How to Employ a Nomad

Being a Digital Nomad is largely based on connectivity, mobility and the inherent flexibility that comes with each. Mobile workers can exceed their employer’s job expectations, earn a living and pay bills from a park bench if, in fact, they are connected. Usually, their personal and work lives converge.

So the question for employers is, “Are you enabling this?” Are you putting your employees in a position that will allow for them to add your work to their life? If not, you are absolutely losing productivity in a multitude of areas.

I want you to think about something for a minute. Consider these two employees:

EMPLOYEE A: A software developer that works in an office for 8 hours each day and then spends an additional 2 hours per day commuting to and from the office, takes an hour lunch, etc.

EMPLOYEE B: A software developer allowed to work anywhere as long as the project gets done on time and the boss is updated regularly. The employee is a night owl so he generally gets his job done from 10PM to 4AM and then checks in around noon.

So from a productivity standpoint, which employee is better poised for success at work? Who is happier? I am no sociologist, but my guess is that there would be a grave negative impact to the productivity of Employee A and that this would be true in roles outside of software. In fact, I believe this would apply to any role with the exception of obvious shift or line work (i.e. cops, bank tellers, etc).

Consider a handful of these negative impacts:

Work/Life Balance is way off. Personal relationships will take a toll.
Fuel costs begin to add up causing either resentment over pay, stress, or the outright loss of the employee
At 8 hours, they leave.
Money is the motivator, not the environment

You get the point. You are the boss, they have a job, and that is how it’s viewed. These negative impacts slow Employee A each day, cause delays, foster a work environment and ultimately stuffs innovation. Can you guess what the issue here is? In an organization that knows no different, this productivity loss goes unrecognized and a domino effect will occur in several senses.

The Company:

Commits resources to hire additional employees in an effort to increase productivity
- New Hire Training
- Benefits
- Ramp-Up Time
Increases salaries to entice more employees or to keep unhappy employees
Sinks into a gossipy mess as morale is reduced
Has trouble hiring as younger job applicants are selecting employers with cubicle alternatives (i.e. telecommuting)
Suffers as projects from product development to sales slow to a pace slower than more innovative competitors

Now I don’t want to make this seem dire and I certainly don’t want to convey a message indicating that employee freedom will quell all of these problems. However, I have seen it time and time again at my job and with my customers. Employers that embrace technology at the same rate of their emloyees and allow for employee freedom (while maintaining security) see an enormous productivity shift for the positive. In fact, it enables and fosters innovation as employees come up with new ways to communicate with clients, supply chain, etc.

So I have to question. If your employees’ productivity rose 5x because you let them work from home (or wherever) 2 days per week, would you allow it? Why or why not? What are your barriers to doing so?

Trackback URL for this post: http://www.digitalnomads.com/2008/09/18/how-to-employ-a-nomad/trackback

Comments (5)

by Austin Caine / September 18, 2008

I couldn’t agree more! I myself work in a stuffy little cubicle for eight miserable hours a day while driving a half an hour each way for five days a week. Add to that the one hour lunch and the maybe five to six hours of sleep I get per night and there’s close to sixteen hours of my day burned up. Naturally, after a long day of staring at a computer screen (dual-screens at that) I like to give my eyes and mind a break so chalk up another hour or two right there.

That leaves a few hours of sweet sweet personal time before settling down for the night to get some errands and goals accomplished. Ah but that’s right! It’s now late and any notion of doing anything productive during “normal business hours” is completely null and void. We can barely live our lives as corporate slavery engulfs society!

Employee freedom? It’s like an angelic bell going off in the background! So so far away…

WAKE UP EMPLOYERS!
by TG / September 19, 2008

I agree too, but having been in the 8-hour office situation for a long time now, I can also see why this is not done more: Communication, effective communication.

Sitting close and not working at different hours makes people talk to each other and catch what others are talking about. This solves a lot of problems and requires less formal communication channels than would the distributed model.

What happens if out night-worker need to have an issue resolved by a project manager before being able to continue? If none of these two where able to foresee this issue, what then? This happens some times and even frequently at times.

Just my 2c.
by Jay White / September 19, 2008

@TG - That a completely valid point and the need for contingency plans is a must. Granted there will be times where someone relies on another (in your example a PM) but if the right collaborative framework is built, the night owl worker would have immediate access to the PMs notes, project plan, etc.

I agree. It’s not always going to work like the well oiled wheel that I am describing but the point for increased flexibility, autonomy, and connectivity remains.

Thanks for stopping in; point taken.

Jay
by Soon / October 14, 2008

I’m not a coder but I have rejected jobs that required me to be there in person 5 days a week. That seems soooo obsolete. The more freedom an employer gives me the harder I work, including weekends, if I feel like it that is!
by Russell G. / October 21, 2008

I worked for years as a cube monkey. Spent most of my time in interruptions “Help, Help!”. Then they rearranged our group and everyone I worked with was scattered across the country. We worked out the communication kinks by having daily or alternating days conf calls and email. With a group of 5 or 6 people: engineers, proj mgr, developers, testers, the calls were usually an hour so two and the rest of the time was nearly uninterrupted work. Productivity leaped. Most still worked in an office, though the others there were only peripheral to our projects. Nice for conversation, not much else.

Then we went global, with groups in Europe, Canada, India. Mornings became conf call time, and rest was avail as before. Most of our office was moved or laid off, so no reason to come into the office anymore. At home with VPN and dual monitors and servers scattered across the country, commute time dropped to zero. Availability to work early or late was nearly always not an issue. No kids/pets at home and dedicated home office space made for no interruptions… until Instant Messaging took off. Email volume went skywards. Conf calls all the time, so Outlook calendar really useful. I still get more done in one day than many of the folks still in a main office get to complete in a week.

Results: You do need to be self-motivated and self-reliant. Need dedicated PC/office/phone line(s) with a quiet environment. The more people in your group that are remotely located, the more efficient all members become as everyone starts sitting at their PC’s with IM/email/netmeeting tools, instead of wandering the halls or stuck in some conference room… Conf calls are very productive, as uninvolved members can multi-task w/o being held hostage in the room, yet still available for questions/comments as needed. VO work is win-win!