Thursday, December 07, 2006

SOHO, or DOMO?

Several years ago, the term SOHO was sort of a buzz word. In case anyone doesn’t know, SOHO stands for Small Office Home Office. For more information of SOHO, one can refer to here .

Quoting from the above link:

“The 36 hour or 48 hour cycles of much of software development has led many practitioners in this domain to do their work in home offices given the difficulty of the traditional business world to adapt its 'normal' hours to some of the more extreme needs of software engineering.

Technology has also created a demand for larger businesses to employ individuals who work from home. (See also Homesourcing) Sometimes these people remain as an independent businessperson, and sometimes they actually become employees of a larger company.”

I am in the software line. But personally, I don’t like to work from home, because of the following reasons:

  1. In Singapore, there are certain months that the temperature is extremely hot especially during daytime. To turn-on my air-con for these days would drive my PUB bills up drastically.
  2. There are simply too much distractions for me to work at home. The television, fridge, etc are the main culprits.
  3. My neighbour’s childrens keep running around the corridor, causing further noise polution.
  4. To me, staying at home over a long period of time isn’t good for my morale. Somehow I will feel isolated from the society or even get into depression.

But too, I don’t like the idea of having to report to the office everyday just for the sake of showing people (superiors) that I am alive (and working). I believe that people are productive at different times, and productivity is subjected to external parameters such as the weather, health, mood, environment, etc. I guessed most of us have the experience whereby we are just not in the mood to work but yet we have to stay in the office acting busy and not doing much productive work. So to me, the end result is more important than ‘showing face’ in the office. If you feel that you are not in the mood to work today, then by all means go and have a good rest or do anything that you like. As long as you can deliver the results on time, I don’t really care about the rest. So that is my little philosophy and I planned to inculcate it into my own company culture.

And thus, I invented a new term called “DOMO”, which stands for Dynamic Office Mobile Office. So basically, I would encourage my (future) employees to work from anywhere, at anytime. For me, as long as I have my laptop with me, I can work at any convenient (and comfortable) places. I can even do my work while waiting for my friends at MRT station or cafe. So effectively, the concept of work doesn’t exist because it is fully integrated into your lifestyle. Wanna watch a movie in the afternoon? No problem, as long as you have or are confident to deliver your result on time. Feeling more productive at night? Then maximize your productivity by doing your work at night. In a nutshell, you work at your own pace and be in full control of your life. Of course, the prerequisite is that you must love and have passion on what you are doing, and have enough self-discipline.

So do I need a physical office? If possible, I would still like to have a physical office. But it would not be a traditional one. It would more like an internet café. A place where staffs can brainstorm ideas as well as chill out. A place where you don’t have to force yourself to go every morning, to wayang. A place where you can have a sense of belonging. A place where like-minded and passionate people get together with dreams to rock the world!

So can I realize this little dream of my own? I believe, I can.

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posted by The Uncharted Waters @ 3:06 PM Comments: 0