Home Is Where The Server Is.

Way back when Fred Flintstone slid down the back of his brontosaurus, I was the technology leader for several companies. I was always on the clock and "work life balance" was scheduled around upgrades, performance testing, installs, etc.

If I was working from home, it meant that I was in until 3 am. from the previous day. It wasn't really a bother as I didn't have kids, yet and I was truly in love with what I did. The company paid for that equipment, but it was mine. System uptime was my identity and application response times were my passion.

Roll the clock forward about a gazillion years, now I work with companies where "work from home" is a popular benefit. This is possible with technology like VDI, VPN, Webex, MS Teams, cell phones. The ability to extend a companies "secure" network to the home has become relatively common.

This is an explainable, but a foreign concept for me. I was talking with a individual who is a Senior DB Architect who informed me "I'm working from home tomorrow. I have to get my lawn mowed". Wait a minute! What! How dare you speak such blasphemy? You're telling me that sometime tomorrow morning when the action at work is just starting to get exciting, you and lawn boy are going to have a date? What if there's a problem, what if a "C" level has a question. Too many questions started swirling in my mind.

While working at Convergys back around 2000, HR approached me to review their new work from home policy. "So Jay, a lot of people including several of your teams are asking about this" I was asked by my HR person. In typical old school Manager fashion (straight out of a drill Sargent manual) my response "People asking to work from home are the people I don't want working from home". For the young techs reading this, "yes, it was a very different time back then".

So roll the calendar forward about a 100 years or so, I now own companies. Yes, I do have a work from home policy. What I've determined is the technology makes this securely available. It's the behavior of people that can be the challenge. I have evolved a lot and "if the work is getting done, I'm fine with them getting it done outside the confines of our office". I personally can't work from home. But I have trust in who I hire.

I have witnessed several evolutionary people policies over the last several years. Work from home, unlimited PTO, casual dress, furloughs. All of them seem to have a common thread, "hire the right people, and trust the people you hire". The work will get done.

Need help with work from home technology.........call me. :-)