About a year ago I interviewed seven engineering executives at some of the major analog semiconductor manufacturing companies in the U.S. The purpose of the interviews was to gain some individual insights into the directions they thought that the design engineer's job was going: how would individuals work? What tools would they use? How would they develop professionally? What was going to be the best source for analog engineers? There was a lot of commonality in many of the answers, and some major differences as well, particularly in the areas of tools, simulations and testing. The latter is a major concern in the semiconductor companies and the problems are getting larger, and more expensive; but that's not what I want to address here, today.

With all the interviewees I raised the subject of telecommuting and the reactions from some of them were spectacularly histrionic: clearly the subject was being frequently discussed. I gathered that, in general, most requests from engineers to telecommute were denied. It was also clear that the reaction to a group of designers getting together and declaring themselves a ýdesign centerý was almost universally positive, however strange the location the engineers might want to be in. Why the difference?

One of the executives put his thinking down to the need for design engineers to interact on a personal, human basis. The most common reaction was that there would be some kind of breakdown in communications between members of a design group. That to me is an assumption chasing a reason for saying ýno,ý and it smells more of power over employees than anything else. Having been brought up with the management philosophy that,"If you employ someone, trust them; if you don't trust them, don't employ them," it is always curious to me when it is not universal!

Some of the other managers interviewed were entirely unfazed by telecommuting among their staff and they were also the people who seemed to be much more comfortable with their management roles. That's my reading, of course, but it seems to validate itself when you talk with people who report to these gentlemen (and they were all men.) The reaction of designers to those managers who absolutely refused to consider telecommuting were not overall terribly positive in other ways. The reaction of employees to the managers who would consider or allow telecommuting was positive in other ways.

That might be a straight extrapolation of freedom in one direction also showing up as freedom in other directions as well. Might be. Of course, the results will always determine whether one theory is better or worse than the other? Well, it doesn't seem to work that well: there are great successes at both types of company, and within companies that are large enough to have both varieties. The really big problem across the board with our analog semiconductor companies is the inability to market well . . .but that's another story for another time.

The Practical Telecommute

As the spell checker in this MS application I am using does not recognize telecommute or telecommuting as words, one might presume that is a company statement about how they feel about the subject? I am certain someone from Seattle will e-mail to let me know. I would have to admit I would be staggered if the wizards at MS did not recognize the importance of the telecommuting market and the equipment, software and interconnecting communications that will be needed to support the predictions that are made by the pundits about the future size of this market.

It's a pretty good bet that the majority of magazine editors-including online-telecommute to at least a certain extent. When you have trade shows, conferences, face-to-face meetings, e-mail by the bucket and PR contacts occupying your day, the best time and place to write seems inevitably to be after 10 PM at a location only a few can get to you at. (This is not serious technical writing, although I think the topic is critically important to the future; and I am actually on the port side of a Boeing 737 looking out at an inboard flap pontoon that is missing the end cap; the aerodynamics of the aircraft are probably totally unaffected and the part is probably not designed to offer any structural strength. But how and why on a major carrier, on a less-than-a-year-old plane, would you lose a metal fitting that is held on with at least thirty fasteners?)

I am, I think, a good example of the fact that telecommuting works: no, I take that back. We need to say that it can work and in my case it does. I actually live about 500 miles from my official base and I get there for a couple of days every couple of weeks (so infrequently, in fact, that I do not remember my phone number there.) The rest of the time I work from a small rented office about six minutes' drive from the house. The separate office is a necessity for me because I need the discipline of going to work. And besides, I am such an untidy worker that the flat surfaces that things get thrown on need to be away from the domestic scene.

Does it work? Yes, of course it does. Even before, as Analog Editor at a print magazine, there was absolutely no problem at all. With an online publication my dealings with paper, per se, are reduced to convenient printouts that are easier to read than a 17 in. monitor. To work I literally need my computer, modem, telephone line and little else.

For how many others in our part of the electronics business would that be true? For many design engineers I know it would be quite possible to do a large percentage of their work away from the official base, away from a bench or expensive facilities that you would not want to replicate. In other areas of the company it is probably even more valid. In fact, if you think in terms of creativity as a whole, it may be practical for most employees who are engaged in that way to work outside the office for at least part of the time.

Yes, there must be conditions and the right sort of person should be considered (but then you get back to the "If you don't trust them . . ."

Quality Of Life

By: Paul McGoldrick
Sr. Technology Editor, EDTN

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