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8 Trends L. Libr. Mgmt. & Tech. 1 (1997)

handle is hein.journals/ttllmt8 and id is 1 raw text is: Trends Law Library Management and Technology Vol. 8, No. 1 Mark E. Estes, Editor Jamuary/February 1997 Thinking about Telecommuting ByJAYE A. H. I.APACHET, AvERY & ASSOCIATES, SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA n a recent office meeting, the subject of an office move came up. Immediately, im- ages of huge book trucks, large burly men, scraps of paper denoting locations, etc., came to mind. I was quicklyjerked out of my reverie (nightmares?) by our trust administrator, who brought up the subject of telecommuting. Our firm is small and many people work part-time, which necessitates the use of e-mail. Also, some people do work at home in addi- tion to their regular hours, which usually in- volves a fax, or at least a basic understanding of file format compatibility. What our trust administrator was propos- ing was far more sophisticated. Her proposal was to have everyone in the office telecom- mute, and instead of renting space downtown, having the managing partner set up an office in his home with space for his secretary and some portion of the library. This radical idea brought stunned silence to the meeting, which was followed by a lot of heated discus- sion. The following issues were raised: 1. Regarding the library: Should the entire collection be moved or should the collec- tion be aggressively weeded and then moved? What library tasks could be done offsite? How would people have to coop- erate in order to make library services work in a telecommuting environment? 2. Regarding management: How would work be monitored? Where would mail, mes- sengers, etc., be sent? What would the costs be? 3. Regarding social interaction: Would e-mail, fax, and phone be sufficient interaction to keep people feeling like a team? How would various departments interact, such as the library and accounting? 4. Regarding technology: What type of extra equipment and furniture would be needed? What type of Macintosh/PC com- patibility/file sharing problems might we anticipate? Should everyone get a fax ma- chine at home? Who would be responsi- ble for purchasing extra equipment, and who would own it? The biggest issue was that the managing partner did not want to work at home. This, however, did not preclude the rest of the staff from some telecommuting. Some telecom- muting became attractive to the management when they realized that they could have part- time people share workstations, which would reduce the necessary square footage needed for office space. Other than this obvious fi- nancial advantage, management was skepti- cal. The trust administrator offered to do some research, and I offered my research skills to Continued on page 2 A publication for academic, firm, corporate & government law librarians.

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