I work as an analyst for a fairly large publicly traded multifamily REIT and was surprised to find there are a number of senior level people (VP and above, but no corners) who work from home from various different cities around the country. They call in to meetings and fly in when necessary, and are generally well respected for their work... Doesn't seem like a great way to run a company but maybe I'm missing something. Is this the new normal because of technology's ability to break down all barriers?
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I had a VP who came in about twice a week u less there were a ton of meetings. She seemed to do just fine and got a lot done. The one thing for her is she could have a call come in from overseas and have to work with them to get something resolved. If you are able to complete your work and don't have to answer a phone I see no issue with it.
Ok, to build on this - do you guys think anyone would hire remotely at the VP level? I don't see any job postings that indicate they will permit the work to be done remotely. Or does everything have the potential of being remote nowadays?
I would think management would be somewhat difficult performed remotely, but as a general rule, offering the ability to work from home at least some of the time makes so much sense if you want to attract quality employees who may be willing to work for less in exchange for better balance.
Also, I read the other day that the average office worker around the country does 2 hours, 53 minutes of real, actual work in any given day, on average. If I were setting the rules of a company, I would strongly consider a 6-hour work day w/the ability to work from home 2 or 3 days/week.
Do you have source / link?
https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.inc.com/amp/98486.html
The author cites a study but gives no details about who conducted it and when. But it was in the internet age.
Thanks.
There is a special place in hell for "journos" who write articles based on studies but do not reference them.
If you trust your employees (and their work is getting done), then it isn't a problem.
While I generally prefer to be in the office, I've worked from home a couple of days here and there when needing to wait for delivery/installation people, have worked from satellite offices when those locations were better suited for quick access to evening events, or worked from other remote locations (my parent's house, vacation home, I even worked from Vancouver one day when I was on a mileage run trying to maintain airline status). The majority of my work is handled via phone, e-mail/computer so as long as I have an internet connection and my cell phone I can do whatever I need to from wherever I am.
Really though, I find that working from home is most beneficial if i'm going to be reading/writing a lot of documents or am modeling larger properties and don't want to be interrupted. It is easier to concentrate when people aren't constantly stopping by my desk all day/in the quiet of my house. Also, I find that on the days that I work from home, unless I really watch myself, I tend to work longer than normal hours. Because I don't have to spend an hour in the morning ironing clothes and commuting, I spend that time working. And instead of just logging off at 5:30/6 like I do now so that I have time to get home, cook/eat dinner, etc. I will work until 7:30ish, log off and then go cook dinner.
My old company allowed people to "cube share" wherein you and your cube-mate would alternate working from home days and in-office days. It was up to your to decide which were which, but people tended to be in the office 1/2 time that way. This helped the company cut down on space needs and allowed everyone the flexibility of working how and where they wanted to. I have a former co-worker that works from her beach house about 1/4 of the year and another that lived in another city about 300 miles away and only came into the office once a month for our monthly staff meeting. They are both very well respected directors/VPs. But as I said, it comes down to trust and getting your work done.
Oh, I really like the cube share idea. Very interesting.
I personally don't love to work from home (did for 2 years straight in one of my jobs), but I can imagine a lot of people with personal responsibilities (i.e. kids) would love the ability to work from home.
To your point about excessive working hours when working from home, yes. I think it would be awesome to program your employees' work computers/laptops to be locked at, like, 7 pm.
The cube share worked really well for a lot of people, especially people who had kids. If you joined, they would reimburse you for phone/internet expenses at home too, which was nice.
98% of the time, if both of you needed a spot for a day, there were little conference rooms you could book or you just stole someone else's cube that was traveling/out. The rest of the time people just had to deal with being in top of each other because everyone just happened to actually be in the office that day.
Most people I know what work from home work more because 1) it is more convenient and 2) they don't want anyone to question their ethics because they are home and not in the office.
You are always going to find a bad apple here and there, like the guy that outsourced his IT job to someone in India and sat at home a day played video games all day, but I think generally it works.
Our construction guys typically work remotely 3-4 days of the week, but "remotely" is a misnomer there because they're working on-site as opposed to in the office. They're not working at home or on the beach somewhere.
This idea doesn't seem ludicrous anymore.
Nope. It is now an explicit goal of mine - if not while working for someone else then definitely when working for myself.
Our firm has development offices coast to coast, many of us in 'corporate' roles effectively work from home as the corp team is actually spread out and not in the same building. So, yeah it can be more common than you realize.
The main difference, is in normal times, we all travel like crazy, but many choose to work from home when not traveling for a majority of days in a given week.
For development teams, where the work is more 'local' this is not the case. But sometimes working from home is fine. In general, flexibility, work/life balance, etc. is encouraged so long as you get your work done, meet deadlines, and are available when needed.
I think it's a LOT more normal in this industry than others, especially with larger firms.
Many national/multi-national firms have VPs and above that specialize in given regions, and because they specialize, they tend to live in that region to build the necessary network and be close to the projects/assets.
I think y’all are right. I would LOVE to work do development remotely, as opposed to spending 2 hours a day driving to a job - would appreciate any multifamily leads anyone may have.
I think its common at the senior level (i.e. VP) where that person is heading up a regional office and is either the only or one of a handful of employees in that market. You see those guys WFH or use a WeWork / Regus type of space.
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