Last year, the British Broadcast Company (BBC) news published Focusmate: Watched over while I worked from home. It is a fascinating topic because the workers' compensation world today is focused on the potential for leveraging technology. Part of that effort may be telemedicine, and another focus periodically is that technology enables telecommuting. That is, more people working from home.
Working from home may have profound implications on workers' compensation, as well as other management issues. Some of the workers' compensation issues were featured recently in the Florida First District Court of Appeal decision in Valcourt-Williams v. Sedgwick Claims Management. See Personal Comfort, Testing Compensability. That is centered on the occurrence of accidents and the tests of "arising out of" and the "course and scope of" employment. The focus of the BBC article is directed to the challenges of management, or perhaps self-management.
I have heard various opinions on telecommuting and management. Some feel that employees who are not observable will not be productive. Others contend that with the relief from commuting, traffic, and office distractions, such an employee can be more productive. I have heard responses to that contention to the effect that our homes may be as full of distractions as those offices. Suffice it to say there is a measure of disagreement in the management community regarding telecommuting.
Thus, the BBC introduces us to author Stephen Becket. He writes this article from the perspective of his attempts to focus his attention on work in the comfort of his own home. However, he has engaged the assistance of a software platform called Focusmate. He and a like-minded home-based worker have engaged each other to "spy" on each other via webcam. They are quietly working on their own tasks while also watching each other work.
They are not verbally engaged, merely watching. Whether this is a distinction in terms of the potential for distraction is left to you. The promise of Focusmate is "to stop you procrastinating by having another human hold you to account." The goal is for this stranger's presence to motivate you just as your co-worker's observation might in an office setting.
After experiencing the effect, the BBC author interviewed the founder of this software platform. The founder asserts that someone's presence on the webcam is not "big brother," but he admits that some think "the idea is a bit weird." He asserts that the program is a strength for people who are sincere in their desire to be productive and who "want to be held accountable for that."
Of course, that is not necessarily a need that people have consistently. There are perhaps a great many people who can be, and are, productive and functional without peer or supervisor pressure. They can hold themselves accountable for their progress, production, and effectiveness. But, perhaps in the realm of human nature, they are the exception rather than the rule? Or, if they are the rule instead, perhaps some methodology is needed to provide some measure of oversight in a remote setting?
The concept is relatively simple. The participants on Focusmate disclose to one another what they will be doing (if you do not know what I am supposed to be doing, how can you correct or prompt me when I am twiddling my thumbs). The program is dependent upon pairing each worker with someone who will both be engaged in their own independent work and able to periodically monitor the others'. That multi-tasking alone might be a distraction to some.
The author contends that there is potential for inappropriate use of the platform. The author notes that the website leads with a caution to "work quietly" during the session. It also cautions that "Focusmate is a professional community, not a social or dating site." From my limited time on social media and the presentations I have made on the topic, there are a reasonable number of people who complain of professional sites being misused in an inappropriate social manner. In that vein, the very purpose of this platform is to encourage focus might instead lead to merely another distraction.
Focusmate contends that we lack self-control and work ethic. It asserts that despite our best efforts and focus, we are inundated with distractions and therefore cannot be effective on our own. Thus, the engagement of some stranger to watch us on a webcam is seen as a solution, a motivator, a crutch.
The platform contends that productivity is scientifically demonstrated to be enhanced if we make a commitment regarding what we are doing, including social pressure, and follow it all with accountability for results. And, each of us may exhibit more or less of a dependency upon any of the three elements mentioned apparently, but all three are demonstrated to be effective aids to our functioning. Focusmate claims that it delivers this remotely in a cooperative community format.
Furthermore, some of us are reliant upon the validation afterward, someone complimenting or thanking us for our effort. The recognition and accountability might be achieved effectively without real-time engagement. What professional does not get some form of validation or accountability, in or out of an office setting? Everyone I know appreciates a word of recognition or praise for a job done and done well.
Admittedly, some find the "whole idea a bit odd." But, the BBC reports that "remote working and telecommuting are on the rise in many countries." There are various benefits touted, from avoiding commutes to decreased employer expenses. Therefore, it is probable that with the increased prevalence and the development of technology to facilitate it there will be various efforts to afford workers and employers some measure of coordination, confirmations, and affirmations.
In today's technology-rich environment, it is practical that large companies might well set up their own similar platforms to connect, randomly or otherwise, their various work-at-home professionals. These might see more benefit in the coordination with a like-coworker than in the engagement of a stranger. In the telemedicine paradigm, a clinician might interact with a patient, but someone else could be monitoring the audiovisual to create visit notes. In other professions, the audiovisual link might facilitate both training and reinforcement of best practices for home-based work.
It may be interesting times ahead, whether Focusmate is necessarily part of it remains to be seen, however. However, it appears that telecommuting and technology-enabled functions and communication will continue to develop.
