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Saturday, May 20, 2006 Telecommuting: The ultimate in homeworkBelen When Daniel Barnette heads to his job as a computational scientist for Sandia National Laboratories each morning, he enjoys an enviably short commute. After breakfast, he walks out of his kitchen, down a hall covered in framed family portraits and takes a left. Just like that, he's at work. "I tell people, 'I've got to go to work now,' and I just walk in there," Barnette says of his home office.
According to Kate Rivera, the manager of staffing, recruiting and relocation at Sandia, approximately 175 of the company's 8,500 employees have formal telecommuting contracts. "It's designed to be available to anyone with job conditions that are conducive to that environment," says Rivera, adding that program enables the labs to have employees from anywhere in the country. "It's not just an across-town thing, so there are individuals who are able to provide services for Sandia without even being in the state." Around the house Barnette, a Texas native, has been telecommuting since his family moved from Albuquerque to the Veguita-Las Nutrias area 10 years ago, and he says the arrangement is advantageous for everyone involved. By avoiding a monster commute into Albuquerque — which measures 60 miles and takes a solid hour each way — Barnette derives the obvious benefit of saving money on gasoline and vehicle maintenance. "(Telecommuting) is certainly becoming more and more viable, and one of the reasons, especially nowadays, is rising gas costs," says Barnette, adding that his family finances are also improved because he can live outside the metropolitan area without worrying about the commute. "Housing costs near your workplace are becoming so expensive that it doesn't pay to live close to work anymore. You can't get ahead that way." But the benefits of telecommuting extend beyond money. According to Barnette, a father of three, his ability to work from home "certainly means closer family ties, because you're not an unknown in your household." Barnette was around as his wife, Rachelle, home-schooled the couple's three sons. If one of the kids needed a few minutes of help with a math problem, dad was there to offer the assistance. And, in the event of a household crisis — like the time a pipe burst under the house — Barnette's presence is priceless. "There are times that small emergencies like that happen and it's like having troops on the ground," he says. "If I were up at work, I'd be inaccessible to the family and, during times when it's kind of crucial, it's nice to be there." There's also a psychological boost associated with working outside of the office, Barnette says. "You don't have this attitude that you're linked by a ball and chain to a desk in a cubicle. It's a thought that kind of frees the mind, and I think that's a motivating factor," he says. Hard at work Telecommuting probably sounds like a dream come true to anyone who spends 40 (or more) working hours each week inside a stark office. Who wouldn't prefer the living room La-Z-Boy to a stiff desk chair? But for Barnette, telecommuting is far from total freedom. He's as disciplined as he would be with a boss looking over his shoulder. "I get up in the morning, and I act as if I'm going to work. I go into my home office after I shower and eat and I get to work. It's like a normal workday for me," says Barnette, who's worked at Sandia for 29 years. "I break for lunch. I usually take a walk to get a breath of fresh air to get a break in the action, come back and go back to work." Although he's not paid on an hourly basis, Barnette turns in a weekly timecard and is faithful to it. Honesty, he says, is crucial in a telecommuting environment. He's also accessible at all times to his boss, co-workers and secretary through a home telephone line designated for his work, a cell phone, a pager, a fax machine, e-mail and instant messaging. "All the electronics have made it easy to telecommute," he says. Barnette does his unclassified work — which involves testing government software on Sandia's super computers — from a computer in his cluttered home office. It's an area he considers independent from the rest of the home. "I think if you have a separate area, it's like you step through a barrier," says the Stanford Ph.D. "If you have that, then the tendency is no distractions. You have things to do and (you think) 'Let's get it done.'" And get it done he does. Barnette estimates that he puts in a solid 60 hours per week — probably more than if he worked at Sandia Labs' main site. Getting more done According to Rivera, the labs started the telecommuting program in response to the Clean Air Act. The goal was to decrease pollution. "We wanted to take the opportunity to get people off the roads if possible," she says. Barnette acknowledges that skipping his commute is good for the environment. But it's his increase in productivity that he sees as the most valuable benefit to his employer. "There has been research that shows that working from home — and I would even generalize that to working outside of the office — is two to three times more productive than working from the office because of the interruptions," he says. "You can control your interruptions when you telecommute. You cannot do that when you're in an office." In addition to sheltering him from lengthy — and unnecessary — conversations with co-workers about the latest hit movie, Barnette's home office allows him to work more flexible hours. If he needs to call someone on the East Coast at 9:30 a.m. their time — 7:30 a.m. here — it's no problem. If he worked in Albuquerque, he'd have been on the road instead. If there's a job that requires extra time, Barnette says he's more likely to devote extra energy toward it. "It's very convenient, say, after the evening news to go into my home office and put in another hour or two of work, whereas if I had to drive into work, I just couldn't do it," he says. Lonely in Las Nutrias As ideal as it sounds, Barnette acknowledges that telecommuting isn't perfect. Certain careers — notably those in the service industry — can't be done remotely. And then there's the isolation factor. "There are downsides to telecommuting, and one of those is face-to-face interaction," Barnette says. But he notes that interpersonal interaction was rare for him anyway, as he did most of his communicating via telephone or computer even when he worked on-site. Plus, he still goes up to Albuquerque on certain occasions. "I show up for things like a potluck or something like that. When it's a group get-together, I think it's important to be there and have that face-to-face interaction," he says. "Nine times out of 10 you can handle everything through electronic means, but there's that one time out of 10 when you need to show up, and I try to do that." According to Rivera, that occasional appearance is often all Sandia expects out of telecommuters. "If they're able to telecommute and come out sometimes for face-to-face meetings, we're really open to that," she says. Wave of the future Both Barnette and Rivera suspect that telecommuting will become more common in the future. "It's very possible that more folks will take advantage of telecommuting possibilities," says Rivera, who says increasing driving costs have already accounted for some changes in the Sandia work culture in recent months. She's seen more people utilizing public transportation or bicycling or walking to work in an effort to save gasoline. "With the state of our fuel prices, it would not surprise me at all if this became much more popular with employees, regardless of industry," Rivera says. Aside from the financial advantages, Barnette thinks telecommuting will soon be a popular system for employers and families alike. "More companies are becoming family aware and family friendly. It's a lot easier to work around everybody's schedule when you telecommute as long as you're putting in the hours you need and staying faithful to that," he says. "It just makes it a lot easier to be flexible. It works."
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