Getting Work Done At Home

by Charles Plant | Apr 11, 2012 | Management

Thirty years ago, it was very common for a manager to work at home on an evening or on the weekend. Typically, the type of work done was not regular office work, not catching up on daily responsibilities but was more project oriented. Home work was left for things that required concentration, that were more strategic in nature. Whether it was preparing or reading a report, preparing a speech, or developing plans, home work was more cerebral in nature and in many ways actually could be quite enjoyable. The problem with the technological revolution isn’t only that we have added to the amount of work being done at home, it is that the nature of the work has changed significantly.  People are no longer spending time doing thoughtful work at home, they are doing stressful work there. They are spending their time getting caught up with work that they could not get done during the day. They are working on unanswered email (thus causing even more email for people who are trying to get away from work). Even more, they are working directly online, connected in with whatever technology is available at work and thus they may be at home but due to Virtual Private Networks, they have only changed location and can do everything at home that they can do at work.

Thus many years ago, while people did have to work at home, the work was different than the type of work that was done while at the office. If you believe the adage that change is as good as a rest then the fact that work done at home was different than work done at the office meant that the change of work was just as good as not doing work at home at all.

Delegating a Task

by Charles Plant | Apr 4, 2012 | Management

In meetings and at the office there are definite rules about delegating tasks. While delegating tasks or responsibilities to a subordinate is a straightforward matter, delegating tasks to a co-worker is somewhat more problematic. The problem is that no one really has the right to delegate tasks to a co-worker. If a task is to be given to a co-worker it has to be done in an agreed upon manner where both parties are aware of what is going on and both agree to the work being delegated.  It is almost a dance being performed in a meeting when one person tries to delegate tasks to a co-worker. This is not the case however with email. For some reason, people think that they can just give something to someone else to do in an email when they would never consider delegating the same task in person. Email is adding an effective layer of anonymity to dealings between co-workers that does not exist in live meetings. This layer of anonymity is allowing people to get away with behavior that would just be unacceptable anywhere else at work. Unfortunately, it is through processes such as these that people come to feel that they have lost control of their working lives. When co-workers, people at the same level of the organization can assign tasks and responsibilities, one has lost another element of control and this in turn can lead to greater feelings of being overwhelmed.

Perhaps the most surprising thing about the anonymity that email has introduced is the tendency for people to try to delegate upwards, to assign responsibilities to their boss in ways they never would have considered doing before. Perhaps this is a reaction to being out of control and an attempt to re-assert control but I have experienced it myself and heard others complain of the practice as well. Certainly in the past you could have asked your boss to do something but you would have done this with some degree of trepidation and handled it in a formalistic manner so not do disturb the worker-boss relationship. With email however, those older social niceties are pushed aside in favor of directness and speed.

Keeping up with Email

by Charles Plant | Apr 2, 2012 | Management

Anne Avery explains how she keeps up with a high volume of email.

http://vimeo.com/35915814

Booking a Meeting

by Charles Plant | Mar 28, 2012 | Management

While I had been using email for quite a while, I had not adopted the use of a shared calendar until somewhere in 2001. I remember very distinctly my first reaction to it when someone looked in my calendar and booked a meeting for me. I was incensed that they would have the temerity to dictate how my time would be used and actually set my priorities by booking a meeting. Back in the Stone Age, before the advent of shared calendars you either had to go through the individual or through an admin assistant to book time for a meeting. This meant that the individual was in control of his or her own time, making time free to others when and if he or she wanted to. With shared calendars however, anyone can book a meeting in anyone else calendar as long as they have the requisite permission. This means that others are now setting your priorities and determining your agenda. It is this loss of control that is leading many managers today to feel overwhelmed.