Telecommuter Loves Doing Her Homework
Sometimes when Robin Olfs wakes up in the middle of the night, she just decides to get up and go to work.
The office where she works as a transcriptionist for Sacred Heart Medical Center is like Denny’s: It’s always open. And best of all, it’s just a few steps from her bedroom.
In a converted room in her Valley home, Olfs has a personal computer, a modem, a phone line and other equipment that lets her work at nearly any hour. As long as she puts in her 40 hours a week and meets a production quota, the hospital is thrilled to have her work out of her home. And she’s pretty delighted, too.
“I can’t say enough about it. When they asked me about it, I said you couldn’t pay me enough to come back (to the office) … To be home at night with my kids is so nice,” says Robin, who used to work a swing shift in the medical records department.
When she volunteered for a telecommuting pilot program back in 1994, nobody was sure how it would work out, but it’s been so successful her supervisor, Jill Condon, expects to have seven full-time transcriptionists telecommuting by the end of the year.
“It’s worked out very well,” Condon says. “We have increased productivity, increased happiness and decreased absenteeism.”
Condon says the hospital devised its telecommuting policy by looking around at what other hospitals were doing and picking the elements that fit best for Sacred Heart. The policy includes paying telecommuters by the volume they produce rather than hourly, and providing office equipment needed in the home. All the telecommuter needs to provide is a work space that keeps the hospital records safe and secure, she says.
Robin Olfs’ experience is a great example of the benefits and pitfalls of telecommuting. She appreciates the time saved by not driving, the wear and tear saved on her car and being home with her family. But she misses some advantages of the office environment, such as consulting with other workers when a question arises.
Her job consists of listening to recorded comments of doctors, transcribing them into her PC, and sending them via computer modem to the hospital office.
On a typical day, she wakes up at 5:30 a.m. and types for a few hours. She then gets her kids off to school and goes back to work. She’s usually able to finish up before the kids come home.
She says her output telecommuting has more than doubled from when she worked on-site at the hospital.
“Normal production is 900 to 1,000 lines. On average, I produce about 2,500 day,” Robin says. “If I want to get up in the middle of the night, I can really fly.”
“It’s nice to work when you feel like working. If I’m at work (at the hospital) and I’m feeling blah, I still have to work.”
Working at home is also more efficient because she is able to avoid the distractions that come up in a busy office, she says.
There are distractions at home, too, but she has more control.
“There are days when I get interrupted by the phone, but I can use an answering machine if I want to.
“And when the kids are home, you get a lot of interruptions, so I get a lot more done in the morning when I can work straight through.”
Another common telecommuting pitfall: “I think everybody has the idea that I’m home all the time and that I don’t have a real job,” she says, chuckling.
Telecommuting not only saves on gas and car expenses, but also on clothing, since she can dress casually at home, and on eating-out-for-lunch expenses, Robin says.
Sacred Heart’s progressive telecommuting policy is a great example for other businesses to follow, particularly those that must meet the state requirements for commute-trip reductions. And Robin Olfs’ experiences are a great example of how telecommuting can integrate a work schedule into a rich home life.
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MEMO: On Your Way is a Valley Voice column focusing on commuter lifestyles and issues. Your views on any of the topics discussed are invited. Please write: On Your Way, The Valley Voice, 13208 E. Sprague, Spokane, WA 99216. Or call Jim Springer at 459-5441.