Working from home and proving it!

[Martin P]

Anyone do it regularly? We have started new hours in our office, start at 8 finish at 5 - then 8 till 1 on a Friday. I asked the boss about working from home on the Friday and he gave it the thumbs up. Sounds pretty good in theory, cant see any major down sides as it is only 5 hours I have to do. Only thing I would like would be some sort of way to "prove" that I have done at least my 5 hours work, and what I worked on. is there any kind of spyware software or something that I could put on my machine to record Fridays work only? - a developer could maybe come up with something that interrogated the log file to see periods of activity and inactivity in Revit, and create a report, this would be useful for me and the boss, as I could record any overtime easily too.

[Roger Evans]

Don't know of software for this but I'd be interested as well

In meantime
If you take a look at the files saved increase no in options if necessary & you can determine how long between saves ~ gives a reasonable indication of how long it took to do. Activity is shown by the no of saves.

[Martin P]

There seems to be a lot of stuff available the records EVERYTHING you do, including keystrokes in emails etc. Obviously I do not want my boss to know all this stuff - I only want him to know when I am using Revit, and how long for, nothing else.

Some of it is probably able to specifically target certain applications like this but I dont imagine anyone will admit to having it to tell which one!! :wink:

I see what you are saying with the save files, but that would not be too practical with it all being at home... I would also like for the boss to be able to check when I am working, ie am I out walking my dogs - or am I at my desk, and contactable.

[aaronrumple]

The architects' office of tomorrow is a Starbucks and a laptop. Not sure why more offices don't go that route now.

[aaronrumple]

...oh and to answer your question. The journal files are time stamped with start and end times. They are an excelent record of what was done in Revit.

[bclarch]

I'm with Aaron. Just tell him that you will email him the journal file at the end of a work session. The journal also records what work was done so your boss needn't worry that you might just open Revit then walk away for a couple of hours to log some billing time. If you did that, the journal file would be pretty empty. Your boss should be able to tell whether or not progress is being made on a project. It all comes down to trust anyway since you could always edit the journal file with a word processor. :twisted:

[aggockel50321]

Give him your goal.

I'd just tell him that "Tommorow while at home, I'll model the first & second floor partitions, add the windows & place the roof").

If he hasn't used Revit, and uses some other cad program, he'll think, "My, that Martin is a hard worker!"

He doesn't have to know that you accomplished the above in the first hour and then spent the rest of the 5 hours enjoying your newborn.

[Steve_Stafford]

If you "skip out" on your work, it won't get done right? So if you are on the mark for deadlines and progress prints, you could work from 7pm till midnight and he might not care? Now if he needs to speak to you, a mobile phone makes you "reachable" in the loo... :D

If he's in to reviewing stuff on the PC...email him progress pdf's or dwf's at the end of the day, thurs...and Fri...easy to see you were crankin by comparing sheets or views!

It's commendable that you wish to be "accountable" but realistically, if you cut out you'll be hurting yourself as much as him. That's a real good incentive, plus, I'll bet that since you're "worried" about this, you'd stop doing it and work at the office before it became an issue.

Cheers!

[David Kim]

I work from my home 1/2 the week, the other half, I'm in our office. We use Yahoo Instant Messenger and they still bug me and know I'm still working away even if I'm at home.

[gregcashen]

take a look at Intranets.com...it's a pretty handy service. You can setup databases for time tracking and some other stuff as well. Not exactly what you're looking for, but a very nice service for this sort of remote working.

I also think that CyberPatrol could be made to do what you are looking to do, but it might also log keystrokes.

[Wes Macaulay]

The proof is in the work that gets done... duh. Most people want to work anyway! I don't see the point of any of this. If Martin goes home and does nothing, nothing is going to get done, and you would think that would eventually be obvious even to his boss.

[J-G]

I agree with the issue of trust...it all boils down to it. If I say I worked 3.25 hours then they belived me. Since I use BigTme I jsut click the start botton and it starts a timmer. When I am finished I stop the timer click save and start a new task. It helps me to be acurate and when I bill by 1/10 of the hour it makes it more belivable as well.

I work at home all the time, but I produce better work and do it faster so there isn't a problem. If someone was not working the project would take longer and cost more...eventually that would be evident to anyone comparing the numbers and the worker would have to account for the excess cost/time. Tracking Revit time is a nice idea, but I find that I often do work that is not with the computer, i.e. reviewing plans, outlining regulatory requirments, phone calls, etc.

....one other thing, if you keep detailed track of your time that may help. I record time per task so it is like, 1.2hrs floor plan revisions, .10hrs phone call to client, 5.2hrs roof modeling, 2.2hrs site, etc. Keeping detailed time helps with accountability and with later stats. If you say you worked 8 hrs on the floor plan but there isn't 8 hrs worth of work there is a problem, but if you record time as abov and add little notes ("made changes to bathroom", "laid out new site retaining walls," "verified materials w/ owner," etc it is pretty easy to verfiy that you actually did somthing!

[Scott D Davis]

if all else fails, you could always get a web cam. Then the boss could see you are working hard! Of course, I'd insist that they had one on the other end, to make sure you aren't missing the office parties.....

[rhys]

Give up the day job Martin, work from home all the time.
Who cares if your changing nappies (diapers?) as long as the work gets done. :)

[Martin P]

Give up the day job Martin, work from home all the time.
Who cares if your changing nappies (diapers?) as long as the work gets done. :)

One day... one day..... :) - its kind of a dry run at that in a way (although my boss doesnt know it!) I want to see how I get on with 1 day working from home, then push it up to 2 days.... if it works out that I have the discipline to do well at it - then I'd love to be doing that all the time :wink: so watch this space :shock: only real worry for me doing that is with living in the highlands, there arent too many practices for me to get back in if it didnt work out well for me going it alone :cry: though, nothing ventured / nothing gained........

[Cathy Hadley]

Martin,

You hit the nail on the head with Discipline. I've been on my own for 12 years ... and at times it can be very challanging, keeping the nose to the grind stone as it were. But working in your jammies and fuzzy slippers (no web cams here thank you very much) can't be beat ...
(oh and just remember, when you are at the office for 5 hours you don't subtract for coffee breaks, chat time or the like, so you shouldn't be expected to at home either)

I do 80% of my work on an hourly basis and have never had to *prove it*, it is all about trust. My impression is that you'd have no problems in that area...

As to going out on ones own... its actually much more stressfull, I've found, than working for someone ... when it has to be done, the reason it has to be done is becuase YOU told someone it would be ... different pressure... Its also tho, more rewarding...

Good Luck

[Dimitri Harvalias]

Martin,
I'm self-employed (so my boss is REALLY demanding and unreasonable) and I try to work from home as much as possible. I also work at various offices for other architects. My biggest problem is convincing my wife that I'm actually working when I'm home.
Typical conversation.
Are you at home today or are you working?
I'm working from the house, so I will be home.
Could you please do A, B, C, D.
I won't have time... because, I'm working!
But you're home, right?
:roll:

Make sure you have a place set up that is strictly for work. Not the kitchen table, not an area in the family room etc. It's all about discipline and treating it like you are 'at work'.

[PeterJ]

Martin already has a great home/office with a view of the loch beyond, its separate from the house so he has no distractions. He is most of the way there!

[gregcashen]

Not to be a dissenter, but I disagree with the whole jammies and slippers thing. Better to get up, shower, get dressed and get to "work". It's too easy to blur the line between working and relaxing when you're not physically prepared as well as mentally. I always dress like I am going to the office (casual).

[GuyR]

Typical conversation.
Are you at home today or are you working?
I'm working from the house, so I will be home.
Could you please do A, B, C, D.
I won't have time... because, I'm working!
But you're home, right?

Agree . Plus you get clients calling you at 10.30pm because they think window X should be casement not awning. Working from home can certainly feel like a 24hr job sometimes.. .

There are advantages, particularly this time of the year when 50m from home is this :-)

Guy

[bclarch]

Guy, how do you ever get any work done? High temperature predicted here for today is 4°F = -15°C±.

[Roger Evans]

Martin
One of the the most recurring problems I find in working alone is that you are alone ~ The only thing I really miss from "normal office" is bouncing ideas off someone albeit in 90% of the cases you don't need the answer you just need to ask the question. Once its asked nearly everything else falls into place. That is or will become part of the discipline as well.
Don't be afraid to ask advice when you need it.
Most of all Take the plunge & Enjoy it

Roger

[Martin P]

Typical conversation.
Are you at home today or are you working?
I'm working from the house, so I will be home.
Could you please do A, B, C, D.
I won't have time... because, I'm working!
But you're home, right?

There are advantages, particularly this time of the year when 50m from home is this :-)

Guy

I can imagine it would be easy to get roped into doing shopping etc, My wife will be working again in june herself so I would get some peace!!

Here is my reason for wanting to work from home, though it doesnt look quite as warm as yours!! (till june anyway :wink: )

[Martin P]

and beacuse I still havent worked out how to add 2 attachments!! here is the view....

[beegee]

You want to improve the view Martin ? I know a guy with a chainsaw.

(duck ! )

[Martin P]

You want to improve the view Martin ? I know a guy with a chainsaw.

(duck ! )

I know :x pesky trees! they are under a preservation order and we are only allowed to trim them....... its not so bad, they attract a lot of wildlife and break wind :lol: (not that kind of breaking wind!) and there is plenty of wind here!! the guy next door has a large bag of copper nails and a lot of patience, he thinks copper nails will kill them off and nobody will suspect that he did it - its not working so far anyway.......

[GuyR]

he thinks copper nails will kill them off and nobody will suspect that he did it - its not working so far anyway.......

Much less environment friendly option. Dig down to some decent size roots. Use an axe to expose the root then pour on neat roundup. Depending on tree size do it to a few roots and I'll put money on the trees being VERY dead in 3-4 weeks :-) Works best in spring/summer when the saps rising.

We have 5 ha of native bush which has wilding pines throughout the bush so have done lots of experimenting:-) I've got a good recipe for killing any size tree in less than a month using similar chemical methods.

Guy

[beegee]

The Environmental Protection Authority inspectors will be calling on each of you shortly. :twisted:

[blads]

another non-friendly method is a good dollup of sump oil - works like a treat, or so they tell me...

whilst I don't have a great view from the home office, I do have a nice cellar directly under it - at times its hard workin' from home

[beegee]

I do have a nice cellar directly under it - at times its hard workin' from home

And .... you take bankcard. :lol:

[ita]

Martin P, I agree with Cathy . . . its about trust. Unfortunately we live in a time when people are considerd to be like machines . . . and from my expeience they are the same as they have always been - they are social, they chat, they laugh, cry, run with their **** - its all about people and life. But trust is in short supply today!!

I run my practice from home and like you we have a nine month old daughter. I would not move to an office for anything on this planet. I ran my practice of 10 to 12 people when my other two daughters were the same age (they are now 19 and 21) and I missed all the fun. Not his time for this lil bunny.

Martin P, you are either trusted by you boss or you are not. If they trust you they will agree to make the changes out of respect and their belief in you.

The other way of course is to agree to a contract amount and a time frame, to undertake the work for each project. That way you are in charge of your own destiny, you can work as it suits you to work and still have the pleasure of seeing your baby grow. I farm out my my work on this basis when I get over loaded and a phone call to the people every day keeps us in touch and an understanding of the progress. I trust people will look after my interest as a subset of looking after theirs.

Yup I suppose it is called trust. :D

[Martin P]

She is a real cutie :) Using Revit there I trust :lol:


It went well, I think I like doing this! Re trust - the problem is probably more with me not trusting the boss! I know him well enough to realise that there is very likely going to be an ocassion where I will produce something that he does not feel is a days work (there have been plenty in office, never mind at home!!). The problem is that it is so long since he has done any drawing work he seems to have lost touch with timescale required to do things - and being the boss as you can imagine the timescales he believes are always in his favour! So its more for my own peace of mind I would like this, ie I can just email him a file that "proves" I have done X amount of hours... no doubt, and no trust required.... its probably not going to work out is it :(

[Martin P]

at times its hard workin' from home

From the pic though you appear to have a little something there that could occasionally ease the pain of working at home :wink:

[blads]

Martin P,


From the pic though you appear to have a little something there that could occasionally ease the pain of working at home


absolutely but being at Inverness you are so close to one of my favourite places places of all times - Aberlour/Speyside - I could never work there... or should i say I'd never get any work done