Decoding Dilbert (Part 4) - Spark Hire

Decoding Dilbert (Part 4) - Spark HireYou could argue that all of the workers in Dilbert are pretty remote. That is, they dont seem to do much work, or listen very well, or accomplish anything. Well get to that in a moment. This strip is about telecommuting and actual remote employees. It also portrays an interesting relationship between remote employees and their in-house management.At first glance, this strip is a simple 3-panel story about a remote employee being disappointed that hell have to do real work now that hes moved to the home office.The funny question is is the former remote employees work load really going to change now that hes in-house? We know that the Pointy Haired Boss is an ineffective manager to his in-house employees. We know they never get anything accomplished. In case we had forgotten this, Dilbert is sitting right there through the whole strip to remind us.Dilbert is really the star of this strip. He just sits there, silently, through the whole conversation . Talk about a remote employee. Theres no reason for him to be in this strip, except to show the real joke in the exchange. The PHB will ignore the new co-worker just as much now as he did while he was telecommuting.This strip suggests that the work done by in-house and remote employees is the same. Increasingly, Human Resource managers are starting to agree. The backlash against Marissa Mayers decision to bring in Yahoo remote employees is a perfect illustration of the movement. Mayer made her decision with an eye toward increasing collaboration between her employees. However, from a productivity standpoint, here are some interesting statisticsIn a Stanford study, employees who were allowed to work from home if they chose were between 13% and 22% more productive than employees stuck at the office.75% of business decision makers reported seeing happier employees after implementing telecommuting programs.37% of managers saw a decrease in absenteeism, as workers avoided spreading germ s when ill, and could telecommute during bad weather.For many companies, telecommuting is an important part of keeping their workforce happy and productive. Statistically speaking, the former remote co-worker will be doing less work now that hes at the home officeOf course, now that weve talked about the benefits of telecommuting how it makes employees happier, more productive, and more engaged it makes perfect sense that Dilberts company would get rid of that policy. Maybe that is the secret underlying message in this strip dont be like DilbertDecoding DilbertPart 1Part 2Part 3Decoding Dilbert unravels the real-world HR problems in the cartoon world of Dilbert comics. The series focuses on a different strip every week, with an eye toward improving employee-management relations. Suggest a strip by leaving a comment below, or send Kristin a tweet ithinkther4iamb DecodingDilbertIMAGE Courtesy of Dilbert.com