in copier repair since her desk was beside the
telephone used by the etches to give advice to
colleagues faced with a tough problem in the field.
She received no training beyond overhearing these
conversations but became an expert.

The nub of this is that much has been made about
technology and the "death of distance" with distant
people cooperating as if they were together. However
this idea fails for many reasons and one of them is
that it inhibits the informal interactions that are at
the basis of a knowledge organization.

The new network technology will fail if it is used to
allow workers to separate. It will succeed if it will
encourage the interaction of proximate workers and to
create proximity where none existed before


Tom Gray

--- David Farber <dave () farber net> wrote:

> Begin forwarded message:
>
> From: Dewayne Hendricks <dewayne () warpspeed com>
> Date: June 4, 2006 11:42:55 AM EDT
> To: Dewayne-Net Technology List
> <dewayne-net () warpspeed com>
> Subject: [Dewayne-Net] HP cuts back on telecommuting
> Reply-To: dewayne () warpspeed com
>
> Posted on Sat, Jun. 03, 2006
>
> HP cuts back on telecommuting
> SOME KEY WORKERS WILL HAVE TO COME TO OFFICE OR FIND
> NEW JOBS
> By Nicole C. Wong
> Mercury News
<http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/news/14732974.htm>
> Hewlett-Packard, the Silicon Valley company known
> for pioneering
> flexible work arrangements four decades ago, is
> canceling
> telecommuting for a key division of the company.
>
> While other companies nationwide are pushing more
> employees to work
> from home to cut office costs, HP believes bringing
> its information-
> technology employees together in the office will
> make them swifter
> and smarter.
>
> The decision shocked HP employees and surprised
> human resource
> management experts, who believe telecommuting is
> still a growing trend.
>
> ``It's usually cheaper to have people operating in
> their own space
> than in your own. There's obviously something not
> going right or not
> to their liking for them to want to regroup or to
> change,'' said
> Manny Avramidis, senior vice president for global
> human resources for
> the American Management Association.
>
> The architect of the HP division's change, Randy
> Mott, is regarded by
> Wall Street as a mastermind of operational
> efficiency based on his
> days as chief information officer at Wal-Mart Stores
> and Dell. Since
> joining HP as CIO in July, Mott's philosophy on
> building a strong IT
> workforce starkly contrasts with that of
> competitors, who encourage
> telecommuting to retain skilled workers who desire
> better work/life
> balance.
>
> Mott said by bringing IT employees together to work
> as teams in
> offices, the less-experienced employees who aren't
> performing well --
> which there are ``a lot of'' -- can learn how to
> work more effectively.
>
> In an office, ``you're able to put teams together
> that can learn very
> aggressively and rapidly from each other,'' he said.
>
> An HP spokesman would not comment on whether HP is
> planning to scale
> back telecommuting in other divisions. Workers said
> there are more
> than 1,000 IT employees, but HP declined to discuss
> the number.
>
> IT workers generally support their companies by
> keeping computers and
> databases running and building Web sites and
> applications. Some can
> do their jobs without talking to co-workers more
> than once a day. And
> the more interactive IT jobs at HP typically involve
> early morning
> and late-night conference calls with colleagues
> around the world.
>
> By August, almost all of HP's IT employees will have
> to work in one
> of 25 designated offices during most of the week.
> With many thousands
> of HP IT employees scattered across 100 sites around
> the world --
> from Palo Alto to Dornach, Germany -- the new rules
> require many to
> move. Those who don't will be out of work without
> severance pay,
> according to several employees affected by the
> changes.
>
> Mott's changes underscore HP's determination to free
> itself from what
> new executives view as cumbersome costs and an
> outdated corporate
> culture.
>
> Flexible work arrangements began at HP in 1967 as a
> core part of the
> company's widely respected management philosophy. In
> the book ``The
> HP Way: How Bill Hewlett and I Built Our Company,''
> HP co-founder
> David Packard wrote: ``To my mind, flextime is the
> essence of respect
> for and trust in people. It says that we both
> appreciate that our
> people have busy personal lives and that we trust
> them to devise,
> with their supervisor and work group, a schedule
> that is personally
> convenient yet fair to others.''
>
> Sun Microsystems, an HP competitor, now allows about
> 17,000 employees
> to work from home, including 83 percent of its IT
> staff. And an April
> survey by the Society for Human Resource Management
> shows the number
> of employers now offering telecommuting as an option
> to combat
> surging gas prices climbed 50 percent compared with
> eight months
> earlier.
>
> Working from home also has been catching on over the
> past five years
> as technologies -- such as high-speed and wireless
> Internet access --
> have made it easier for colleagues located anywhere
> to collaborate.
>
> But one of HP's former IT managers, who left the
> company in October,
> said a few employees abused the flexible work
> arrangements and could
> be heard washing dishes or admitted to driving a
> tractor during
> conference calls about project updates. The former
> manager, who
> declined to be identified because he still has ties
> with HP, said
> telecommuting morphed from a strategic tool used to
> keep exceptional
> talent into a right that employees claimed.
>
> [snip]
>
> Weblog at: <http://weblog.warpspeed.com>
>
>
>
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