No Teleworker Left Behind

If a teleworker is fearing that he or she is less valued than an on-

site worker I would say either 1) that person has a bad manager or 2)

that manager doesn’t know how to manage a remote team.  It has been well-documented http://www.mendeley.com/research/comparing-telework-locations-and-traditional-work-arrangements-differences-in-worklife-balance-support-job-satisfaction-and-inclusion/ that remote workers lose a lot of valuable social

interactions with their coworkers over distance, which may lead to

lowered personal trust, a sense of isolation, pent up frustrations, and

weakened social ties and group identification.  These problems can be

overcome with time and effort by recognizing the needs of the remote

worker.  Since the manager often becomes the person’s lifeline to the

company, it is the manager’s job to be aware of the issues and to

deliberately build bridges that help people cross the remote work gap.

Mulki and Jaramillo’s

http://www.informaworld.com/smpp/content~db=all~content=a935080484inves

tigation of supervisors and remote salespeople found that those

managers engaging in “considerate leadership actions”–that is,

creating a psychologically safe and friendly work environment–made a

significant impact on lowering work isolation, increasing job

satisfaction, building trust, and making people feel like a part of the

team.  Key actions include
being available when necessary
responding in a timely manner
recognizing and rewarding performance
showing appreciation for work
being sensitive to employee concerns providing credible and trustworthy

information
giving advice, direction, and constructive feedback
promote a sense of belonging among employees
Really these actions are important for any manager, but the difference

is that managers of remote teams have to be extra good at doing these

things, and they have to do these things more intensely and more

intentionally with remote workers.

For example, in Dubé and Robey’s virtual team study

https://intranet.cs.aau.dk/fileadmin/user_upload/Education/Courses/2009

/SOL/Dube___Robey_2009_-

_Surviving_the_paradoxes_of_virtual_teamwork.pdf, one team leader

stressed the importance of “knock[ing] on the door through the phone”

and being very proactive in reaching out to remote members to make sure

they didn’t go over any emotional edges.  In one particular case, this

team leader had a member who reported to 3 remote managers and had no

one to talk to, so  it was very easy to for that person to feel

abandoned, frustrated, and disconnected from coworkers.  One time when

this member was very sick, the team leader had to care for her, by

firmly telling her to go home and get some rest.

VSee obviously makes “knocking on the door through the phone” much

easier and more effective.  As noted before seeing someone’s face makes

a difference.  It’s more personal, richer in nonverbal cues, and it

shows a higher commitment to that person.  Dubé and Robey also suggest

building social interaction by injecting humor into communications,

including some small talk in a videoconference meeting, and

establishing regular opportunities to meet face-to-face.  At VSee, we

also use Chatter for more social communications which helps keep

coworkers who don’t usually have a reason to talk with each other to

connect and get to know one another.  Other places may have electronic

bulletin boards, forums or Wikis that serve this purpose.

In short, I believe that if a leader is doing his or her job right no

workers should feel like they’re going to be left behind.