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Archive for July, 2009

Once your company has embraced the idea of farming work out on the Net, you will most likely find yourself asking the next logical question: “Is it necessary to have this person on staff at all?” In many cases, you will indeed need and want that person on staff, for reasons of consistency, security, workload, and so on. If it’s possible to stay open to the idea of simply outsourcing a function (which you may already be doing locally), then why not consider doing so over the Net? Again, the savings can be substantial. You may or may not pay a bit more for the luxury of having just-in-time help, but that is often easily offset by the downtime you have when there is no work for your staff who you usually would be paying. There you are, the clock is ticking, you have no work for them at the moment, and they’re having a good old time buying “hotel art” in some auction site on the Net. Not only are those employees’job security at risk, but the overall health and welfare of your unit or company is at risk as well.
Another word of caution: If you’re looking for someone to work with you on an ongoing project, it is advisable to first meet that person, or at least figure out if you both are temperamentally suited for each other. You can use the Kiersey Temperament Sorter at http://keirsey.com/cgi-bin/keirsey/newkts.cgi for this purpose, although be advised that it is not the be-all and end-all of “psychological” testing materials. People are indeed more complicated than a few simplified categories of reactions, but this can give you a general idea of how you might interact at a distance. Remember that email/Net interactions can be far different and more difficult than face-to-face ones. Think of how some Usenet newsgroup “flame wars” can start so easily over one emphasized word in a posting that in a letter or oral communication would have meant nothing at all. Interaction using the Net is a new medium, with its own pitfalls and advantages, and only time and experience will show you the differences.

In a small business especially, you will want to work with someone who has skills you don’t have. This way, the most number of skill sets are covered by the fewest number of people. However, people with different skill sets are often drawn to those pursuits based on their charactet The point here is to make sure you can work with someone who may well be your exact opposite in nature, attitudes, and values. I’ve been in a couple of working relationships that went down in flames solely because of core value differences that weren’t fleshed out at the beginning. In addition, make sure that roles, expectations, job descriptions, communications, and so forth are spelled out clearly ahead of time and are continually refreshed as necessary, even more so than in an in-office relationship. The same goes for any offsite employees, if you are a manager handling contractors, as noted in the previous section of this chapter.
Also keep in mind that you will want to check out your potential partner’s background via a résumé and references, and keep in mind that the price you end up paying may be closer to the usual contract costs in order to get the best. Using the Internet is not necessarily cheap. You indeed can get what you pay for, from both ends of the spectrum.
Internet teamwork is like dating: both sides tend to present their best sides at first. Similarly, the medium of email leaves much open for interpretation. Even though I get scoffed at by my Net-cognoscenti friends, I often use emoticons when writing email. This is to ensure the other side will know what I meant to say, since there isn’t a common environment and they can’t see my facial expressions or hear the tone of my voice.